Burnham Sailing Club welcome back Wednesdays
by Sally Harbott 6 Aug 18:14 BST
Burnham SC welcome back Wednesdays - Class 1 start © Alan Hanna
The Burnham Sailing Club are delighted to have welcomed back Wednesdays. This evening saw the first points race of the year from the club, with amendments in place to follow guidelines.
Classes 1, the 707s and Elites started first at 6. The wind was from the south west and a good 20 knots at the start, and the course took them to Cliff and Canewdon twice. The fleet were close to the line, with Ant Law and Keith Musto in Kate the Kite, on the line, but without headsail out on the gun, the fleet powered up river, with Paul Trueman's X37 Exile quickly taking the lead on the water.
Eclipse the Maxi 1000 owned by Daryl Mylroie following close behind as was Jackal, the J92 owned by Richard Oram, Mike Schneidau and Digger Harden. Jeannie, John Saunders' Elan 31 and Ron Woolhead in Toucan following. The SJ 27 were keeping up to start with on the long leg up river. Kate the Kite started a little after the main pack and took some distance out of the fleet by the corner and Essex Marina.
When the fleet came down to finish, Exile was leading still with a reef in and number 3, finishing 9 minutes ahead of Jeannie and Eclipse who were really fighting it out to take second on the water. Just at Essex Marina, John Saunders in Jeannie set his kite, but a tight wrap allowed Eclipse to edge ahead, with Jeannie having to go bare headed before unfurling her jib to finish, just 4 seconds split the Maxi and Elan. Jackal was just behind them finishing fourth on the water with Toucan fifth, Grace and Danger owned by Andrew Courts and Stephen Gosling sixth on the water, with Kate the Kite seventh.
On corrected time, Exile, Paul Trueman, won by 2 minutes from Eclipse. Jeannie took third.
In the Elite class, Serious Moonlight, Richard Bavin won, with 107 second.
The second start was at 6.15, with Class 3, RBODs and Squibs. Just after the start Brutus, sailed by Simon Griffin retired, leaving Ian Gray and Ian Simons in Chequemate to take the race. Mandarin, Will Dallimore and Red Jacket, Stephen Herring raced and Mandarin led them home some way ahead of Red Jacket.
The River dinghy class had five Blazes and a Laser and also did Cliff Canewdon twice. Ben Harden led the fleet and won by a considerable margin, 5 minutes ahead of 836. 607 took third, 705 fourth and Liam Hanna in his Laser fifth.
More photos of the action and full results are on the Facebook page at www.facebook.com/groups/117641501594030