Administrating RS Classes is great fun but it would be nothing without the sailing. True to that ethic, when three RS Secretaries met up for a co-ordination meeting and a planning visit to RS Sailing they made sure they saved some down time for a ‘play-date’ and teed-up a sail together in RS Aeros at Lymington. Between them this Secretariat manages all the adult RS Classes; Heather Chipperfield (RS400 and International Events), Clare Sargent (RS300, RS600, RS700, RS800 and RS Vareo) and Sally Campbell (RS100, RS200 and RS500).
With the wind whistling through the dinghy park it was an easy decision to default to the smallest RS Aero 5 rig. We initially rigged just one boat to share but with Heather making light work of blasting in the river we then put the 2nd boat on the water straight away. With the 2 boats assisted by Peter Barton in a support rib we headed out to the open Solent for some fantastic blasting in the waves at the river mouth. 2 sailors for 3 boats proved perfect to allow a little rest in between energetic sails!
Sally showed she had helming skills from her RS200. Clare was the lightest and could be seen to be giving it extra beans to conquer the breezy challenge. Speed demon, Heather, mostly made it look easy attainable fun. Each RS Secretary gave the capsize drill a test at least once with them each recovering reasonably quickly and unassisted.
All had a fun time – it should be obligatory that a quick fun sail accompanies all sailing admin meetings!
Thanks to LPB Aerial Imagery for the photos. They saw us rigging up and followed us out knowing there would be some exciting action shots!