The inaugural UK RS21 Inland Championships and SB20 Inland Championships took place at Ullswater Yacht Club over the weekend of 26th – 27th  March. With 6 RS21 teams and 3 SB20 teams, The weekend was set to be fun filled kick off to the season for all.

RS21 sailors included local Ullswater teams helmed by Harriet Pullman and Edmund Clarke, Budworth SC team helmed by Russell Page, Scottish Student Sailing team with students from both Aberdeen and Glasgow University, 49er FX coach Tom Walker and Octavia Owen known for her Match Racing expertise.

With the start time scheduled for 1200 on Saturday and what consistently showed to be a very light and fickle wind weekend the race team really had their work cut out for them. Totally undeterred PRO David Clarke proved his knowledge and understanding of the local area and postponed the first start holding sailors on shore. With the breeze expected later in the day, this also prompted a change to the schedule with the decision made to reduce the race time from 4 x 45 minutes races to shorter races to work around the unpredictable breeze.

Finally at 1500 race 1 was underway in light shifty breeze. The wind kept going around making it possible for more races and so in a building breeze the fleet enjoyed some tight racing finishing at 1700. After a total of a phenomenal 7 races in various states of fickle winds it was Budworth Sailing Club helmed by Russell Page leading by 1 point to Tom Walker in 2nd and local Edmund Clarke from Ullswater in 3rd.

Back on dry land sailors enjoyed a beer and race debrief on the veranda of the Yacht Club while being treated to the most spectacular of sunsets over the lake.

Sunday’s forecast was expected to deliver much the same as before, so the 1100 start was postponed and sailors, again held ashore. Once the breeze started to fill teams all jumped into action rigging boats, getting ready to go however the wind disappeared as quickly as it came. With boats rigged this gave teams the opportunity to react quickly and so it was a waiting game for the next lot of pressure to come in. Sure enough an hour later the fleet headed out to the racecourse to enjoy one quick race before the wind died again. The race team held out hope that there may be another opportunity to get races in but unfortunately it was not to be.

With Race 8 going to Budworth SC Russell Page and team it secured their victory and are crowned the 2022 RS21 Inland Champions.

Russell Page commented that the racing was great, the boats are great fun to sail, with a lot of power and momentum. When asked what boat Russell and his team usually sail, he explained that his team made up of his daughter and 2 friends from the club all come from the RS200 fleet and so transitioning to the RS21 keelboat meant that Russell and his team took time between races to discuss and plan racing ahead, work out positioning and roles within the boat.

Tom Walker comes from double handed Skiff sailing and commented that the transition from skiff to RS21 was pretty easy as the styles of boat are very similar. Tom added that the big bonus of having 3 other friends on board with all the comradery and chatting between racing but then the serious teamwork while racing really made the event and sailing the boat a lot of fun.

A big thank you must go to the team at Ullswater Yacht Club for making this event possible and to David Clarke and team for the perseverance and determination to get racing done.

The RS21 UK National Championships will be part of the RS Games from 21st  – 24th July. There are just two build slots available before the event or charter boats are available. Check out the RS21 website for more details on all up coming events, charter information and more or contact RS21 Activity Manager Jack Fenwick