We arrived early on Saturday morning and rigged the boat. Then we went to the briefing where we were told we may or may not be able to go out due to the wind forecast. Around an hour later, we were told that the day was cancelled due to heavy winds which averaged about 25-35 knots.

Luckily, as the wind had died off throughout the night, we were able to sail in good conditions on Sunday with an early launch of 9:25. We managed to fit 4 races in over the course of the day. The first race, there was about 17-19 knots and there was also wind over tide which caused large amount of chop. We had an ok start, on the 1^st row, and reached the WW mark in the top 10. The waves and tide were a big gain feature in this race because if you surfed a decent wave you would gain a few boat lengths.  There was a bit of place switching in this race and we came 7^th. The top 3 consisted of: Felix and Theo Stewart-1^st, followed by Fergus Pye and Sam Blaker, and finally by Raulf Berry and Olly Peters in 3^rd.

In the second race, the tide had slackened off as it was in the process of turning and the wind had decreased by about 5 knots. There was a large wind shift at about 1 minute to go meaning the pin end was largely bias and we spotted this change early and gained massively from it. Therefore, we made it around the WW mark in in 5^th and through the next 2 laps, we gained 2 places. However, this race was originally planned to be 3 laps, but was shortened to make it 2 laps. When we reached the leeward gate after the 2^nd lap however, there was some confusion over whether there was another lap.  So suddenly we all realised and bore down towards the finish line amongst many other boats who had caught up due to this mistake. We managed to retain our position and came 3^rd, with Max and Lee Sydenham a foot in front of us in 2^nd and Katie Byne and Ellie Rush winning the race.

The wind stayed consistent throughout the 3^rd race but the tide had changed. We had a great start rounded the WW mark in 1^st and we maintained and lengthened that lead through the race. We won this race, with Oliver and Matthew Rayner in 2^nd, and Phoebe Peters and Ben Tuttle in 3^rd.

In the last race of the day, the wind had significantly dropped to around 3-4 knots. However, this did not stop the tide, which was around 6 knots! We managed to sail well around the course, going up the second beat in 3^rd place, but there was a hole in the wind around the WW mark which prevented anyone going round it for a while. However, some boats did manage to beat the tide and get round the mark including Oliver and Matthew Rayner, who finished 1^st in this race, closely followed by Raulf Berry and Olly Peters. There was then a large gap of a leg before Felix and Theo Stewart, followed by Max and Lee Sydenham. We then managed to make it round the WW mark, but were then whiskied to prevent us being swept all the way back down tide. Unfortunately all the other boats behind 5^th were given a DNF as it was too hard to determine everybody’s rightful place. Overall, we won the GP, finishing on 9 points, followed by Max and lee Sydenham on 11 points, and Felix and Theo Stewart coming third with 12 points.

This was a great event as we are a new pairing as of September and we would like to give special thanks to the HISC race committee, our parents and our coach Jon Lewis.

Beautifully written by event winners Alice and Abby

Results

RS Feva Grand Prix

Saturday 6 & Sunday 7 October 2018

Overall

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