Minitonners debut at the IRC East Coast Championship

This weekend will see the first regatta of the season for the re-vitalised Minitonner class, taking part in the IRC East Coast Championship sailed out of Burnham on Crouch and hosted by the Royal Burnham Yacht Club. The racing takes place over the three days of the bank holiday weekend and PRO Simon Hands is hoping to get in 10 races with a mixture of Passage and Windward / Leeward courses. The Minitonners will be racing in IRC Class 3, so have the opportunity to race for best yacht overall, in class and best Minitonner.

There are currently 5 Minitonners entered for the regatta, local boats Desperate Dan (Smokey 25), Blue Movie (Limbo 6.6) and Zebedee (Sonata) plus Energia (E-boat) and Solo (Humphreys 23), more are hoping to take part but are dependant upon weather.

Energia has been trailered down from Rutland Water and Solo is currently sailing to Burnham from the Solent and they will be made particularly welcome as they are without doubt the competitors who have travelled the furthest to take part in the whole regatta.

Piers Stanbury - the East Coast Minitonners Rep - quotes: "I want to thank the Royal Burnham for inviting us to take part in this prestigous regatta and I am sure we will get some great racing in, hopefully showing off to the bigger yachts what they are missing in terms of fun, both on and off the water! I particularly take my hat of to the guys from Energia and Solo who have made seriously big commitments to attend the event and look forward to showing them the delights that Burnham has to offer".

The next event on the Mintonner calender is the Quater Ton training weekend at the Island Sailing Club (5th / 6th June) and further East Coast action takes place at this years Burnham Week regatta (28th August to 4th September) where Minitonners have their own class racing under IRC and the Sonatas are holding their East Coast Championship.