Phantom Open at Burton Sailing Club

by Stuart Turnbull 15 Oct 2024 05:37 BST 13 October 2024

Perhaps it was the forecast of very light winds that dissuaded some, but six visitors arrived for the Burton Open meeting, the last of the Midland Circuit series.

After a delayed start waiting for wind to settle the fleet got under way cleanly with the first two round the windward mark coming from opposite sides of the beat. A very light run followed with the chasing pack catching up on a slight increase in pressure.

The pecking order was soon established with Adam Froggatt and Martin Knott pulling away. A very close finish saw Martin just ahead with Duncan Adams pulling through to third and Sam Coxon fourth.

The second race started in an increasingly unstable wind. Again, it was the same two having a great battle at the front until Adam pulled away to take the gun. Duncan recovered from a poor start and fought his way through to finish third and with a big starboard lift Stuart Turnbull pulled up to fourth.

After lunch, with the wind even lighter, there was much "shall we shan't we" discussion. The message came from the committee boat that there was breeze and that we are go. The fleet drifted its way to the start area. A simple windward leeward course was set.

The starboard bias on the line suddenly reversed with 30 seconds to go. Stuart Turnbull made full use of this by tacking off and making the mark in one, closely followed by Richard Sims. These two pulled away from the pack establishing a sizeable lead. After two laps with much of the fleet at a standstill, the race officer decided enough was enough and abandoned the race.

With the better result in the final race, Adam was declared overall victor ahead of Martin with Duncan third.

Overall Results:

Pos	Sail No	Helm	Club	R1	R2	Pts
1st	1449	Adam Froggatt	Chase	2	1	3
2nd	1505	Martin Knott	Ribble	1	2	3
3rd	1370	Duncan Adams	Burton SC	3	3	6
4th	1450	Sam Coxon	Chase	4	5	9
5th	1374	Stuart Turnbull	Burton SC	7	4	11
6th	1492	Jim Hopton	Shustoke sc	5	7	12
7th	1301	Matt Pritchard	Burton SC	6	6	12
8th	1447	Richard Sims	Burton SC	8	8	16
9th	1208	Craig Hellon	Burton SC	9	10	19
10th	1347	Brian webley	Shustoke SC	12	9	21
11th	1442	Kevin Milton	Attenborough SC	10	11	21
12th	1317	Sam Hirst	Burton SC	11	12	23
13th	1138	Alistair Coast‑Smith	Burton SC	13	13	26
14th	1241	Matthew Kirke	Burton SC	14	14	28
15th	1140	Steve Mason	Burton SC	RET		32