Day 1

Racing abandoned, not enough wind.    Lovely and sunny though!

Day 2 in Torvegas. Saturday night has been and gone but the glory will last forever. The RS400 fleet having endured a first day of desultory conditions with a drift to and from line were greeted with a solid 15 – 18 knots across the sailing area. Tobytastic in his eagerness to assert 1383’s dominance was hot out of the blocks with an early run to get a key launching spot.

Race 1 commenced with Howard Farbrother & Dan Martin utterly nailing the start putting in a spectacular port flyer across the whole fleet. After a few seconds of awestruck confusion the fleet realised that they were in fact the pathfinder and all 55 boats started without incident. The general consensus of the first beat being that the best pressure was to the right hand side with Nick Craig and Tobytastic conducting their usual upwind blitzkrieg to storm to the top mark first. Stewart and

Sarah Robertson and James Dawner/Jon Price both kept firm pressure applied to 1383’s lead. This was a theme that continued throughout the race to its inevitable conclusion of a Craig / Lewis 1^st place.

Races 2 and 3 were near perfect examples of sprint racing in variable and gusty conditions with big gains to be had from picking the right side of the course upwind and ensuring that you kept yourself in the best pressure downwind. It was by no means clear which side provided the best pressure as gusts traversed the course but with the majority of the pressure filling in from the right that seemed to be the side that paid.

Further down the fleet the usual RS antics panned out with various crews checking their slot gaskets and even one boat (Chief, 1344) doing a sterling job for the race officer of checking the security of the windward mark’s anchorage.

All in all a great day with some hard sailing in some hard conditions. The race officer did a sterling job of setting even courses over consistent distances which made for a very enjoyable day on the water.

Curry and quiz to finish off the day rounds off a very good first day of racing.

Richard Graham-Enock

RS400 1066. 

Day 3 at the Noble Marine RS400 Nationals at the Royal Torbay – broken bodies everywhere.

Day 3 at the Noble Marine RS400 Nationals can easily be summed up in a few bullet points.

-          3 full on awesome races in 17-23 knots from the SW was the greatest test of boats and people. With quality race management.

-          Full on yahoo downwind with gybe corner a bit of a grave yard.

-          Nick Criag and Toby Lewis were Tobytastic and just gave the fleet a master class in sailing to win all 3 races in awesome style.

-          Nick Francis/Simon Reid broke their mast in two at the spreaders on the final run but still managed to finish the race in 29^th loosing only one place in the process.

-          Never have I seen so many broken but happy bodies.

-          The vast majority of the fleet then went go karting and caused chaos.

Quality

Pete Vincent

Day 4

After big Monday and 3 races in full on conditions the fleet was looking forward to a more gentle day today at the Noble Marine RS400 Nationals at Torquay.  Sailing out in a fairly gentle 12 knots from the west the fleet was lulled into a false sense of security; the wind really was not going to give the fleet or the race team an easy day!!

The first attempted start was very wisely aborted with the pathfinder Ian Robson/Sandy Johnston pointing at the windward mark saving the fleet the grief of Ian leading. After some smart course moving the gate opened fine only for a 20 degree shift and the sudden arrival 20 knots of wind on the right directly after the gate closed making it Christmas for the late starters and the fleet did have the horror of Ian and Sandy leading at mark 1; they gybed straight away and disappeared in a ball of spray pointing straight at the gate. The race team of course was up for this and rapid smart relaying produced a true course. The breezy second run saw plenty of swimming and Nick Craig/Tobytastic burn through to second. Could they catch Ian and Sandy; who to cheer for??  But Ian and Sandy were up for the challenge and won from Nick/Toby with James George/Izzy Mitchell third.

For the second race some of the big gusts disappeared with the wind in the 14-18 knots zone but there was still a high degree of variability with lighter patches over the course and some real slants. Again it was generally the late starters that were favoured but Nick and Tobytastic seemed to be offended that they had be beaten and sailed a totally immaculate opening beat to be in control leading at the first mark and then doing a total blue horizon job on the fleet. Behind 2^nd to 8^th was a real dog fight with places changing non stop. James George/Izzy liked the flatter water and blasted the last 2 runs to round off an impressive day with a second; with Martin Brown/ Chris Sallis just beating Mike Hart/Sally Kirkpatrick for third.

Pete Vincent

Day 5

Last day. Two races. It was all to play for, Downer & Price were in joint second place despite their boom failure of the previous day, with the Robertsons on the same points, but having had a poor day for them while Downer & Price were running around the shore hunting down a replacement boom. Below them in the rankings was a scrum with six boats on similar numbers, while Nick Craig and Toby were desperate to remove the shame of the previous days spanking by the amusingly quick Ian Robson.

Martin Browne & Chris Sallis (1129), and Simon Palmer with Ollie George-Taylor (1387) took full advantage of the empty early gate, and were seen dimly rounding the windward mark with a healthy lead. A brief but heavy shower brought a blast of wind to propel the fleet downwind in a fairly excited fashion, before resuming a wood chopping session through the chop upwind. Lots of shifts and pressure bands gave lots of scope for changing places, and inevitably, certain people benefited more than others. Mike Hart and Sally Fitzpatrick scooped second, and the ever-rapid Robertsons took third. Unfortunately Speccy and Toby worked their way through the fleet to discard their second place. While Ian “no fluke” Robson & Sandy Johnson came in 4th. Downer/Price took 6th.

Last race of the 2012 RS400 National Champs, sunny, F3, three points between 2nd and 3rd…The Queen Mary-based Andy Hatch and Dan Martin (1390) shot out the gate early, waited for the wind to swing back, tacked and cleared the fleet in classic fashion. Their grins were dimly discernable by the mere mortals in the chasing fleet. Unfortunately, they were pursued by folk with the hunting instincts of a hungry trouser-ferret, and the natural mercy of a trap-door spider.  Hatch & Martin held out bravely for nearly two laps, but then succumbed to Craig & Lewis, and finally, Stewart and Sarah Robertson, who with that final flurry, nailed themselves into 2nd place overall, from Jim Downer & Jon Price in 3rd, with Nick Craig and Toby Lewis crowned Noble Marine RS400 National Champions of 2012.

Howard Farbrother