Results / Gul RS400 Grand Prix Arun YC - 09/07/2011

Saturday, and sixteen RS400s pitched up ready to take on the unrelenting good humour and always generous welcome of the host club Arun YC at Littlehampton for the Gul RS400 Grand Prix. Unfortunately a 25kt breeze proved a tad too much to guarantee the safe return of all boats, so despite a mass outbreak of pouting, Saturday’s racing was canned with the promise of an earlier start and five back to back races outlined for the following day. A wise decision as it turned out, the Shoreham Bay data showed the breeze held steady between “better phone Noble” and “aaaaargh” all day long, only dropping off in the evening, ready for the next day’s fun.

Sunday, and a much more competitive SW’ly F3-4 was on show, with outbreaks of sunshine and intermittent whooping. Race one kicked off with much anticipation, with Howard Farbrother/Dan Martin of Queen Mary (1251) leading the pack around the first buoy, with much jostling for position and place-changing from the closely following pack. The leeward gate proved useful for some, with Tim Garvin and Louise Hosken (976) of Queen Mary pulling a rabbit out of a big hat on lap 2 by being alone to take the starboard gate mark, and jumping five places in the process to second, which they held until the finish. John Cooper and Becci Wigley (1325) of Lymington Town climbed remorselessly through the pack to take 3^rd from Dick Holden & Olly Miller (428) of the home club.

Race 2 followed the first very quickly, and again Farbrother/Martin managed to sneak around the top mark in the lead, closely followed by Cooper/Wigley. Steve Jones & Anne Dwyer (1190) of Chew Valley fought it out with Paul Browning & Chris Martin (680) of Thames SC/Queen Mary for 3^rd and 4^th as the lead two opened a gap on the fleet, with Cooper/Wigley beating Farbrother/Martin to the gybe on the last run, resulting in a much deserved line honours for the Lymington team.

Race 3 kicked off in a F3 with Browning/Martin beating the fleet to the first windward mark, and leading until an overwhelming urge to sail to France on the following windward leg let 1251 slip through into 1st. Positions that were held until the finish, with Paul & Mark Oakey of Portchester (1384) taking 3^rd, and Garvin/Hosken, with a renewed supply of rabbits, 4^th.

The Race Officer took pity on the fleet and gave a 15min break while the wind filled in again to a decent F4 and swung by 10degs. This caused some congestion on the start line and led to the only general recall of the day, and in the following race the usual suspects surfaced and completed the race with Farbrother/Martin 1^st, Cooper/Wigley 2^nd, Jones/Dwyer 3^rd, and Paul & Mark Oakey 4^th.

For the final race of the day gusts up to nearly 19kts were spotted and whooping resumed. Farbrother/Martin sped off, closely followed by the steadily improving Simon Palmer & Oliver Taylor of Locks SC in the shiny new 1387 who took a deserved 2^nd place, followed by the ever consistent Lymington Lurkers Cooper/Wigley (3^rd), and James George/Izzy Mitchell (1139) of Queen Mary taking 4^th.

This left Farbrother/Martin with an unarguable 1^st place overall, with Cooper/Wigley in 2^nd, Jones/Dwyer of the distant Chew Valley in 3^rd, and Paul & Mark Oakey of Portchester in 4^th place overall.

Thanks are due to Arun and her able team of volunteers, for first class race management and undiminished hospitality, while the Gul Grand Prix moves onto Aldeburgh on the 22^nd/23^rd July – the last Grand Prix before the RS Games on 18^th August.