26 June 2008 No Comment

Burnham Sailing Club held the annual pursuit race on Wednesday evening in three sections, the cruisers, the sports boats and the juniors.

The idea is that the boats are sent off in order of their handicap and the one that is in the lead at the finish time (8.15pm) will be the winner.

The first boat away was Zipper at 6.20, although she was overtaken by some of the Hunter 707 fleets (part of the sports boat section) she was still in the lead at the allotted finishing time and thus won the race.

John Lewis in Baby Beluga had a very fast race and was ahead by a wide margin as the finish signal was sounded.

The top mark was Canewdon, with a circle around the buoys near Bridgemarsh Island, back to Fairway no. 7 and then up to no. 13, and then ever decreasing circles which meant that the finish was in sight of the race box.

The breeze was gusty and several boats were broaching - one hunter 707 did a complete 180 degree turn as a large gust hit with the spinnaker flying.

Ben Harden in a laser 4.7 was the winner in the junior fleet.

Sunday was due to be the Commodores cruise from the Burnham Sailing Club but the gale force conditions meant the event had to be cancelled.

BSC club president and lifelong member of Burnham’s sailing community Bob Cole celebrated his 95th birthday at the club this weekend so very happy birthday to him from the Crouch Log.

l The Royal Corinthian One Design class held a regatta for the class this weekend starting with a race on Friday, two on Saturday and one planner for Sunday.

The class has taken delivery of two restored boats: Coralie, which has spent the last four years in Lowestoft at the boat building school and Corella finished to an extremely high specification by Rice and Coles, with Nick Oliver now in partnership with the boats owner Vic Maller who has had her since 1972. The boats were on display along with Cormorant which was willed to the class by her owner Ken Bushel who sadly died earlier this year. He had painted her orange - the colour of a cormorant’s feet and beak.

Sunday blew far too hard for any boats to go out so the weekend was based on three races. Bob Melville, veteran of several different fleets on the river and who has been sailing on the Crouch for around 75 years, was sailing his boat Corinna and won two of the three races. Class captain John Heathfield, instigator of the current restoration programme, snatched a win in Corpo Santo on Saturday morning. The racing was so keen that there needed to be a general recall on what turned out to be the final race on Saturday afternoon. Anyone who is interested in joining the class can telephone the RCYC on 01621 782105.

Saturday, although rather grey, had a perfect force three breeze for the regular sailing in the afternoon. Although several of the Squib class have now gone to the National Championships in Lowestoft, there were still eight on the line in the afternoon - Tombo, Bill Jones finished in the top slot.

The boats went round Redward and up the Roach with a run back down to Coleward before dropping the spinnakers to get in shore for the reach back to the finish line. In the RBODs, Jade, Martin Smith, had built up a big lead on the others after the tidal gate at the Roach buoy but a navigational error found her heading for the wrong mark whilst those behind kept their kites filled to Coleward, this gave the lead to Annette and Jade managed a second. An unfortunately incident had a crewman on an RBOD requiring hospital treatment, but the efficiency of all the personnel involved had an ambulance waiting at the RCYC ready to take him as soon as he came ashore.

The HDRC had the third race of their second summer series on Tuesday evening with nine competitors taking part in the 12 race evening. Phil Newman won by three points from Pete Hutchings. Both were well ahead of third placed Neil Fulcher. Pete Hutching is currently leading the series by one point.

Source: Maldon and Burnham Standard