RS600 GUL GP at Weston SC on 17/18 September
Strong winds and a smattering of rain greeted the RS600 fleet as they met at Weston SC for the final event on the Gul Grand Prix Circuit, joining the RS700 and Contender fleets.
The fleet gorged themselves on egg and bacon baps in the morning, in the hope of gaining more leverage on the wire with the strong force 5 blowing outside.
Tentatively, everyone launched into the short chop of Southampton Water at 12, ready for the 12:30 start.
Race 1: The fleet split going up the first beat with half going left and half going right. Pete Nelson was the first to the windward mark, followed by Mark Cooper, Jason Rickards and Jamie Mawson with Dan Saltmarsh hot on their heels. After a procession along the top reach, the fleet split again going down the run. Pete carries on going right to lee-bow the tide whilst Mark, Jason and Jamie gybe off left in search of better breeze. Dan follows Pete and also goes right into the tide. Pete rounds the leeward mark first followed closely by Mark. Jason and Jamie are neck and neck. Dan gains from staying right and comes charging in about to cross infront of Jason but capsizes to windward, letting the rest of the fleet through, including Tom Gall who captured the incident on his GoPro headcam. Positions stayed the same throughout the race with Pete grabbing the bullet, Mark taking second even after two capsizes and Jason taking third.
Race 2: The wind had increased a touch and was far more gusty. Everyone nailed the start and was bang on the line at the gun. Jamie pulled away to a good lead with Jason and Pete battling it out for second place. With very large gusts rolling through the run became the leg where places were won or lost. Jason continued putting pressure on Pete downwind who capsized during his gybe to the bouy. Jason nailed his gybe to take second place. Richard and Dan had a good battle for third with Richard taking it after Dan capsized down the run. Further back in the fleet Mark and Tom were on a collision course downwind with Mark on starboard and Tom on port. Tom left it to the last second to gybe off but judged the gust wrong and capsized into Marks path. Mark, with nowhere to go, sailed into Toms mast, pushing his daggerboard back through the boat. Both boats subsequently retired.
Race 3 saw the return of Mark Cooper, this time borrowing Toms boat. Mark was blisteringly quick upwind reaching the buoy first. This was probably due to him being 85 odd kgs on wide wings! But after getting tangled up and falling through the rack on a boat he wasn't used to, he retired after one lap. Jamie led Jason and Pete for most of the race with Richard breathing down their necks. Unfortunately Richard death-rolled going down the run which allowed the other 3 to pull away. Jason even pulled off a granny gybe, tacking the boat downwind to avoid the inevitable threat of capsize that seemed to have plagued the rest of the fleet. Chris Tilbrook was showing great speed upwind and down in the blustery conditions, and capitalised on Dans multiple capsizes to get a commendable fifth. Jamie took another bullet from Jason and then Pete respectively.
The racers were treated to a fantastic chili con carne in the evening, thanks to the clubs galley staff. It was so good that many of the 600 fleet went back for seconds and even thirds! Perhaps expecting more wind the next day. A game of traditional skittles was also laid on for all fleets which was fairly competitive, with the 600 sailor Chris Tilbrook narrowly missing out on winning the knockout competition.
Race 4 – The wind was significantly less than the day before, which delighted the lighter helms. The wind direction had also shifted more north which meant judgement of tide was crucial. Dan misjudged the start sequence and only entered the starting area with a minute to go. After hitting the committee boat end of the line at the last second he had no speed so tacked off to the right on his own but slipped off the rack and fell in putting him back to last place. Dan hit the right hand corner and made back a few places on the boats that went left. Jason was leading until the downwind leg where he threw it away by almost gybing into Richard and having to spin all the way round. This allowed Pete through in first, followed by Jamie and then Dan.
Race 5 – Jamie, Pete and Jason went for a port hand flyer from the pin end but were all met by the rest of the fleet coming across on starboard so had to duck. Dan and Richard tacked off not long after and went up the middle of the course, making ground on Jamie, Pete and Jason at the windward mark. With the front pack very close together, the downwind leg became key. Jamie managed to pull away leaving Pete, Dan and Richard fighting for second with Jason just behind them. On the next upwind, Jamie and Jason went right but in the slackening breeze, lost out dramatically. Jamies lead had now shrunk to only a few boat lengths from Dan who had taken second up the beat. Jason double tacked on two headers and so lost even more ground on the leaders. It all came down to the last run, Pete and Richard were neck and neck and Dan was biting at Jamie's heels. The two went separate ways down the run and by the bottom mark it was Dan who had edged ahead. Coming into mark 4, Dan had pulled out a few boat lengths on Jamie, so just had to keep it together on the last short beat to the finish. By this time the wind had almost completely died, making trapezing difficult even for the lightest guys. Pete had edged ahead of Richard but as he rounded up to tack he fell in, letting Richard through for another third. Dan held it to the line, claiming his first win in the 600 to date. Jamie was a close second with Richard in third.
As the 600 fleet finished, a large gust came through followed by a 90 degree header, then it went back, then came a 180 degree shift. The wind subsequently died and a deluge of rain filled in. After waiting for the 700s and Contenders to drift to their finish, the race committee abandoned race 6 as there was no sign of the wind filling in soon.
Many thanks to Weston SC for hosting yet another great event, and to the 700s and Contenders for letting us share it with them! Well done for everyone who persisted with the strong winds, it was a tough weekend and I think everyone was aching after the first day! It was also good to see the return of a veteran 600 sailor, Mike Coombes. We hope to see you at more events in the future!
