Burnham Week 2023 Trophy Day
by Sally Harbott 2 Sep 14:02 PDT
26 August - 2 September 2023
Trophy day dawned with a building breeze so all looked great for the racing. The Town Cup started at 11 with a fleet of 13. The pre-start was really busy as the fleet were confident near the line on the flood.
Oystercatcher XXXV struggled to get clear of the fleet and had to make a few tacks to get clear but by Fairway Number 1 had stretched her legs and was beginning to get clear. Exile, Paul Trueman was also up the front of the fleet along with Hullabaloo XV and Santa Evita all there or there abouts. As they headed down river against the strong tide the fleet began to spread out and Slingshot slowly began to work her way up the fleet a little. The spread of IRC ratings in the fleet was big with Oystercatcher rating over 1.4 and the lowest rated near 0.9 meaning Oystercatcher had to be over half an hour ahead of many of the fleet for every hour raced. Oystercatcher XXXV took line honours finishing just after 4pm. Results will be in the Burnham Week website. Hullabaloo XV, David Evans won on corrected time by 6 minutes from Oystercatcher.
An hour later Class Five started for the Penrose Fitzgerald. Five started and stated the foul tide beat towards Inner Crouch before looping the Outer Crouches. Stiletto got an excellent start and was chased by Mantra who had to retire after going hard aground at Holliwell. On the water the lower rated Stiletto managed to get clear ahead of Eclipse to take line honours. Scott Yeats in Stiletto won by 7 minutes from Daryl Mylroie in Eclipse.
Class Six had fewer starters today and JodeAnni had to retire. Lucy Lee took line honours with Coco not far behind
The Elites had 5 starters and Bill Blank in Blind Squirrel and Excalibur Roger Martin a long way clear of the rest of the fleet. Blind Squirrel won with Excalibur second and Ellanore Graham Dale Jones third.
The Squibs were too keen at the start and those who had chosen to stay in the down tide side of the line and the Race Officer was blind so there was a general recall. There second start was better as the PRO moved the pin end further down river. Spoof, Mickey Wright won with Nic Tolhurst in Whats the Story second and Phil Aspinall third in Guy Fawkes.
The RCOD had reduced numbers today and Corsair retired fairly early on in the race. Sue Law in Coralie led by a long way to win from Corindelle, Barry Lewis.
The RBOD fleet had a good start and headed down river to Rubberball before a leg to Horse Shoal. Mandarin and Red Jacket again were battling at the front of the fleet. Mandarin, Will Dallimore won from Red Jacket, Stephen Herring. Tye Wichard in Rae was third.
There were 6 ECODS today and GiGi was recalled. They headed down river to Rubberball before going up to Jubilee and down river to Ron Pipe. Wizard, David Smith won from Nancy, Nicholas Cottrell with Ian Wilson in Widgeon third.
The dinghies had a two race day from the Burnham Sailing Club and split into three classes with a fast and slow handicap and the Phantoms. The Phantoms enjoyed really close racing with positions changing by the lap in the second race. In the first race Bill Taylor won with Chris Roberts second just a second ahead of Eric Howe. In race two Chris Roberts finished ahead of Bill Taylor giving Chris Roberts the win in countback.
In Fast Handicap Keith Fedi in his OK win the race with Rob Thain in an RS200 second and Jo Tribe in her 200 third. Jo Tribe took the second race from Rob Thain with Keith Fedi third. Those three all finished on 4 points with Jo taking first in countback from Keith Fedi with Rob Thain third.
In the slow handicap fleet Nathan Flynn won both races.
In the Laser fleet Matthew Pickett took two firsts to win with Ant Law taking second in both.
Full results and more pictures on Burnham Week website, www.burnhamweek.com/