Write-Up

RS Aero UK Winter Championship at The Oxford Blue (SailJuice) - Oxford, UK, Sat 17th Feb

102 mixed class entries turned out to the Oxford Blue, the final event of the UK's Selden SailJuice Winter Series.  9 RS Aeros took on the challenge making the RS Aeros (combined) the largest Class with all rig sizes represented and the event doubled as the RS Aero UK Winter Championship.

A gusty and shifty 10-15kn blew which created an excellent racing challenge to attempt to tie together the gusts and good shifts whilst also navigating the mixed traffic. Temperatures we very mild - a reminder that spring is just around the corner!

Sam Blaker (Thorpe Bay) sailed his RS Aero 6 well, mixing it at the top of the scoresheet to record 3,5,9 results and taking 6th overall. Ellie Craig (Bassenthwaite) was close behind Sam in her RS Aero 6 recording 8,8,13 results to take 9th overall and 1st Female. Peter Barton's (Lymington Town) RS Aero 9 took 12th with Harrison Pye (Draycote) just behind in 13th in his RS Aero 7. Both Harrison and Peter were wishing they had a smaller rig upwind as the gusts came through, although they both enjoyed the power downwind!  Great to have 4 RS Aeros in the top 13 in a 102 boat mixed class event!

With SailJuice GPS trackers on each boat Sam Blaker's RS Aero 6 recorded the top 'PY corrected' speed of the day at a convincing 9.72kn. Must have been an RS Aero planing reach in one of those pokey gusts!

For the RS Aero UK Winter Championship the RS Aero results are extracted for each race for a purer RS Aero result, as below. This did not change the overall order with Sam Blaker crowned the 2024 RS Aero UK Winter Champion - one to watch out for at this summer's champs!

Photos thanks to Tim Olin

The Awards Ceremony for the SailJuice Winter Series takes place at the Dinghy Show this Saturday 24th at 10:15. Ellie Craig took an impressive 8th overall from about 500 starters - come along and give her a cheer!

Results