Photo: Sam picks up his Championship prize

This last weekend twenty RS400’s joined forces with seven RS100’s, forteen RS200’s and eighteen RS300’s and enjoyed another brilliant RS Sprint Championship, expertly hosted by Rutland Sailing Club.

A gusty westerly force 5-6 greeted the sailors for a body-breaking series of 12 scheduled short sharp races over the two days.

The 400 fleet was randomly split into four mixed ability groups, each group given a different coloured ribbon. Each group would sail every other group twice. The first day’s results would then be used to allocate the competitors into two fleets the following day.

The PRO Mr John Fothergill had his expert team lay a course with a carefully calculated distance around the “M” shaped course so that each fleet would complete the one lap per race in approximately 20 minutes. With so many competitors there would be a total of forty six consecutive starts on the Saturday alone.

So with a slight change to the sailing instructions the competitors headed out to attempt to complete all 6 scheduled races for the Saturday back to back over a 4 hour period.

Even as the competitors headed out to the start line it was apparent that the conditions weren’t to everyone’s liking and several headed back to the comfort and warmth of the clubhouse. Unfortunately, later in the day this included Howard Farbrother and Dan Martin with a broken wing / wam.

Within the first couple of races it was clear several competitors had posted some quality results such as 1202 Sam Knight and his father John from Bartley SC scoring four firsts and never scoring less than a second as well as 1407 Jon Melsig and Nicky Griffin from Llangorse SC posting three first’s in the latter part of the day. Close on their heels was 725 Bill Kenyon and Andy Dawson from Budworth SC.

With no let-up in the wind, endurance to last the whole day was key. As the weary competitors came back to the shore is was clear that it had been a tough day for all on the water.

Post an evening meal in the clubhouse tales, of aching legs, breakages, near misses and rapidly approaching shorelines, dominated the banter. Having drunk the sailing club bar out of beer the party moved to the local watering hole for more of the same.


On Sunday morning the fleet woke to learn of a building breeze from the South West - far greater than that experienced the previous day. As the PRO went out to try to set a course, with average wind speeds of around 25 knots, predicted to gust over 35, it was clear that the day’s sailing lay in abeyance. Thereafter, post a meeting with the various class captains is was agreed to abandon sailing for the day and proceed directly to the prize giving using the previous day’s finishing results. (see attached)

Despite the abandoned days sailing the 400 fleet once again had a fantastic time at the RS Sprints and would like to say a massive collective thank you to Rutland Sailing Club for their slick, professional and faultless race management.

If you have not yet ventured to the RS Sprints, believe me, it’s like no other and one that will put a smile on your face and make you want to come back time and time again.

Bill Kenyon RS400 725