Elite event

The RS Elite class held their National Championships in Burnham

17 Boats from Ireland, Lymington, Hayling Island and Burnham competed in one of this year's happiest sailing events, the RS Elite UK National Championship.

Socially the mix of ages and regions would have put the UN to shame, although the cabaret artist was a bit close to the bone! £14,000 was raised for MacMillan Nurses at a lively auction prompted by the fleet's generous sponsors, ELECO, and the final dinner/dance went on into the early hours to the sound of Men Behaving Sadly – guitar and vocalist provided from within the fleet.

Race management was well run by Mike Pearson and his team who have perfected the art of keeping participants in the picture - train operators please note! The racing was held over four days in ten knots plus of breeze and the competitive standard of the fleet produced tight and exciting racing with different winners each day and six individual teams producing first place results.

Day one saw birthday boy Dave Wood and team, racing Oink Squeal, produce consistent results to leave them leading the fleet after three races and winners of the day's trophy.

Day two allowed three more races to be completed and following a disappointment during race one of the event when Aeolus and the Brown family missed an upwind gate, they finished the day in third place overall behind RS Sailing and ET'U, but winners of day two.

Day three and a further three races were scheduled and after some eight hours on the race area the fleet finally completed nine of a planned ten races for the event. This also allowed both discards to kick in and although RS Sailing won the day they were left in overall second place behind Aeolus with all to race for on the final day.

Sadly there was no wind on day four so the competitors slugged it out (literally) on the local golf course while the Championship results were calculated over the nine races. The safety inspection disqualified two competitors after race seven but they took it in good heart and finished the series in the bar.

Jonathan Brown crewed by parents Lyn and David in Aeolus (RBYC) won the event closely followed by RS's very own Martin Wadhams with Amanda and local guru Paul Fisk. Third should have been the team from Lymington, ET'U (Steve Powell) helmed by Buzz Keck with Charlie Merchant and Alex Mathieson; but when the results were reworked overnight eliminating the two 'health and safety' defaulters, local boat Outlaw (RBYC) sailed by Ant Law, wife Sue and Jeremy Tolhurst sneaked into third place.

Next year the party moves to Belfast Lough (and it really will be a party) for the Nationals in June.

Results:

Pos	Helm	Boat	Club	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	R8	R9	Tot
1	Jonathan, David & Lyn Brown	Aeolus	RBYC	18	2	1	2	1	3	2	10	3	14
2	Martin Wadhams	RSsailing.com	LTSC	3	1	9	3	5	1	1	6	2	16
3	A Law & P Tolhurst	Outlaw	RBYC	4	7	5	7	2	5	12	1	1	25
4	(Steve Powell), Buzz Keck, Alex Mathieson, Charlie Merchant	ET'U	RLYC	7	6	4	1	4	2	3	8	6	26
5	D & F Wood & S & L Wakefield	Oink Squeal	RBYC/SSC	2	3	2	18	12	7	5	4	4	27
6	Chenevix-Trench/Warren	No Riff Raff	RBYC	1	5	3	12	3	9	10	5	5	31
7	G Browne/J Ralston/S Robinson	Upfront	RNIYC	11	8	6	4	7	4	4	7	14	40
8	J & Y James & S Holland Brown	Octavia	RBYC	5	4	7	5	6	8	14	13	12	47
9	C Barron/ A Martin	Swansong	HISC	8	12	8	10	9	13	7	3	8	53
10	A Bates	Flo	RBYC	6	11	13	6	11	6	11	9	7	56
11	M Tong & P Wareham	Ciao Bella	HISC	10	10	12	8	18	11	13	2	9	62
12	Adrian Lower	Kiss My ….	RBYC	12	9	10	9	10	10	6	14	13	66
13	J & S Hooper A Gardner	Tuppence	RBYC	9	14	11	11	8	15	8	11	10	68
14	Adrian Olsen	Excalibur	RBYC	14	13	14	13	14	12	9	12	11	84
15	Gareth Davies	Grandslam	RBYC	13	15	15	14	13	14	15	15	15	99
16	Mike Patten	Matterhorn Jack	RBYC	18	18	18	18	18	18	18	18	18	126
16	S Herring & J Young	Bacchanalia	RBYC	18	18	18	18	18	18	18	18	18	126