RS200 Rooster National Tour and Fox's Chandlery Great Eastern Tour at Brightlingsea Sailing Club

Robbie King and Bethan Matthew take second in the RS200 Rooster National Tour, and Fox's Chandlery Great Eastern Tour, at Brightlingsea © Nigel Edmunds

17 boats ventured to Brightlingsea where the weather provided a tale of two halves, with sailors encountering a dropping breeze ending with glassy conditions on Saturday, and a building breeze in excess of 20 knots on Sunday morning.

The conditions on Saturday proved challenging from the start with some big shifts across the course and the wind dropping throughout the day. In the first race of the weekend, Will & Matt Taylor set the theme for the weekend taking the first of their many race wins followed by Robbie King & Bethan Matthew in second and David Jessop & Sophie Mear in third.

Race 2 saw Matt Fowler & Lynne Ratcliffe take first place with David & Sophie in a close second and Flynn Davies & Holly Dabson taking third place. Race 3 saw the Taylor brothers take their second line honours, second place being taken by Davies & Dabson and the pairing of Chris & Nicki Webber taking third.

With conditions due to blow up on Sunday the race officer made the decision to fit in a fourth race on the Saturday in dwindling breeze. After a challenging two laps, the Taylors once again took the top spot, with King & Matthew taking second and Jessop & Mear in third.

As was forecast, the sailors were greeted by a strong onshore breeze over a high tide on Sunday morning. With a building wind blowing against a now dropping tide, sailors were challenged by a confused sea state for the two races of the day.

Race 5 got away quickly and saw close racing with the high winds and sharp waves punishing any boat handling errors. The Taylors took another race win, followed by King & Matthew and the Webbers.

Conditions remained tough for the last race of the weekend and after three tiring laps, the Taylors took their fifth bullet of the weekend, making it five out of six wins for them, and we saw a great downwind battle right up to the finish line between Davies & Dabson and King & Matthew, eventually seeing Davies & Dabson take second place, just a few boat lengths ahead of King & Matthew.

The event winners were Will & Matt Taylor from Lymington Town SC clear ahead on 5 points, with second overall going to Robbie King & Bethan Matthew from CUCrC on 13 points and Flynn Davies & Holly Dabson from Burnham SC rounding out the top three with 18 points.

First female helm was won by Jo Tribe & Caitlin Morley from Burnham SC, whilst local boys Blake Tudor & Oscar Oldfield took home first U22 helm. The Rooster mid-fleet heroes were CUCrC pairing Jamie Webb & Callum Farnden, and the Rooster Endeavour prize was won by Andrew Strickland & Becky Pearsin.

Many thanks to Brightlingsea Sailing Club for running a fantastic event in such a mix of conditions, with special thanks to Race Officer Phil Rust for some great races. Huge thank you to our sponsors Rooster and Fox's Chandlery for providing some great prizes across the fleet.

Overall Results: