2016 R Class Open Day Report
First up crews were Pawel with Nick in RaptR. Finn sailed with James on Rampant. Yanni sailed on TheVirtual, Isaac sailed with Rowan on Rabid. Dougal sailed with David on Merde (foiler) the whole time.
Pawel swapped off RaptR and Hadley had his first go at sailing. After 5 minutes Hadley and Nick were twin wiring downwind with the kite.
We sailed around for a while and swapped crews about with Rebecca jumping on the TheVirtual, Pawel on Rabid. More swaps happened as time went on. We usually have a few fun races to keep the boats together and make things entertaining for the crews either on boats or waiting their turn. As usual the races didn't disappoint with some close racing, a few spills and antics.
First race
Rebecca (TheVirtual) first round the top mark, then Raptr, Rabid, Rampant and Merde. Rebecca first top the top mark. Merde rapidly closing, as Dougal started to get to grips with the foils, followed by Raptr. Rebecca won twinning with the kite through the finish line, with Merde on foils nearly catching on the line.
Race 2
Tight up the first beat. Starboard tack boats overlayed the mark allowing TheVirtual (Rebecca) to come in on port and tack inside everyone for the lead. Merde round second closely followed by RaptR. TheVirtual swam gybing gifting Merde and Raptr the lead. Merde were untouched for the rest of the race heading off Raptr and the other boats. Breeze came up a bit more so Sam and Paul did some crowd pleaser runs past the boat.
Thank-you to everyone who gave up their time to support the event enthusiastically. Matt for organising and running the chase boats. Sam, Peter, Leo and Doug, who helped rig, instruct and crewed the support boats. And James, Dave, Rowan, Nick and Paul for skippering the boats.
