Burnham Sailing Club Saturday Cruiser Series - Race 4
by Sally Harbott 5 Aug 2018 09:32 BST
4 August 2018
Four yachts came out for the penultimate race in this series that encourages helms to take out junior sailors to give them a taste of yacht racing.
Mantra, Phillip Harbott's Aphrodite 101 helmed by Ian Hart this week crossed the line first on the starting gun, with Richard Moore in his MG27C Ophelia next followed by Jeannie, the Elan 31, owned by John Saunders. Mantra had their AP spinnaker up before the start gun, with the foul tide start a reach in the North/ Northeasterly breeze. Jeannie got their cruising chute up next and overhauled Ophelia quite quickly, whilst Ophelia were still getting their kite set up ready to hoist. Dos Mescalito, Alan Hanna's SJ27 stayed white sails and were a little further up river of the start and fleet on the starting gun.
Mantra led down river and as they neared Winkle Bay saw that the sea breeze was coming in and set for a windward leg for the remainder of the way to Greenward. They beat to Greenward, with Jeannie following, and Ophelia behind them, and then all three white sail reached to Jubilee and fetched back to Redward before hoisting kites to sail back up to the finish. Mantra stretched her lead on that fast run and reach with the tide to the finish. John Saunders in Jeannie opted to goosewing his large genoa for this leg, and Ophelia came up under kite.
Mantra finished 6 and a half minutes ahead of Jeannie, beating them by 4 minutes on corrected time. Jeannie was second ahead of Ophelia by just over 2 minutes on corrected time. Dos Mescalito retired. Mantra is leading the series with Tifano currently second and Jeannie third.
The final race in this series is Saturday 8th September, which is also the Burnham Sailing Club Regatta.