2024 MYA MD 6M R3 Results.

Sunday 21^st July saw 12 skippers from 7 different clubs meeting at Bournville RS&MBC for round three of the 2024 Midland District 6M Champion Skipper series.

There were some new faces to the 6M fleet from Manor Park RSC which was good to see and some of the regular 6M skippers missing due to holidays etc, which left us with a fleet of widely differing levels of experience.

Your PRO for the day was Roger Hopper, and he started proceedings with a briefing at 9:50am announcing that we would be sailing as one fleet and that conditions permitting, he would run things at a steady pace allowing for a coffee break and lunch break. As is normal with Bournville the wind conditions do not necessarily follow the forecasts in so much as it tends to have its own idea about the wind direction. This led Roger to say that the start line would be down the far end of the of the lake, with a beat, reach to the top mark, a spreader mark and then a run, broad reach to a gate at the bottom with the finish line between the two top marks.

Racing got away on time with unfortunately Simon Richardson having to withdraw due to a problem with the winch after practice, this left us with 11 on the start line. Simon stayed on to help which was much appreciated. Roger then proceeded to run four races before announcing a break for a coffee and biscuits. Peter the finish line scorer and Gordon then put the first set of scores onto the computer. We were quickly back on the water with racing settling down into a rhythm as the better skippers tended to deal with the changeable wind direction easier than the newer skippers, that does not mean that the newcomers did not get the better of the regulars on occasions.

After race eight Roger said that there was going to be a 30-minute lunch break, tea/coffee and sandwiches were all available in the club house. Racing resumed at 13:00 and this is where Shaun H really started his bid for the win, a good lunch and time to check over his boat set him off on a run of 8 straight wins. By race ten we had lost Chris Cheal, one of our newcomers from the starters, and Lester G dropped out after race fourteen with a broken rudder.

With the co-operation of the skippers and race team Roger H managed to get sixteen races completed by 15:45, where upon everyone set about packing their boats and gear away for the return journey. The results and prize presentation were conducted by Chris Cook in the boathouse, he started with thanks to Roger H and Peter for the race management, and to travelling skippers. The winner by a clear ten points was Shaun Holbeche, having taken twelve first places, second was Mark Dicks with three race wins, and third was Chris Cook himself.

Chris Cook took third place in front of John Burgoine after an event long battle between them, at lunch there was only three points in it and at the end it was down to two. The thing is Chris was sailing John’s old boat and John was sailing Bill Green’s new boat, which made for an interesting comparison. If you were counting the race wins you will notice that one was missing after the top two places had grabbed the vast majority, and the missing one went to John Burgoine. For a full set of results see here: 2024 MYA MD 6MCS R3

We hope to run a third round in the Midland District series on 19^th October at Two Islands RYC, which is to be confirmed so keep an eye on the MYA calendar and NOR.