International OK Grand Tour Open at Brightlingsea Sailing Club
by Dave Bourne 24 May 2016 07:15 BST
21-22 May 2016
Brightlingsea OK Open in 2016 © Ela Miller
Fifteen of the best OK sailors in the land converged on Brightlingsea for the first event in the 2016 Grand Tour. The forecast for the weekend was champagne sailing on the Saturday and nothing of the sort on Sunday which is exactly what we got, so well done XC!
Pre-racing there was a quick photo shoot for a few of the guys to model the new, 2016 OK Worlds polo shirts before indulging in one of Brightlingsea's renowned breakfasts. Had to look their best before bulking up!
First race was started in a force 4, gusting 5, with the tide so relatively flat water. Dave Bourne made the best of the first beat against the last of the flood tide to round the windward mark first followed by Richard Burton and then Lee Child. Richard got the inside berth at the wing mark to take the lead while Lee came through on the second reach to take second. Lesson there for Dave. On the last reach to the finish, Richard went too far inshore to escape the tide which had now turned and allowed Lee to sneak in on the inside to take the win. Dave held on to third from the fast approaching Chris Arnell and Dave Rose.
The second race was started in a roaring ebb tide. Dave again made the best of the first beat to round with a comfortable lead this time from Lee and the unhappy Richard. Dave kept Lee and Richard at bay for a couple of rounds until Ken "jonah" Carroll, coming up the beat while Dave was going down the run, shouted words of encouragement in Dave's direction. Within five seconds Dave had fallen out of the boat to leeward allowing the grinning pair to pass him. Lee lived up to his boats' name, lucky number 7, by taking a narrow win from Richard after a shortened course saved him from another beat while Dave was cursing in third. Chris Arnell and Dave Rose reprised their results from the first race.
Sunday dawned with promise that was, unfortunately, unfulfilled. What little gradient breeze there was would not give up in it's fight with a weak sea breeze and so in the stalemate, racing was cancelled after a couple of hours wait.
Many thanks once again to Brightlingsea and their smiley volunteers for supplying us with fantastic food, great beer and equally great racing. We will return again.