Island Barn Reservoir Sailing Club

42 boats of all abilities took to the water at IBRSC for the Bart's Bash race, along with tens of thousands of others in boating venues all around the globe. Our weather was perfect - F3/4 NNE and sunny.

Race Officer Mads Oberson and his team set a kind of M shaped course - beat, run, reach across the bottom, beat, run and a very long start line to accomodate all the boats at one time. Although professing to be port biased, the wind was swinging a lot and many thought that the Committee Boat end was the place to be. In fact the place to be was mid line at high speed, which is where Paul Wright Anderson in a Laser was... to such good effect that he was able to tack on the first header and clear the starboard boats who had started at the the boat. Meanwhile down at the pin end, Mike Storey in his N12 with Ellie O'Leary diced with death above the line in the final countdown and was over at the gun, but returned swiftly.

Paul's great start launched him up the beat to be first at the windward mark ahead of Phantoms and RS300s, who were having a close duel until Peter Curtis forgot which boat he was sailing and did an RS500 tack in an RS300 (its all to do with the swing of the tiller extension) and took an early bath followed by a spot of floundering in irons. Behind, the Solos of Gareth Griffiths, Mike Dray, Paul Playle and Mark Ampleford were in close proximity and the first 3 remained so throughout the race, swapping places almost on every leg.

The blustery conditions took their toll on some of the less experienced sailors, but natural order was attained with Peter edging ahead of Richard Barker (Phantom) to be first on the water after 4 laps, but not by much (see results). Paul in the Laser remained well placed and had a good race in clear air to finish ahead of nominally faster RS200s and National 12, Behind, there was nothing stopping the speedy Solos who hung on to the wakes of the 200s and 12 for far too long and performed a great blanketing act on the runs to stay in touch, with Gareth edging the tight 3 way battle. Joe Dunn (Laser 4,7) sailed a great race to make the top 10 and first junior.

Final positions (click for full results):

1st and 1st Grand Master  Gareth Griffiths (Solo) 
2nd and 1st Standard Mike Dray (Solo)
3rd and 1st Master  Paul Wright Anderson (Laser)
4th Paul Playle (Solo)
5th = Richard Barker (Phantom), Peter Curtis (RS300)
7th and 1st Apprentice Master  Mark Ampleford (Solo)
8th John Oldham (Phantom)
9th and 1st Junior Joe Dunn (Laser 4,7)
10th Mike Storey & Ellie O'Leary (National 12)

All in all a great race enjoyed by all. There was a great vibe at the Club today.

Thanks to our 2 independent witnesses who made sure all was above board and that we satisfied the Bart's Bash Guinness World Record conditions.

Mike S

21 photographs