Great day's racing at the Bartley Beast

Published 11:57 on 4 Dec 2022

The second event of the the series 'The Beast Gets Angry' lived up to its name with a significant drop in temperature bringing out all the winter gear and a tricky North Easterly force 3 gusting 5 with some big shifts to test the mental strength of the competitors. The morning sunshine was very welcome though with a buzz of excitement about the club as the sailors rigged and sailed off to the start line at the bottom end of the reservoir.

The double handers went off first with a mixed fleet ranging from Albacores, Merlins, and a Scorpion to a GP14 and Graduate. The 17 boats sailed the course that maximised the length of the water with a windward leeward leg followed by windward and 3 broad reaching spinnaker legs to let the 3 sailed boats stretch their legs and maximise their handicap. The handicap system was clearly working well with Matt Biggs and Mark Fowler taking the win in the Albacore followed by Julian Harms and George Bender in the Merlin and Andy and Ciara Gill in the RS200.

As the double handers came in for lunch at Tilly's the single handers took to the water with strong fleets of OKs, Phantoms, and ILCAs with a few RS300s, Supernovas, Solos and K1s thrown in for good measure. The racing was tight as many of the boats were on similar handicaps and the strategy was tricky - go for the pressure, or the lifts? Despite a long first beat the fleet hit the first mark together and a big wind shadow hit the fleet as they went around the mark onto the run. As the race went on the fleet spread out with many close battles providing interest for all participants. Andy Couch took the win in the Phantom followed by Chris Bownes in his Phantom and Mike Gibson in his Supernova.

The double handers returned to the water as the temperature and wind began to drop. The course remained the same and so did the winners with Matt and Mark taking the honours for the race and the event. Andy and Ciara took second from Julian and George and second in the event overall on countback. In the single handers Andy took his second 1st to win the event followed by Nick Craig and Andy Davies in their OKs, however the overall positions remained with the race 1 form with Andy first, Chris second and Mike in third. Full results on the results section of the website.

Thanks to Sam and John for running the event, the rescue crew for sitting in the cold all day, and Tilly's for feeding us so well as usual!

Yachts and Yachting report here: Bartley Beast Y & Y report

Last updated 14:02 on 16 April 2024