Results : RS600 Inlands Grafham Water SC

GUL RS600 Inland championships at Grafham.



The RS major event season finished with a real bang with a massive turnout
for the GUL sponsored Inland Championships with a total of 224 boats
competing in five classes. The RS600 class produced a highly talented fleet
of 37 boats all looking forward to a repeat of last year's memorable blast.
At exactly the sametime on Saturday morning a year ago the Race teams were
discussing could they hold racing as winds hit 30 knots. This year the
question was what was the minimum wind in which a race could be started.



After a frustrating afternoon looking at a windlass Grafham Water an amazing
cloud pattern produced a thunderstorm, which destroyed all hope of sailing
late in the afternoon.



Sunday started with mist but once it lifted a breeze immediately set in
allowing a relieved fleet to go afloat.



In Race 1 Andy Irons led to the windward mark and wasn't caught for the rest
of the race, however there was a tight battle between RS Association
Chairman, Tony Freer and local boy Ian Walters for 2nd and 3rd. Walters was
the victor making best advantage of the increasing breeze down the last run.
The rest of the fleet finishing very tightly behind led by Richard Willows
and 'Spiderman' Marshall.



A little more breeze, but swinging through 25 degrees in the puffs, set in
for Race 2. Shortly after the start those who started at the pin end on
starboard were met with a large header. Most of the fleet tacked onto port
and were lifted nicely up towards the windward mark. Our new National
Champion, Gareth Morgan and Tony Freer played this first leg the best with
Morgan extending his lead over the fleet by the finish to get almost a
minute of clear air between him and second place, even after a quick swim on
the final beat after he failed to hook-on after a tack. Steve Main got 2nd
with John Carron 3rd and Freer 4th.



Slightly more wind filled in race 3 although once again moving around making
for very tricky and at times frustrating going. The pin end of the line was
favoured and most of the fleet were there vying for position. With the
sudden death black flag in operation no one wanted to be over. Irons gambled
on a port tack flyer and got away with it giving him the lead by the
windward mark closely followed by Morgan. Irons kept the lead despite the
fleet splitting on every beat and shifts making it very difficult to cover.
Morgan lost out to Andy White and Ian Montague by the finish. With only
three races possible and no discard a consistent set of results; Morgan
suffered with a bad first race. Irons had won the GUL RS Racing Circuit and
had been presented with the trophy on Saturday night; he rounded off a very
successful year by now winning the GUL RS Inlands.