Garmin Summer Series Round 4 - Lord Birkett Memorial Trophy Ullswater

by Brenda Hoult on 7 Jul 2014 Lord Birkett Memorial Trophy 2014 - An RS400 wins for the second year in a row, but a different team at the front.

With a record 174 boats entering via SailRacer and a final entry of 210 boats, the 2014 Lord Birkett Trophy was set for a bumper year on 5th and 6th July. Ullswater Yacht Club was packed inside and out, with many camping and enjoying the festival atmosphere of the traditional first weekend of July to celebrate Lord Birkett's efforts to save Ullswater Lake being turned into a reservoir.

After a wet and windy Friday, the weather Gods smiled on this iconic event (and the campers) over the weekend, with sunshine and good breezes. 14 knots of breeze on Saturday saw the faster skiffs stretch their legs, with the local 49ers of Matty and James Lyons and Lester Noble and John McAfee completing the 12 mile course, down and up the lake, in around 90 minutes - some 15 minutes ahead of third finisher Richard Stenhouse in his Musto Skiff. Not surprisingly, once corrected times had been crunched, the overnight leaders were a horde of trapeezing skiffs, with Ann Noble in her VX-One sports boat sneaking in at ninth to make the top 10 a clean sweep of Ovington Boats, including six Musto Skiffs. Putting in a solid but unnoticed 11th place score was the RS400 of Chris Pickles and Matthew Sharman.

It was the turn of the slower boats to dominate Day two, consistency, as ever in the tricky Ullswater conditions, was key across the weekend.

An earlier start on Sunday and around eight knots of breeze in the bright sunshine again saw three attempts to get around 200 boats away on the club line stretching the width of the lake. The slower boats seemed to get away quicker, with the Lasers and RS200s leading the charge down the Lake. On the SailRacer live tracking it was the X1 of Martin Dixon that was pushing for the lead for the first part of the beat towards the island at Glenridding. Overnight leaders in their 49er, the Lyons brothers, managed to break clear of the pack after 10 minutes but took an extra hour to complete the course compared to their domination of Saturday's race.

With skies darkening, the slower boats gained a boost in the breeze, with the added bonus for some of a shift that saw a group reaching to the finish instead of beating with the rest. The Wayfarer of Charles and David Chandler took a surprise win on corrected time from the Firefly of Steve and Ben Tylecote, together with a couple of Enterprises, but some boats took over five hours to complete the race. The RS400 of Chris Pickles and Matthew Sharman sneaked into fifth, bettering their third of 2013 to take the overall event win - and the top prize of a Garmin Virb Elite action camera.

Overjoyed local Dylan Noble collected the other Garmin Virb Elite at the briefing on arrival at the event. Dylan got some great footage on Saturday on-board his Musto Skiff as he sailed to a fifth place on the first day, but for once wasn't too disappointed when he dropped lower down the standings on Sunday. 'So made up with the camera and my fiancée is too as we will be off on honeymoon soon. Awesome prize and all I had to do was enter!'

Eight different classes of boats were represented in the overall top 10, with the RS400s taking 3 of those places - seemingly capitalising on being a day for the asymmetric classes on Saturday and the hiking classes on Sunday, fitting neatly into both categories. Within the top 10 were symmetrical, asymmetrical, one- two- and three-handed boats, keelboats and even in seventh Jonathon Modral-Gibbons and Colin Meadows's Tempest representing the trapeezing keelboats. With many of the big handicap events often attracting more singlehanders than doublehanders, the entry-results list for the Lord Birkett shows it to be a very much more of a family affair, with siblings, couples and family members in two-handed boats all the way through the fleet. Richard Stenhouse may have been second in his singlehander, but even he was on the water with his wife, Kit, in her own Musto Skiff. The next singlehanders were Graham Priestley and Ben Pickering in 13th and 14th respectively and previous Garmin VIRB winner Tim Keen in 18th.

Rewarded for that early break from the pack on Sunday was the 49er of Matty and James Lyons who did enough to finish third overall. Last year’s winners, Dave Exley and Nigel Hall were ahead of fellow RS400 sailors Hamish and Rachel Gledhill in fourth and fifth. Despite a strong entry from the home club, visitors finished high in the ranking, including two visiting Ospreys - Kielder's Rob Shaw and Ian Little in sixth and West Riding's Mark Weston and Tim Keighley in 11th. Lucy Boreham and Richard Anderton made the journey from Chichester to again post a top 10 result in their Fireball.

The Lord Birkett was the penultimate round of the fantastic new Garmin Summer Series, a series of five handicap events around the country from May to August. The final round is a three-day regatta at Calshot Activities Centre on the Southern shore of the New Forest, GJW Direct SailFest on 23-24-25 August (bank holiday weekend). Racing, socials, sports activities (velodrome, climbing, remote control yachting, and much more), accommodation and, of course, further chances to win Garmin Virb Elite action cameras. Enter by midnight on Sunday 10th August for the next chance to win! Enter here now: garmin.sailracer.org

Results:

Rank	Class	SailNo	HelmName	CrewName	Club	Rating	R1	R2	Total
1st	RS 400	703	Chris PICKLES	Matthew SHARMAN	Delph SC	946	11	5	16
2nd	MUSTO SKIFF	442	Richard STENHOUSE		Rutland Sailinng Club	857	3	14	17
3rd	49ER	343	Matty LYONS	James LYONS	Ullswater Yacht Club	732	1	18	19
4th	RS 400	1186	Dave EXLEY	Nigel HALL	Leigh & Lowton SC	946	12	7	19
5th	RS 400	1014	Hamish GLEDHILL	Rachel GLEDHILL	West Riding Sailing Club	946	23	8	31
6th	OSPREY	1337	Rob SHAW	Ian LITTLE	Kielder Water Sailing Club	944	19	12	31
7th	TEMPEST	1161	Jonathon MODRAL-GIBBONS	Colin MEADOWS	Ullswater Yacht Club	942	28	13	41
8th	FIREBALL	15081	Lucy BOREHAM	Richard ANDERTON	Chichester Yacht Club	975	13	32	45
9th	VX ONE	180	Ann NOBLE	Nathan BATCHELOR	Ullswater Yacht Club	840	9	38	47
10th	FLYING FIFTEEN	3996	Mike MOORE	Kayla SHEARD	Bassenthwaite SC	1017	25	22	47