Bumper start to RS400 Anniversary Year!

What a great start to the year.  With 25 RS400s at the Sprint Champs, 21 boats at Findhorn, 10 boats racing at Notts County, and a bumper 27 turnout at the Irish eastern, that's 83 400s racing at just 4 clubs this weekend.

75 RS boats enjoyed another brilliant Sprint Championship, expertly hosted by Rutland Sailing Club. A gusty north westerly force 4-5 greeted 24 RS400 teams for body breaking qualifying series on Saturday. 4 races were completed in 2 hours before a quick lunch break found most of the teams looking for extra clothes and many visiting the chandlery to buy more layers.  The fleet was evenly split into two mixed ability fleets for the 3 afternoon races. In flight 1 Paul & Michael Allen (1395) scored a 1,2,1, narrowly leading Josh & Patrick Metcalf (1215) who scored a 2,1,2. Fleet newcomers Jonathan Swain & Craig Williamson sailing a 20 year old EBAY classic (sail number 422!) showed excellent pace scoring consistent top 3 places. In flight 2 Roger O’Gorman & Roger Craig won 2 of the 3 races. Ben Robertson & Peter Snowdon (1161) and Howard Farbrother & Dan Martin (1418) scrapped it out for second place as the breeze moderated from at times wild to an enjoyable blast.

At the dinner table and at the bar, tales of aching legs, near misses and rapidly approaching shorelines dominated the banter. On Sunday the fleet launched into clear skies and a building breeze, once again from the north west. Overnight the two mixed ability fleets were split into silver and gold. All was set for another beast of a days sailing! Nick Craig & Toby Lewis joined the gold fleet on Sunday, and normal order was resumed with Nick leading the charge from the first gun scoring 13,1,1,1,1,2. Unfortunately Nick & Toby didn’t sail the qualifying series on Saturday and therefor didn’t qualify overall. In the gold fleet Josh & Patrick Metcalf (1215) claimed the championship, sailing a super consistent series scoring 1,2,6,2,2,1. Paul & Michael Allen (1395) started with intent scoring a 2nd in race 1 followed by 2 3rd places with the boom not attached to the mast thanks to a broken goosneck. They headed home in race 4. Dave Exley & Jo Hartigan (1186) finished second scoring 5,4,4,3,4,4 followed by Howard Farbrother & Dan Martin in third place scoring 3,6,5,5,3,6.

Competition was tight in the silver fleet and after 6 races 4 points separated the top 3. Bill Kenyon & Andy Dawson (725) finished 1st, counting 14 points and scoring 3,3,3,1,3,1. Matt & Ellie Sheahan (1051) claimed 2nd place scoring 1,6,2,3,1,3. Just 2 points adrift, Ben Williamson & Fay Wheldon (1131)  finished in 3rd place scoring 2,5,1,4,2,4.

This year the RS400 celebrates it’s 20th birthday. This weekend, 83 RS400s were competing around the UK at 4 clubs, let alone all the normal club sailing.   Rutland for the sprints, Greystones for the Irish Easterns and Findhorn for Scottish training, and Notts County. There is a buzz in the air and all is set for a bumper year in the RS400 fleet.

Paul Allen