RS200 Great Eastern Tour 25 Sep 2016
What a great weekend! A big thank you to Edwin and the race team for running the last leg of the Fox’s Marine and Country RS200 Great Eastern Tour. The series started in Waldringfield back in April and this was the last of six events. We completed six races over the weekend in in wind force “ye harr” conditions and the courses and quick restarts were spot on. Other than myself, the line-up was pretty strong, we had some ex-RS200 rock stars, Endeavour competitors and young RS Feva challengers in Matt Smith and Dylan Collingbourne, who were first and second in races 1 and 2.
On the water it was all more than a little breezy. There were no processions, and positions were constantly changing hands, especially downwind where the boats were just flying. Everyone had a swim at some point, several for myself, and one for top 10 national sailors David Jessop and Sophie Mear. It looked like David must have said something seeing Sophie jump out the boat whilst leading race 3, but it turns out she missed the toe straps.
Even with that excitement the top 200 sailors, David Jessop and Sophie Mear, won the weekend and series. Jonathan Lewis and Caitlin Morley from the Burnham Sailing Club were second – it was an amazing job by 13 year old Caitlin who said to her helm, ‘Jonathan, we might have won if you could hike properly!’
Third place was taken by the RCYC with James Hutton-Penman and Matthew Jayasekara. Like myself, they would have done better if they hadn’t capsized so much. In the middle of the fleet Micky Wright (a former 200 winner) and Carl Anderson had some fantastic starts on Sunday, ducking the fleet off the line and coming out in a leading position at the windward mark – but, with an higher than average all up weight, they needed a stronger wind to maintain speed and came 6th.
I came last but it didn’t feel like it, I loved it, especially on race 6 when I managed to nick two places while capsizing on the finish line.