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Report

Saturday morning with intermittent bursts of sunshine saw 23 x 400's arrive at Rutland SC, a steady F3 with gusts of F4 came over the water from the N.E. making the decision to wear a drysuit easy (6 degrees)

Firstly seeding duty.........who is Gold and the rest Silver...........or in my case, Bronze!

Sorted...........6 boats each in four flights, each flight with 3 Gold and 3 Silver.

An easy launch down a concrete ramp and 7 minutes later arrive at the RO boat............

Sprints (in case you've not done them)

6 races, back to back, roughly 22 minutes each, around an M shaped course with spreader marks..........easy. Well yes, once you have figured out the course, yellow buoy, black spreader, yellow buoy black............etc..........two beats and two runs................3 minute count down and two flights (12 boats) start.....3 mins later 2nd two flights start.

H Farbrother was in our flight, so as usual but jolly usefully we could follow him around keeping his bright pink kite in our sites, that was until a gybe and the pole jammed causing a swimming session..........'DFL' stated Jenny - not a good start.

Race two which started less than 8 minutes after we finished the previous, the breeze had kicked up a notch, spray flying as we beat up to mark 1, all 12 boats seemed close as we rounded and reached across to the first spreader. Kites popped and 12 boats powered downwind, a couple of upturned hulls, and then as we gybed, crew missed footstrap and with an ear piercing scream went overboard. At that point I remembered that my drysuit leaked............lovely.

So by the end of race 3, all flights had raced each other, and as they say the cream was rising. Jon Heissig & Nicky Griffin 1454, Sean Cleary & Andy Jarvis 1286, Howard Farbrother & Dan Martin 1415 or was it 1215,  Steve Restall & Chris Stubbs 1189, Howard Eales & Wayne Hancox 1452 appeared to be that rising cream, others just behind by race 5 would be joining them.

By the end of race 6 the RO's had a pretty clear idea who was in Gold fleet.........the top 10 boats. (The only incident involved a skyward pointing spinnaker pole and a split rudder blade........."Hello is that Noble Marine.....err yes I had a small incident".............. "Well I was on Port and ......................... ")

Having said that the competition amongst the rest (silver) looked pretty tight too.

That evening, some went to bed early...............others ended up in the Wheatsheaf Public House. (The Bartley crews had booked a meal...........in January!! subsequently filling it)  A number of Gin and tonics later crews were seen meandering their way back to B&B's

Day 2...........Similar conditions, dry suit dry again.

I suppose day 1 is all about qualifying for Gold fleet, because now the fleet was split, Gold fleet started first, 3 minutes later Silver set off. In effect better racing as the crews were more evenly matched. Silver Fleet Race 1 . 1342 had a good start at the pin end, clear air and second at the first mark. John Cooper & Andy Maw 1220 held onto first, Grant Blake &  Jessica Barker 904 finished 3rd

Gold fleet race 2. John & Nicky 1454 took the bullet, Sean & Andy 1286 2nd with John & Sam Knight 1202 3rd........... After that it all went pear shaped for three Gold boats, as 1202, 1215 and Andy Hatch & Dan Hawkin's 1390 fell apart.

By race 6 in the Gold fleet Jon & Nicky held a slim lead over Sean & Andy with Steve and Chris close behind. Ben Robertson with novice 400 crew Joe Howell 1161 finished a creditable 5th

In the Silver fleet Grant & Jessica took a commanding lead (and therefore must be promoted next time to Gold fleet), newcomers Tom Haslam & Karen Baldwin 971 (Notts County) took second, closely followed by a consistent 1220 John & Andy.

The impression I got, was that everyone thought that Sprint racing was great fun..........So I asked the Rutland Commodore and Race Officers if when we return on the 5/6 Nov for the End of Season event, could we have it as a Sprint event................His reply was positive..........so watch this space!!

Max Tosetti