Results / RS200 Fat Face Racing Circuit Shoreham SC - 12/05/2007

The wild, wild RS200 Fat Face Racing Circuit at Shoreham YC.

 Shoreham YC made a great impression when they hosted their first ever RS event on May 12/13^th with the visit of the RS200’s for round three of the Fat Face Racing Circuit. With all weather forecasts promising gales and plenty of rain for the weekend there was a low entry for a south coast RS200 event with only 31 boats attending and to start with it looked as if the weather forecasters had got it right. Hence it was with some surprise that the fleet listened to the legend that is PRO, Robert Arkie Wainwright at the briefing as he told them that he had been out in the race area with fleet reps and the first race was going to start at 13.30. There was only a force 4-5, the sea state in the race area was much better than the large waves around the harbour mouth.

Of course the inevitable happened and by the time of the first start the wind had really increased and with the tide falling the wave height had increased. After quite a few attempts to persuade the start mark/ leeward gate not to head towards the harbour and many capsizes by anyone attempting anything outside of sailing in a straight line downwind the fleet was sensibly taken ashore. The ride home allowed photographer Warwick Baker to take some truly spectacular shots.

Sunday started much calmer and the whole fleet launched into a steady force 3-4 from the south east with a much smaller sea running. Roger Gilbert/Jane Willan showed their intent by established a good lead after a long opening beat with Nick Charles/Juliet Kingsnorth their nearest challenges. These two stayed 1.2 to the finish as the wind increased with Geoff Carveth/Emma Clarke third. With the wind now up to a force 4-6 and the wave height increasing Gilbert/Willan appeared in total control of race 2 until they capsized on the final run. Ian Pickard/Loopy Lucy Matthews shot by to win with Gilbert/Willan second and Carveth/Clarke again third. Race 3 saw the strongest wind of the day and this time Gilbert/Willan made no mistake to win from James Stewart/Toby Lewis and Pickard/Matthews. With the event won with a race to go Gilbert/Willan headed for the harbour leaving a much depleted fleet to compete the final race which was won by Charles/Kingsnorth.

After everyone dried out after such a wild day on the water it was time to give out the chocolates. Tom Winskell and Alex Pickles from RNSA won the Bronze Division from Martin and Heidi Vinson. Fiona Hall/Helen Wightman won the silver division in 9^th place overall by 2 points from Richard Neall/Lucy Davies.

Shoreham YC had been the best of hosts, a very friendly club who did an excellent job to ensure some good racing took place in some very testing conditions. Their shore party was excellent in making launching easy and having your launching trolley ready for you at the water edge as soon as came ashore.

Its off to North Yorkshire in a fortnights time for round 4 of the Fat Face Racing Circuit at the Garda of the North, Filey SC; lets hope it is half as good as last years event.