National 12 Burton Week at Brixham Yacht Club - Day 3

The Burton Cup race on day three of National 12 Burton Week at Brixham © Heather Davies / www.fotoboat.com

The Burton Cup race on day three of National 12 Burton Week at Brixham © Heather Davies / www.fotoboat.com

Race 3 - The Burton Cup

The forecast was for a force 2/3 from the north east. The day started very sunny but little sign of a sea breeze developing. The race officer thought the sea breeze might not kick in so knowing how long the Burton cup can take, he made an early choice to get on the water and make the most of the wind available.

The fleet were clearly excited by the Burton cup and needed three attempts at the start with the round the end flag coming out for start two and the black flag bringing the fleet into order for the third attempt. The wind was indeed from the north east and very shifty.

Jon Ibbotson & Charlotte Stewart looked good on the middle-left of the beat whilst the Meadowcrofts and Giffords looked good middle-right. Places swapped continuously as the fleet made their way up the 1 mile first leg. It wasn't until the final hundred metres that a leader became evident as the wind favoured one side then the other. It was Jon & Charlotte who rounded first followed by the Pellings, Caroline Martin & Andy Douglas and the Meadowcrofts. The reaches were long and hard to overtake on, so no places changed until the following beat.

On beat number 2 the Pellings found some nice shifts to take the lead and Tom Stewart & Liz Ross fought their way up to 4th place by the second windward mark. Again no place changing on the next two reaches, but the wind filled from behind so the fleet bunched up.

The wind had swung round for beat 3 so the sailors needed to quickly re-establish their bearings. The Pellings had clearly got the hang of the conditions and stretched out their lead. The Meadowcrofts looked to the right hand side in an attempt to keep their second place but Graham Camm & Zoe Ballantyne took advantage of some better shifts in the middle to pull through into second. Again no places changed on the reaches.

There was little place changing on lap 4 as the wind seemed to have stabilised a bit but a few boats gained lots by testing the corners of the beat, in particularly John & Mandy Thornton who had joined for the day.

The start of the final beat provided some tense racing. Graham & Zoe caught up to within a boat length of the Pellings and a tacking battle ensued. The Pellings were unwilling to budge an inch and covered very tightly until Graham & Zoe had to back off, in an attempt to stop the pack behind who were being led by Tom & Liz from overtaking. Having consolidated their position on the pack Graham & Zoe had another attempt to overtake but again the Pellings fought it off successfully.

After recuperating Graham & Zoe put in one final attempt but to no avail, the Pellings crossed the line several boat lengths ahead to claim the Burton Cup. Graham & Zoe took second with John & Mandy Thornton popping out the right hand side of the beat to steal third from Tom & Liz.

Burton Cup Results:

Results after Day 3: