Results : RS200 Open Weymouth and Portland Sailing Academy

GUL RS200 Racing Circuit at Weymouth and Portland Sailing Academy
by Steve Dunn and pete Vincent.



The new Weymouth and Portland Sailing Academy proved to be an excellent
venue for the latest round of the GUL sponsored RS Racing Circuit. Twenty
nine RS 200's left the harbour for Saturdays racing was in Weymouth bay. The
sun shone and three excellent races were sailed in a Force 2-3. The first
race saw Dave and Nicky Derby lead from the front all the way round the
course. Behind them close racing was again the order of the day. Three boats
vied for second place with Steve Dunn and Laurie Jameson narrowly taking
second from Simon and Mary Davies. Lee Sydenham and Anne Vaudry eventually
finishing fourth. The second race was sailed in slightly less wind. A group
of boats split from the main fleet and with Dunn and Jameson coming out on
top. Tom and Jo Hewitson finished second after tweaking their rig after race
one. Angus Hemmings and Claire Nuttall saw of an impressive attack from the
Derby's to finish in third place. The RS200 fleet got away first time on the
third start with three boats making an early move. The race proved very
tight with the lead changing on the last run. Tom and Jo split from the
leaders Lee and Anne and by the time the boats came together had pulled some
distance back. At the finish Tom and Jo just piped Lee and Anne for first
place. Consistent sailing by Angus and Claire saw them add another third to
their tally. At the end of day one the results where very tight with the top
three boats on 9 points and the boats in fourth and fifth on 11 points.



The SailSail sponsored social started slowly due to the long sail in from
the race area but a combination of an excellent band, the lead singers boots
and RS party spirit saw the social rise to Party Force 12. This caused a few
causalities for Sundays racing. There were a lot of relived people to wake
up and find there was no wind, thoughts of an extra couple of hours in the
tent were soon scuppered when a southerly F2 filled in. The first race was
sailed in the steadying breeze, Lee and Anne made the best of the conditions
and won the race. Just behind them was Jo and Tom with the now regulars in
third, Angus and Claire. The wind built and steadied even further for race
5, leaders at the first mark Tom and Jo went on to build a comfortable lead.

Behind them things weren't so easy with boats passing and being passed the
whole way round the course. Lee and Anne did well to recover to fourth from
a poor start, with Mike Chapman and Claire Bewley (Wembley) recording their
best result of the weekend in second place. Dave and Nicki held on to
collect a third place after showing some great downwind speed. The break
between races 5 and 6 saw the wind trying to decide which way it would flow
round Portland, it eventually decided and filled in to give a great final
race. Lesley Bennett and Caroline Oldham (Itchenor) capitalised on a
combination of good boat speed and a clean start to finish in fourth place.

This result lifted them to ninth overall and they won the award for best
improvers. A little further up the fleet the race was won by Tom and Jo,
giving them an impressive 2,1,2,1,1 set of results to give overall victory.



Until Weymouth Lee Sydenham appeared to have a vice like grip on the GUL
Racing Circuit with three first places. Lee is still hot favourite to win
the circuit as he s the only leading boat with four results to count. With
two events left the Hewitsons are now a major force with results of 2.2.1.
Steve Dunn also could challenge with results of 1.3.6.



Will Lee hold off these challenges? Have we seen the emergence of Wembley as
the dominate 200 club? Will Hayling, Itchenor and Bowmoor react to this
challenge? Can 200 sailors continue to party at such a pace? Come to the RS
Nationals and find out.