Burnham Week 2021 – Day 1
by Sally Harbott 28 Aug 13:26 PDT
28 August – 4 September 2021
Burnham Week Day 1 © Alan Hanna
The first day of Burnham Week was grey with a variable wind from the North. The Multihulls were the first class off. 5 started and headed down river in their first race. The lead two on the North shore, Persuasion, Simon Barnes and Grey Goose, Ken Whyte stopped each other getting going, with one on its own in the middle of the river getting clear ahead. NRB, Julian Linton won with Nick Wood in Origami second.
Class One had a busy start line with Jackal helmed by Digger Harden on the line first, with Skullduggery owned by Don Rawlings just to weather of Phillip Harbott’s Mantra. Slip Stream, helmed by Lizzie Brown was close to them, with the X37 Exile and Jeannie last to start. Over the course of the race, Paul Trueman in Exile took the on the water lead, with the Aphrodite101, Mantra next on the water, in front of the higher rated Jackal. John Saunders in his Elan 31 Jeannie finished 4th on the water with Slipstream crossing 5th and Skullduggery 6th. Both Jeannie and Skullduggery had to drop their spinnakers in gusts, in order to make the North shore finish line. On corrected time, Mantra won by over 8 minutes from Jeannie, with Exile third. On Day one of the Team Trophy, the Burnham Sailing Club Team of Exile and Jeannie are leading.
Class 5 is yet again a popular and highly contested class; local handicap with spinnakers. The start was won at the pin end, with Paul Hinkins in Helms Deep and Eclipse, Daryl Mylroie’s Maxi 1000, getting good starts with Grace and Danger helmed by Stephen Gosling also up in the mix. When they came to finish, Eclipse took the bullet, but Grace and Danger the SJ27 was close enough behind to save her time on the bigger, higher rated boat. Grace and Danger won by 3 minutes from Eclipse on corrected time with Helm’s Deep third.
Class 6 started at the pin end with the exception of Ophelia and Traigh. On corrected time, Ophelia, Richard Moore won, with Kate the Kite second, sailed by Keith Musto.
Elites had 10 starters in their first race and enjoyed close racing down to the first mark, despite the wind dropping off a bit on the first leg. Legs Eleven owned by Paul Fisk won with The Outlaw second, sailed by Zandy Hobday. In the second race, Legs Elevens took a second win with Bill Blank in Oink Squeal second.
In the ECOD class Widgeon, Ian Wilson, the Bermudan rig won both races.
The Dragons sailed down river with their spinnakers up, with some of the fleet having to drop their kites before Greenward, After Greenward, they had a spinnaker leg into the Roach before heading down river. Anarchy, Chip Cole won with Page Boy XI helmed by Paul Taylor second.
The Hunter 707 class went down to Greenward and up the Roach and Cezanne, Tony Hall was fighting hard to take first place. By the finish, Cezanne sailing only three up were fifth, with James Dallimore taking the win, with BQ, Billie Quinlan second.
The Squibs had 3 boats called OCS out of the 24 strong fleet and Lady Penelope, Malcolm Hutchings, Heartbeat, Dan Wastnage and Robert Coyle in Humphrey all having to go back, leaving them well off the pace at the first mark. By the end of the race, Squiggle, Jono Brown was first, with Ross Corbett’s What’s the Story helmed by Nic Tolhurst second, Guy Fawkes, Phil Aspinall took third. Lady P managed to get back up to 9th, Humphrey 10th and Heartbeat 13th.
The RCOD fleet saw Cormorant, Justin Waples win with Coralie Sue Law second. The RBOD class enjoyed close racing, with Phalarope, Chris Corrigan leading to the first mark. By the finish, Mandarin, Will Dallimore was a minute ahead of Red Jacket, Steven Herring second.
The Ospreys was won by Bird of Prey, Robert Shaw and in second Dark Matter, Roger Blake.
In the dinghy classes, there were two races. In the phantoms, The End, Graham Dale Jones won, with Unnamed Darren Sewell second. In race 2, Graham Dale Jones took his second win, with Well ‘eeled, Eric Howe second.
In the dinghy handicap race 1, Bryan Haynes in his Aero 7 won, with Nathan Flynn and Amy Shepherd in the RS Feva XL. In race 2, Ethan Haque won in his Laser 4.7, with Nathan and Amy taking another second place.
www.burnhamweek.com