Held over the Bank Holiday weekend and forming a part of the 125th Burnham Week Regatta the event attracted a competitive fleet of 12 boats eager to hone their skills prior to the National Championships at Highcliffe in two weeks time.
The weather looked unusually benign for Burnham Week which is more commonly associated with arduous courses raced over in 20+ knot winds.
In fact Saturday dawned bright and calm - so calm that the river was mirror flat- with only an occasional zephyr to be seen. With a flooding tide an immediate postponement was no surprise and the fleet resorted to their favourite activity with tape measures and rig tension gauges to perfect and record settings.
As the morning passed it became obvious that racing was going to be unlikely if not and the fleet accordingly requested the Race Officer to abandon any racing for the day.
Sunday morning was slightly overcast but still warm and another delayed start seemed likely as was indeed the case. The sea breeze did however develop and racing was on.
The starts for all fleets were expertly run by Edwin Buckley and his team from their committee boat moored off Pile House with start lines to either side for the dinghy and day boat fleets.
The course was the usual epic associated with this event with no less than two legs up and down the River Roach and a further final downriver beat against the tide to Holliwell.
The fleet started in close company on the short start line and short tacked up the north bank to find Greenward for the first leg across the river into the River Roach. Wayling had pulled ahead of the fleet whilst the following group of Roberts, Miller, Orman and Portway battled it out.
Read more: Phantom Class East Coast Championships
Phantom Nationals - ENTRY NOW OPEN
http://www.phantomclass.org.uk/events/phantom-nationals-2017-highcliffe-sailing-club
Entry £130 with a £30 discount if paid before 4th August 2017 EXTENDED DATE 14th August
Optimum Time Watches Phantom Southern Travellers race report round 6 at the 2017 Weymouth Dinghy Regatta By Mike Tustin
Sixteen Phantom sailors made the effort to travel down to Dorset to sample Olympic sailing waters for the two day Weymouth Dinghy regatta which started on Saturday 8 July. With mainstream weather forecasters and windguru predicting very light winds all were pleasantly surprised with the gentle breeze along with the presence of the big yellow ball nice and high in the sky. Almost perfect sailing conditions. With 120 other dinghies in attendance and using a common start/finish line we were all very pleased to find that we were sharing a start line with a good group of Oks for the first race at 1.00pm.
With a very busy line and missing James Dawson who eventually turned up late for the second race we set off. Very quickly and with very long legs in what turned out to be a windward leeward course Nick Orman and John Wayling sailed ahead to a slightly unexpected (in my boat anyway) finish at the committee boat after only 2 and ½ legs.
With the wind dropping slowly race two started in a very similar manner with Nick almost doing a horizon job on the rest of the fleet. As per the last race we all approached the finish line to find that this time we were sailing onto the windward mark once again. This did cause a little confusion in a few boats and several places were exchanged at this point and on the final approach to the windward mark.
The last race of the afternoon in even less but still a respectable breeze found Nick Orman heading right in towards Castle cove. Others found this to be hard race as loose floating weed seemed to have become quite a factor in this part of the harbour. However Nick Orman once again won the day followed by Will Gulliver and John Wayling.
Read more: Optimum Time Watches Phantom Southern Travellers race report round 6 at the 2017 Weymouth Dinghy...
Royal Windermere Yacht Club, Phantom open Meeting
9 phantoms attended the RWYC open, 7 travelling and 2 home boats made up the fleet. The forecast was decent and although a bit cloudy, a nice south westerly was blowing. The decision was made to sail in the south basin, meaning a 20 minute sail to the start line. The RO set a long beat, and the start line was nice and square resulting in a nice clean getaway. Although everyone picked different routes up the long beat at the windward mark at least 5 or 6 phantoms were very close, it was nip and tuck from there on with some swapping of places on the downwind legs. Phil Worth had a great second beat and pulled into a small lead, being closely followed by Adam Perry and Martin Knott. Phil held on for the win , with Martin pipping Adam on the line. Not far behind was Matt Nield and Richard Sims. A great race with some close racing throughout, and by Windermere’s standards a nice steady wind. The fleet sailed back in for lunch. After lunch the phantoms were joined by club boats of flying fifteens and dinghies for back to back races , unfortunately before the start Joe Bibby realised there was a large crack in his cst mast, so that was the end of his day, fortunately he has another mast, so shouldn't be off the water for too long.
Read more: Royal Windermere Yacht Club, Phantom open Meeting
Royal Windermere Yacht Club Open Sunday 9th July
Royal Windermere yacht club welcomes phantom sailors from near or far to a 1 day open meeting on Sunday 9th of July. 3 races, first race at 11am and 2 back to back in the afternoon. For anyone wishing to make a weekend of it, boats can be dropped off either on the Friday or the Saturday.
Come and sail on Englands largest pond, details can be found at www.royal-windermere.co.uk
Thanks Matt 1309
Phantom Open at Stone Sailing Club - Report
A combined Open meeting for the Phantom and Snipe classes was held at Stone Sailing Club over the weekend of 17th 18th June.
In complete contrast to the previous weekends event at Creeksea on the River Crouch, the River Blackwater appeared devoid of wind when the fleet arrived for an 11am briefing on Saturday morning.
The Maldon Barge race was in progress with barges and various smacks drifting out on the tide making a fine picture on a glassy sea. All very picturesque but it was no surprise to hear the two hour postponement of the planned 12:30 start time.
This delay allowed the fleet to indulge in several of their favourite pastimes, with small groups of sailors clustered around new boats generally fiddling with string and offering helpful tuning suggestions. In all such situations it is not unusual for control line splicing sessions to develop and this activity spread around the fleet. It was fortunate that a "mystery sailor" from Northampton was there to lend advice and assistance with knowledge gleaned from his past incarnation as a Marlow ropes representative. In fact the need to undertake similar works on the sadly neglected borrowed boat that he was proposing to sail soon became apparent and time flew by in a flurry of dyneema. Relieved by occasional tea and Haribo sweets, the fleet soon finished the macrame lessons and resumed the banter and tales of glories past.
After two hours it seemed certain that the land breeze/sea breeze battle was a dead heat - and heat was the word - as the temperature continue to rise and red faced sailors retreated to the club house. A further two hour delay was therefore no surprise.
Read more: Phantom Open at Stone Sailing Club - Report
Creeksea SC Phantom Open meeting 10th/11th June.
Thirteen boats contested the third event in the Phantom Class Eastern Series at Creeksea Sailing Club near Burnham on Crouch over the weekend of 10th and 11th June.
The weather was beautiful with clear blue skies but the wind was a steady 20 knots with larger gusts of up to 30 knots at times. Blowing from a broadly Southerly direction this meant that the conditions were even more like those being witnessed in Bermuda with a close fetch to a windward mark followed by a very fast up river reach to the famous “Cliff / Canewdon” stretch of river which swings to the south giving a hard beat in wind over tide conditions.
Read more: Creeksea SC Phantom Open meeting 10th/11th June
Optimum Time Watches Southern Phantom Series Round 6 at Downs Sailing Club
Downs SC (Deal, Kent) once again welcomes all Phantom sailors to their Open Meeting on 5th / 6th August.
There will be 2 races on Saturday afternoon (first start at 1300) and three races on Sunday (first start 1000).
Food will be available on arrival and a Saturday evening meal is included in the entry fee.
This is great opportunity to get some practice on the open sea before the Nationals in September.
Come to Deal to experience our unique "sledges" and some great sailing.
Chris 1211
