Alice Davis wins the Burnham SC RS Feva GP

Burnham SC RS Feva GP

Sailing Chandlery sponsored sailor Alice Davis and her crew Abby Hire were in action at Burnham Sailing Club just down the road from Sailing Chandlery HQ over the weekend of 13th and 14th April.

Race Report

The 3rd GP was hosted at Burnham SC, a place that we regularly train with Squiddies. The morning started with a nice breeze of 12-15 knots and it was coming up the river which was a great place for the course. The tide was quite a big factor in some of the races and we started the event with a 1st after some close racing, with Millie and Katherine in 2nd and Tom and Tom in 3rd. This was really good as we were hoping for top 5 results in all the races and to start the event well was encouraging!

We continued into the 2nd race with a shocker of a start and played a game of catch-up into 1st place. It was some really close racing and we were closely followed by Ralph and Kate in 2nd and Tom and Tom in 3rd.

The third race was hard as we had another terrible start and couldn’t quite get back into the top 5. There was some great sailing at the front however, with Caitlin and Joe with the first, Clara and Anna in 2nd rounded up with Ralph and Kate in 3rd. Overall, it was a fun day on the water and we were pleased with our results. We were the overnight leaders which was really good, made even better by the amazing quiz Marcus put together for the evening after the jacket potatoes and chilli that was made by the excellent galley for dinner.

The 2nd day started off to a tough race, where we went from the high teens to 3rd place. This showed us how good our boat speed is but we really need to work on our starts!! 1st place was Joey and Theo, 2nd was Quinn and Fin, with us in 3rd.

In the second race, we finally had a really good start but went the wrong way up the beat, misjudging the shifts and reaching the windward mark in the mid teens. We then caught up massively downwind after going high and fast and gained into 9th round the leeward mark continuing to learn from our mistakes the previous lap and went into 4th round the WW mark. It was then a very close downwind between us and Ralph and Kate with them just getting us as we rounded the leeward mark. Dylan and Lydia won followed by Tom and Tom and then Joey and Theo in third.

In the last race, we got messed up on the start line and were 3rd from last at the WW mark. It was hard not to give up but we carried on gaining through the race and ending up in 5th again. Joey and Theo took another great win, followed VERY closely by Caitlin and Joe and Fergus and Sam in 3rd. It was a really fun weekend which we learned that we DEFINITELY need to improve on our starts. It was really nice to see all our friends again as well and we had fun off the water with them. Thanks to the safety team including our coach Jon, Burnham SC for hosting the event, and to all the competitors for some close racing!