Solo Open at Burghfield Sailing Club

Burghfield Solo pen © BSC

Burghfield Solo pen © BSC

Tom Gillard wins the Burghfield Solo pen © BSC

The good, the bad, and the Adonises of the Solo class rocked up to Burghfield Sailing Club for an open meeting on Saturday 20th April to do battle on a much expanded lake due to flooding in recent months. The northerly and extremely shifty breeze blowing across the lake meant that Race Officer Deryck Lovegrove and his team had their work cut out.

Thirty-three (that's 33) Solos lined up on a start line where a certain amount of assertiveness was required to get yourself off in reasonable order. But the breeze was pretty feisty - with moments of "shut down", and with islands coming into play, a complex puzzle was left for competitors to get their heads around!

The challenge did not, however, phase Tom Gillard too much. Bullets in all four races, whilst plain greedy, doesn't paint the whole picture. He was headed at times, principally Chris Jennings made him work for his money, but ultimately... well, he won. By a bit.

A little bit further down the fleet, at the halfway point after 2 races, Ian Matthews (6,5) and Marc Sollars (4,8) were showing up well.

After lunch, the breeze dropped a notch and more competitors came into play. At this point your reporter was ashore, and whilst sorting out sponge cakes and biscuits, things started to change a bit bringing Dave Mason and Simon Maskell into the picture in a trickier breeze.

In very tricky conditions, massive thanks to Deryck Lovegrove and his race team..not an easy day. Our open was shared with the Comet class who were perfect partners. A special mention from the Solo fleet to Meg Warren (Comet) 82 years old, who sailed all the races and takes no prisoners! And also the bloke who cooked the sausage flan!

Overall Results: