The RS200 Fat Face Racing Circuit got off to a fantastic start when 20 knots of wind gave a 43-boat fleet some very exciting racing at the weekend. Race Officer Rhys Lankester and his team made great use of the conditions to set really true courses.

The wind on Saturday was obviously to the liking of 2002 national champions Tom/Jo Hewitson who scored 1.2.1 from the three races, including murdering the fleet in the first race by a huge margin. Current national champion David Giles gave a great talk to the fleet in the early evening after sailing.

Sunday’s blustery wind saw Lee Sydenham/Ann Vaudrey, the only boat to beat the Hewitsons on Saturday, finding turbo power, putting in a superb display to score 2.2.1. The Hewitsons won the first race of the day and, with two fourths, won the event by a point from Sydenham/Vaudrey.

David Giles/Fiona Clark scored consistently without quite finding top form to finish third. Steve Dunn/Claire Upton-Brown survived a very dodgy first start when Steve fell out the back of the boat! One race win and four top sixes, however, gave them 4th overall. The Harken boat of Jon Lewis/Millie Parsons also survived a very watery start line in race four to recover to 8th which, along with 4 top four finishs, place them fifth overall.

Sixth, seventh and eighth went to home club boats with Trudie Danbury/Graeme Ryder in the LUK boat eclipsing their fatter and more experienced colleagues. Ugly Vincent/Eluned Jones in 7th and Ian Pickard/Noelle Vidal in 8th were left trailing in her wake.

In ninth and first youth were Matt Greenfield/Catrina Nichol who sailed extremely well in the conditions for such a light combination.

Matt Gotrel, crew of the Magic Marine boat won the merit prize for racing race 2 with the spinnaker halyard cleat broken yet still flying the kite by holding the halyard in one hand and sheet in the other!