Results / Gul RS Inland Championships Rutland S.C. - 18/10/2003

The Gul RS Inlands 2003 The penultimate RS400 event of the year saw an impressive 72 boats squeeze on to the excellent venue of Rutland Water for the Gul sponsored RS400 Inlands. Despite still feeling bleary from the previous weekends sailing and partying in Ireland, many of the fleet started the weekend early by meeting in the local pub arriving on Friday evening. Saturday morning arrived bringing sunny October skies and a gusty but cold force 3-4. With the large fleet and some tight courses, the scene was set for extremely close and exciting racing. Despite this, the event only ever looked like it would fall to one of two boats � namely Nick Craig and Keith Bedborough or Roger Gilbert & James Stewart sailing �Fat Face�. After a short postponement, Race 1 got underway from a heavily port biased line which tested the fleet�s close quarter�s boat handling ability to the limit - as boats were forced to gybe or tack onto port to clear the line. However, it was the usual suspects that made the best of the melee to lead the pack. Craig & Bedborough powered through to take the win closely followed by Gilbert & Stewart who picked their way well down the wind lanes on the downwind legs to finish 2nd. The rest of the fleet were led home by Steve Venables and Richard Brown in 3rd and Geoff Carveth and Mark Greaves in 4th. Race two, and the perfect force 3-4 was holding on nicely. Again, a heavily port biased line and an eager fleet caused some incredibly close boat to boat action, with the sound of crunching fibreglass just audible over a significant amount of shouting. Two incidents during the race lead to Gilbert and Craig both protesting each other. Both won their respective protest and the net result was that both now carried a disqualification - helping to keep the event wide open. The race win was thus handed to Craig Burlton & Andrew Bonsey with Chris Jennings & Ed Nicklin 2nd. Mark & Sam Littlejohn and Hywel Roberts & Karen Baker both managed the best races of their weekends to finish 3rd and 4th. After a short wait while the start line was evened up, Race 3 got underway in a slightly lighter breeze. There was a return to the front again for Craig & Bedborough and Gilbert & Stewart who both demonstrated excellent boat handling and speed to lead the fleet home in 1st and 2nd respectively. Burlton & Bonsey consolidated their previous race win with a 3rd whilst Phil Jackson & Gerard Baron built on their recent excellent form to finish 4th. A re-play of the rugby and an extremely cheap happy hour ensured an early start to the evening, which culminated in the prize giving for the Fat Face circuit for the year. It might be an indication that it had been an extremely good night at the bar that there was still a good percentage of the trophies left scattered around the clubhouse in the morning. The fleet again awoke to a perfect force 3-4 breeze but this time a slightly more overcast and threatening sky. Race 4 did get underway despite the best efforts of Alex Hinton and Jen Scorer who decided to try and get back behind the line with their kite up on port at the highly congested the port end. A great decision that caused utter chaos for those involved and great amusement for those that were not. Normal service was soon resumed by Gilbert & Stewart who lead the fleet home. 2nd however was taken by Venables & Brown with Jackson and Baron in 3rd after leading at the first windward mark. Craig, never at his best on a Sunday morning, could only manage a 4th � although he can�t have had quite such a good night as Burlton & Bonsey, who followed their previous days win with a 17th. Ever eager to please, Alex Hinton carried on with his start line antics for Race 5. This time as if on the Gilbert pay roll he executed a perfectly time capsize straight on to Craig & Bedborough. Remarkably Craig and Bedborough managed to extricate themselves from the ensuing carnage and storm up the first beat to lead at the windward mark. In the strengthening wind that was beginning to catch many of the fleet out, they steadily built on their lead to take the win from Gilbert & Stewart. Burlton & Bonsey must have also sobered up as they re- established themselves in 3rd. This result meant that going into the final race Gilbert & Stewart and Craig and Bedborough were tied on 7 points each. Unfortunately, Craig & Bedborough lost the final battle before it had begun by finding themselves OCS � which, with no discard left, exiled them to 14th overall. This left Gilbert & Stewart free to sail into a huge lead taking both the race and the event win. With Craig & Bedborough now out of the running, Burlton & Bonsey�s 2nd place was enough to secure 2nd overall in front of Carveth & Greaves had done just enough to steal 3rd overall from Venables & Brown. With 4 times national champion Gilbert now moving on from 400�s, the question is who in the chasing pack will be the one to challenge Craig next season?