Burnham Dragons in France 31 May 2016

Despite the reported French fuel shortages, 37 boats made the Derby Dragon, including two Burnham boats and some crew on other boats. Day One was lost to no wind, thunder and mist, but the compensation was an excellent langoustine lunch and free bar provided by the club. Day Two had four attempted starts, but only two races as the first start saw an over keen fleet recalled and a restart under a black flag, and the final race was abandoned within fivee minutes due to a huge wind shift and a falling tide reminding everyone of the need to get back into harbour up the increasingly shallow channel before they got stuck outside.

After two races, Storm is in 14th and Scorpio in 19th. Both also won prizes at the regatta dinner, Storm won some bubbles with a trip on a tornado on foils going to Scorpio. There are, however, two more days and plenty more sailing to go.

Update

This week brought better news: Day 3 was the breeziest of the event and saw the full complement of three races completed by the thirty seven Dragons entered in the event.  Unfortunately Storm had a frayed runner and had to retire after the first race.  Luckily Ian Gray had a spare and generously did the repair that afternoon.

The fourth and final day was typical of La Baule with light and shifty winds.  Boats moved up and down the fleet on each leg depending where the wind filled in. Sadly, there was no typical La Baule sunshine to compensate.

Geoff Butcher, crewing on Basilisk, an Aldeburgh boat, was top Burnham sailor in 9th place, on the same points but just ahead of Scorpio, who had moved up the fleet, and was  placed 10th.  Storm finished 22nd  which was more a reflection of runner problems than sailing results.

As always a big thank you goes to the YCLB for their great hospitality. And hopefully all participants are now safely home in spite of cancelled flights, trains not running and breakdowns.