2023 Bournville RS&MBC RG65 Open race report

12 skippers turned up at Bournville RS&MBC on a bright and windless Sunday morning in the first week of September. The PRO for the day Roger Hopper called everyone together for the briefing on time and explained that he would sail the full length of Bournville lake plus a half beat to the finish, and then after the first three races he would decide if the course or length would need to be changed.

11 boats took to the start area which was down the far end of the lake, and you could tell how still the wind was in so much as there were still some geese feathers on the surface. Being on the line was critical as being behind at this stage would prove difficult to catch up. The first race took 11 minutes which considering the conditions was not bad. The opening salvo was posted by John Brierley followed by Dorian Crease & Peter Moore.

We were back up to 12 boats once Barry Mayer had sorted out his little mainsail outhaul problem, he obviously got it right as he finished 6^th. Tobias took the race win with his Ivy design. The other three mentioned before also took top 5 positions, so it looked like it would be tight most of the day. John B then took race 3.

PRO Roger then had a short break and we chatted about the course; the race timings looked about right so he decided to leave it as it was. Once race 4 had been completed there was a short break for tea & coffee in the boathouse. It was at this stage John Burgoine showed me a single race fleet scoring system called A-Fleet which he had loaded onto a tablet. This was the first time that I had seen this App and it is very simple to use in so much as I picked it up easily and then scored the first four races.

Racing continued steadily with the odd increase in the wind speed benefitting those close by and leaving others wondering where or when it was going to get to them. Lunch was taken with a nice spread of sandwiches provided by Bournville, and we were all back on the water by 13:15.

Things were a little tight at lunch when I added the last batch of race finishes onto the tablet, and it would be all to play for this afternoon. The top 4 boats all had a shocker in the first race after lunch, with Colin Billington sailing a Sith showing them the way to go with his first race win.

The top four boats then got their mojo back and proceeded to put in top 5 results for the rest of the day. The wind was getting very light at the end of race 11 and Roger H then announced that the next race would be the last.

Whilst everyone was packing their boats away, I completed the scoring which when I had time to look provided some interesting reading.

With 3 wins each was John Brierley, Tobias Laux & Mark Dicks.

With one win each was Dorian Crease, John Burgoine & Colin Billington.

It was however Dorian Crease that was the most consistent scoring nothing lower that 5^th place after his discards that took the win by a single point from John Brierley, followed by Tobias Laux.

Thanks to the Bournville RS&MBC and their race team for once again hosting a good RG65 race. It is the ideal boat for this venue as everything is within eyesight and that contributes to close competitive racing. Also, thanks to the competitors for the sportsmanship and rule observance. We had no protests and any incidents such as they were, were cleared on the water.

A selection of pictures is below.