Report on RS Fat Face Racing Circuit at HISC, 6/7 July 02, RS200/800/K6s

Full reports & results for individual classes now on website under results. 48 200s, 45 RS800s and 11 RSK6s drove down the causeway at Hayling Island SC on Saturday with very little optimism. Under a grey sky there was almost zero wind and the first sight that welcomed everyone as they passed the lifeboat station was of cruisers not making any headway against the tide. Great!! Little did we all know that the weather gods were really going to play ball and supply some of the best possible winds imaginable for some fantastic competitive sailing. As the clouds lifted on Saturday and some funny bright thing in the sky started giving some warmth, the race teams out in Hayling Bay called the fleets out with very sceptical sailors not really believing the information that there was now a breeze. Oh yea of little faith - the race teams did know what they were talking about. A 4-5 knot southwesterly soon built, so that race 2 and 3 were sailed in a force 3-4 with clear blue skies. Very happy crews really could not believe their luck, suntans and top sailing. Sunday was very different with low clouds giving a uniform slate grey coverage and constant rain. There was also a good breeze, around a force 4-5 from the southwest giving real waves in the bay. Between race 4 and 5 the visibility really closed down and the wind increased making race 5 very action packed. This was not for the faint hearted but some of the downwind stuff was superb. The race teams held their nerve and with the Isle of Wight reappearing the wind slightly eased to a force 4 for the final race. With a very low tide everyone had to take the long way round to get home with Hayling bar at its notorious best. However, this did mean that everyone had the 3 mile roller coaster kite burn back to the club, which will be remembered for a long time. A word that is over used at times to describe an event is awesome but this was truly an awesome event