2006 RYA Olympic Classes National Ranking Series winds up at Weymouth this weekend 30/10/06

European Champion Nick Dempsey took a clean sweep of race wins in the men’s RS:X class at the final RYA Olympic Classes National Ranking Series for 2006, held at the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy this weekend (28-29 October).

Racing got underway in over 20 knot westerly breezes on Saturday with all classes managing three races on the opening day of the event, but Sunday saw a different story with extremely light winds preventing any further action at the 2012 Olympic sailing venue.

Dempsey’s three wins from the opening day’s races were enough to hand him his third national ranking event victory for the year, while Finn European Champion Ed Wright also secured his third national ranker win, thanks to a 1,4,1 from Saturday’s racing.

World Champions Nic Asher and Elliot Willis came out on top in the 470 fleet, with two race wins and a second easing them to a five point margin of victory over Austria’s Matthias Schmid and Florien Reichstaedter, while visiting crews took a clean sweep of podium places in the 49er class. Germany’s Peckolt brothers, Jan Peter and Hannes, won thanks to a 1,1,2 from Saturday’s three races, with France’s Morgan Lagraviere and Stephan Christidis in second, and Emmanuel Dyen and Jann Rocherieux third. The top Skandia Team GBR crew was Dave Evans and Rick Peacock in fifth.

For the Tornado class, this was the final domestic warm-up event before the crews head down to Argentina for the World Championship in December. Rob Wilson and Mark Bulkeley took the event win ahead of world silver medallists Leigh McMillan and Will Howden, while Lucy Horwood came out on top in the third and final ranking event for the RS:X 8.5 fleet, beating European silver medallist Bryony Shaw into second.

The final Laser class qualifier of the year, held concurrently at WPNSA, also had racing action restricted to Saturday. Skandia Team GBR’s Charlotte Dobson emerged as the top female in the Laser Radial fleet, while European Champion Paul Goodison topped the Laser Standard fleet with three race wins.