British Grand Tour Series Round 4 - Brightlingsea OK Open

by Dave Rose on 12 Jun 2015 British Grand Tour Series - 14 OK’s arrived at Brightlingsea SC to be greeted by superb sailing conditions, with sunshine and plenty of wind, unfortunately however without enough water to float the committee boat, so a pleasant hours postponement was spent drinking tea in the sunshine before the weekend's events began. Racing would be over the traditional triangle sausages course but with a dog leg to the finish from the leeward mark allowing a quick turn around between races even with three classes.

Saturdays racing was lively in a good force four and interesting chop, kicked up by the wind over tide conditions. Both of the days races where dominated by Jon Fish, Lee Childs and Dave Bourne all showing excellent upwind speed and filling the first three places in each race. Best of the rest was Gavin Waldron, Dave Rose and Burt. Having blown away the cobwebs the fleet retired to the recently voted club of the year for a meal and a few beers.

Sundays forecast was for less breeze and a 180 degree shift around midday which would test the sailors and race team to complete all of the races. However after a few postponements and a change of course area for the last race, all three were successfully completed.

In these testing conditions Lee Childs stamped his mark on the open with three bullets, Dave Bourne did enough to easily take second and Dave Rose third. Ken Carroll, Keith Byers and Deryck Lovegrove all produced good top three results with none of the fleet far behind. In fact only three points separated fourth to ninth.

The open was shared with Fireballs and National 12’s giving surprisingly few problems and allowing us to enjoy great courses and race management. Despite a lower than expected turn out, a very competitive and enjoyable weekend was had by all.