RS Elites at InsureandGo Burnham Week 2010

InsureandGo Burnham Week 2010 provided 8 days of fantastic competition for the RS Elite fleet who enjoyed the range of conditions on offer from the gusts of 30 knots over the Bank Holiday weekend to the lull in the weather on Tuesday followed by near perfect sailing conditions for the remainder of the week.

The Elite fleet, as the newest class on the River, have to compete for attention with the older established classes which make up the array and display of fleets during Burnham Week but as they enter their sixth Burnham Week it looks like they may be here to stay.

The RS Elites as a national class have enjoyed an extremely successful 2010 with a 34 boat National Championships held at Lymington and an excellent and highly competitive fleet at Cowes Week. Several Royal Burnham Yacht Club Elites raced at these away events with some measure of success but they had no intention of missing their ‘home’ regatta back on the River Crouch.

The Elites had three series and a stand-alone race during the week, the first of which was the Bank Holiday Weekend five race series. As already mentioned, this series was raced in some extreme conditions with gusts on Sunday ranging between 18 – 30 knots. The Elites are fantastic ‘heavy weather’ boats and these exciting 24 ft modern racing boats had a whale of a weekend with some downwind planing under spinnaker seeing boats reach 16-18 knots and they were certainly a sight to behold reaching back and forth across the Crouch providing an intriguing spectacle amongst the more traditional and established river classes. During the first race of the day on Aeolus and the Brown family suffered some gear failure and crew David was frantically undertaking ‘running’ repairs whilst Jono and Lyn struggled to keep Aeolus from broaching on a downwind leg when they were hit by both a gust and a large wave which sent them into a death roll and a magnificent capsize to windward. The fantastic seaworthiness of these boats came into play and once the spinnaker was retrieved and the boat upright they got under way and suffered very little except the loss of one place.

The weekend's racing saw Dave Wood with crew Fran Wood and Mike Stone in Oink Squeal taking first place and The Princess Caroline Bowl closely followed by Jono Brown in Aeolus crewed as ever by his parents David and Lyn with Guy Trench’s No Riff Raff in third place. With just two points separating the front two boats it was all to sail for during the rest of the week and with lighter winds on the first day of the mid week series the change of pace could not have been more pronounced.

The first race of the week saw Angus Bates and Flo’ disappear into the distance into first place having escaped round the final mark to be carried on the tide home whilst the remainder of the fleet had to tackle fickle and variable winds plus a damaging tide to finish the race. Jono Brown took second place by 2 seconds from Peter Watson who was out racing his new Elite Tigerfish for the first time. Wednesday and Thursday saw Jono Brown consolidate his lead with two guns but Angus Bates tucked away a second place leaving him in contention for the mid week series. Hence, although Jono and Aeolus had secured the Burnham Week Cup after these races, a win by Angus Bates on Friday would secure mid week but it was not to be and while Angus limped home with a broken main halyard Jono and Dave Wood battled it out for first and second place with Dave taking line honours on the final Friday but leaving Jono as the overall Burnham Week champion.

Saturday and the stand alone race for the Lakedale Marine Trophy was won by Guy Trench in No Riff Raff after some excellent ‘off road’ sailing to the outer reaches of the Crouch. Jono Brown and Aeolus took the mid-weeks series and The Orridge Cup and topped off his week with the overall Burnham Weeks points trophy the Debenhams Cup. Second place for both of these series went to Dave Wood with Guy Trench in third for the overall week and Angus Bates taking third place for the mid-week.

An excellent week for the RS Elite and it is hoped their continued presence on the River Crouch will eventually become as much a part of the scenery as the rest of the town fleets.