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| Williwaw Trophy Series Report | |||||||||||||
| Sunday 23rd March 2008 |
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It was 95 years ago, when the Burnham Yacht Club was in its infancy, that Easter Day last fell so early in the year. This, the storms of two weeks ago, and the horrific forecast meant we were only ever likely to see a small number of entries for this event – in the end there were but three! The planned format was to have a race on Good Friday afternoon, two races on Saturday, and one on Easter Sunday, allowing the racers to get away Sunday lunchtime and do other “Eastery” things. So much for the planning! Friday dawned with grey skies, and a Northerly near gale, with gusts of 26 knots recorded from the race box. Discretion took the better part of valour, and with even more wind forecast for later in the day, it was decided to abandon Friday’s racing. Saturday suffered a worse fate. Gusts of 39 knots were being recorded in the Roach, and again the decision was taken to abandon. Sunday promised a lull in the wind as the depression passed overhead, and it was decided we would try to hold two races that day. Come Sunday morning we indeed only had 12-15 knots of Southerly wind. Sadly, it was accompanied by horizontally driven snow! Our third entrant decided he had seen enough of global warming, and opted to stay in the warm. Still, the Williwaw, if nothing else, is designed to test the mettle of hardy sailors, and after a 10 minute postponement to allow the Corinthian fleet of frustrated Dragons, who had also been kept in port for the previous two days, to clear their line, our intrepid sailors were off. An up river course was set (would you want to encounter 20 Dragons on a snowy day in the Roach?), and after a couple of visits to Canewdon the race went to the Commodore in ‘Titian’, narrowly beating Duncan Hayley in ‘Double Trouble’ by 23 seconds on corrected time. The second race also went up river, was somewhat shorter, and again ‘Titian’ took line honours, this time by a larger margin, and with them the Williwaw Trophy. After thawing out with the aid of a number of hot toddies the prizes were presented in the Club at lunchtime, giving the frozen crews the opportunity of a well earned afternoon off. The good news is that both boats got round safely with no damage, our starting light system is invaluable in a blizzard, and it will be 152 years before Easter falls this early again! A full report on the 2008 Williwaw Series can be seen here |
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By Chris Slatter |
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