51 RS200’s at the second round of the Fat Face Racing Circuit at Rutland.

Early Spring on the east side of England is not normally associated with warm weather but 51 RS200’s were searching for the sun cream on Saturday morning at Rutland SC for round two of the Fat Face Racing Circuit. With the lovely sunshine the weatherman was also predicting light winds and the locals were concerned that as the day got warmer the winds would drop hence it was a welcome surprise that crews were hiking hard all day up wind and at times it approached lively down wind whilst the wind never settled into a solid direction.

The RS200’s last year adopted the RYA Charter advice, mediation, protest procedure and had a judge at the major events. As an experiment the RS200’s regular judge, William Jeffercote was given more powers to umpire incidents on the water. To this reporter this had a very positive impact on the racing with more 720’s than usual and much better discipline at marks with very little need for the red flag to appear from the judge to indicate a penalty decision.

Race 1 saw a benefit for the big Bristol CYC contingent of 8 boats. Nick Charles/Juliet Kingsnorth led for the majority to win although pushed very hard at the end by club mate Trudie Fells/Karen Baker with fellow BCYC sailors Ian Pickard/Luck Matthews third with Sue Antonelli/Jo Lloyd fourth. Trudie/Karen had shown that left had really paid in race 1 by going to the church shore for an ice cream and race 2 was the same. Anyone near the pin and could tack early were laughing as the wind swung further to the east. Roger Gilbert/Jane Willan was in pole position and won by a comfortable margin. Matt and Emma Jenkins were showing good speed to claim second from Andy/Jeraldine Peters and Pete Vincent/Tessa Nicholls. For Race 3 the opposite applied and you had to come out the line near the committee boat, again Gilbert/Willan were in the right place to win from Charles/Kingsnorth, David Steed/Suzie Proctor and Eddie Whitehead/Noelle Vidal.

Sunday and for some over keen party goers it was definitely the morning after. Gilbert/Willan was one point ahead of Charles/Kingsnorth with no one else counting 3 top ten results. With the wind lighter around 6-7 knots and moving to the south west it was clear it was going be a fickle day testing crew’s concentration. Race 4 saw the wind go very light on the first run but Hamish Calder/Severine Rees-Jones showed real sniggle skills to win by a good margin. Gilbert/Willan again slowly eased through to claim second from Matt Burge/Jez Nickolls and Vincent/Nicholls. Race 5 and the wind had recovered a little strength allowing Antonelli/Lloyd to be fully powered up to win by a decent margin from Gilbert/Willan, Charles/Kingsnorth and Whitehead/Vidal. By race 6 PRO Richard Johnson had got the hang of the black flag and 8 boats were pulled out at mark one. Antonelli/Lloyd had also got the hang of the winning idea and won again; behind, yes you have guessed it the ultra consistent Gilbert/Willan scored their third second of the day from Gareth Robinson/Sarah Holland and Steed/Proctor.

Gilbert/Willan were the clear overall winners their consistency in such testing conditions highlighted by the fact that no other boat scored six top ten results. The very large Wembley contingent had a field day in the division prizes.  David Steed/Suzie Proctor in their first year of 200 racing won the silver division from the best mate of the judge, Wembley’s Rob Jannering/Marianthe Evangelidis. Wembley’s Nigel Harniman/Charlotte Cotter won the bronze division by two points from club mates Phil and Sonya Waind.

Three weeks time and RS200 Fat Face Racing Circuit moves to the sea and the first RS event ever to be held at Shoreham SC.