Blashford Barrel Race
Published 09:23 on 29 Aug 2022
On Bank Holiday Sunday, Spinnaker sailors raced for the Blashford Barrel Trophy. This has been competed for since 1964 with some notable winners.
The racing was part of a wider fun day to which thanks to Paul Gray, James, Neil and many others are due. Lots of treasure hunting, kayaking and paddling.
In glorious warm conditions race team led by Jon Burns had the challenge of a fickle breeze oscillating from East to more Northerly - and puffing between almost nothing to a Force 3. A Committee Boat start at the Race hut shore led to a course that traversed the lake with two beats. The final long run back to the line resulted in Jon's aim of setting up chance of position changing and nervy defensive moves to protect earlier gains.
In this quick style single lap format, starts were even more crucial than usual. In 3 of the 4 races it proved vital to get onto port as soon as possible through a pin end start.
The junior fleet of topper, oppy and Feva were set windward/ leeward. There was no stopping Oppy Monty who took four wins. Topper Hayden in second with the Fevas having good sails too.
In the faster boat fleet, including junior Toppers, Race 1, reigning champion Jon Crosser showed the fleet his pace and was never challenged. In Race 2, Firefly Tom Clay held Les Radford in the Solo, Jon and James in the Firefly. In Race 3, Paul Gray jumped straight into Solo 5581 and took a first over Les, and Jon. This race proved to be a convenient discard for the Fireflies who came back in force for a 1,2 in Race 4.
Overall, in an incredibly tight leaderboard, Rear Commodore Sailing Tom takes the 2022 Blashford, with James and Jon tied 1 point behind with only 'countback' splitting them.
To complete the day Commodore Hywel presented the trophies and then a Summer Awards event where all Sunday 2022 series event trophies were handed out. A full summary will be available on the Results Tab shortly.
Full Blashford race results on the Sailwave Results tab. Thanks all race crew. On Wednesday, its two more Trophy races and fish and chips time.
Last updated 09:41 on 20 December 2023
