Results / Summer / Southern Championships Warsash SC - 21/06/2025

RS400 Southern Championships, Rooster National Tour and Sailing Chandlery Southern Tour, Warsash 21/22 June

Congratulations to Tom Halhead and Paul Hilliar, our RS400 Southern Champions!

What an absolutely awesome event! Massive thanks to Warsash SC for delivering an incredible event, with champagne sailing on Saturday and big winds on Sunday.

Matt Sheahan's Event Report

Breeze – 10-25 knots

27 boats

For anyone in the 27 boat fleet who had looked at the weather forecast ahead of the RS400 Summer Championships hosted by Warsash Sailing Club, the principal race officer’s briefing brought mixed reactions. All could see that while temperatures were due to soar inland, the more punchy forecast models suggested that the breeze would be in the teens with gusts well into the twenties. Coupled with the sunshine and warm weather, this was perfect. But the elephant in the room was the forecast for Sunday which suggested that conditions would hit the mid-twenties to mid-thirties out on the Hill Head Plateau where the racing would take place. This, along with a tide that was going to press up against the breeze and kick up the sea state suggested some boisterous conditions for the second day.

So, the prudent decision was to squeeze four races into Saturday to free up the small weather window on Sunday. It was this that was the mixed blessing. Four races would make life easier in the long term, but potentially hard work ahead of Warsash’s notorious evening hospitality.

With the breeze coming from the southeast the fleet was sheltered as it launched, but once around the corner and into the Solent it was clear that the sea state was far tricker than most had anticipated. The evidence for this was the number of boats doing slot gasket inspections during the practice runs ahead of the first start. At times it felt like a baptism of fire and yet the breeze was only gusting to around 17 knots.

Things settled a bit for the first race which saw Paul Hilliar and Tom Halhead (1535) take the first win of the weekend forcing local boys Robin Kirby and Alex Horlock (1444) into second.

By race two the fleet had settled into the groove and were clearly enjoying what were now perfect conditions, enough to keep you on your toes but tame enough to give everyone a good chance of getting round without a swim. In this race Tom & Paul delivered a repeat result, as did Robin & Alex. 

But in the third race the breeze dropped slightly forcing everyone to switch into another gear which for many meant another tweak of the rig settings. And in this race, it was the season’s rock star duo Ollie Groves and Esther Parkhurst (1526) that muscled their way to the front, forcing the former dominant pair down a place each.

By this stage in the afternoon Southampton had heated sufficiently to start drawing and funnelling the breeze up Southampton Water spicing up the downwind legs again. 

At the end of the last race it was Chris Eames and Rachel Tilley (1528) who took the win. 

Behind them, as if highlighting just what a good long-term investment an RS400 is, Niall Houston and George Zavos delivered yet another single figure result in their boat 1210 with a 3^rd.

(For us the final race was notable for the fastest handbrake turn and capsize to leeward I have ever experienced on any boat when the rudder came off its mounts while at full chat. With two ‘extra-mediums’ hiking to windward,1435 had plenty of reason to bail out to leeward…which she did.)

By the time the fleet got ashore and started re-hydrating, ‘broken’ seemed to be the word of the day. 

You could feel the tension on Sunday morning, especially after the briefing made it clear, Armageddon was coming. The plan was to get at least one race in before the weather turned nuclear.  

For those that braved it, while the breeze was indeed up into the twenties it was the notorious Solent chop that made life so hard downwind. There were nosedives aplenty and waves which on starboard gybe presented themselves like giant speed bumps. 

Nevertheless, according to one 400 helm, his GPS said that he had hit 16.8knots. 

It would of course be rude to identify national champions and Olympic medallists who decided to tack around instead of gybing, but it was also an indication of just how challenging the conditions were.

As anticipated by the RO, one race was all that could be run but in this one it was Chris Eames and Rachel Tilley that took the win with Paul Hilliar and Tom Halhead in second and Niall Houston and George Zavos demonstrating that older boats can be strong too with a third.

As a Warsash member I’m clearly very biased, but the Southern Summer Championships was a superb event on and off the water in which the top three places were well deserved. 

Well done to all the prize winners:

1st Tom Halhead and Paul Hilliar, LLandegfedd

2nd Robin Kirby and Alex Horlock, Warsash

3rd Christopher Eames and Rachel Tilley, QMSC

Mid fleet Heroes, Andrew and Maddie Blundell, Warsash

Endeavour, Roger Marino and Peter Brent, Warsash

1st Junior, Ffion Cerrato, Warsash

Report and more photos, video and drone footage by Oli King, Liam Willis and Jason Foster to follow soon.

Video from day 1, by Liam Willis

Event Photos by Oli King

Warsash SC Event video