The party comes to town

As the RS 400 and 600es descend upon Stone Sailing Club for the next race in their Fat Face 2002 circuit, reports Barney Goswell

RS600

The penultimate RS600 Fat Face Circuit Event took place at Stone Sailing Club on 7th/8th September. The overall circuit results are very close and all the main contenders in the 29 boat fleet. The courses were held over windward/leeward legs, which included an initial reach in order to keep away from the RS400 course which was held alongside.

Three races were sailed on Saturday with winds varying from force 2 to 3. The wind flow was rather unstable with gusts funnelling down from darker clouds and shifting 30 degrees. This made life difficult for the Race Officer, who constantly had to fine tune the course, but with much moving of marks the best of a difficult situation was achieved.

In the first race the three Stone boats of Richard Smith, Colin Turner and Ian Montague hit the front. Smith looked to have enough of a lead with 50 yards to the finish, however newly crowned National Champion, Colin Turner, found a shift coming in to the finish, made a dash for the committee boat end of the line and just pipped Smith. The second start got under way in a building force three, however just after the start the wind shifted to the south, making the legs rather processional. Richard Smith again hit the front, this time Matt Humphries pulled through to take second spot with Turner in third.

What proved to be the final race was sailed in the best conditions of the day with the sun breaking through and a steadier force three. A new local face, Adrian Miles, showed good upwind speed to lead at the first mark. He was quickly overtaken on the downwind leg by Ian Montague who went on to win from Andy Peake and Alex Newton-Southon, with Miles finishing in fourth. Richard Smith retired from the race, having pulled the dagger board up a little too quickly on the downwind leg; it came clean out of the boat with him swimming after it.

Sunday dawned windless, and it remained this way so racing was cancelled. This left overnight leader, Ian Montague to take his first RS600 open meeting win.
Overall Results
1 Ian Montague Stone SC 8pts
2 Colin Turner Stone SC 12pts
3 Matt Humphries Weston 13 pts
4 Alex Newton-Southon HISC 16 pts
5 Mike Bean Datchet 19 pts
6 Andy Peake Bough Beech 25 pts
7 Adrian Miles Stone SC 25 pts
8 Pete Hutchings Stone SC 27 pts
9 Richard Smith Stone SC 29 pts
10 Alex Koukourakis Eastbourne 29 pts
11 Brian Greensmith Calshot 32 pts
12 Chris Tillier Stone SC 44 pts
13 Tim Gold Stone SC 45 pts
14 Lee Martin Stone SC 45 pts
15 Andy McIvor Stone SC 48 pts
16 Elaine Turner Datchet 52 pts
17 John Charles Stone SC 52 pts
18 Graham Adamson Stone SC 52 pts
19 Will Head Dabchicks 52 pts
20 Howard Enkel Stone SC 54 pts
21 P Highfield Waveney 56 pts
22 H Edwards Datchet 59 pts
23 Max Stanbury Stone SC 65 pts
24 Sam Caslin Dabchicks 68 pts
25 M Wright MBSC 70 pts
26 P Garton Calshot 70 pts
27 Jeremy Sanderson Stone SC 83 pts

The final RS Fat Face Racing Circuit event for RS400s and 600s takes place at Lymington Town SC and Highcliffe SC respectively, both on 28th/29th September