Icebreaking Begins - Burghfield SC

LWA Icebreaker Event One: Burghfield Sat 29 October 2022:

Probably the warmest Icebreaker we have ever had! Several people were actually wearing shorties! The forecast was for 9-11 knots or so, but gusting up to 20, however when we arrived the wind had hardly reached Force Two. Entries were rather depleted for some very good reasons, but it meant that we had only 13 sailors on the water and only three teams competing.

Our Race Officer, Tony Chandler, had set us a triangular starboard-hand course at the far end of the lake because of the unusual south-easterly wind direction. The top three positions in both Race One and Race Two were filled by the same sailors, Rob Kent, Emily Kent and Peter Murray. Fourth place in the first race was filled by Oxford’s new whizz kid, Lawrence Beaumont and in Race Two by Annette Kent. It was a very pleasant morning’s sailing in the bright sunshine with about 18 degrees of heat.

The expected gusts of 20 knots had not yet materialised by the end of lunch, although there was certainly more wind, which had veered a few degrees and so enable our Race Officer to tweak the course and make it into a more interesting box. There were a bunch of Port Starters in Race Three, and their boldness seemed to pay off as they got away nicely from the rest of the field. Crossing the Finish Line Rob was followed home by Ady Rippington and Emily, who was making a fine job of leading her own team, the Fun Bunch, with two seconds and a third after three races.

The Port Starters made the right choice again in Race Four, Rob took first place with Peter Murray having his best result of the day in second and Annette in third.

Results:

Team:

1: 54 points The Fun Bunch – Emily Kent, Peter Murray, James Hope and Joe Coulson

Joint 2: 68 points Farmoor Flyers – Ady Rippington, Lawrence Beaumont, Andy Lacy, Kerry Hastings

Joint 2: 68 Solent Specialists – Rob Kent, Annette Kent, Rod Davis, Bill Keeling

Individual:

1: Rob Kent 3

2: Emily Kent 7

3: Peter Murray 8

4: Ady Rippington 11

5: Annette Kent 12

6: Lawrence Beaumont 16