Mini Tonners triumph at the East Coast IRC Championship
by MiniTonners Class 5 Jun 2010 08:20 BST
29-31 May 2010
The revitalised MiniTonner class had a great regatta in Burnham last weekend at the IRC East Coast Championship, hosted by the Royal Burnham Yacht Club. PRO Simon Hands did a terrific job in difficult circumstances to get 10 races in over three days, using a mix of Passage and Windward / Leeward races to utilise the best race areas available on the River Crouch. The fleet ranged from a J133 down to an E-Boat so getting fair racing for all was quite a work of art.
2 local Mini-Tonners and 2 visitors made up class 3, and great racing was had by all in the fleet. Sunday was particularly epic as 30knots and wind over tide chop made life somewhat entertaining and sadly in race 3 of the day Energia (E-Boat - Ant Chapman) lost her rig shortly after the windward mark when the backstay parted company in a big gust. Energia's crew where all ok and in a great feat of seamanship got the rig and sails back on board with little damage and motored back to the marina, however pulled chainplates meant they stop for the weekend. Blue Movie (Limbo 6.6 - Piers Stanbury & Guy Warry) decided not to race the 4th race after having had a minor collision and a knockdown (no damage however and turns completed) in race 3 also, thus allowing the remainder of the regatta fleet to start race 4 quickly and get on home too!
On Sunday the Energia lads jumped on Ken Docherty's 'Solo' (Humphreys 23) to give him a full crew and she raced with style, however Blue Movie was the best boat in class over the weekend, mostly to do with local knowledge advantage plus a little bit of 'skill, determination and a sound knowledge of the game'.
At the prizegiving on Monday 'Blue Movie' picked winner in class 3 (Mini Tonners), Energia was given the seamanship award and Solo the Best Travelled boat award as Ken had single handed her up from Poole the week before, an epic voyage by all accounts.
The overall results where calculated on the same basis as the IRC Nationals, a formula based upon points in class vs. number of boats in class and as a result of 7 wins from 9 races (2 discards allowed) meant that 'Blue Movie' was announced as the Overall Winner of the IRC East Coast Championship. Celebrations continued long into the afternoon...
Great sailing, new friendships and a right good result meant that the Mini Tonners had a superb weekend and are looking forward to the next regatta at the ISC Quarter Ton Training Weekend.
Overall Results:
| Pos | Sail No | Boat Name | Skipper | Handicap | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | R5 | R6 | R8 | R9 | R10 | Pts |
|---|
| 1 | GBR6606R | "Blue Movie" | Piers Stanbury & Guy Warry | 0.824 | 1 | OCS | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 |
| 2 | 2288L | "Energia" | Ant Chapman | 0.81 | 2 | 1 | DNF | 2 | 2 | DNF | DNC | DNC | DNC | 22 |
| 3 | GBR7367 | "Desperate Dan" | | 0.856 | 3 | DNF | DNF | DNC | DNC | DNC | 2 | 3 | 3 | 26 |
| 4 | GBR8035 | "Solo" | Ken Docherty | 0.85 | DNC | DNC | DNC | DNC | DNC | DNC | 3 | 2 | 2 | 27 |