Arthur George Memorial Pursuit Race at Burton Sailing Club

by Tim Bird 30 Sep 2019 21:40 BST 29 September 2019

Sunday 29th of September saw the first running of the Arthur George Memorial Pursuit Race at Burton Sailing Club.

Arthur was a long time club member, an enthusiastic competitor in Merlin Rockets, 505s and Flying Fifteen fleets who contributed to all aspects of club life at BSC. Arthur unfortunately lost his battle with cancer earlier this year at the untimely age of 62. Arthur enjoyed all sailing including supporting new members on RYA Level 1 and 2 but particularly enjoyed club Pursuit Racing.

Race officer Dennis Cartwright was faced with an unstable weather pattern and the prospect of a 140 degree wind change forecast later in the day. Fortunately the wind remained reasonably stable for the 80 minute race.

The first starter of the 21 boat fleet was Colette Emery in a Laser 4.7 leading the fleet away. The Laser Radial sailed by Greg Rimmer was soon closing down the gap on Colette and ended up leading for much of the race. The lower handicap boats were not out of it however as the wind freshened enough to allow full trapezing conditions for the 505 of Adam Kenney and Tommy Hooton who were by now on the same leg as the lead boat and travelling fast. With only minutes remaining, Malcolm Hall and Martin Nelson in their Flying Fifteen briefly lead the fleet only to be overhauled by Kenny/Hooton in the 505 with seconds to spare.

Everyone enjoyed the event and afterwards 'raised a glass' in memory of Arthur George and his love of Pursuit Racing. The pursuit race will now feature annually in the Burton Sailing Club programme.

Overall Results:

Pos	Helm	Crew	Class
1	Adam Kenny	Tommy Hooton	505
2	Malcolm Hall	Martin Nelson	Flying Fifteen
3	Tim Bird	Andrew George	Merlin Rocket
4	Greg Rimmer		Laser Radial
5	Mike Pain		Laser
6	Pete Needham	Brian West	Flying Fifteen
7	Keith Pallett	John Skinner	Flying Fifteen
8	Ian Barlow		Super Nova
9	Karl Morley		Aero 7
10	Stuart Turnbull		Phantom
11	Matt Pritchard		Phantom
12	Carl Avery		Laser
13	Bill Hooton		Contender
14	Neil Rabbits	John Emery	505
15	Matt Pallett	Zoe Taylor	Flying Fifteen
16	John Gay		Laser
17	Steve Mason	Donald Harrison	Flying Fifteen
18	Colette Emery		Laser 4.7
19	David Cordy	Mike Hampton	Flying Fifteen
20	Steve Lockie	Rob Stevenson	Flying Fifteen
21	Rod Jones		Solo