Burton Blizzard at Burton Sailing Club

Strong winds for the Burton Blizzard © Steve Ball

Burton Sailing Club hosted two dozen dinghies and half a dozen windsurfers for the first event of our season. Part of a four club challenge this was round two and saw entries from our home club of Burton SC as well as Notts County SC, Staunton Harold SC and Ogston SC.

The format of the racing was a pursuit race followed by four Handicap races with joint course for the pursuit and separate courses for the boards and dinghies. The wind over the weekend was blowing a hooly and the safety crew and race officers had their work cut out.

The briefing saw a full club house as we all sheltered from the weather, remarkably there was a real desire to go out sailing ? and the OOD obliged.

Strong winds for the Burton Blizzard - photo © Steve Ball

The pursuit saw a good number of boats waiting their turn, Lasers, Solos, RS400's, D zero, Scorpions, GP14,s, Aeros, Flying Fifteens, Phantoms and Fireballs to name some of the classes. The first beat was the full length of the reservoir which was taxing for the crews in the conditions, the start sequence was smooth and all the classes got away. It looked to be set for a wild time with every boat planing on the long downwind leg, (the benefit of using the full length of the res)

Then it happened, the wind built drastically, we had half meter waves and whitecaps, and boats started to tumble on every leg. We had two boats being recovered off the dam wall, the crews later reporting that even with full power astern they couldn't gain ground against the wind, one rib was so swamped the OOD feared for the crew, a jaffa was attending a boat on the beach, and the ferry boat was pressed into service just to try and aid people. With four boats fully engaged, seven dinghies over and a Phantom tied to the back of the committee boat and no sign of the wind abating the inevitable decision was made to can the race. The abandon was raised at 55 mins into the 80 min pursuit, no one complained!

Strong winds for the Burton Blizzard - photo © Steve Ball

Lunch was a pretty wacked out affair with cold and tired sailors recounting their various dales of 'derring doo' even the Flying Fifteen sailors with their heavy keel were reporting that they were on the raggedy edge and had never sailed in such conditions. The race crew felt a sigh of relief, the right call had been made.

Strong winds for the Burton Blizzard - photo © Steve Ball

The afternoon saw a lull in the really big wind so we took the opportunity to race again, not so many boats on the line this time and no boards made it out, it was crazy cold for sure. Race 2 (Handicap) saw a clear away with a dozen boats fighting for the advantage on the line and the windward side. The race was going well with some really good legs, alternatively beat, run, reach, beat, run and it looked to be really fun. The wind rose again and again the fleet were getting hammered, and also the safety crews. The race crew decided to shorten in the hope of at least some boats getting a result, in the end less than half of the fleet made it with five crossed the line for a finish. Race 3 was postponed for another day.

Day two Sunday was remarkable in that given the wind hadn't died, the crews still turned out to race. Ten dinghies and four boards took to the water for what would be three races back to back, The race crew chose to use the length of the res for the dinghies and the width for the boards due to the prevailing winds. Three races were conducted that really truth be told disappeared in a blur. Each course was different bringing into play the variations in distance verse wind strength (that was building all the time) and the physical condition of the safety crews which through wind, wet and cold were taking a real battering.

The notable dinghy fights were between the FF (Andy George and Matt Pallett), Fireball (Kevin Hope and Andrew Stuart) and the Scorpion (Andy McKee and Steve Graham) who were neck and neck throughout each race. Andy and Steve eventually going on to win the event. Slightly slower but no less dramatic were the three lasers each with a sail size of their own and the solo (Brian Fisher) who was awarded a well deserved spot prize.

Meanwhile the boards of Nieve Ball, John and Amelia Gay, Natalia Orgonova were quietly getting on with the task of beating up the waves to sail to victory. There were a few spectacular wipe outs with the most sensational bounce backs. It really was exciting stuff, with the OOD and AOD learning the job on the hoof, the first course had a killer beat! The second and third were spot on reaches and slaloms and the boards got into their own. It is fair to say the board PY numbers lead to a very fair result with John and Nieve joint first and Amelia 4th over all and top junior.

Strong winds for the Burton Blizzard - photo © Steve Ball

Special mention must be made to the Burton Sailing Club Race Organisation, who encountered some of the most difficult conditions seen at BSC, with the on the water teams on both days being pummelled by the weather and our shore teams dealing with variously sodden sailors, unplanned lunches, power cuts and fantastically a BBQ on the 13th Feb filled with Pasties, Soup and Burgers! Now that is called thinking outside the box.

Overall Results: