Results / Open Penarth YC - 15/07/2012

Gul RS600 National Championships 2003 at Royal Torbay YC. Excellent sailing in a variety of conditions with a friendly host club, spot-on race management and virtually the full fleet in attendance for the socials made the Gul RS600 Nationals at Torquay one of the best for a number of years. Day one started in near perfect conditions despite a forecast Force 8 the night before, which encouraged many sailors to head out to indulge in the local hospitality assuming no sailing the next day. Some of the 41 competitors were quite relieved to find only a North- westerly Force 3 to 4 to start with, although clear heads were needed to cope with the gusts and shifts coming over the headlands. Griff Tanner capsized on the line with 30 seconds to the start, but recovered magnificently to lead the next two laps from Richard Smith. Else where down the order places changed constantly in some extremely close racing all down the fleet, with Matt Humphreys, Matt Chapman, Paul Smalley, Mike Bean (until his mast failed on the last beat), Jon Heissig and Christian Reynolds following the front two. Smith got clear to win on the third lap, followed by Humphreys and then Heissig. The wind started to drop off for the next race to around a force 2. Nick Lowe got a flying start up the first beat to lead at the first mark, closely followed by a pack led by Ian Montague and Smith. Working the shifts payed big dividends up and downwind, limiting the corner banging, and soon Humpreys, Reynolds, Heissig, and Ian Marshall all had time in the top places. Montague took the best route up the final beat, followed by Humpreys, sparking off a duel down the final run and reach. Humphreys just managed to sail over the top of Montague to take the gun by half a foredeck. Smith had worked his way up into third, but found out ashore he was called over the start line and couldn�t count it. Reynolds came through into third, Lowe took fourth with Marshall sneaking in for fifth. In the evening rivalries were continued on the gokart track before returning to the nightlife of Torquay. The next day saw the fleet launch into light breeze, but by the time they had reached the course area a good Force 4-5 South-easterly had appeared, piling a respectable swell into the bay. Smith shot away up the first beat into a substantial lead, but after an exciting run surfing down the waves was caught by a bunch of around eight boats. Everyone tried to get on the inside at the mark, two capsized, and Smith escaped into the lead again followed by Chapman, last years champion Colin Turner and Lowe. At the end of the beat the wind started swinging to the East, and in the dropping breeze Smith consolidated the win with Humphreys cruising into second ahead of Turner and Lowe. The wind died completely for an hour or so, and as soon as a zephyr was seen approaching from the east a course was laid and the countdown started. With four minutes to go the wind swung to the north and the race started to try to get to the pin end of the line. Humphreys came out best, and sailed off into the distance followed by Montague. For others, the processional lap looked to give some seriously down the pan results until realisation came that the windward mark had been re-laid to the North for the second lap. This happened sooner for some than others, and those who tacked across early made large gains through the fleet. Lowe sailed into third, while social superstar Nick Collins stayed cool to gain an excellent fourth place. The wind shift to the North in race 4 required the course to be re-laid before race 5 could be started. The start line was biased to the starboard end, but despite some severe bunching the fleet got away cleanly. Generally the left hand side seemed to pay, and at the first mark Humphreys led narrowly from Jon Heissig. These two had an epic battle throughout the race with Humphreys emerging victorious after gaining an inside overlap on the last run. Behind the two leaders there were many place changes with Reynolds and Marshall in particular using the shifts down the run after an indifferent first beat to finish third and fifth respectively, Lowe in fourth again. The day�s main feature was saved to last, when due to the delays the fleet returned to a non-existent beach courtesy of the high tide. Apart from a few exceptions who risked the waves breaking against the sea wall the entire fleet went to the harbour, and after waiting for the trolleys to arrive had a � mile drag back along the promenade. For all three races on Tuesday the wind remained in a westerly direction around 3 to 4 in strength. In the first race of the Charlie Stowe showed exceptional speed up the first beat to gain a healthy lead. This was pulled back by Ian Montague and Richard Smith by the leeward mark. Ian�s main strop broke, leaving Smith to win from Charlie and Matt Humphreys pulling through the fleet to third. In race 7 Smith led at the first mark with Montague in second and Matt Chapman coming through to third. Montague led Race 8 from start to finish with Chapman vying for second spot throughout the race with Heissig, Colin Turner pulling through into third at the finish. These results meant that Matt Humphreys, having put an excellent series together, deservedly won the nationals with a day to spare. The 600�s took over a local curry house for the evening, involving beer, curry (surprisingly) and more beer. Afterwards, the fleet went around the corner to a nightclub who were foolishly allowing free entry and cocktails at �1 a go. Smith helped Humphreys� celebrations by buying him an outrageous looking concoction, and before long the barstaff were claiming that they were out of ingredients. This didn�t stop Smith who once again took the lead, this time in rounds of cocktails that were available. For the final day the wind was back to North / Northwesterly varying from force 1 in the lulls to 5 in gusts, shifting up to 30 at times. The breeze allowed the strong wind experts and those who had been lacking time in the boat at the start of the series to get to the front, and in the first race Chapman stormed off to win from Smith and Stowe. Humphreys put in a pale looking appearance, scoring fourth with Turner in fifth. The last race saw a duel at the front between Chapman and Tanner, who had broken his tiller extension before the start of the previous race. These two seemed to have locked racks all around the course, with Tanner just squeezing ahead at the end of the last run. Chapman caught him on the reach, and realising he couldn�t go to windward tried planing through Tanner�s lee. This didn�t work, and he crossed the line in second underwater before capsizing just clear of the committee boat. Smith finished third; Humphreys had capsized and retired with alcohol fatigue while in fourth. First lady went to Elaine Turner, who sailed well despite lack of practice, also retaining his title of first master was Ian Marshall and first youth was Sam Pascoe. All in all, the general agreement was that some of the closest racing of the year had been enjoyed all the way down the fleet. Ability rather than weight was necessary to get to the front, the first four places being filled alternately by wide and narrow wing boats. Many thanks go to the Royal Torbay YC for excellent management and a range of friendly volunteers, and also to Gul for providing the sponsorship. The next major event is the Inland championships at Grafham, where a traditionally large turnout is expected.