With a fantastic day for England at Old Trafford, many of the favourites for the RS200 GUL National Championship 2005 were recording cricket scores themselves on the first day of racing at Highcliffe SC.

Race one got away in a patchy north-westerly offshore across Christchurch Bay, with pathfinders Marshall and Heather King ensuring that the fleet had a clean start and, with the left paying, tacking off soon after being released. With the light wind the course was shortened to two laps, with David Giles and Jane Gillan first, guest star Craig Burlton and Fiona Clarke second, and Hamish Walker and Robert Millar third.

Race two, and with a huge lift and more pressure to the right many of the early starter were initially stranded, allowing Pete Vincent to recover from a 42nd in race one to sniggle through the middle to lead at the windward mark. Vincent held this to the second run, just allowing Tom and Jo Hewitson to take the lead and the win, with Lee Sydenham and Anne Vaudray third, Geoff Carveth and Loopy Matthews fourth, and the consistent Jon Lewis and Katy Nichol fifth.

Day two promises to be as interesting as the ashes, with four past RS200 national champions in third to sixth place behind joint overnight leaders Walker/Millar and Lewis/Nichol.