Results / RS400 Scottish Championships East Lothian YC - 04/06/2011

Big waves and sunshine for Scottish RS400 Championships

A healthy fleet of 14 RS400 turned up over the weekend of 4/5 June at East Lothian YC to be greeted by a solid Force 4 and some rather nice waves coming from Norway. East Lothian as expected delivered a very professional regatta with the 140 boats split over 3 fleets and extremely efficient on the water organisation . Even the inclusion of a 32 foot yacht shaped leeward mark (RS Racing rules of mark hitting allowed) couldn't spoil the weekend and the port tack waves on Saturday in particular were memorable. In true RS spirit the racing was amazingly close with 5 different race winners and four boats tied on 20 points for 2nd place. Congratulations are due to Jim Sinclair and Tom Watson who sailed a very consistent series and were the rightful winners overall. Best of the rest were Kevan Gibb / John Cockburn in 2nd place and Wayne / Deb Fletcher in 3rd. It was encouraging to see representation from south of the border again, and attendance from the newer boat owners in Scotland who are clearly coming up the learning curve given the closeness of the racing – also that the 400 fleet was one of the biggest at this regatta.

Special mentions of the weekend go to Wayne Fletcher for parking his village-sized camper directly outside the clubhouse then drinking 4 pints in rapid succession so that he couldn't move it, Pete Snowdown for spending most of Sat night asleep in the bar, Mark Barron for omitting to read the Olympic training chapter entitled "dealing with seasickness" and Neil McLellan for remembering what toestraps are for and hiking solidly for 2 minutes off the line during which we saw the first ever 400 plane to windward.

Many thanks go the ELYC, and sponsors JP watersports, Stewart Brewing and DH Systems for the free beer we once again enjoyed on the Sat night . We all hope the attendance will continue to grow and the next event is the 3rd and final training event at Aberdeen and Stonehaven Yacht Club on 14/15 July with RS legend and sometime westcountry boat builder Peter Ugly Vincent.