On 5th April a very talented Finn fleet arrived at Burghfield for an event to be shared with an equally good OK fleet.

The weather forecast had been very promising and was even better than expected on the day – beautiful blue skies and a puffy 10 – 20 knot breeze blowing down the lake. Even the Burghfield water was a glistening blue (maybe from the weed-suppressing treatment but looking tropical regardless).

The format for the day was 8 short races with a break for lunch. This gave everyone a fantastic day of practice and a chance to iron out some early-season boat handling rustiness. After unpacking, coffee and bacon rolls and an hour or so of Finn chat we launched into what was to become some very glamourous conditions.

A port hand trapezium course was set that included a slight dog leg run to avoid one of the lake’s small islands. This last section of the run caused some chaos at times as boats tried to sail the last section by the lee or gybe twice. Typically, the committee boat end of the line always looked favoured but if you held your nerve from the pin end you usually hit a big left-hand shift that sometimes got you back across the fleet. Further up the beat there were two islands to navigate and those that went right of each looked great at times but usually suffered towards the weather mark as the wind went left again.

Unsurprisingly, the local sailors, Nick Craig and Mark Copper regularly threaded their way upwind to show the visitors the way. Mark was borrowing a boat but looked very useful all day. It was great to see Jim Hunt back in a Finn. He was using a 2012 Olympic sail that still sported the Austrian decals from Weymouth. This slightly aged sail seemed to be working well for him and he showed that he had lost none of his guile. Paul Carrington (Paxton Lakes) had travelled for his first Finn event and did very well.

The Oscar flag was raised for the whole day which gave everyone a good workout downwind. All of the races were tight and, if you didn’t get to the windward mark in the mix, making ground back was tricky.

Race 1 Jim led at the weather mark but succumbed downwind to a few boats that were pumping harder (not necessarily always effectively!). At the finish, it was Nick Craig from Richard Sharp (Emsworth Slipper) and Simon Percival (Christchurch). Tim Carver (Warsash) suffered a broken Halyard and missed race 1. Sadly, this was not to be his only mishap. Russ New also suffered a breakage and missed the first 2 races.

Race 2 After another nip and tuck beat. Nick again won from Jim and Richard.

Race 3 Tim shot off the line and was ahead at the first mark. He was unfortunate then to find himself in the water after a big gust on the run. Nick was ahead of Allen Burrell (Thorpe Bay) and Jim at the finish.

Race 4 By going hard left towards the first mark Gary Phare (Torbay) was ahead of Mark and Richard at the first mark. Richard got inside these two boats on the first reach. Gary held second until a botched tack at the line let Mark through. Richard won from Mark and Gary.

Race 5 The breeze had picked up again and a couple of sailors decided that 4 races were enough so stayed ashore after lunch. Nick sailed away again to win from Simon and Richard.

Race 6 Richard led this race until the last reach when Nick got inside to win again. Richard and Tim followed.

Race 7 Nick won from Simon and Jim.

Race 8 Tim’s run of bad luck finished with a broken kicker. Richard led from Nick at the first mark but Nick got inside at the bottom of the run to win from Richard and Simon.

The fleet then gratefully sailed to the club after a tremendous day’s racing. Some aching limbs were reported but all in all a brilliant event that we hope to repeat each year as one of the early season warm-ups.

Overall, Nick comfortably won the event from Richard and Simon (in the same order as the first and last races!).

Overall results:

Report by Richard Sharp

Photos by Peter Blackman