RS Vareos and RS200s at the Burnham SC Asymmetric Regatta

Fox's Marine & Country Great Eastern RS200 Tour at Burnham © Kelly McPherson

Magic Marine Vareo Grand Prix at Burnham © Kelly McPherson

Fox's Marine & Country Great Eastern RS200 Tour at Burnham © Kelly McPherson

Magic Marine Vareo Grand Prix and Fox's Marine and Country Great Eastern RS200 Tour

Saturday the 16th July dawned grey but very warm as 200s and Vareos from across the region (and Cheryl from Yorkshire with her fantastic new boat) all arrived at Burnham Sailing Club. Richard Tucker the club OOD introduced the day and described the best way to launch dinghies off the club's floating pontoon, a lot of the visitors went a little quiet at this point. The two local 200s from Royal Corinthian sailed down and joined in too. The starts were planned to be all in with a load of the Burnham Squiddies in Feva XLs and a 29er and Buzz added in for good measure.

Everyone seemed to get away OK without falling in or losing their trolley or boats to the fearsome Crouch tide as the sun came out and the thermometer soared. A decent force three with puffs of four came right down the river with the tide, Champagne sailing.

After a short delay while the windward leeward course was corrected the first race was soon away. Mark Smith in his Vareo crept up along the mud on the Burnham shore with the 200s while the other lake based Vareos went out for clear wind and longer tacks out in the channel. Keeping out of the tide paid off. Mark let Cheryl through on lap two however by not going through the line until told, when he was well passed the committee boat, by the 29er crew. This gave Cheryl a good lead as she sailed the beat in a sensible fashion not having to use her spinnaker to return the extra 150m that Mark had had to. On lap three Mark returned the favour to Paul to save him missing the line. A series of very short tacks up the shore got Mark back into the Vareo lead.

In the 200s Phil and Helen Bailey who came down from Hunts with their new 200 for pre-national practice led comfortably throughout to take the win.

In the Vareos race two came with similar results but fewer mistakes and the whole fleet now were creeping up the shore trying not to go on the mud one side and into the, by now ferocious, tide anywhere near deep water. Chay Taylor and Niamh Davies won the 200 race.

Throughout the regatta both of the faster classes were kept incredibly honest by the Feva sailing youngsters who all knew the water well and what good downwind angles to adopt - it showed.

The fleet then came in for an excellent lunch and to refill water bottles and try and re-hydrate.

By race three the whole fleet was seemingly bouncing along the mud edge except for Cheryl who went for clear wind and it paid off with an easy race race win with Paul in second, with the 200s having the same result as race two.

In race four the tide was around 30 minutes from turning Mark tried for clear wind and went up the channel and it paid off in spades leading easily to the windward mark that he promptly hit and did a 360 allowing Cheryl and Paul to catch up and a close race then ensued downwind where again the Vareos split for the beat. By the third time around the windward mark Mark was back in the lead and with Scott and Carl in the 200 rounded and in a by now lovely (cooling) fresh breeze bore away to get the kite up. The Vareo going very deep was not in a good place when a freeing puff caused a gybe and capsize to windward. Cheryl capitalised on this and took the lead and ran off high and fast. Mark, finally, got his boat upright again and soaked down as low as possible down the fairway channel in pursuit. Sadly for Cheryl a rather 'wet' gybe decided the race. Line honours for the 200s went to form again.

All in all a fantastic weekend, excellent race management and very friendly club, great catering and all of the competitors were really nice people, I think both fleet hope to return in 2017.

The next Vareo event is the Nationals at Llandefedd followed by the next GP at Alton Water.

For the 200s there is another Eastern Traveller race at Aldeburgh next Saturday.

Overall Results: