Day 1 Nationals Reports

Gul RS National Championships: Day 1 RS300: Monday 19 August saw the start of the 2002 RS300 Nationals at WPSA. The start of racing was delayed for an hour whilst the race officer awaited the coming of foretold wind, before releasing the eager fleet to sail in the northern half of the harbour in the F2 westerly. Race 1 saw no real surprise with the early and convincing leader being Steve Cockerill, who led from start to finish, making best use of the shifts in the light winds. The following pack saw several changes as the fleet struggled to secure second place, before the wind started to increase. Matt Sargent eventually stamped his authority to take the spot ahead of Scotland’s Ian Baillie. Phil Davies showed that despite his time out of the boat, and a poor start, he could still mix it with the best with some devastating downwind speed, after lying down in 9th place and finally overhauling Jamie Mawson, Nick Bolland and Steven Macdonald to finish 5th, just behind Steve Cook. Race 2 saw the freshening wind give some incentive to the heavier sailors, as Sargent led the fleet to the windward mark, with Cockerill left languishing in 5th place to round. All proved to be false, as once again Steve showed his speed to be leading at the leeward mark, and from there to the end of the race. Phil Davies once again used his downwind speed to pull up through the fleet to finish second, pipping Matt Sargent on the last lap, who was left to rue his risky attempt to gain a flyer up the right hand side of the beat. Steve Bolland put in a steady performance to finish in fourth place, improving on his 11th the previous race, with Ian Baillie showing steady speed to come 5th. Despite the apparent domination of the top five, it was apparent that standards throughout the fleet have improved dramatically over the past 12 months, with tactical mistakes making the difference between top finishes, and an apparently also-ran performance. With increasing winds forecast for the rest of the week, we look set for a cracking weeks sailing, and no doubt many more surprises to come! RS400: Twelve months ago, Roger Gilbert & James Stewart, as defending champions, scored 57 points on the opening day. Yesterday however they scored exactly 52 points less with 2 first places in a pretty scary display of boat speed and big fleet tactics. A sceptical eighty-eight boat fleet launched into a very weak 4 knot breeze. The race officer, Richard Stevens, was proved to be completely correct in his assessment of the weather, however, and race 1 started in a 7 to 8 knot breeze. The race from half way up the first beat proved to be a titanic battle between Geoff Carveth/Mark Greaves and Gilbert/Stewart. Carveth had pace downwind but when Gilbert rounded the starboard leeward mark on lap 2 he gained the crucial advantage and went on to win the race. Race 2 and the fleet was beginning to thank the weather gods: the sun was out and the wind had built to 12 knots. Craig Burlton and Andrew Bonsey held the nerve as an early starter to fly to the port-hand lay line to just lead at the windward mark just ahead of the Gilbert/Stewart team. Gilbert was on a mission and was in the lead half way down the following leeward leg. Well clear, Gilbert and Stewart won by a big margin with Burlton and Bonsey holding off the determined challenge of Carveth and Greebo. Even after day 1, national champions Gilbert and Stewart have laid down the challenge to the rest of the fleet and have shown that they are the team to beat. Far more importantly, though, Team Ugly won the human table football competition with an awesome display of hacking the opponents and goal scoring from Gerard Barron, the new Michael Owen. RS600: 47 RS600s enjoyed the excellent conditions at Weymouth and Portland Sailing Academy. Richard Smith, a 600 stalwart, had a storming first day with a 2.1 score and recorded 7.2 on day 2 to lead on 12 points, with Colin Turner in second place, and Matt Humphreys third.