Burnham Week 2024 Day 1
by Petru Balau 25 Aug 11:32 BST
24-31 August 2024
As the forecasted rain didn't fail to appear, the race officers, Ant Law for the dinghies and Edwin Buckley for the other fleets, took the decision to postpone the start of the day's races for 2 hours, while waiting for the wind to fill in.
The decision was welcomed as some of the competitors were still recovering from the pre-regatta parties at all three organizing clubs.
The dinghies were the first to head out, towards the Burnham Sailing Club, their headquarters for the Bank Holiday Weekend, where the Race Officer set up an hourglass shaped course in front of the club, for 3 races.
James Hutton-Penman leads overnight, after taking 3 wins and is followed by Corinthian Otter Nathan Flynn in second place, with a 4th and two 2nd and Duncan De Boltz with three 3rds.
The 6 boats strong RS Tera fleet saw George Panos take three wins and lead overnight, with Fergus Anderson in second and Harry Bew in third.
The Fast Handicap overnight leaders are Flynn and Niamh Davies, on a Merlin Rocket, with 2 seconds and a win, followed in second place by Dylan Collingbourne and Faye Pringle, RS200 and Jo Tribe and Marcus Collingbourne, RS200, in third.
Organized by Burnham on Crouch Coastal Rowing Club, the Trafalgar Day Race, part of the Nelson Cup series, saw 10 boats racing, with the local boat Wren taking the win, followed by Mutiny, from Four Oars Rowing Club in second and Rozinante, Benfleet Yacht Club, in third.
The first fleet to start at Pile House under the supervision of Edwin Buckley and Team Phoebe, were the RS Elites, with the five boats strong fleet being won by Richard Bavin in Serious Moonlight, followed by Bill Blank in Blind Squirrel in second and Roger Martin in Excalibur in third.
The Squibs were next and with 25 boats entered they saw last year's national champions Jono Brown and Chris Agar, on Hawk Tuah 142, take the win on the last beat from Ray Apthorp and Ian Simons, Nemesis 806, while Chris and Gillian Jordan, Croc 855, finished in third.
The Sandhoppers followed suit and David Johnson and Penelope Allard, on Blue Jacket 154 won by leading end to end, followed by Susan and William Daly, on Sand Star 159 who were ahead of Bill Wright and Craig Beech, Undine 25, in the beat to the finish line.
The Multihulls had the longest course and that saw them race for an average of two and a half hours, with Nick Wood's Origami taking the win, followed by Nigel Stevens' Triassic, winner of last year's edition and Andrew Scurr's Wandering Glider in third.
The four Class 1 cruisers headed to Inner Crouch and the race was eventually won, on corrected time, by Cobra, helmed by Phil Collard, followed by Paul Trueman, helming Exile, in second, Jack Mills' Outlaw in third and Digger Harden's new pride and joy, Sorcerer, in fourth.
With 10 boats entered, including the one 707 registered for the Bank Holiday Weekend, the class 5 had a similar, but shorter course set and was won by John Saunders in Jeannie, with Richard Taylor in Rondo in second and Philip Harbott in Mantra in third, with the 707, helmed by Alex Hill, finishing in 4th.
Three boats entered the class 6 race, cruisers with no spinnaker and the race was won by Lucy Lee, helmed by Ian Keam-George, followed in second by Ningaloo, helmed by Mick Hill and Jodeanni in third, helmed by Danielle Southey.
The slick and fast International Dragon fleet of 5 boats showed the rest how is done and managed to fly the spinnakers all the way to their first mark, with the winner being Mark Wade, crewed by Amanda Wade and Nigel Cole, on Avalanche 722, Peter Marchant with the Cowes Week winning crew of Katie Cole and Noddy Norden, on Beauty and the Beast 746, in second and Ian Gray with Rene Nel and Mark Ellis, on Still Crazy 827, in third.
The Ospreys, a two person, single trapeze planing dinghy, were the first of the two dinghy classes to share the Pile House start line with the big boats and the race was categorically won by Roger and James Blake, followed by Robert Shaw and Ian Little in second and Basher Marshall and Jonathan Osgood in third.
The second class of dinghies, the Phantoms had 10 boats starting on the race course and the race was won by Richard Nurse, followed by Titch and Bill Taylor.
The venerable local and East Coast One Design day boats finished the day of racing, with a total of 24 boats across three classes.
The Royal Corinthian One Design boats, all named starting with the letters CO, were the first to start and the race proved to be a simple affair for Justin Waples, crewed by Steve Rands and Vicky Brookes, in her very first sailing experience, on Cormorant, who took the win in front of the incomers from the Dragon Fleet, Clive and Graeme Page, on Corpo Santo and Martin Makey, crewed by Philip Green and,Rosemary Archer, on Corinna.
The Royal Burnham One Design were next, with the win going to Red Jacket, helmed by Stephen Herring and crewed by Mel Lewis, David Harris and Ralph Herring, in front of Aquamarine, helmed by Angela Shephard, with Matt Shephard and Sarah Hastwell crewing and Pharalope, Chris and Tom Corrigan.
With only 10 built, the 8 strong fleet of East Coast One Designs was an achievement in itself, considering most of them had to be sailed from their home ports to Burnham for the regatta.
The ECOD race winners were Dan Halley, crewed by Duncan McLaren and Dave Halley, sailing on Rhythm, with Ian Wilson on Widgeon in second and Beccs Polden and Charlie Moore on Delphine in third.
With a completely different forecast for Sunday, it's all open to play for.
Results are available at www.burnhamweek.com/results-2024