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The RS700 associations e-Newsletter			March 2006 edition
RS700 Breaking News... Pete Greenhalgh wins Gul sponsored Winter championships The Dinghy show is on this weekend at Alexandra Palace The 2006 RS700 UK Gul National Championships are now less than 3 months away!!!! Next weekend the RS700's head for Chew Valley Lake Sailing Club!
March already... Welcome to the March addition of RS700 Sailing Today. This weekend sees the Dinghy Show at Alexandra Palace. Then next week its time to head for Chew Valley for the first of this years Fat Face sponsored circuit events - Lets make it a bumper turn out! With a little help from a route planner Chew is roughly 240 miles from Hunstanton, 109 miles from Hayling and 116 miles from Queen Mary so don't forget to fill your tank up before departing. This month we have articles from Ian Nolan and Steve Butcher plus a little from myself. Come on - don't be shy - Send those articles in!!   In this issue we have: The Dinghy Show 2006 Gul RS700 Winter Championships at Hayling Island Sailing Club RS700 Fat Face Circuit 2006 Fat Face RS Racing Circuit - Chew Valley Lake SC 11th/12th March 2006 Eastbourne Gul sponsored Nationals update Slower Inversions See you all at Chew Valley!! Duncan Ellis GBR907 duncan.ellis@progressivetechnology.co.uk ps. Please note that the contact telephone number for myself in this years handbook is incorrect. It should read 01328 700819
The Dinghy Show 2006 It's that time of year again with the Dinghy Show at Alexandra Palace in London this weekend. Come and say hello on the RS700 stand. The Details are: 4th and 5th March 2006, Alexandra Palace, London: Tickets available on the door.
Gul RS700 Winter Championship at Hayling Island Sailing Club Saturday dawned with a forecast from the met office for force 3-4 later 5, what transpired was force 0 with some sunshine. To avoid any risk of sunstroke in February, most people decamped to the bar for rugby and beers, and the wait for the front coming in from the west. Sunday was very different with rain and force 4-5 for the 18 entries from Wales and the South Coast. Racing was held over a short course in Chichester Harbour. Race 1  Pete Greenhalgh lead round the windward mark followed by Alex Koukoourakis and Matt Humphries, at the finish it was Greenhalgh with Humprhries emerging from a tussle with Koukourakis third. Race 2 The lead was fought over between Koukorakis and Greenhalgh with many place changes, eventually Greenhalgh got through upwind to secure the victory. Race 3 Again Greenhalgh was the early leader until a capsize (happens to the best of us !) handed first place to Humprhries chased by Lee Allbrecht, at the finish it was Humphries from Allbrecht with the now upright Greenhalgh in third, although both Humprhries and Allbrecht were both OCS handing the race and the meeting to Pete Greenhalgh. Overall the event was a great curtain raiser to the season and allowed a few of us to dust off the cobwebs. Final Results: Sailed:3, Discards:0, To count:3, Ratings:PY, Entries:18, Scoring system:My scoring system   Rank Class SailNo Helm Club R1 R2 R3 Total Nett 1st RS700 849 Pete Greenhalgh HISC 1.0 1.0 1.0 3.0 3.0 2nd RS700 913 Alex Koukourakis Eastbourne Sovreign SC 3.0 2.0 2.0 7.0 7.0 3rd RS700 941 Rob Chaplin QMSC 8.0 4.0 4.0 16.0 16.0 4th RS700 760 Steve Marshall Margam SC 4.0 7.0 8.0 19.0 19.0 5th RS700 769 Mark Pollington HISC 5.0 11.0 9.0 25.0 25.0 6th RS700 931 Graham Simmonds HISC 10.0 9.0 6.0 25.0 25.0 7th RS700 933 Matthew Humphries Weston SC 2.0 5.0 19.0 OCS 26.0 26.0 8th RS700 902 David Gorringe Lymington Town SC 6.0 10.0 10.0 26.0 26.0 9th RS700 951 Steve Butcher HISC 14.0 6.0 7.0 27.0 27.0 10th RS700 775 Nigel Walbank Lymington Town SC 13.0 12.0 3.0 28.0 28.0 11th RS700 861 Eddie Gatehouse CYC 15.0 8.0 5.0 28.0 28.0 12th RS700 939 Lee Allbrecht QMSC DNC 3.0 19.0 OCS 41.0 41.0 13th RS700 741 Ned McNulty Stokes Bay SC 16.0 14.0 11.0 41.0 41.0 14th RS700 934 Matt Stark Netley SC DNC 13.0 12.0 44.0 44.0 15th RS700 9031 Tim Dickinson HISC 7.0 19.0 DNF DNC 45.0 45.0 16th RS700 944 David Cummins QMSC 9.0 19.0 DNF 19.0 DNF 47.0 47.0 17th RS700 912 Ian Nolan HSC 11.0 19.0 DNF 19.0 DNS 49.0 49.0 18th RS700 893 Richard Lilley Lymington Town SC 12.0 19.0 DNF 19.0 DNS 50.0 50.0   Stephen Butcher
RS700 Fat Face Circuit 2006 The 2006 Fat Face circuit is soon to start again so I thought now was the right time to share a few more details. There are 6 events with the best 4 results to count. 11-12 March Chew Valley Lake SC   22-23 April Hunstanton SC   6-7 May Stokes Bay SC   8-9 July Lymington Town SC   12-13 August Weston SC   26-27 August Weymouth and Portland NSA This year we are aiming to distribute the prizes including the usual Fat Face vouchers, as widely as possible throughout the fleet. Gold Fleet 1st through to 3rd Silver fleet 1st through to 3rd + Additional prizes for ‘notable performances’ at the committee’s discretion. The grading of the fleet into gold and silver fleets has been carried out using exacting criteria and scientific analysis based on previous year’s performance. A full list of members and their grading will be available at each event. We have tried to include a mix of old and popular favourites with some new venues such as Hunstanton on the East Coast. The club are pulling out all of the stops to make their first event a success so please make the effort and support them – if the rumours are true, this is your chance to make the local TV news! Last year saw a healthy increase in attendance as more people realise that the circuit offers great racing for everyone. One of the great features of our class is the equalisation system which results in some of the closest performance racing available. If you’ve not tried an event before why don’t you come along and see what you’re missing. Ian Nolan RS700 Communications
Fat Face RS Racing Circuit - Chew Valley Lake SC 11th/12th March 2006. The first RS700 Fat Face RS circuit meeting takes place on the 11th and 12th March alongside the RS600's.  As per Chew Valley Sailing clubs website the entry fee will be £22 for the weekend. The briefing on Saturday will be  at 12.00hrs with the first race start at 13.00hrs, 3 races will be sailed back to back. Then on Sunday racing starts at 10.30hrs again with 3 races back to back. To find more information on Chew Valley Sailing Club visit there website at www.chewvalleysailing.org.uk Look forward to seeing you there. Duncan Ellis
Eastbourne Gul sponsored Nationals update It's time to start thinking about accommodation for the big event of the year. Below are 2 links to accommodation available in Eastbourne. http://www.sailing-at-eastbourne.co.uk/local_accommodation.htm http://www.visiteastbourne.co.uk/wheretostay/default.asp
Slower Inversions It happens to us all from time to time. The occasional swim is part of the game for a lot of people out there but you can limit the damage by keeping the capsize as short as possible. There are a couple of good pieces of advice which will speed up the recovery enormously. 1. Get on the plate and don’t let it invert 2. Get on the plate and don’t let it invert. • Sorting things out can be done much better when the boat is on its side rather than inverted as everything is much more accessible. • If you have the kite in the water, you should be able to lean through the rack, release the halyard cleat and grab the downhaul from the board, even if it takes a couple of goes to get this all done. • If the kite is up, you don’t need to pull it all the way down before righting the boat. I find that as long as it is in the mouth of the chute, it is a pretty easy job to complete when the boat is back uprigh
One thing which does buy you some time is to seal the mast. The shroud and forestay attachments benefit from silicon sealant and/or those nice rubber bungs which can be readily purchased. The rivets/screws for the trapeze attachments can be sealed for those with a fine eye for detail. You can really go to town on the mast head sheave 1. It can be sealed into the mast, 2. You can wrap tape round as leaving only a small aperture for the halyard to pass through 3. Some people have filled the inside of the sheave with filler and then drilled a hole for the halyard to pass through.
Ian Nolan
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