Burnham Week 2025 - Day 2
by Petrol Balau 26 Aug 04:24 NZST
23-30 August 2025
Due to an incident on the water, unrelated to the regatta, AP over 1 has been signalled from the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club racebox, the coordination center for safety matters for Burnham Week, postponing the Pile House line starts by 2 hours.
As the dinghy fleets were to start from the Burnham Sailing Club line, the up river racing went on as scheduled, the two dinghy fleets being joined by 25 young sailors, for their Beastie event.
In the ILCA/Laser fleet, Duncan De Boltz, ILCA 7/Laser scored two wins and a second, to move to the second spot overall, behind James Hutton-Penman, ILCA 6/Laser Radial, with two second places and a win, while Keith Gilmore, ILCA 6/Laser Radial dropped to the third place, with 2 fourths and a third. In Prior family news, Lucie overtook her dad, Adam, to 4th place and with 2 more races to go and only 1 point difference, this battle is the one to watch.
The Dinghy Fast Handicap saw the Burnham Sailing Club own Alice Davis and Jemma Cook, RS200, snatch the top spot overnight from Richard Smith and John Barnes' Albacore, with the other BSC RS200, Jo Tribe and Marcus Collingbourne, sit on 3rd place. Local legend and river veteran, Ant Law, spending the regatta in a Graduate with a selection of crews, managed to not capsize and with 2 fives and a 3rd, had a much improved day.
25 young sailors, from quite a number of clubs, joined the BSC line for their Burnham Beastie event, with 3 races sailed. The ILCA division was won by Jessica Cunningham, from Corinthian Otters. Thomas Child, from Dabchicks, won the OPPI Division, with 3 wins, while Noah Mathers, after sailing his Feva XL on Saturday in the Dinghy Fast Handicap fleet, topped the SLOW Division, with 3 wins.
On the Pile House line, after the postponement lapsed, the competitors were greeted by sunshine and a fancy dress party going on around the 707 fleet and as most fleets went up the river Roach at some point during their day, it made for a wonderful mayhem.
As usual, the RS Elites were the first to start, with 2 races scheduled. Bill Blank's Blind Squirrel took both wins, to consolidate his spot at the top of the table, while Roger Martin's Excalibur took the two second spots and is currently sitting second overnight.
The 707s had a long distance race, including a touch and go with the Oppie sailing area. A Tiller the Hun, spotting elaborate hairdos and evening short dresses are leading overall after 3 races, with 3 wins, followed by Cezanne, who mimed their way to the second place on the day and overall, while Hookers Afloat, despite not a glorious day, are on third overall.
The entire Squib fleet headed to the North shore, for Burnham's habitual short tacking against the tide, apart from two brave souls who decided to forget the tide and go straight in. The strategy worked and Ben Hutton-Penman and Ian Brand, sailing on Easy, finished in 2nd place, while Jason Phelps and Carl Anderson, By The Lee, finished in 3rd, after leading around the first mark. The ex National Champions, Micky Wright and Alex Porteous, Spoof, got the win and are top of the table, followed by Ben and Ian, while last year winners, Ray Apthorp and Ian Simmons, sailing on Chequemate, dropped to 3rd, on equal points with Rojo, Nick Bacon and Richard Tucker.
To add to the multi boats mix on the Roach, the multihulls went next, and despite looking like they might have it, as the downwind wind direction was quite tight, Nigel Stevens' Triassic had to concede the win to Nick Wood's Origami.
The big boats were next to jump into the mix and the winner was Phil Collard's Cobra, followed by Dan Wastnage in Santa Evita, each boat winning their respective classes.
Ian Gray's Still Crazy got the win in the International Dragons race and the top overall position overnight, while Mark Wade's Avalanche finished 2nd and are second overall, with Andy Moss's Hands Off 3rd and 3rd overall.
The 9 Ospreys had 2 races scheduled and Alex and Nick Willis, Hayling Island SC, won the first, while Russell Wheeler and Mark Mawhinney, Isle of Sheppey SC, won the second, but this was not enough for either to breach the top 3. Roger and Jamie Blake, Great Moor Sailing Club, lead going in the last day of the Bank Holiday Weekend, with Robert Shaw and Ian Little, Kielder Water SC/RCYC, moving in second position and David and Steve Carroll, Naivasha YC in third.
Only one race for the Phantoms today and this was won by Richard Nurse from Northampton SC, followed by Mark Spruce from Lee on Solent SC, with Richard topping the table overnight and Mark being second.
The Royal Corinthian One Designs had one race scheduled, which went to Justin Waples's Cormorant to solidify his overall lead, while Clive and Graeme Page's Corpo Santo finished second and are second overall. Class captain Martin Makey's Corinna finished 3rd, ahead of Paul Buckley's Coryphee, to spice up the battle for the 3rd spot going into the last day of the Bank Holiday Weekend.
The Royal Burnham One Design race was won by James Dallimore's Whimbrel, followed by Stephen Herring's Red Jacket, with Simon Hollington's Beryl third. This sees Red Jacket leading after 2 races, with Whimbrel in second place and Beryl in third.
The East Coast One Design were the last to start and the race was won by David Smith's Wizard, with Ian Wilson's Widgeon and Rufus Whiteford's Gigi, with the same order in the overall ranking.
On shore, the Royal Burnham Yacht Club hosted a fund raising BBQ, for the RBOD class, preceded by a set of sea shanties on the barge Wyvenhoe. At the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club, the Caribbean Night, prepared by the well known RCYC chefs, was followed by dancing until early hours, to the DJ Dan's tunes and mc-ing.
Full results at www.burnhamweek.com/results-2025