Brummy Bender Team Racing at Bartley Sailing Club
by Emily Heath and Louise MacIver-Jones 1 Dec 2017 10:23 GMT
17-19 November 2017
Brummy Bender 2017 Team Racing © George Jolly
The Brummy Bender was held on the weekend of the 17th/19th November by the University of Birmingham at Bartley Sailing Club.
Friday night kicked off the weekend with a night out at propaganda which left many sailors staggering back to selly in the early hours of the morning! After some confusion on the starting time and the wind not following the forecast, the first race commenced at 9:30. The day continued to be light and shifty, with the race management continually adjusting the course to make it as square as possible. However, despite the set-backs from the wind, we managed to get through 54 races of the full round robin, just as the sun drew in at about 4pm. This meant that each team had completed 6 races, so we could go into Gold, silver, and bronze fleets on Sunday, after some key tie breaks!
As some teams slept, others went straight onto the booze, and then all the various mermaids and "pitta pans" reconvened at various restaurants. The night, led by 101 Brummy Dalmatians, continued onto fab n fresh for a night of VK's and questionable dancing.
A sunny, but frosty Sunday morning started with a slight delay due to the wind, not that the teams seemed to mind! By 10:00, with the wind having done a 90 degrees shift, and some breeze slowly filling in, the racing started, slowly at first but quickened throughout the day as the wind built. We managed to finish the 45 races of Gold, silver and bronze by 14:00, leaving us plenty of time to complete semis and finals. An especially crucial tiebreak in the Gold Fleet meant that Nottingham Green, Leeds Underdeveloped and Cambridge Beige from Gold; and Durham Black from Silver commenced to the semis. With each race incredibly close and both semis coming down to the third and deciding race, Cambridge Beige and Durham Black managed to knock out their opponents to compete against each other in the finals. Two nail bitingly close races followed, with much coming down to the last two legs; however, Durham Black managed to win both races, taking the victory and prestigious title of winner of the Brummy Bender 2017!
We'd like to say a huge thank you to our umpires, sailors, Bartley Sailing Club and of course all of our helpers! We hope everyone enjoyed the Bender as much as we did, and we hope to see you all at the Old Joe 2018 (the next fun filled sailing event at Birmingham, with a BBQ and band!); and of course, Playoffs!