Burnham Week 2024 Day 7
by Petru Balau 1 Sep 2024 02:46 AEST
24-31 August 2024
Choppy, but sunny and decent breeze and a hard fought battle in the Squib fleet on the penultimate day of this year's iconic East Coast regatta.
In class 1 & 2, Cobra, helmed by Phil Collard, scored another win in front of Digger Harden's Sorcerer to win the midweek series.
In class 5, Richard Taylor, sailing on Rondo, won the last race and the midweek series, while John Saunders, on Jeannie got the second, not enough to displace Jack Mills, sailing on a chartered Royal Corinthian Yacht Club 707, from the midweek runner up place.
Richard Moore, helming Ophelia, concluded a week of consistently good sailing, to win the last race and the midweek series, in front of Philip Harbott's Mantra, who took the runners up spot.
The Dragon fleet saw Mark Wade, Avalanche 722, add another trophy to the week's haul, along with the Burnham Week full series, while Peter Merchant, Beauty and the Beast, despite finishing 3rd in the last race, ended up as a runner up for the midweek series.
David Smith, helming the local East Coast One Design Wizard, got the last win and the midweek series, while Gi Gi, after the rest day they had on the Cliff Reach mud the day before, finished second in the race, with ECOD Association's Rhythm, helmed by Dan Halley, finishing 3rd and getting the series runner up spot.
Rhythm won the overall Burnham Week regatta, by one point in front of Wizard.
In the Royal Burnham One Design series, Stephen Herring's Red Jacket scored a perfect set of results, while Will Dallimore's Mandarin got the runner up spot, on countback from James Dallimore's Whimbrel.
Nick Bacon, sailing on the Royal Corinthian One Design boat, Corella, won the last race of the series, yet, with second place on the last day, Justin Waples' Cormorant won the midweek series, along with the week long regatta, followed by Martin Makey's Corinna for the midweek results.
The Squibs provided the most entertaining race of the day, with only 2 points separating Nemesis 806, Ray Apthorp and Ian Simons, from the National Champions, Micky Wright and Alex Porteous, Spoof 811, before the start of the race and before the discards could be applied.
Nemesis seemed to run away with it after taking a considerable lead rounding Holliwell Point, yet Spoof managed to close in and the two boats matched each other's gybes, with the National Champions rounding the last downwind mark, Horse Shoal, first.
The boats headed upwind to Pinto, with Spoof having a clear lane, while Nemesis got bogged down with the rest of the fleet still going downwind and the National Champions and winners of last year's Burnham Week, finished first, with one minute and a half to spare.
Despite the disappointing day result, Nemesis won the Burnham Week 2024 regatta, with 19 points to Spoof's 30.
One more day of sailing to complete the full 8 days of Burnham Week for 2024 - here's to another great day of racing.
Results are available at www.burnhamweek.com/results-2024