Saturday 18th July saw the Northern RS200 fleet dusting off their passports and heading for Ynys Mon for the Red Wharf Bay open meeting, the fifth event in the 2026 Sailing Chandlery sponsored RS200 Northern Tour series.
Any worries about a lack of wind were quickly put to bed by the locals. A 7-8kt Northerly established just as planned for the first race. A combination of a flooding tide and a good dose of port bias in the line set by OOD for the Ken Newing kept the fleet clean for the start with a couple of boats not making the pin and having to do the loop of shame and have a second bite at the line! Jonny and Lewis McGovern led up the 1st beat but were eventually overhauled by Alistair and Helen Norris who went on to take the win with Russell and Annabel Page rounding out the top 3 for race 1.
Really good race management saw the 2nd race away rapidly with the fleet getting the hang of the tide there were fewer red faces on the line. Alistair and Helen lead from start to finish chased by Jonny and Lewis, a leeward mark error in judgement left Russell and Annabel going for a swim and some penalty turns allowing Gareth and Jen Williams to take the 3rd spot for this race.
In for jacket spuds and cake provided by the excellent shore crew at RWBSWC meant the crews were fully fuelled for the final 2 races of the day.
With the wind up the sea state building under the slack tide, downwind planing and surfing was the order of the day for race 3. Gareth and Jen found clean lanes off the pin end and rounded ahead of the pack and managed to hold on for a race win. Jonny and Lewis decided consistency was the order of the day picking up another 2nd with Alistair and Helen mixing up their results with a 3rd.
Another rapid race turnaround saw the last race underway, now with the tide starting to turn keeping the mark layers on their toes to ensure the spreader mark remained a spreader mark despite really wanting to be a windward mark! Gareth and Jen managed to repeat the 1st leg of the previous race by rounding ahead, with Jonny and Lewis hot on their heels in 2nd. Unfortunately, Gareth and Jen made the wrong choices downwind and went 1st to last in the course of the run. Alistair and Helen returned to their usual place at the front with the Jonny & Lwis ‘Consistency Team’ McGovern in 2nd. The shake up of the order brought Tasmyn Green and Louis Mills through to take 3rd place.
As the fleet headed for shore at the end of an excellent day's racing the top 2 steps of the podium were clear, but the maths was defeating the fleet to work out who had claimed the 3rd spot, so we left it to the race team!
The whole team at Red Wharf Bay made the fleet very welcome and put on an excellent event; the perfect start to the summer holidays and a day on the beach in North Wales! I'm sure we'll be back for more.
As part of their sponsorship, Sailing Chandlery provide a dry bag, a £15 voucher, and a pair of sunglasses that are raffled at each event. The winners were Tom Ellis, Martin Joesbury and Jon Ward respectively.
The next event on the Sailing Chandlery Northern Tour is on Sunday 6th September at Yorkshire Dales SC.
🥇Alistair Norris and Helen Norris
🥈Jonny McGovern and Lewis McGovern
🥉Gareth Williams and Helen Wililiams
Report and photos by Gareth Williams
