Brummy Bender 2018 at Bartley Sailing Club
by James Wynn-Edwards & Abbey Williams 27 Dec 2018 15:30 GMT
16-18 November 2018
Brummy Bender 2018 © Alex Howe
The Brummy Bender, hosted by the University of Birmingham at Bartley Sailing Club, returned for yet another successful weekend of Firefly Team Racing on 16th-18th November.
The weekend began on the Friday night with sailors heading for a fun evening at Players Bar and then returning to Selly Oak to attempt to get some sleep for the following day of competitive sailing. The racing kicked off on Saturday at 9:30 with a lovely wind allowing the round robin to get well under way. Some shifts made challenging conditions for the twenty one teams sailing, as well as for the course layers, but a full day of racing was enjoyed by all. With nourishment needed after a full day of racing, groups of teams clad in questionable fancy dress descended upon three different restaurants in Selly Oak and then everyone regrouped to hit Fab N' Fresh at the Guild of Students for another brilliant night.
Sunday morning saw the round robin continue in a similar wind to the previous day, with 126 races completed in total. With several teams posting very impressive results, the semi-finals and finals promised to be an extremely competitive afternoon. Both OTRA and Warwick Black managed to win their respective semi-finals and progressed to the final, leaving London Purple and The Bartley Babes to compete for third place. In the end, OTRA were victorious with Warwick Black second, London Purple third and The Bartley Babes in fourth.
As always, we hope everyone had a fantastic weekend and we would like to say a massive thank you to Bartley Sailing Club, our umpires, everyone involved in helping to organise the event and of course the competitors. See you all again next year!