BURNHAM WEEK 2007 REVIEW – Int DRAGON

by David Hall

Summer arrived for Burnham Week and brought with it plenty of sunshine and light breezes.  The first series of the week was the August Bank Holiday Weekend for which there were 17 entries and two races on Sunday.  The wind however, was almost too light for racing with many holes and variations in direction; which meant that changes in places were frequent and rather a lottery.  Those at the front found themselves at the back on several occasions.  However, as is often the case the more experienced sailors finished at the front of the fleet.  With one discard, much depended on the results of the final race on Monday when the fleet experienced the first of several controversial course shortenings.  Mark Wade in Avalanche who finished 7^th, would have won the series but failed to pass through Horse Shoal gate.  He was disqualified – as were several boats including Ian Gray in Scorpio.  However, with discards and previous results, Ian Gray won the series, QuickSilver III 2^nd, Ganador 3^rd.  It was good to see both Ian Ratnage in Water Rat 4^th and Richard Davies 6^th in Flotation joining us for this series.  Andrew Moss in Humoresque, David Andrassy in … Magic and Nick Mellish in Tamerlane brought up the rear as they did not race the whole series.

The second series of the week was the mid week points for the Valhalla Trophy.  With several boats out of the water on their way to the Worlds, in Dublin, and others who returned to work, the fleet was somewhat diminished.  During the series there were hard fought battles between Martin Makey in Ganador and David Hall sailing with his daughter Katharine, FlameAgain in which FlameAgain won two of the races by passing Ganador on the last tack of the race.  Giving FlameAgain four 1^st  to win the series, Ganador 2^nd, Humoresque was 3^rd, beating Martin Fogg in HatTrick, David Andrassy in …Magic and Dick Rycroft in Logie.

The third series of the week was the full week points for the Sydney Sabin Bowl,  which was extremely closely fought between FlameAgain and Ganador.  With both boats finishing with four 1^st , two 2^nd , and two 3^rd .  So the final result was determined on the last race which FlameAgain won.  It was in this last race in which there was the most wind of the week reaching force 4 to 5; and in which Martin Makey was knocked unconscious by the boom during a gybe at Fairway No3 and woke up a second or two later on the cockpit floor.  Although fit enough to race, he was now in fourth position only managing  to recover to 3^rd by the end of the race.  A 2^nd would have given him the points for the week.

The final event of the week was Trophy day on Saturday which was again sailed in light winds force 2 – 3.  The 11-boat fleet for this series was bunched up on the final run from Roach to Clarks  which Ganador managed to squeeze round in first position.  With the tidal gate he was uncatchable before the finish, and won the Telegraph Cup.  Clive Morgan in Amok was 2^nd, and Gary Harrison in Spindrift was 3^rd.

Overall the races were fun, but it was a little disappointing that they were generally shorter courses than is traditional for Burnham Week.  This was perhaps because of the light winds and the National Championships of the 707's which were held at the mouth of the river where we often sail for Burnham Week.  Courses were shortened on several days because of the lack of wind; many commented that the shortening procedure from the final mark of the course seemed unnecessarily complicated, and lead to a lot of confusion and some disqualifications throughout all classes.  However, the sun shone all week and it was a real pleasure for everyone to sit out on the Club balcony in the afternoon.  Sunglasses, sun-creams, shorts and tee-shirts, Pims, Magners, and Pints were the order of the day. 

Bank Holiday Weekend Regatta

Weeks Points

Mid Week Points

Saturday 1st September Daily Telegraphy Trophy