British Dragon Association

After the cold and windy conditions of the two previous weekends, the Burnham River and the regatta was blessed with glorious sunshine, but this made for light and fickle wind conditions and a nightmare for the 21 competing Dragons in the Easter trophy held by the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club.

The first champion race was sailed on the Friday afternoon in the same light NNE breeze the course again set in the River Roach. GBR 684 Hand Of Fortune escaped the fleet soon after the start and lead comfortable to the finish. A good tussle developed for 2nd & 3rd but it was GBR 707 Valkyrie Stuart Coltart from the Medway Yacht Club eventually getting the better of GBR 586 Scorpio Ian Gray.

On Saturday morning a light shifty breeze built from the same direction as the previous day. The fleet started on time at 10:30 again the leading boat at the start got away to establish a healthy lead that was never challenged. This time it was GBR 722 Avalanche Mark Wade. It was a different story behind with many place changes and with the breeze dying in the latter stages of the race GBR 644 Tsunami Nigel Cole came through from 6th to take second place on the last leg of the course to push GBR 729 Frank Tim Tavinor down to third. The fading breeze disappeared completely by the time of the scheduled second race and after the fleet patiently waited for two hours for a sea breeze to fill, the race officers abandoned racing for the day.

Sunday morning and a blanket of mist laid across the river delaying the committee boat departure for an hour. The fleet were sent down river on the last of the ebb, but it was another two hours before a few zephyrs of wind from the West started to appear. It was in these conditions that the race office started the fleet. GBR 644 Tsunami established an early lead, but on reaching the windward mark the fleet split equally between the North & South banks of the Crouch to try and avoid the strong running spring tide. The South bank boats gained the most advantage with the exception of Tsunami who maintained her lead. Again on the next run the fleet split and those on the normally less favoured South shore gained the greatest advantage for a second time. With GBR 688 Quicksilver III Robert Campbell taking the lead followed by GBR 636 Seafire David Crabb with Tsuanami dropping to third, and those positions were maintained to the finished on a shortened course. The wind had built to a steadier force 2 Westerly by the time of the second race of the day. Quicksilver again lead the way and finished the day with two firsts. Avalanche was second and Scorpio third. Tsunami having a disappointing race, having held third place slipped to 10th by the finish one behind Hand Of Fortune in 9th. That meant these 5 boats went into the final day separated by only 3 points.

Monday morning was another glorious sunny day but this time a good force 2 westerly breeze covered the course from the start and built to the top end of 3 by the end of the race. The race officers set the longest course of the weekend. Quicksilver again taking the winning gun, followed by GBR 704 Ganador Martin Makey second and Scorpio third. Avalanche finished a disappointing 4th having only to finish one behind Quicksilver to win overall.

The overall standing
1st GBR 688    Quicksilver   Robert Campbell
2nd GBR 722    Avalanche   Mark Wade
3rd GBR 586   Tsunami       Nigel Cole

The weekend was supported by a full social programme including one of our Belgium visitors providing a beer tasting evening with beer from his own brewery! 21 boats including 6 visitors competed on the River Crouch for the Dragon Easter trophy. The event was sponsored by Bolle, Musto, Longton &Gray, Mailspeed, Rice & Coles & Forrester Hyde.

Article by Michael Holmes 12th April 2007