Paul Burton emerged as the winner as Welland Yacht Club took part in the world’s largest sailing race on Sunday.
Bart’s Bash sees sailing clubs from all around the world organising their own races on the same day, with Welland having 16 boats – including a few from Witham Sailing Club – in their weekend event.
Unusually, there was a northerly wind blowing which meant the boats had to time reaching the start perfectly in order to get a good position.
As the race progressed, the wind gradually filled in helping the slower boats keep in contention, resulting in some very close racing.
Although Roger Ackroyd’s big 505 crossed the line comfortably in first place, Welland’s Paul Burton took overall honours on corrected time. Martin Cook, in his Solo, and Gail Follington (Laser Radial) took second and third respectively.
Witham then took fourth and fifth places, with Welland’s Prior and Bell in sixth. Emma Agar took a well-deserved seventh place in the little Topper, with Paul Wilson ninth, Ros Nichols and
Brian Cobb tenth and Lucy Burton 11th. Geri Van Haren took 12th just ahead of Katie Follington, while Alicia Ward came 13th – which was a great performance in her first race having joined the ‘junior club’ earlier this year.
All the results have now been submitted to the Bart’s Bash race organisers, but it will be a little while before global overall results are known.
