Burnham Week 2019 - Day 8

Burnham Week finished today with Trophy races for every class. The headline event was the Town Cup, Burnham Week's most coveted trophy, raced for by Class One with spinnakers.

13 yachts started in the Town Cup race down river at 10 o'clock this morning. A south-westerly breeze meant a spinnaker foul tide start for the competitors. The fleet were all jostling for prime spot on the line; John Saunders in Jeannie stayed behind the main flight at the pin end in clean air and a space to get a good start. Paul Trueman in his X37 led the fleet down river to the first mark, Ron Pipe and for the beat back up to Pinto. The 707 Baby Beluga belonging to Debbie de Boltz were in second. The next few places changed massively.

On the run down, John Saunders in Jeannie and Charlie Ball in Silverfox and Eclipse the Maxi 1000 owned by Clive Cherry and Daryl Mylroie all in the mix. Towards the back were RSJ the SJ 30 sailed by Malcolm Hutchins who had been OCS and Jackal owned by Digger Harden, Richard Oram and Mike Schneidau. Skullduggery was there too, alongside RSJ. After the beat, when rounding Pinto, Exile had kept the lead, with Beluga in second. Eclipse and Intense helmed by Arthur Brown rounded together, followed by Jeannie and Skullduggery who had worked his way up from near the back to top of mid fleet on the short fair tide beat.

The boats then headed down offshore before turning home against an increasingly strong ebb tide. Exile retired from the race at about 2pm. When the fleet came back into sight, Intense, Lizzie Brown, were ahead, with Jackal chasing hard. Baby Beluga followed with RSJ and Jeannie after. Eclipse came up next and the remainder of the fleet followed all choosing the North shore to race right up to the RCYC line to finish. On corrected time Digger won in Jackal (his third win in a row for the Town Cup) with RSJ owned by tom Sadler and helmed by Malcolm Hutchins second and Baby Beluga, Debbie de Boltz third.

Burnham Week Town Cup winner Jackal - photo © Alan Hanna

The Commodore's Cup in non spinnaker saw 4 boats race. Toucan owned by Ron Woolhead led the whole way round followed by Dan Tribe helming his UFO, Traigh. Ant Law in Tifano was next with Windrunner following. Helms Deep won.

Class 5 saw just two race as some had gone to race for the Town Cup. Spring Chicken sailed by Phillip Harbott led to the second mark, but a slow second spinnaker hoist saw Grace and Danger get through, even though they suffered a broach just after their red and white kite was hoisted. On the foul tide leg back to the finish, Chicken took the South shore, knowing you often get lifted there. After an eternity to get there, they benefitted, coming out about 10 minutes ahead of Grace and Danger. Phillip Harbott in Richard Moore"s Spring Chicken took line honours and the trophy.

Class 6 had two entrants, both having raced at Burnham for many years. David Hill in the Contessa 32 Spangle led throughout with Rainbow the Hunter Delta owned by Peter Prodger next.

7 Dragons raced and were sett a long course with lots of legs including one down to Inner Crouch and one up to Roach. At Pinto after a spinnaker leg down river to Ron Pipe and a fair tide beat back up, Robert Campbell in Quicksilver was leading.

Simon Griffin in Brutus led the fleet down under his fluorescent yellow kite, but on the beat to Pinto Mickey Wright in Spoof and Ray Apthorp in Nemesis getting through him. By the finish, Spoof had retained first, with Ray Apthorp in Nemesis second with Jono Brown in Squiggle third and Brutus fourth.

The RCODs really looked to be enjoying the windier conditions with Justin Waples in Cormorant leading from Corinna at the first mark. Cormorant won with Corinna second and Corpo Santo third.

The RBODs were led down river by Red Jacket sailed by Stephen Herring, with Blue Jacket close behind. Red Jacket won with Will Dallimore in Mandarin second and Aquamarine third.

The dinghies raced from the Burnham Sailing Club. 4 phantoms and 4 mixed handicap dinghies started together with 2 RS200s. Bill Taylor won the Phantoms and Jack Tucker won in the handicap fleet. Chay Taylor won in the 200s.

Find out more at www.burnhamweek.com