Write-Up

Paignton SC Christmas Cracker - Paignton, Devon, UK, 20th Nov

Thirty mixed class dinghies including seven RS Aeros entered for the Paignton SC Christmas Cracker, the second event this season held in the Sailing Southwest Winter Series. On a mild and sunny November's day conditions looked lovely, but with some trepidation of possible 30kn gusts in the forecast.

The three RS Aero 5s set off a minute behind the Radials and the four RS Aero 7s started in pursuit of them 8 minutes later with about 2 hours racing in which to chase them down.

Mark Ripley's RS Aero 5 took the race lead early on from the Firefly and 4.7s as the breeze gusted above 20kns and by mid race his lead looked unassailable to the chasing pack. The breeze softened towards the end of the race though and the RS Aero 7 of Peter Barton came through the RS Aero 5s and eventually caught Mark with about 15 minutes to go. However the day belonged to the Osprey whose trapeze enjoyed the fresh breeze and they powered by both the lead RS Aero 5 & 7 to take a comfortable win by the finish time.

With some fruity squals across the course just 18 of the 30 entries completed the course until 14:00hrs to score a finish. Well done to all the RS Aeros who as a Class all 7 of the 7 RS Aeros entered finished, all 7 were in the top 12 overall. From the rest of the fleet only 11 out of 23 entries finished. That is testament to the RS Aero's robustness, simplicity and sailablity.

Thanks to Paignton Sailing Club and all their volunteers for a great day's racing in their wonderful bay!
The next event in the Sailing Southwest Winter Series is Weymouth SC on Saturday 3rd December.

PHOTOS
Winter 2022/23 Gallery for larger photos
Paington SC Facebook page for the full album

Results