RS Aero Midlands Circuit Open at Draycote Water Sailing Club
by Richard Pye 1 Jul 15:32 UTC
28 June 2025

RS Aero Open at Draycote Water Sailing Club © Draycote Water Sailing Club
The 2nd event of 3 on the RS Aero UK Midlands circuit was hosted by Draycote Water SC with 17 RS Aeros arriving to be greeted with champagne sailing conditions that just improved as the day progressed.
Wind strength was touching 20 knots in the gusts as the temperature soared into the high 20's. Who needs Garda when you've got Costa del Draycote!
The 13 strong club entries were bolstered with 4 visitors and Draycote's very own Dave Rowe acting as RO for the day, held a briefing confirming the format of 4 races, split by lunch and that afternoon racing would resume once the fly-pass, 'he'd arranged' of a Lancaster bomber was over!
With forecast of building wind, the big boy '9' sailors opted to conserve energy and dropped to 7's and with other similar discretional movements in rig options the fleet was fairly evenly split between RS Aero 5, 6 & 7 rigs. Each race was held with a mass start and results calculated using handicap and corrected times.
At the end of a bruising but exciting day on the water the podium spots, dominated by the home fleet went to 1st Harrison Pye, 2nd Chris Larr, 3rd Richard Pye. 1st Lady was Abigail Larr in 4th and 1st visitor Alan Beaton (Notts County) in 5th.
Draycote looks forward to welcoming the RS Aeros back in 2026, and all agreed that the foundations for the RS Aero UK Midlands circuit are in place and we look forward to the final event at Staunton Harold SC on Saturday 18th October.
For those who can't wait to 2026 to pit themselves against the Draycote RS Aero massif, there's also the hugely popular Draycote Dash, part of the SailJuice Winter Series on 22-23 November.
Overall Results
Pos | Sail No | Helm | Club | Rig | PY | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | Pts |
1st | 1020 | Harrison Pye | Draycote Water SC | RS Aero 6 | 1099 | -2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 6 |
2nd | 4430 | Chris Larr | Draycote Water SC | RS Aero 7 | 1063 | 1 | -2 | 1 | 2 | 6 |
3rd | 1672 | Richard Pye | Draycote Water SC | RS Aero 7 | 1063 | 3 | 3 | 3 | (18DNC) | 27 |
4th | 1888 | Abigail Larr | Draycote Water SC | RS Aero 6 | 1099 | 4 | -5 | 5 | 4 | 18 |
5th | 2186 | Alan Beaton | Notts County SC | RS Aero 7 | 1063 | 7 | 4 | 4 | (18DNC) | 33 |
6th | 4400 | Callum Salt | Oxford SC | RS Aero 6 | 1099 | 5 | 6 | 7 | (18DNC) | 36 |
7th | 3301 | Emily Davis | Draycote Water SC | RS Aero 5 | 1139 | -10 | 10 | 8 | 3 | 31 |
8th | 4624 | Adam Smith | Draycote Water SC | RS Aero 7 | 1063 | (18RET) | 9 | 6 | 7 | 40 |
9th | 4467 | Sian Clark | Draycote Water SC | RS Aero 5 | 1139 | -13 | 8 | 9 | 6 | 36 |
10th | 1926 | Brian Cooper | Draycote Water SC | RS Aero 7 | 1063 | 11 | -12 | 10 | 5 | 38 |
11th | 4622 | Gary Walton | Draycote water SC | RS Aero 6 | 1099 | 6 | 7 | 13 | (18DNC) | 44 |
12th | 3888 | Marcus Pakes | Haversham SC | RS Aero 7 | 1063 | 9 | (18DNS) | 12 | 8 | 47 |
13th | 1365 | Ben Angell | Draycote Water SC | RS Aero 5 | 1139 | 12 | 11 | 11 | (18DNC) | 52 |
14th | 4170 | Harry Price | Draycote Water SC | RS Aero 5 | 1139 | 8 | 13 | 15 | (18DNC) | 54 |
15th | 2902 | Kevin Payne | Bartley SC | RS Aero 6 | 1099 | 14 | 15 | 14 | (18DNC) | 61 |
16th | 4630 | Greg Jones | Draycote Water SC | RS Aero 6 | 1099 | 15 | 14 | (18DNF) | 18DNC | 65 |
17th | 4629 | Sergio Pagliarini | Draycote Water SC | RS Aero 7 | 1063 | (18RET) | 18DNS | 18DNS | 18DNC | 72 |

