RS200 & RS400 Open at Burghfield Sailing Club

by Steve Middleton 15 Mar 2006 13:40 GMT 12 March 2006

Sunday 12 March was a day of reckoning for Burghfield Sailing Club’s RS200 and RS400 sailors. For the first time in several years, visiting teams walked away with the top honours at the Club’s annual open event.

With a forecast for a light breeze and possible snow, the Club was not expecting great things in terms of turnout. But on the day, conditions were dry with a cold blustery easterly breeze rising to max force 4-5 around the middle of the day. A particularly tricky wind direction at Burghfield, with the breeze coming down a wooded slope to provide sudden shifts and gusts to catch out the unwary.

The 400 fleet at Burghfield has always been strong at the Club and 13 home boats were joined by 4 visitors. Roger Gilbert and James Stewart – multiple National Champion and Endeavour Trophy Winner – came out of semi-retirement to show a clean pair of heels to the local hot-shots. In races one and two, they pulled away into a substantial lead, extracting max benefit from every shift and gust in a demonstration of devastating downwind sailing. The real battle was taking place behind them, and whilst Tom Jones and Kris Gardner proved the top home team on the day taking second place overall which included a well deserved 1st place in the final race, Steve Middleton/Chris Rowland, Peter Jackson/James Dyas, and John Cooper/Becci Wigley pushed them hard. But it was a day of advantages lost as quickly as they were gained with Chris and Gill Jordan and Andy Leigh/Hannah Burywood unable to maintain good early positions in each of the races. Barney Goswell and Marc Sollars put in a particularly stunning performance in race 2 when they claimed a second place by a comfortable margin.

The 200 fleet at Burghfield is a work in progress and the Club was delighted that 22 visiting 2s joined 6 Club teams on a stretch of water that is particularly suited to the class. Clear favourites to retain top honours were the home team of Jonathan Lewis and Katie Nichol although as the entry sheet filled up it was clear that this was far from a done deal: with the likes of Tom and Jo Hewitson, Trudie Danbury/Karen Baker, and Pete Vincent/Tessa Nicholls all putting in an appearance a home team triumph was far from certain. But the wildcard in the pack proved to be Nick Charles and Juliet Kingsnorth of Bristol Corinthian SC who, having gained much from the training day on the Saturday and the wise words of venerable coach Jon Lewis (at 40 you’re venerable), then proceeded to demonstrate in spectacular fashion how to put that training into action. Winning both races one and two, they secured victory from Lewis/Nichol by a single point and proved that ability + top coaching can really make the difference. Next of the home boats were Rob Martin and stand-in crew Nigel White who sailed well to score 8th overall. And George Kinsgnorth and Vicky Fairhurst continuing to improve in 12th.

A gauge of a good event is the prize-giving turnout where there was standing room only and much of the credit goes to Steve Burywood, RS400 Fleet Captain, for his tireless organisation, and Nick Martin and his race team who got the races away promptly, managed not a single general recall, and enhanced the reputation of Burghfield to stage well run events. The club would also like to thank its sponsor, Fawcett’s Garage (Volvo) Ltd of Newbury for their ongoing generous support. Competitiors may wish to view a selection of excellent photographs taken by club member Jeremy Carey on the Club’s website at BSC Gallery.

RS200 Results:

Pos	Sail No	Helm	Crew	Club	R1	R2	R3	Pts
1st	953	Nick Charles	Juliet Kingsnorth	Bristol Corinthian SC	1	1	-3	2
2nd	1054	Jonathan Lewis	KT Nichol	Burghfield SC	2	-3	1	3
3rd	772	Tom Hewitson	Jo Hewitson	Rickmansworth SC	4	2	-5	6
4th	927	Trudie Danbury	Karen Baker	Bristol Corinthian SC	-11	5	2	7
5th	1077	Pete Vincent	Tessa Nicholls	Bristol Corinthian SC	3	4	-7	7
6th	743	A Riley	J Marsden	SWSC	7	(30 DNF)	4	11
7th	1147	Simon Gillow	Emma Harniman	Wembley SC	-10	6	8	14
8th	1148	Rob Martin	Nigel White	Burghfield SC	9	-11	6	15
9th	896	Sue Antonelli	Jo Lloyd	Littleton SC	5	-12	11	16
10th	600	Fiona Hall	Paul Rigg	Island Barn / East Lothian YC	-13	7	9	16
11th	1099	Nigel Biggs	Gael Pawson		-17	8	12	20
12th	594	George Kingsnorth	Vicky Fairhurst	Burghfield SC	12	9	-16	21
13th	1094	Sam Littlejohn	Alice Sepe	Lancing SC	6	-17	17	23
14th	404	Ian Mairs	Tally Watson	CVLSC	8	-16	15	23
15th	1093	Aidan Webb	Caroline Martin	Burghfield SC	-15	13	10	23
16th	617	Ellie Martin	Zhala Jordan	Burghfield SC	14	-22	14	28
17th	835	Charlie Muir	Jane Sands	Littleton SC	-20	18	13	31
18th	1141	George Savell	Jack Foster	Bough Beech	16	15	-19	31
19th	1151	Ian Aldridge	Una Hartnett		22	14	(DNC)	36
20th	984	Nigel Harniman	Kathryn Sharman	Wembley SC	-21	19	18	37
21st	695	Jennifer Dando	Will Symons	Bowmoor SC	19	-20	20	39
22nd	1022	Stephen Jannering	Lottie Wakeling	Wembley SC	(30 DNF)	10	DNC	40
23rd	612	Phil Waind	Sonya Gohil	Wembley SC	-23	21	21	42
24th	257	Sally Denchfield	Matt Bennett	Stewartby Water Sports Club	-25	24	22	46
25th	897	James Lovejoy	Lucy Preston	Papercourt SC	24	23	(30 DNF)	47
26th	941	Mike Chapman	Lynne Ratcliffe	Bough Beech / Bexhill SC	18	(DNC)	DNC	48
27th	256	Simon Cresswell	Douglas Cresswell	Burghfield SC	(30 DNF)	25	23	48
28th	362	dnso			(DNC)	30 DSQ	30 DNF	60
28th	372	Kevin Druce	Matt Colson	HLSTC	(30 DNF)	30 DNF	30 DNF	60

RS400 Results:

Pos	Sail No	Helm	Crew	Club	R1	R2	R3	Pts
1st	1161	Roger Gilbert	James Stewart	Frensham Pond SC	1	1	-3	2
2nd	1184	Tom Jones	Kris Gardner	Burghfield SC	2	-7	1	3
3rd	1215	Steve Middleton	Chris Rowland	Burghfield SC	3	-4	2	5
4th	1078	Peter Jackson	James Dyas	B.A.S.C.	6	3	(18 DNF)	9
5th	1217	John Cooper	Becci Wigley	Lymington Town SC	-7	5	4	9
6th	58	Chris Goswell	Marc Sollars	Burghfield SC	(18 DNF)	2	8	10
7th	1254	Chris Jordan	Gill Jordan	Burghfield SC	4	-9	6	10
8th	1132	Andy Leigh	Hannah Burywood	Burghfield SC	5	-6	5	10
9th	484	Aled Bath	Jo Bath	Burghfield SC	-9	8	7	15
10th	564	Malcolm MacVean	Bryan Deacon	Burghfield SC	10	-12	9	19
11th	1256	Chris Harris	Tracey Harris	Northampton SC	-11	11	10	21
12th	928	Paul Trubridge	Rob Harmer	Burghfield SC	12	10	(18 DNF)	22
13th	1167	Steve Burywood	Suzie Burywood	Burghfield SC	-13	13	11	24
14th	1151	Ian Clothier	Graham Heath	Burghfield SC	8	(DNC)	18 DNF	26
15th	659	Marcus Mossman	R Terry	Burghfield SC	14	15	(18 DNF)	29
16th	958	Toby Holloway	Andy Holloway	Burghfield SC	15	(18 DNF)	18 DNF	33
17th	964	Tom Sidaway	Helen Sidaway	Burghfield SC	(18 DNF)	18 DNF	18 DNF	36