Louis Morris takes another win in the race board fleet at Rutland this weekend. Check out the full report from Louis below…

Windy Whitwell, Actually, not very windy. Whilst the wind didn’t see the windier side of 8 knots all weekend, some great racing was still had for the 23 Raceboard’s, 43 Techno’s, 1 RSX, and 26 juniors.

Saturday morning was bright and sunny, with a light (and dropping) breeze. Everyone rigged their sails ready for an 11am start, but the wind had dropped to less than 5 knots, and was very unstable and shifty.

I just wanted to go windsurfing, so went out anyway, and although the wind was patchy and shifty, got some good light wind training in with Jamie Ingram. This seems to have convinced the committee that there was enough to race, and two races were completed on the main course, with 3 races completed by the juniors.

The fickle wind made for some interesting racing on the windward/leeward course, with those who could seek out the gusts and stay in sync with the shifts upwind finishing well, if they could pump enough downwind that is!

Race 1 saw a dramatic wind shift just before the starting sequence, leading to a very port biased line. Whilst most of the fleet started on port, myself, Jamie, and a couple of others opted for a starboard tack start, which lead to a bit of carnage at the pin end. I got away with it, and ended up in a good position in clean air, where I could cover the fleet up the very skewed beat. Jamie was less lucky, but some good speed saw him take 2nd behind myself. Mark Kay was impressive upwind, but couldn’t hold off Harriet Ellis and Andy Lacy to the finish.

With the wind coming down the course in the traditional manner for the 2nd race, the start was a bit less of a mess. However, as the fleet approached the windward mark, those on the left side of the course suddenly found themselves in virtually no wind. I had tacked off early, so suffered less and managed to arrive first to the windward mark and win the race. Tim Colles arrived 2nd to the windward mark, but couldn’t keep his strong position, allowing Jamie to take 2nd again, with Annette Kent in 3rd, Rob Kent improving on a disappointing first race in 4th, and a consistent Mark Kay in 5th again.

The tricky conditions showed themselves on the Techno results, with many sailors struggling to find consistency. Their second race had to be restarted after the wind shifted and dropped, making it virtually impossible for most of the fleet to make it off the line.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough wind to run any further races on Saturday.

The wind was offshore on Sunday, and a little light, but after a short wait, the main course fleets (Techno and Raceboard), headed out to the start, and both completed 1 race in 1-6 knots, less than 4 knots for most of the race, really, really light conditions. I got a good start, but Jamie got a slightly better one it was difficult to get past in the light conditions, so I took 2nd, with Mark Kay in 3rd and Rob Kent in 4th again.

Unfortunately, we were unable to run any further races, and the famous Rutland Marathon couldn’t take place this year despite the patchy wind teasing us all day. The Junior windsurfers didn’t race at all on Sunday, but had luckily managed 3 races the previous day.

With three races allowing 1 discard, the results were shuffled up somewhat as people could discard their bad race, this made a big impact in the Techno fleet, allowing Alexei Murphy to win the 7.8′s, and Joe Parrot to win the 6.8′s, discarding an OCS (over the start line early). It made less of an impact on the Raceboard results, with a consistent Mark Kay taking 3rd on tied points with Rob Kent.

Photo by John Liddy (from UKWA Farmoor event) Raceboard results Summary:

1. Louis Morris, 1st Lightweight (Tushingham XR Race 9.5, Starboard Phantom 377)

2. Jamie Ingram (RSX 9.5, Starboard Phantom 377)

3. Mark Kay, 1st master, 1st Heavyweight (Demon 9.5, Starboard Phantom 377)

1st Lady, 5th overall. Annette Kent (Tushingham XR Race 8.5, Starboard Phantom 377)

1st Youth, 15th overall. Gemma Grayston (RSX 8.5, Fanatic megacat)

1st Veteran, 6th overall. Tom Naylor (Tushingham, Starboard)

1st Super Veteran, 7th overall. Andy Lacy (Demon, Starboard)

Full results here: https://ukwindsurfing.com/results/

Louis uses the Tushingham XR Race sail, find out more about it here.