RS200 Fat Face Racing Circuit at Filey – some varied weather

For the second year the RS200’s Fat Face Circuit went to the North Yorkshire coast at Filey to be richly entertained by Filey SC. An ever changing forecast promising grim weather; no one was actually too sure when the front with wind and rain would arrive, combined with a windy season seeing too many days at events lost to strong winds already led to many people staying at home. Although this hides a rather strange contradiction, many northern based boats have often argued that more circuit events should be held in the north and then do not support such events when they are. I have got to the point where I have ceased to try and understand this instead being grateful I was sensible enough to be among the 22 boats that did make the trip to a fine venue, with good race management and sea conditions you don’t see too often.

Saturday could have been very light and variable but the majority of the three races were held in 7-10 knots from the east which slowly clocked to the south east. Keith Escritt/Anne  Saul looked to have a very healthy lead but a visit to the finish line a lap too early  looked to have been costly but they just held on to win from Matt/Emma Jenkins and Trudie Fell/Karen Baker. Showboating, a practice run to make sure they could carry the kite to the line, an inability to count or colour blind they thought the shortened course flag was up? Keith was keeping the reason for his error to himself. Anyway National Champion Roger Gilbert/Jane Willian did not indulge in such teasing of the fleet and won race 2 comfortably from Nick Charles/Juliet Kingsnorth and the Jenkins. Newcomers to 200’s and 200 events, Stephen and Danielle Graham from Burwain, led race 3 for a long period but Charles/Kingsnorth ground their advantage away to win on the final run from the Grahams and David/Jane Hivey.

Sunday was a very different day; the wind had swung to the north east early in the day and there was already quite a sea running by the time the rescue boats were launched. For the three races the wind was between 17-21 knots with the sea getting progressively bigger as the day went on. This produced for the second year in a row very memorable fun filled rides on the big long waves. With local forecasts predicting the wind to increase when the rain arrived PRO Peter Crook showed great sense and the heart felt support of the fleet in really getting on with the racing with the warning flag being raised almost the moment the previous race had finished. The rain arrived whilst we were packing boats up and the bay was very bleak by the time we towed the boats up the hill.

Roger Gilbert/Jane Willian won the event in the most emphatic possible way winning all three races in the breeze leading at every windward mark. Although they only won overall by a point this does not indicate their dominance on Sunday. Nick Charles/Juliet Kingsnorth scored three seconds but had quite a dogfight in race 4 and 5 with fellow Bristol CYC sailors Ian Pickard/Lucy Matthews plus Trudie Fell/Karen Baker who passed them downwind in race 6.

With over half the fleet gold sailors the silver and bronze division sailors had to battle hard for places. Andrew and Eve Hartley won the silver division in 9^th place overall.  JP McCaldin/Jess Copland won the bronze from fellow Dalgety Bay sailors Liz Jamie/Carolyn Priestley.

With many thanks to Filey SC for a great event. It’s off to Stokes Bay for the next Fat Face event and the RS Ball lets see how Roger copes with Solent chop with a hangover.

Pete Vincent.