Eleven foolhardy 11 sailors arrived at Burghfield Sailing Club hoping for a sail on 21st March. After a brief delay while a black cloud passed, we launched in bright sunshine to the 20 or so club boats on the run to the start.

A few had a quick wake up dip on the before the start. Graham Camm & Zoe Ballantyne had a good race with Will & Arthur Henderson chased by Caroline Martin & Rosie White. All three wore round at the gybe mark at the leeward end of the lake where the wind was strongest. Eventually Graham & Zoe broke away to a win the race by a a few hundred yards. This meant that they were safely ashore before the wind rose to 28 knots and flattened all the other boats on the water. Even those who had finished before the wind struck capsized many many times on the short distance from the finish.

Four boats only finished. Race Officer John Ridehalgh was not fooled by the temporary abatement of the wind and cancelled the rest of the days racing. A wise decision in view of the Force 8/9 squall which whistled threw raising vorteces of spray from the lake in the afternoon.

Overall Results:

Pos Sail NoBoat Name Helm Crew Club Pts
1st 3469 Thanks for all the fish , Graham Camm Zoe Balantyne Burghfield 1
2nd 3418 New Isabelle Will Henderson Arthur Henderson Tamesis 2
3rd 3441 Tabilitha Musto Ian Gore Alex Gore Grafham 3
4th 3455 Bart Caroline Martin Rosie White Burghfield 4