Challenger Regatta at Burghfield Sailing Club

Challenger Regatta at Burghfield 2015 © Richard Johnson

Challenger Regatta at Burghfield 2015 © Richard Johnson

The Challenger English season opened on Friday May 8th at Burghfield. The weather was dull with a light wind, not as unfriendly as 2014's gales.

All five Burghfield Challengers took part and they were joined by five visitors, plus previous winner John Draper, spectating after a recent hospital visit.

There is a provision in the Challenger system for the less energetic to share a boat in the Silver Class during regattas. This was christened by the late David Campbell as a Syndicate and it allows up to three people to sail at least one race each. The individual scores are added up so that the boat is given a place in the overall results and any prizes are shared by the syndicate crews.

It is a long time since a Syndicate entry was received but Burghfield members Ivor Quelch and Martin Stone teamed up, with Ivor to sail Friday and Martin on Saturday. It was a successful experiment as they both enjoyed the event without exhausting themselves, with the added bonus of increasing the total number of competitors to eleven plus four Bronze Class buddies, for those who cannot sail unaided.

Racing started at 1:00pm and best away was Diana Faulks, going fast from a mid line position. Racing is tricky in the Burghfield shifts and she chose to go left, which was slightly less effective than Graham Hall and Alex Hovden, who went right and came out first and third at the windward mark, followed by Val Millward. Graham dominated the race to win. Diana, needing more speed off the wind, was passed for second by Val, then Alex and Jack Alderdice to end up a reasonable 5th.

In the next start, Graham unexpectedly peeled away and was virtually last to start. Best away was relative newcomer Ian Cox from Oxford, followed by Diana. They both went left but Ian held on too long and slipped a few places. Val led for the first lap but Graham was sailing like a train and had passed everyone by the finish for another win, closely pursued by Val who was suffering the aftermath of dental excavation and was not on top form.

The Hall Express came in on time again in Race 3 for a clean sweep, possibly thinking of the dinner to come from Burghfield's excellent caterers, so the top four had perfect 1, 2, 3, 4, places in each race.

Saturday brought more blustery wind from the West. It gave a longer beat and a gybe mark in front of the clubhouse so that spectators could see how good - or bad - competitors were at mark rounding.

Mathematically Val could still win and she proved it by tacking off right and beating Graham to the first mark, then matching him tack for tack to win by a boat's length. Alex broke his halyard and retired, giving Diana third place. The halyard was repaired in time for race 5 and two more third places confirmed a podium position for Alex. Ian Cox also retired but was performing well enough to be in touch with the front runners and was also back for race 5.

The boats found some spectacular bursts of speed in the gusts but the top five were very consistent whilst the three Bronze Class boats regularly swopped places with visually impaired Tony Lawton needing only a sighted navigator to show that his sailing skills are still good enough to win in Bronze.

Overall Results: