Burnham Week 2018 - Day 7
by Sally Harbott 31 Aug 2018 17:46 BST
25 August - 1 September 2018
The penultimate day of racing in the annual Burnham Week Regatta with the Cruisers scheduled to start up river at the Burnham Sailing Club line and the dayboats down river at Pile House. Having lost a day of racing yesterday owing to lack of wind, everyone was very keen to get out and race today.
The cruiser classes were set a downwind down tide start up to Number 13, and then their course took them on a very long foul tide beat down river. In Class One IRC again Glorious Fools got the best start quickly setting her large blue kite. Double Trouble were next and Mantra a little further down river at the start hoisted her large white AP and pulled back at the two higher rated boats for a time. Lucy Lee, the Dehler 34, opted not to fly a spinnaker for this leg.
At Number 13, the fleet dropped spinnakers and embarked on the lengthy foul tide leg, which saw the highest rated boat - the Corby 29 Double Trouble of Duncan and Beccy Haley - soon start to stretch a big on the water lead from the J80 of Digger Harden and Pete Jackson, helmed again by Flynn Davis. Lucy Lee got into third, leaving the lowest rated boat in fourth on the water. Double Trouble with their long waterline length stretched their on the water lead out throughout the race taking the bullet and winning on corrected time, with Glorious Fools second and Mantra third, with Lucy Lee having retired. Overall, Glorious Fools took the trophy.
Class Five were a little less line shy but still a way down river off the line. Ant Law in Tifano the elegant International Folkboat had what looked like a sheet issue and allowed Eclipse, the Maxi 1000 to pull back a little. Eclipse on the South Shore hoisted her distinctive red white and blue masthead AP spinnaker and quickly got going. The SJ 27 Grace and Danger crossed the line over a minute after the starting gun. The SJ enjoyed the light conditions and was soon up in the hunt for a third win in a row. On corrected time she beat Clive Cherry and Daryl Mylroie's Eclipse, winning the midweek points. Unfortunately Tifano retired from the race today.
Class 6 had 4 started and John Saunders in Jeannie were OCS as was Sanderling, the Cornish Shrimper. John returned quickly to clear the line and set off to chase down Ophelia and Verlette. The light winds and long beat proved a bit much for many in this class, with Ophelia and Verlette retiring early doors. In the end only Jeannie finished taking the win and the series.
In the dayboats, the start was down by Pile House and the large squibs fleet enjoyed shorter foul tide beats in their courses. The Dragons were sailing easily and enjoying a good windward leeward course through the Hunter 707 Nationals that today were taking place in the mouth of the Roach.
In the RBOD class Mandarin was leading, a long way ahead of the next three boats, Red Jacket, Amanda and Jade. Towards the mark as spinnakers were dropped early as the tide was flooding, Amanda had pulled ahead of the other two. However, when rounding Horse Shoal, Amanda caught her mainsail on the North Cardinal top markers, tearing her main as she came round to go onto the wind. On the next beat up river, Martin Smith in Jade went hard aground on the North Shore and after a tow off, retired from the race. Mandarin, owned by will and Barty Dallimore, finished first and won the series on three bullets. Red Jacket, Stephen Herring, were second and runners up for the midweek, with White Rose sailed by Richard Franklin in third today.
In the RCOD class, the Waples family were still dominating the fleet, in first and second as they rounded Horse Shoal. A port and starboard incident led to the retirement of RCOD 8, Corsair, with Coram, Number 5, retiring with shroud damage. Justin Waples won in Cormorant, with Chris Waples second and Ian Simons in Corella third. This gave Cormorant the series win with two seconds and a first.
In the Squibs, Lady Penelope was leading with Brutus and Humphrey fighting it out for second. At this mark, Humphrey, Robert Coyle, got ahead of Brutus, owned by Simon Griffin. Spoof and Easy next. Lady Penelope took the win, to take the series win by 8 points, with Humphrey second. Brutus came in fifth, but is lying second overall in the midweek series.
Full results and pictures on www.burnhamweek.com.