Results / Open Brightlingsea SC - 22/05/2021

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17 boats ventured to Brightlingsea Sailing Club for the RS200 Open Event, part of the Rooster National Tour and the Fox’s Chandlery Great Eastern Tour. The weather provided a tale of two halves, with sailors encountering a dropping breeze ending with glassy conditions on Saturday, and a building breeze in excess of 20 knots on Sunday morning.

The conditions on Saturday proved challenging from the start with some big shifts across the course and the wind dropping throughout the day. In the first race of the weekend, Will and Matt Taylor set the theme for the weekend taking the first of their many race wins followed by Robbie King and Bethan Matthew in 2nd and David Jessop and Sophie Mear in 3rd.

Race 2 saw Matt Fowler and Lynne Ratcliffe take 1st place with David Jessop in a close 2nd and Flynn Davies and Holly Dabson taking 3rd place. Race 3 saw the Taylor brothers take their second line honours, 2nd place being taken by Davies/Dabson and the pairing of Chris and Nicki Webber taking 3rd. With conditions due to blow up on Sunday the race officer made the decision to fit in a fourth race on the Saturday in dwindling breeze. After a challenging 2 laps, the Taylor’s once again took the top spot, with King/Matthew taking 2nd and Jessop/Mear in 3rd.

As was forecast, the sailors were greeted by a strong onshore breeze over a high tide on Sunday morning. With a building wind blowing against a now dropping tide, sailors were challenged by a confused sea state for the 2 races of the day. Race 5 got away quickly and saw close racing with the high winds and sharp waves punishing any boat handling errors. The Taylors took another race win, followed by King/Matthew and the Webbers. Conditions remained tough for the last race of the weekend and after 3 tiring laps, the Taylor’s took their 5th bullet of the weekend, making it 5 out of 6 wins for them and saw a great downwind battle right up to the finish line between Davies/Dabson and King/Matthew, eventually seeing Davies/Dabson take 2nd place, just a few boat lengths ahead of King/Matthew.

The event winners were Will and Matt Taylor from Lymington Town SC clear ahead on 5 points, with second overall going to Robbie King and Bethan Matthew from CUCrC on 13 points and Flynn Davies and Holly Dabson from Burnham Sailing Club rounding out the top 3 with 18 points. First female helm was won by Jo Tribe and Caitlin Morley from Burnham Sailing Club, whilst local boys Blake Tudor and Oscar Oldfield took home first U22 helm. The Rooster mid-fleet heroes were CUCrC pairing Jamie Webb and Callum Farnden, and the Rooster Endeavour prize was won but Andrew Strickland and Becky Pearsin.

Many thanks to Brightlingsea Sailing Club for running a fantastic event in such a mix of conditions, with special thanks to Race Officer Phil Rust for some great races. Huge thank you to our sponsors Rooster and Fox's Chandlery for providing some great prizes across the fleet.

Holly Dabson