Snipe Open at Bough Beech Sailing Club

Matthew and Finley during the Bough Beech Snipe Open © Amy Barrett

A westerly breeze welcomed 16 boats to Bough Beech for the open meeting on the morning of Saturday 1st July. As is typical with a westerly breeze at Bough Beech (coming just off the corner of the dam) it was blustery and shifty making for interesting racing with plenty of opportunity to both gain and lose a lot of places. The wind varied from a Force 2 to gusts of Force 4, with 40-50 degree swings in the wind making the same tack rarely favoured twice in a row up the beat.

Unfortunately, I made a terrible start in Race 1 so cannot give you a rundown of the battle at the front but John and Liz Reed led from start to finish to get their Regatta off to a flying start, followed home by Brian Gregory and Ian Rumble, who were clearly feeling good after the Training the previous weekend, and Mark and Tracey Antonelli who held onto third after a tight tussle behind the lead two.

Race 2 was won by Peter Wolstenholme and Lloyd Roberts after they were made to fight their way past Mark/Tracey who had led for most of the race. Alan Williams and Liz Pike won Race 3 after another hard-fought battle at the front, just leading home Sue and Steve Roberts after they had to do a 360 for hitting the mark from a comfortable lead. Race 4 saw Finley Baker-White and myself take the bullet but only just ahead of Peter/Lloyd and Alan/Liz, who suffered a rig tension/main sheet block tange costing them the lead, after a very close race with a few lead changes. Alan/Liz won again in Race 5, just holding off Fin and Myself with Peter/Lloyd doing very well to finish third after an incident-strewn race.

Alan and Liz during the Bough Beech Snipe Open - photo © Amy Barrett

Overnight it was incredibly close, as it normally is in the snipe fleet, with Fin and I leading ahead of both Alan/Liz and Peter/Lloyd by 1 point. Dinner that night was a Spanish affair with Paella Pete making a return visit after glowing reviews last year and plenty of merriment was made into the early hours of the morning to highlight the Snipe fleets moto of Serious Sailing Serious Fun.

Day two brought a very similar wind to the first day but with stronger gusts, particularly by the afternoon. Richard and Debbie Marshal, and Chris and Jonny Surridge led us round the windward mark for Race 6 in the morning, Mike Warwicker kindly stepped into crew for me for the first race after Odette, my crew for Day 2 was running late, and we looked to be off to a good start passing Richard/Debbie to take the lead at the leeward mark before a mistake up the second beat saw us go the wrong way and drop to fourth where we’d finish. Peter/Lloyd ended up winning fairly comfortably after some impressive speed on the reaches while Alan/Liz held off the Reeds for second. Peter/Lloyd led race 7 from start to finish with Chris/Jonny again second round the windward mark managing to hold on to fourth with Odette and Myself second and Alan/Liz third.

All three of the overnight leaders could still win going into the last race of the weekend but Alan/Liz or Odette and I needed Peter/Lloyd to have a bad race. Initially, it was looking good for Odette and I after a good start, we managed to build a half-minute lead ahead of Alan/Liz by the last upwind of the penultimate lap but Peter/Lloyd had managed to sail into third after a poor start by their standards. Then unfortunately for us, both Alan/Liz and Peter/Lloyd caught a big gust down the reach ahead of the last lap as we could only watch them approach from behind obliterating our lead to a few boat lengths by the leeward mark. Both then out-maneuvered us up the beat as Peter/Lloyd passed usto take their third bullet of the day with Alan/Liz pipping us to second as well.

Peter and Lloyd win the Bough Beech Snipe Open - photo © Amy Barrett

Congratulations to Peter and Lloyd for the well-deserved win with a commanding final day and thank you Bough Beech SC, Peter, and Sue (Bough Beech Class captains) for hosting us for a thoroughly enjoyable event. Also a huge thank you to Mark Stone and the rest of the race team for putting on two fantastic days of racing in tricky conditions.

Overall Results: