Bourne End Week 2021 at Upper Thames Sailing Club

Bourne End Week 2020 never happened, Covid-19 got in the way and continued to threaten the staging of the event for a second year. May bank holiday, the usual date for the event came and went, but shortly after, enough restrictions had been lifted to give hope that the August bank holiday would see it happen.

Network Rail also posed a threat. The club had agreed with Network Rail that they could use the camping field as a base for their plant and materials when upgrading the local railway line. Without this field available to us the whole nature of the event would change. Lots of competitors spend the evenings on site in the bar or marquee, there is dining every night and entertainment some nights. When the evening comes to a close, many folks bed down in the camping field, everyone is happy.

Bourne End Week 2021 - photo © Tony Ketley

Unfortunately, Network Rail's work overran, and the field was not ready until one week before the event. Fortunately, the venerable turves seemed to have survived.

River sailing can be a bit unpredictable wind wise, but this year it was fairly constant 11-12 Notts most of the time. Saturday the sun shone us but for the rest of the event, it was fifty shades of grey in the sky. Rain was noticeably absent, though it did try once or twice without successes.

BEW has traditionally been the time and location for the Thames A Rater class to have their national championships. There is much silverware to compete for, but the holy grail is the Queen's Cup, that's Queen Victoria's cup, first presented in 1889 and sailed for on the last day of the regatta.

Bourne End Week 2021 - photo © Tony Ketley

In recent years it has changed hands several times, this year it was almost predictable which crew would be taking it home. Never a certainty, but as one crew in the previous three days of competitions had scooped up all six trophies, with two to go, could they bag them for a clean sweep. The crew with the golden touch were, Ben Palmer, Matt Hannaby and James Warren, sailing Ulva number 8.

I should mention there is one that they were overqualified to compete for, which went to a UTSC crew, Dan Harrison and his many team members Sue Mackenzie, Nicki Binks, Don McDermott, Ben Mieszkian and Ed Crichton. This is quite common in Rater sailing.

Bourne End Week 2021 - photo © Tony Ketley

Other classes were catered for, Merlin Rockets were strongly represented with 18 entries, OKs and Wayfarers had class starts, the handicap class boasted a Phantom, Lasers, N12 and others.

Bourne End Week 2021 - photo © Tony Ketley

As the event drew to a close a collective sigh of relief was breathed by the Flag Officers and the teams that supported them, so many obstacles had been overcome, problems had been foreseen and countered. Upper Thames SC had done it again, despite the odds.

Trophy Winners: