Burnham Week 2023 Day 2
by Sally Harbott 28 Aug 2023 06:27 NZST
26 August - 2 September 2023
A good wind met competitors today. The Pile House fleets again had to contend with a fair tide downwind start so some hung back off the line to ensure they were safe.
The Elites got away for their first race of the day and on the beat home All the Gear, Neil Fulcher, and Blind Squirrel, Bill Blank, were close together ahead of Serious Moonlight. The order stayed the same giving All the Gear the win. Race two today saw Richard Bavin win ahead of Roger Martin in Excalibur. Bill Blank took third. This puts Serious Moonlight in the lead for the series ahead of All the Gear on count back. Blind Squirrel is just one point behind them.
In their first race of the day the large Squib fleet were complemented by the Principal Race Officer as it was clean and on the line. Malcolm Hutchins in Lady Penelope won race one leading the foul tide beat up the North Shore and keeping ahead of those who chose to take the South Shore. Mickey Wright in Spoof was second and Robert Coyle in Humphrey took third. Race two saw Spoof and Lady Penelope swap places with Nic Tolhurst on What's the Story third. Spoof leads overall three points clear of Lady Penelope. Budgies Tongue is third.
The MOCRA class just had two boats today for race 1; NRB and Triassic. The start was very calm and the boats headed down river. Triassic sailed by Nigel Stevens won. The second race was started by Havana Papa down river and Wandering Glider also started so the three raced back up river. Triassic took the win again with NRB, Julian Linton second and Wandering Glider sailed by Nick Wood third.
Class One had a good start but some boats struggled to get their kites up and working quickly, costing them a few seconds. Cobra sailed by Phil Collard was leading on the water at Ron Pipe from Exile, Paul Trueman with Mantra, Phillip Harbott third. As the race progressed Jeannie worked her way up the fleet ahead of Santa Evita. Slipstream, Lizzie Brown won with Mantra second and Jeannie third.
Class 5 saw the 707 Road Runner OCS and struggle to return to clear the line as she had her spinnaker up but no headsail for the foul tide leg. This allowed Eclipse, Ophelia and Sandhopper to pull away. However, by the time the class rounded Ron Pipe, Road Runner had caught back up and was in the mix. Eclipse the Maxi 1000 owned by Daryl Mylroie rounded some way ahead and got their spinnaker filled and settled very quickly. On corrected time Eclipse won by just over a minute from Ernie Breavington in his Parker Seal, Sandhopper. Ophelia, Richard Moore took third. Overall Sandhopper is leading two points clear of Eclipse.
Class 6 is already showing itself to be a competitive class and at the start David Gamble in Picaroon led them off, heading down river as far as Crouch before heading back up to Ron Pipe and back out to Holliwell Point. At Ron Pipe, Dabtoe was first to make the mark but headed in upriver towards Holliwell; second and third to round however, headed back down to Holliwell Point and Dabtoe saw her mistake and headed back down river chasing the new leaders. Despite this Nicholas Moulton in Dabtoe managed to take second place on corrected time from Ian Keam George in Lucy Lee. Mick Hill in Ningaloo came third. With two wins Lucy Lee leads the weekend.
The Dragon fleet had an excellent start and Ian Gray led in Still Crazy. However, Mark Wade in Avalanche and Peter Marchant in Beauty and the Beast got through him to take first and second respectively. Avalanche are leading on 2 points.
The 7 ECODS were enjoying close fleet racing; Wizard, David Smith, was leading and had stretched out a good lead by the time they rounded Clarks. Number 3, the Bermudan rigged Witch was sitting in second just ahead of GiGi who had reefed at this point in the race. At the finish Wizard won with Witch second and Widgeon, Ian Wilson third.
The RCODS headed off down to Ron Pipe rounding Redward after and then sailing back to Ron Pipe. Cormorant, Justin Waples won with Corella, Nick Bacon, second and Sue Law's Coralie third.
The RBODs headed towards Pinto and back up to Horse Shoal and back down to Ron Pipe. Louise Soloway Chan in Belinda won with Stephen Herring's Red Jacket second and Aquamarine, Angela Shephard taking third.
The Sandhoppers fleet had Sea Phantom, Peter Thompson, in the lead by a long way on their penultimate leg down to Holliwell. The remaining fleet were well spread out but closed up a little on the foul tide beat. The final top three were Sea Phantom first, The Dogs 5 Mark Jewell second and Bill Wright in Undine third.
The Ospreys race was again won by David Carroll in Lethal Weapon with Robert Shaw's Bird of Prey IV second and Light 'n' Bitter Paul Heather third.
The remaining dinghy fleets were up river and had another couple of brilliant races. The larger Laser fleet again playing nip and tuck at the rounding and showing real tactical skill afloat.
In the dinghy handicap fleet Keith Fedi in his OK won the first race with Raggedy, Dave Chamberlain's Streaker second. These places were reversed in race two today with the Streaker taking the win. Eamon Browne in his Dart 15 came third in both races. Raggedy is currently leading counting three bullets.
In the Phantom fleet, Bill Taylor took both wins today in Shergal Pharky with Richard Nurse second in both and Chris Roberts third. Bill Taylor leads Richard Nurse on count-back going into the final day tomorrow.
The RS200 fleet had three boats today and Jo Tribe took both races with Rob Thain taking second in both. Jo Tribe leads the weekend three points clear of Amelia Hague.
The laser fleet today was dominated by Harry Courts in an ILCA 6 with his two first places. Duncan de Boltz took two seconds. In race two today Nick HuttonPenman snatched a third place. Duncan de Boltz leads overall.
Many more photos are available in the Gallery on the Burnham Week website, www.burnhamweek.com/2023-gallery
Results will be available at www.burnhamweek.com/results-2023