RS600 Rooster National Tour Inland Championship 2025 at Grafham Water Sailing Club

By Will Russell

Photos by Paul Sanwell/OPP and Will Russell. Videos by Natalie Smith

13x RS600s turned up to Grafham Water Sailing Club for the Inland Championship 2025. We weren’t greeted with the fantastic forecast we had seen earlier in the week, but it seemed there was plenty of wind to get trapezing around the course. Race 1 kicked off with Rich Smith guarding his spot by the committee boat. However, this didn’t stop George Smith from trying to squeeze in above him, just for Rich to not only shut the door on George, but also allow Will Russell to sail underneath and over the top to give him a bunch of dirt up the beat. Thanks to this, Jamie Mawson was able to get himself into a comfortable position and win the race. It was definitely paying to go left up the beat, so those who didn’t tack too early, usually got themselves in a good position after the windward mark. Also of note, Matt Banbrook was reminding us of his speed from Garda last year sailing around at the front too.

Going into Race 2, everyone was a little more conservative on the start line but a huge shift meant that with 1 minute to go, it was looking difficult to get through the line on starboard. In the final 10 seconds, a good majority of the fleet started to get onto port as that was clearly looking like the favoured shift. However, it shifted back only 30 seconds later to the favoured left side we’d seen for most of race 1. This let George Smith get a leg up on Jamie Mawson rounding first, with Rich Bone and Will Russell close behind. George was extending his lead while Rich and Will were fighting it out for second. Jamie made a good recovery and managed to make a good comeback to 4th, nearly catching the back of Will in the final stretch to the finish by tacking off, but Will spotted this and tacked to cover securing 3rd.

Race 3 was starting to look a bit lighter, with the sun making an appearance. This time, the pin was seeming like the favoured end. Jamie managed to redeem himself by getting ahead but George wasn’t far behind. He managed to hold off and get the lead, with George in second and Rich Bone in 3rd. This meant Jamie was leading overnight but it was all to play for going into Sunday. Afterwards, the fleet had some food and drinks while discussing events for 2026.

Going into Sunday, the forecast was looking to be a bit lighter than Saturday but we were greeted with a nice trapezable breeze when we turned up. The wind was due to shift a little to the north east in the early afternoon so it was all up in the air whether we’d be hit by that before the end of racing with an early 10:30 start.

Getting into Race 4, we had plenty of breeze up the first beat. Will Russell won the committee boat with loads of speed off the line to round the windward mark in front. George was catching him up on the run and squeezed past as they started lap 2. George and Rich Bone decided to go off to the right hand side for a change, even though the left was looking good again like Saturday. Will decided to keep going left, thinking the compass numbers were looking good, but once he tacked onto the layline, he noticed his error as George and Rich were comfortably ahead - a good lesson to learn from! Jamie managed to catch up and squeeze past too, with George winning, Rich in 2nd and Jamie in 3rd.

Race 4 Start: https://www.facebook.com/reel/1403206570713593

Race 5 was looking a bit lighter with the breeze coming in waves. It was nice as the fleet got up the first beat, but started to shut down on the run. On the run, there were some large holes allowing a few people, like Will, to make some places by navigating the gusts. Rhys managed to squeeze ahead of Will on the final beat, but Will got one of those incredible lifts just as he was about to do a double tack around the windward mark. This closed the gap so the two were neck and neck on the run with Rhys ahead. Will managed to chase the pressure so much that he soaked down to the mark without gybing for the last half of the run, while Rhys had gybed to get a better angle but opened the door for Will to slide past. Will managed to stay ahead going into the finish, but Rhys wasn’t giving up without a fight! George managed to win again, with Rich Bone in 2nd and Jamie in 3rd.

By Race 6, the results were fairly set in stone but the wind wasn’t. The breeze was starting to shift to the east so the wind was starting to drop. As we got into the start of Race 6, the breeze was very marginal with some trapezing happening up the beat. It was dropping down as we got to the windward mark, but picked up big time as we got towards the run. However, the wind was now very much coming more from the east. With this odd weather, the race officer put the shortened course flag up after 1 lap to conclude the inlands.

Well done to George Smith for winning the 2025 Inland Championships. Thanks to Grafham Water Sailing Club for putting on a great event, even if the wind was being challenging at times.

Quick Links:

• Event Photos
• Results
• RS600 YouTube Channel, featuring the 13 part 'RS600 The Basics series'
• RS600 Calendar, with event entry links

Next up on the Rooster National Tour is the Warsash Open on  the  21/22nd June. We look forward to seeing you there!