Phantom Open at Burghfield Sailing Club

Phantoms at Burghfield © Simon Smith

Phantoms at Burghfield in 2011 © Simon Smith

The Southern Phantom sailors extended a challenge to the other circuit areas to an end of season showdown to see which area is top dog. After many complex scoring systems were discussed the need for these was eradicated as out of the 20 phantoms that turned up all but one were from the south. With many rumours flying around the boat park as to the whereabouts of Simon Childs we later found out that his lack of appearance was due to a map reading error ending up with a snapped mast on a height barrier at the entrance to the picnic area…oops! I imagine the whisky sales were up that night when he got back to Hayling Island.

Gusty and shifty wind combined with lots of underwater weed to dodge lead to challenging conditions. In the first race Tim ‘Weed Boy’ Hemsley and Nick ‘I’ve got man flu’ Orman got away from the chasing pack with Tim H taking the bullet ahead of Nick in 2nd and Tim Andrews in 3rd being chased hard by Simon Hawkes who decided to park his boat in a huge pile of weed half way up the first beat pushing him right to the back of the fleet.

The lunch break entertainment was provided by Nick Mason who capsized in front of the clubhouse and, not wanting to get wet he preceded to slide down towards the stern of his capsized boat resulting in the bow pointing straight up into the sky and he did not stay dry either. The fleet then took to the water for races 2 and 3 back to back. After being given a bit of stick over lunch, Simon Hawkes was in no mood to mess about and lead the race convincingly from start to finish, followed home by Nick Orman, Tim Hemsley, Tim Andrews and Rob Starling rounding out the top five. This meant that anyone out of Tim Hemsley, Simon Hawkes, Nick Orman or Tim Andrews could take the open going into the last race.

Tim H started well and got clear at the top mark followed by Simon H. Nick Orman caused chaos by capsizing at the windward mark resulting in a phantom pile-up. With an impressive display of weed dodging, Tim H stretched his lead to take the race and overall victory. A great event all round, thanks very much to Burghfield SC for hosting and we all look forward to coming back next year.

Overall Results: