Bart's Bash at Rotherham Sailing Club

Bart's Bash at Rotherham © Garry Chambers

Chris Cooper racing in Bart's Bash at Rotherham © Garry Chambers

Greg Owers racing in Bart's Bash at Rotherham © Garry Chambers

Our Bart's Bash Team is ready to go, the course has been set and measured, the wind speed checked and boats rigged. A 4.9 knot, south westerly, gentle breeze, a cloudy sky with a glimmer of blue, a heron watching on, and young grebes feeding sets the scene at our picturesque reservoir.

The team, an eclectic mixture of sailors, young, older, experienced and novices in a variety of boats start launching their boats.

Chris Cooper in his Phantom gets a cracking start, pushing several boats to windward of him over the line, including 2 of his main competitors, Denis and Greg, who after an unfortunate start have a lot of catching up to do.

During the confusion on the start line our new members Andy and his daughter Beth in their Lark steamed through and were 2nd to the windward mark causing the more experienced sailors to desperately try to speed up. Another of our new members Richard sailing a Laser for only the second time, did an impressive dry capsize right in front of the OD box.

The race between our Laser Radial helms, Abi and Jenni, (which is usually close), saw Abi way ahead at the end of the first lap, but Jenni was chasing hard and gradually caught up pipping Abi at the very end on the last lap.

Chris led from the front and continued to steam ahead in his Phantom eventually lapping everyone. Was it a fore gone conclusion to who was winning? Greg, sailing his Firefly singlehanded, and Denis in his Streaker were gradually working their way back up the fleet, Greg eventually sharing first place with Chris on corrected time with Denis collecting the bronze.

Thanks to the ODs Garry Chambers and Jane Morton. A fun day and £65 raised for The Andrew Simpson Sailing Foundation.

Overall Results: