Sailors from as far afield as Hampshire and the West Midlands gathered at the weekend for Burnham Sailing Club’s Feva and Tera ‘Train and Race’ Weekend. The Feva national coach, Niall Myatt, was on hand to put the crews through their paces and local RYA coach Nick Hutton-Penman took charge of the Teras.

With a near even split of Pro and Sport sails the Teras concentrated on perfecting their roll-tacking in the morning, followed by a longer session in the afternoon that covered racing starts and technique in near perfect sailing conditions. The hot sun saw sailors throwing off their aquafleeces and hopefully getting a taste of the sunny conditions to be had in July at Carnac for the Worlds. Parents were happy to see that everyone was coming off the water with great big grins plastered across their faces.

After a night of thunder and heavy rain the air was very close for the start of Sunday’s racing. After a briefing from BSC Commodore and Race Officer John Hardy the Tera fleet launched into slow conditions. Race 1 was completed with Josh Aldridge taking first place followed by James Hutton-Penman and Hamish Eckstein. Flynn Davies entertained onlookers by managing to capsize his Tera in airless conditions directly in front of the clubhouse.

 The second race started optimistically enough but soon saw the complete death of what small puffs of air there had been. With the tide ebbing out Tera sailors were soon heading back down the Crouch. After rounding the windward mark the back of the fleet picked up a small breeze and it looked for a moment as if they would overtake the front but the race officer’s hooter sounded to signal that the race was abandoned for lunch.

After filling up on pasta the Feva and Tera fleets headed out to make up for the slow start to the day’s racing. The new Race 2 saw alot more wind in the sails and James HP took first place and, (having discovered the benefits of staying upright) Flynn Davies took second followed by Josh Aldridge in third. Will Taylor repeated his success from the morning session coming in as first Sport sailor followed once again by Crispin Beaumont. The wind got up a bit stronger for Race 3 which was won by Flynn followed by James HP and Josh Aldridge in Pros and Will Taylor first  Sport sailor home with James Eales (making a promising start to his Tera racing) second.

Wind was at around 20mph for the last race of the day which made for some exciting sailing. First place went once again to James HP with Flynn second and Will Taylor edging ahead of Josh Aldridge to take third spot. A great weekend’s sailing came to an end and a big thank you goes to BSC coach Richard Taylor for organising the event.

Overall results were Pro – 1^st James Hutton-Penman, 2^nd Flynn Davies, 3^rd Josh Aldridge. Sport – 1^st Will Taylor, 2^nd – Crispin Beaumont, 3^rd – James Eales. Full results at http://www.burnhamsc.org/event_detail.asp?type=Results&id=724

Photos © Nigel Weetch