Results / Open Yorkshire Dales SC - 23/07/2022

RS400 Northern Tour (Sponsored by Trident UK) – Yorkshire Dales Sailing Club 23-24 July 2022

Yorkshire Dales Sailing Club hosted the sixth leg of the RS 400 Northern Tour over the weekend of 23-24 July 2022.

The competitors arrived to find that the tide was out, the usually sizeable reservoir had shrunk considerably due to the lack of rain but fortunately a south westerly breeze prevailed over the 2 days which allowed the race officer to set some pretty decent courses. The event was as usual well organised with some excellent race management allowing a 7-race series to be completed with everyone off the water at 1pm on Sunday.

The series got underway with 4 races on Saturday in a reasonably steady force 2, Chris Pickles and Matt Sharman took an early lead which they continued to extend throughout the race taking line honours from Ollie Groves and Sam Waller with Stuart Hallam and Anna Walsh in third. The pattern was set - the next 3 races were won by Pickles/Sharman with Groves/Waller second in each. The rest of the fleet enjoyed some close racing with Mike Saul and Oliver Kent showing that when they launched with the rest of the fleet, they were competitive taking third place in race 2 and it was Barrie Thornton and Nick Hunt’s turn to take third place in races 3 & 4.

The competitors enjoyed some wonderful catering on Saturday evening followed by the usual socialising and exchange of stories from the day and previous events, followed by for those camping a restless night’s sleep after the wind started to blow.

Sunday’s race format was three back-to-back races, same wind direction as Saturday but a couple of forces higher which made for some great sailing. There were multiple capsizes, some great downwind legs and some close racing.

Sunday’s racing got underway with Pickles/Sharman taking an early lead in race 5 from Groves/Waller. It was, however, Groves/Waller that took line honours with Ben Williamson and Charlie Ticehurst taking third place. Groves/Waller won the next 2 races with Pickles/Sharman in pursuit. As was the case on Saturday the racing for the minor places was competitive with Thornton/Hunt securing third ahead of, Williamson/Ticehurst and Hallam/Walsh.

Chris Pickles after the prize giving thanked YDSC for hosting a well-run enjoyable event.

Thanks also go to Trident UK for sponsoring the series and providing vouchers to add to the plentiful array of prizes on offer.

Fabulous photos by Paul Hargreaves here don't pass this by!

Note for the diary – leg 7 of the RS 400 Northern Tour will be at Notts County SC 11-12 June, we hope to see you there.

Barrie Thornton