A bright sunny and windless day greeted the competitors at the RS600 Gul Racing Circuit event in Mumbles over the weekend of 14-15 July. A rather disappointing turnout did not however, detract from the quality of the fleet, enabling some good practice for the nationals in two weeks time.

Race one started after a two hour wait for the wind to fill in and the shifty 15 knot north-westerly breeze provided a welcome release from drifting around Swansea Bay. Alex Davies led at the first mark, followed by Matt Humphreys and Matt Chapman with Anthony York not helping his quest to win the circuit by capsizing onto the windward mark. The race officer’s choice of reaching angles was superb, with some flying reaches. Up the next beat mistakes by Davies and Humphrey’s allowed Chapman through to the lead and Mark Sempers through to third, at the finish the order was Chapman, Humphrey’s, Sempers, Davies with York recovering well to fifth. Race two and York took control, leading everyone round closely followed by Humphrey’s and Chapman. These places remained to the finish, with Dave Nunn grabbing an excellent fourth place. Race three and York was showing his form again, leading to the finish, a close battle developed between Ian Rhodes, Chapman and Humphrey’s for the remaining places. This saw Chapman pull away to the finish in second Humphreys third and Rhodes fourth.

Sunday dawned bright with a light north-westerly breeze. After an hour wait for the breeze to build to about 10 knots and settle to some kind of direction, race four was started. The shifts were large, and Humphreys picked them well to lead York at the top mark with Davies third and a close chasing pack. Humphrey’s and York managed to keep ahead despite the shifts to the finish, with Sempers Rhodes and Nunn chasing. Race five and possible candidate for the ‘Most Well Guessed Shift Award’ was Ian Rhodes. The second beat was shifty with Humphreys again leading comfortably from York. Rhodes from well down the fleet went hard left being lifted all the way, tacked and then lifted all the way into the mark to secure a half leg lead by the bottom of the run, never to be caught. Humphreys held off the challenge of York to the finish line setting up an interesting show down for the final race between them.

The final race and right paid, with Adrian White leading around the windward mark from Stephen Hermanson, Davies and Sempers. York who had to beat Humphreys and finish higher than fifth to win, was fifth. A coming together with Davies at the wing mark saw a capsize and allowed Humphreys through with York dropping to eighth. York recovered well and overtook Humphreys, with Mark Sempers taking the lead of the race. At the finish Sempers led from York and Nunn with Humphreys capsizing in a rather vigorous attempt at catching York to try and win the event.

York beating Humphrey’s in the final race saw him take the event by a point with Chapman just holding on to third from Sempers. Dave Nunn was strong in fifth and Ian Rhodes recovered from disastrous first day to take sixth. York is now untouchable in the Gul RS600 Racing Circuit standings now, but can he carry forward the advantage to the nationals at Mounts Bay in two weeks? Behind York though there is now a real scrap with second to sixth only covered by two points with the final Racing Circuit event at Thorpe Bay now guaranteed to be highly entertaining.

Alex Davies

Results

1st Anthony York (Northampton SC) 9pts

2nd Matt Humphrey’s (Portchester SC) 10pts

3rd Matthew Chapman (Chew Valley Lake SC) 16pts

4th Mark Sempers (Datchet Water SC) 17pts

5th David Nunn (Datchet Water SC) 24pts

6th Ian Rhodes (Northampton SC) 27pts

Overall GUL RS600 Racing Circuit Series

1st Anthony York 9pts

2nd Brian Greensmith 23pts

3rd Matt Humphrey’s 23pts

4th David Nunn 25pts

5th Ian Rhodes 25pts

6th Mark Sempers 25pts