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Burghfield - 2005 |
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Burghfield 12th - 13th November Seven visitors joined one local sailor for the Inlands at Burghfield SC near Reading on 12 – 13 November. After the previous day's wild weather, the weekend was a complete contrast with light winds from the west on Saturday and a slightly heavier breeze from the north on Sunday. The sailing area at Burghfield is a lake formed from old gravel workings. As with most inland clubs the marks are arrayed around the shore, but here also interspersed with islands! The RO nonetheless managed to provide courses which were well suited to the conditions of each day. Saturday – Race 1 After a delay while the original course was changed to follow the shifting wind the first race started in a westerly breeze that was 3 knots at best. Following the start the first beat was uneventful, with Gareth Williams arriving first at the windward mark, followed by Ian Stow and then Stacey Vials. Unfortunately the leaders had failed to notice that the course change had included a change of side for this mark and so they met Brian Finnie and Katie Mapplebeck coming the opposite way rounding correctly. Surprisingly there were no conflicts although there followed some heated debate about who was right, ultimately resolved with verbal advice from the safety boat crew in favour of Brian and Katie, who were now in the lead closely followed by Feargal Finlay. Brian held his lead downwind but Feargal and Katie broke though on the first reaching leg. Upwind again, Katie maintained her lead while Brian overtook Feargal again but at the mark Feargal's better tactical sense allowed him to get through inside both Brian and Richard Eagleton who by then had joined the leaders. Feargal followed Katie into second place on the shortened course while Richard and Stacey sailed over Brian on the final downwind leg to take third and fourth places. Race 2 With the wind staying light and variable the second race was started only after a further delay in the hope of an improvement. As the fleet took off to the left side of a downsized triangle-sausage course, Brian had reckoned that the right side would be better, despite having made a late start to get clear. This proved correct and Brian rounded first, just ahead of Katie and Gareth. On the reach Katie worked past Brian to get ahead, only to have Gareth overtake her on the next leg. After Gareth, Katie and Brian rounded the downwind mark in quick succession, Brian tacked away to clear his wind and found that the leg which had favoured the port tack first time around had now become almost a fetch to the mark on starboard, allowing the following boats to gain lost ground. Katie passed Gareth again on this leg and Brian just held on to his third place at the mark. The next leg was straight downwind. Gareth passed Katie once again and held this lead to the finish. Behind, fortunes shifted as Feargal and Ian overtook Brian on the downwind leg, only for Feargal to be caught on the wrong side of a shift that allowed Ian and Brian through again. On the short beat to the finish places changed yet again with Brian first overtaking then losing out to Ian on the very last tack. With no prospect of any improvement in the conditions, racing was abandoned for the day. Sunday – Race 3 Racing started early on Sunday to recover from the loss of two races from Saturday's programme. The breeze was a light north-westerly which turned northwards and strengthened during the day. For race 3 a simple triangle-sausage course was set, with marks to starboard. With the breeze just struggling into existence the shifts left the start line biased to port, but Ian found a start at the committee boat end gave him the first option on the northerly wind shift to come. Nevertheless it was Stacey and Richard who led at the windward mark, followed closely by Ian and this order remained unchanged until the downwind leg when Ian gybed on a major shift to make up ground and picked off both Stacey and Richard at the mark. Ian held his lead to finish ahead of Stacey while Richard found himself pressed by Katie who had recovered from a poor first half to get back in the race but in the end it was Richard who kept his position. Race 4 The wind continued to strengthen and by the second race of the day had shifted further north and east. With the club fleet out in force for their Sunday series (there are 600 boats at Burghfield) the Europes were started behind the club classes on a complex course of several laps round a selection of the marks in the lake. The considerable number of other boats ahead, behind and everywhere, left little place for clear wind and with the direction still highly variable there was a constant change of fortune among the leading Europes. Ian generally made better pace upwind but conceded the downwind legs until finally getting clear of pursuers Stacey, Gareth and Katie. Behind these Feargal had tried to recover from some early misfortune but couldn't quite close the gap. Richard chose this race to capsize, while Brian was stuck at the back trapped among the stragglers from the club handicap fleet. Race 5 By now the wind had risen to something like 12 knots from the north-east. With the club fleet ashore for lunch the RO set a generously sized triangle-sausage for the Europe's final race. Once again the line was strongly biased to port and the fleet scraped over on starboard before tacking off to the right. By the windward mark and several more shifts later Gareth, Katie and Brian had opened up a gap between themselves and the next group but on the next two windward legs Brian lost the plot and fell to the rear, while Gareth opened out his lead over Katie, Richard and Ian. Then a personal competition between Katie and Ian on the penultimate reaching leg allowed Richard to get clear into second place. Further back, Stacey had been catching up after a prolonged argument with the pin mark at the start and was starting to close on Ian upwind. Ian then ventured too far to the left where the bottom of the lake stopped him in his tracks, letting Stacey through. Summary These were true “inland” conditions – winds that ranged from non existent up to a gusting 12 knots, and changing direction significantly while the effects of shore, trees, islands and shallows all affected the choice of route and tactics. Although the windless Saturday was not to everybody's liking, the weekend was a success and was closely contested. The top three sailors finished with equal points and the overall winner had to be separated by recourse to the results of the last race. Fittingly, the placing of the top three also reflected the National Ranking places for the year, which were determined following this the last event of the series. Gareth Williams took the overall Trophy, while Feargal Finlay was rewarded for his perseverance in trying conditions with the Youth Trophy. Local sailor Jane Stevens finished happy at receiving a lot of advice, and the long distance travellers set off for home having enjoyed the challenges of the five race programme. The trophies were awarded by Burghfield's PRO, Nick Voller, himself a Europe sailor of old. Richard Eagleton, on behalf of the Class Association and the competitors, thanked Burghfield SC for hosting the Inlands at short notice when the original arrangements had fallen through. Brian Finnie GBR348 Results
This was the final event of 2005 in the National Ranking series. The updated National Ranking table can be found here
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