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 29th 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
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 2nd to 8th 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
