Bartley Beast 2023/24 - Week 2

Bartley Beast 2023/24 Week 2 © Debbie Degge

The Beast is awake!

The weather for the day looked to be building up to 35 knots and the drizzle was hopefully going to be replaced by the chilly winter's sun.

The first race for the double handers saw travellers who came from far and wide to try their hand at conquering the Beast for the first time. Boats gathered at the committee end of the line and the big question was, who was going to have the best start and make it to the first mark in 1st place. Matt Biggs and Beka Jones leapt off the star line at the committee end and Tom Gillard and Rachel Gray came flying out at the pin end looking for the lift on the left hand side, however it was James Wells and Anna Aylward who smashed the start off the centre of the line and lead around mark 1 holding off the 505 of Charlie Chandler and Owen Mills.

The fleet processed around mark 1 and began fighting to compress the fleet and make up ground downwind. The Albacore of Matt and Heather Thompson was now leading the slow boats but hotly chased by Chris Martin in the Scorpion and Caroline Whitehouse and Sophie in their RS200. Three Merlins broke free from the slow fleet to chase the leaders, Colin and Sean Anderson in Stanley fought hard with the Hudson duo of Freya and Nigel together with Mark Barwell and Louise Johnson to win bragging rights across the line. Slightly further back in the fleet Chris Martin was having spinnaker issues as on gybing one of the spinnaker sheets untied itself leading to a long string of fruity language. However, by the next downwind the spinnaker was re- rigged and his crew, Josh Oates, had received a good soaking out on the bow for his efforts.

Bartley Beast 2023/24 Week 2 - photo © Debbie Degge

For the single handers race 1 saw the Beast start to roar with squalls of 35 kts coming through from everywhere, including from above! The brave sailors competitively started the race with John Ling in his ILCA 7 winning the committee end of the very short start line however it was Nick Craig and Andy Davis who got clean starts and immediately put their bows down to try and create some separation. However, there was one sailor who they were unable to drop and that was Simon Hardiman sporting a Radial rig for the day.

The lead OKs escaped around the top mark and picked up a mammoth gust to send them screaming downwind. Unfortunately, this was not the case for everyone else rounding the top mark, carnage ensued. Heavy wind specialist Sean Ricketts in his Supernova, who had made an epic comeback by banging the right corner, then managed to stack it and put a hole in his sail! Simon Hardiman accepted his fate as he went swimming on a tack leaving John Ling to pick his way through the mess.

Unfortunately for Race Officer Mike Gibson, the wind had swung around making every leeward mark into a gybe mark however for everyone spectating this turned a very interesting race into a leeward mark crash and burn. For the next few laps, not a single boat escaped some form of swimming. The most epic was a pile up around mark A as three of the leading boats simultaneously binned it in on gybing, and even though some of the boats were straight back up this allowed Simon to storm back through and put the pressure on. Whilst all this was going on no one was going to catch Nick Craig as he steamed on to take the win.

Bartley Beast 2023/24 Week 2 - photo © Debbie Degge

Race 2 double handers was short lived. After watching the single-handers do vicious battle people seemed less keen to brave the weather. Nonetheless, boats lined up to launch. Tom Gillard expertly set afloat and began blasting around however the boys in the 505 made it look less slick as they capsized without a rudder. Caroline and Sophie also struggled to stay upright without a rudder. Over the far side of the reservoir, Evan Base and John Tailby, in their Merlin "Moist", seemed to find the "one angle" a Merlin is unstable downwind and capsized 3 times in quick succession cracking a spreader bracket and doing serious damage to the rudder stock. Due to the multiple capsizes and damage the double hander race was cancelled and no results were collected.

Bartley Beast 2023/24 Week 2 - photo © Debbie Degge

After a brief wait for the wind to at least settle slightly the very brave single-handers launched and not to dis-appoint the Beast went to work again in race 2 and showed no mercy.

It was a clean start for most but unfortunately for Nick Eaves in his solo it was some early swimming practice behind the line before he could get off the mark and follow the charging fleet. Again, the top mark wouldn't disappoint spectators as boats were blown over and pulled in to windward. We saw a similar story to the last race as the OKs escaped off downwind however, unlike the last race both OKs briefly ditched it in allowing Simon Hardiman to catch up and from there he wouldn't let go for the rest of the race.

Bartley Beast 2023/24 Week 2 - photo © Debbie Degge

Steve Thomas and Ollie Ridgeway were chasing the gaggle of boats in the lead but unfortunately struggling to make inroads as they showed off some impressive water-based acrobatics. The climax of the race was a vertical pitchpole from Adam Froggatt in his phantom as the Beast picked his boat up and put it on its nose. Again, the spectator view of mark 8 from the club house was the place to be as cheers went up with each dramatic capsize. Those able to stay upright for the longest periods had a clear advantage.

The Beast was back and had definitely shown its teeth for this event. What will the Beast bring next? Find out on Saturday January 13th, 2024.

Bartley Beast Week 2 Results:

Single Handers

Double Handers