Results / Open Burghfield SC - 23/09/2017

I recently noted that the Dyslexia Research Trust is located, perhaps cruelly, near Reading. Also near this thriving metropolis is the Blue Lagoon that is Burghfield Sailing Club, hosts of round 6 of the 2017 RS200 SEAS series.  The water there has this anti-weed blue dye in it. Some would say it lends the idyll an opalescent romance: others might say it looks like an alcopop, coincidentally one of my daughter’s pet names for her father. The turnout of 18 mostly club racers was very much in the SEAS spirit (i.e. not too many flinty-eyed sailing gods). Peter Vincent Esq came from as far as Wales, and never let it be said he’s a stick in the mud. Oh …)

We managed to start last in Race 1, fiddling and fumbling our way up a light and treasonous windward leg. All a bit sketchy – Jessop and Mears in Naughty Ripples led and won. Race 2 – no idea what happened. We picked up a clump of weed, and before I knew it we were 100 metres DFL … so RTD. 864 won? After lunch, the wind filled a wee bit - Race 3 and the Shrimp and me in Bôte D’Azur came inside Jessop and Mears at the first leeward and never looked back (save the occasional disdainful gurn, obvs). I had that horrible feeling all the way round race 4 … you know the one. ‘Did the RO actually see me over the line at the gun?’ As he was not actually Stevie Wonder, we’d a somewhat vain time circulating most of the race 1st and crossing the line 2^nd… OCS, to add to our list of acronyms. Endeavour contender Nigel Wakefield and Emma Sanderson won this race from the consistent Jessop and Mears who won overall. Meh, results below. SEAS overall results to follow when I get the time.

All credit to the warm Burghfield welcome, the plethora of cakes and driving beer at the bar. Praise in particular to the RO who did such a fab job in very tricky conditions.

Julian Bradley

27 September 2017