Burghfield open meeting

National 12’s at Burghfield – 18th March Gul sprint championships.

Eight visitors came to join nine of the local National 12’s at Burghfield sailing club. The sailors were greeted with an 18kts westerly gusting 25kts, as forecast. Race officer Ian Bullock set a trapezoid course with an inner loop and outer loop in order to keep the 2 fleets separate. With the National 12s racing on the outer loop and Oks on the inner loop. The aim was to run as many 15-20 minute races as possible

Race 1 started without incident with Tom and Robert Stewart taking the win. On the second start, the fleet was a bit more eager to go causing a general recall which gave the race officer the opportunity to get the new ‘U’ flag out the fleet then got off cleanly. Races two and three where won by Graham Camm and Zoe Ballantyne, race four saw Tom and Robert back at the front.
After four morning races, Tom and Robert Stewart were leading by three points with John Meadowcroft and Sam Brown in second and Graham Camm and Zoe Ballantyne in third.

After an excellent lunch, a slightly depleted fleet returned to the water for four more races; this time the N12s were sailing the inner loop of the trapezoid which had the effect of keeping the fleet compact for longer. John and Sam took the win in race 5, Graham and Zoe won races 6 and 7 while Nick Copsey and Rosie White took the gun on race 8 propelling them to 4th overall. By the end of the afternoon, Burghfield sailors Graham and Zoe had done enough to win the event by two points from Tom and Robert with John and Sam in third. Jon and Maya Brown were first ‘non foiler’ and Bim Daser and Katie Meadowcroft were first Admiral’s cup boat (non self-draining boat).

Many thanks to Ian Bullock and his race team for running some fantastic racing, to the safety teams who where kept busy throughout the day, the club managers and of course Gul for their sponsorship of the series.

The next event in the National 12 Gul series will take place at Salcombe Yacht Club, 29th April to 1st May.

 

Photographs by Douglas Powell

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Overall results

Rank	Sail_Number	Helm Name	Sailing_Club	Crew Name	Points
1st	3530	Graham Camm	Burghfield SC	Zoe Ballantyne	8
2nd	3544	Thomas Stewart	Waldringfield	Robert Stewart	10
3rd	3543	John Meadowcroft	Upper Thames SC	Sam Brown	15
4th	3548	Nick Copsey	Stokes Bay SC	Rosie White	25
5th	3483	Jon Brown	Burghfield SC	Maya Brown	28
6th	3519	Jeremy hartley	Stokes Bay	Luke Hartley	30
7th	3410	Bim Daser	Burghfield SC	Katy Meadowcroft	36
8th	3526	Christian Day	Salcombe YC	Sophie Day	40
9th	3513	George Finch	Royal Harwich Yacht Club	Lucy Homer	45
10th	3520	George Smith	Shoreham Sailing Club	Alice Crick	48
11th	3545	Tom Lee	Burghfield SC	Jenefer Bugge	64
12th	3445	Nigel White	Burghfield SC	Chris White	68
13th	3388	Alan Beeton	Burghfield SC	Ella Ford	77
14th	3527	Kevin Iles	Thorpe Bay YC	Char Stewart	97
15th	3271	Neal Lillywhite	Burghfield SC	Freya Lillywhite	103
16th	3457	David Copse	Burghfield SC	Rowan Copse	108
16th	3478	Howard Caney	Burghfield SC	Monika Tabat	108