Photo: Alex Irwin, Sportography.tv

Day 1

Having come to Tenby sailing club in South West Wales the RS400 fleet were greeted by drizzle and a stiff breeze forecast. Fortunately, by the time the fleet launched for a 12:00 start the sun was breaking through with 10 to 12 knots in the race area.

The race team got the first race underway promptly with Sean and Conor Clearly opening the gate. James Sinclair and Ben Wilcox went hard right to lead at the first windward mark. They held this lead, from Paul and Mark Oakey, until the finish. Mike Simms and Richard Brown had a tight battle to take 3rd from Jon Gorringe and Nicki Bass.

After a quick turn around race 2 was underway. Jon Heissig and Nicki Griffin lead at the first windward mark having come from the left. Mike and Richard showed more good speed to get past and take the lead. Pathfinders Rob and Jan Martin dug themselves out of a bit of hole to wriggle up to 2nd. The Oakey’s had a storming last run having split from the rest of the top 10 to complete the podium with 3rd.

The fleet returned to the shore to enjoy the sunshine and the shore side entertainment laid on as part of Tenby Summer Festival that concluded with a 15 minute firework display.

Mark Oakey

Southern Rep & SMS King

Day 2

Finally it stopped raining in Tenby just in time for the boats to launch down the long and sandy beach, most of the crews being tired before even hitting the water, but the conditions provided the fleet 45 boat fleet, with champagne sailing in the sun.  

In the first race of the day, the right of the course was heavily biased for race 3 of the National Championship. A good Force 4-5 greeted the fleet at the start with Ben Robertson nailing a fantastic first  beat using his old man’s old hand-me-down sail, to lead round the top mark. Jim Sinclair was up there somewhere, with “damage limitation” in the heavy airs working well, proving that he is not a one trick pony. Sadly for Ben Robertson and Martin Booth, they were caught and passed by heavy air experts Jon Gorringe and Nicola Bass, but held second against the ever consistent Mike Sims and Richard Brown in Third. Sinclair came in fourth and Chris Pickles and Matt Sharman held off a late attack by Jim Downer and Toby Lewis to take 5th.  Howard Farbrother and Dan Martin were probably chuffed to finish tenth and take up their gate boat duties, even after Howard’ss pre-event tantrum regarding the role.

So in race 4, Howie and Dan the lever, set off on Port, crossed the fleet with the aid of two ribs, towards the favoured side, tacked once, lead round the first mark, then the second, third, fourth etc etc, rather boringly. Keith Bedborough sailing with Hannah Robertson showed that today was a good day for Robertsons and the number 2 (I expect the parents are more than likely to pull their fingers out and do something similar soon), chasing down Farbrother and Lever but not quite getting there. Third was hotly contest by Gorringe/Bass and Sims/Brown in the difficult and gusty conditions, with the former getting the better. Jim Downer and Toby Lewis managed to nail 30 boats on one run to come through to fifth.

So after four races, there has been 4 different races winners and 4 different second places. Sims and Brown being the second most consistent in the fleet (after Jack Holden with four DFL’s) lead overall with Gorringe and Bass second. The Oakeys managed to pull off some respectable results to survive the breezy conditions and hold third, with Downer and Lewis moving up the leader board to move in to fourth.

Tomorrow’s forecast is looking rather poor, but time will see whether Sims can carry on his consistency, the lightweights capitalize on the light conditions, or maybe even Stuart and Sarah Robertson following in their offsprings footsteps to venture into the top 3, positions where the past national champs are usually quite familiar with.

James Downer

Day 3

With a forecast of 0-3 knots the highlight of day 3 was always likely to be the eagerly awaited RS400 Tenby Olympics and so it came to be. After months of focussed preparation Team Hinsliff-Smith-Ryan executed a perfectly choreographed evening of enterainment with the welcoming Tenby Sailing Club bar packed to the rafters with eager-beaver 400 crews anxious to prove their sporting heritage off as well as on the water. In the hotly contested “Tenby Swingers” category veteran Stewart Robertson was nudged aside by new kid on the block Richard Bolton to take the medal . The “fit as many coins up your bottom” category was nailed by an alarmingly smiley Ding Brown, and the “table-tennis-ball-in-a-toilet-role” contest was in the bag until Milly Hughes dropped the ball letting team “Dark and Stormy” through  to a storming win. Overall Team Dark and Stormy triumphed and chairman Bedborough was harsh but fair allowing Team Captain Wing Commander Vice-Lieutenant Farbrother his one and only (likely) victory speech of the week.

Elsewhere – the stars of the show were PRO Mark Dashfield and his team who against a truly dismal forecast kept all competitors appraised of their intentions via SMS, postponed for 2 hours, and waited for the unforecast SW sea breeze to kick in at 14.03 exactly, and then ran 2 perfectly timed one hour races . The last competitor finished more or less exactly as the sea breeze expired, at which point Mark jetted off James-bond style in a RIB for a well earned beer in the sun , leaving the fleet to paddle / drift / pump their way home under their own devices, his job done.

In the daily prizegiving, Mike Sims and Richard Brown have one hand on the trophy , another impressive scoreline of first and third, and a handy 4th discard giving them 11 points overall. 2nd to 4th is closely contended with rumours that Pop Daddy-tastic Lewis is missing his baby so much he will shortly give up sailing unfounded as he and J.D Downer closed the gap to 5 points with the Oakey-Coakeys on 19 and Jon “where’s my hat gone” Gorringe on 21. Silver fleet Volvo prizewinners were evergreen Dutch international competitors Elaine Turner and Sigbrand Jimjams, and fronting a fiercely contested bronze fleet were bendy Richard “swing low” Bolton and Naomi “yoga queen” Moran – curtailing any rumour he might sell up and retire to Azerbaijan.

Tomorrow sees the social highlight of the year with the RS400 AGM, closely followed by happy hour in the bar and a rumoured return to form of Team Queen Mary SC, who having won the prize for most competitively contested birthday party celebration last night - were conspicuous in their absence at the bar this evening. Bring it on.

Keith Bedborough

(Outgoing) RS400 Chairman

Day 4

A great day’s racing on Wednesday turned into an epic evening’s indoor beach games in Tenby’s cosy sailing club. The whole fleet, led by event leader Mike Sims and his young family, was there and revved up for the entertainment with Molly Hinchliffe-Smith calling the shots. The visiting Irish Test Icicles set the (very low) team naming standard and without a black flag in sight we were off into the realms of phantasy bar games.

Right from the get-go the level of ingenuity in the creative cheating department was breath taking in its audacity. Royal Wormit got disqualified from game one for cheating, the Irish got sent back to the start under protest for retrieving their match box from under the table (come on lads, do your turns, and they did). Royal Wormit (them again) then acted out the passing the table tennis ball through the tubes as a mime without a ball and Dalgety Bay’s Fun Boy Three burst every balloon with a drawing pin! Snake hips Howie was the class act of the evening mincing through the crowded pitch numerous times to deliver his sucked peas to the cup with a surgeon’s precision.

Hopefully there will be no video clips of the pelvic gyrations that were a feature of too many of the games – very wrong on so many levels – otherwise there will be awkward explaining to do back home.

Tenby was quiet on Tuesday night but Wednesday dawned full of promise with a sweet breeze caressing the trees. Eager anticipation and a need to set the record straight gave way to the sound of postponement toots and the inevitable N over A flags. Jim Sink and birthday boy Ben Wilcox kept their full sailing gear on for 2 hours in 30 degrees trying to lose that extra nanokilo so they could soak even lower on the runs had we managed a light wind race. An unnamed English hot shot (Jon) was heard to say “I don’t really know what to do now, in the old days we all just went to the bar and got plastered but they don’t do that now”. Anyway, some of us went to Tenby Golf Club and were made very welcome, even if the cheap beer in no way compensated for the 45 balls we lost in the course of 10 or so holes. Hardest golf course in all of Christendom, assuming Wales is actually a Christian country after the torture they put us through today.

The Prince of Wales, Tenby. Sounds like a quiet traditional pub, right? Wrong. They let 20 of us RS400 sailors in to dance and party on at 11 o’clock last night. Special mention for David from Alicante for bringing that continental element to the party, to our fabulous girls - the envy of any fleet and any dance floor. It’s now 4am and there are several “sailors” lying on their backs on the street outside our house watching what they are convinced are shooting stars. The starts should be equally surreal for some of them tomorrow. Houston, we may have a problem.

Richard Bolton

Scottish Rep

Day 5

After a day off – golfing, cycling, swimming, playing on the beach, visiting the state-of-the-art lifeboat station, lunching or just starting drinking earlier than normal - the fleet were ready for action, ending the Championship with a 3-race day.

The forecast of strong winds and large waves never really materialised, so there were some very hot crews sailing in a gentle F3, building slightly for final race 9.

Jon Goringe and Nicola Bass (Parkstone YC) had a great day with 1, 2, 3, raising themselves to 2^nd place overall, and making it a fight to the end with Mike Sims and Richard Brown (Carsington SC) who held on to their yellow-jersey lead by 2 points overall with a 2^nd and their 2 discards.   Grandmaster Paul Oakey and son Mark (Porchester SC) continued their excellent form, but did do quite enough, moving to a very respectable 3^rd overall.   Even grander-master John Cooper & Becci Wigley (Lymington Town SC), following an afternoon of archery and golf, had a storming day, winning race 8 after keeping very right once released as pathfinder.

In the hotly-contested Silver Fleet, Steve Restall & Chris Stubbs (Downs SC) had a very respectable 4, 17, 14, winning the daily prize and the overall, ahead of Paul McMahon & Laura Houlihan from Howth SC.

Similarly in the Bronze Fleet, The Ryan-Hinsliff-Smith party games combo had a great last day, but did not do quite enough to beat the overall winners, Richard Bolton & Naomi Moran from Dalgety Bay SC.

The category awards were largely won by Goringe/Bass, who picked up 1^st lady crew, 1^st master and the loving cup.   Elaine Turner, sailing with Sybrand Jongejans (Braasemeer SC) was again awarded the 1^st lady helm, and the increasingly competitive Grandmaster prize was awarded to Paul Oakey.   13-year old crew Ellis Banner (23^rd overall from Neyland YC) picked up the Youth prize – next year he will give a speech.

The final Duckhams nominations included the Race Committee, who broke their committee boat on the way back from an early fishing trip and had to conduct the racing – excellently as ever - from a small RIB.  The week’s winners, however, were Howard Farbrother & Dan Martin (Queen Mary SC) for not being pathfinder on day 1 – long story …     There is no further Duckhams now the event is over – a shame as our esteemed Class Chairman, Keith Bedborough, would have been in the frame for leading the whole party to a closed nightclub.

With 7 race winners, 8 placed 2nd in 9 races, and some major surprises, the Championship was very open and exciting throughout.  At the prize-giving, Keith Bedborough thanked our generous title sponsors Volvo and Noble Marine for their continued support, and Lennon Racewear for the prize vouchers.  He praised the excellent race team led by PRO Mark Dashfield and all the volunteers at the club who made it such a glorious, fun and friendly event.  Tenby SC Commodore, Paul Evenden, praised the fleet for being so laid back and friendly.  Well Done RS400s and Well Done Tenby SC – we look forward to returning very soon to this stunning venue.

Heather Chipperfield

Final Results below.