Squib Burnham Week Report 6 Sep 2015

Phil Aspinall, sailing the bright yellow Squib, Guy Fawkes, won one of the coveted bottles of champagne, as well as a race, and reports on the week:

The Squibs brought their usual champagne holiday feeling to Burnham Week as the largest with fleet with 25 boats entered.  The front of the fleet was as competitive as ever but it was the spread of both talent and age which shone through more than the sun for the week.

It was great to see so many family combinations of fathers with children such as newcomers Melvin and Caitlin Rowe-Clark (and of course Micky Wright and Chris Dunn).  There were several uncles, nieces, brothers, sisters, cousins. At the young end we had both the Otter Commodore (Scarlett) and Otter Commodore elect (Kathryn) and at the more elderly end, Bill Jones was there with his swimming instructor and carer, Hippo.  There were no collisions all week, so the only damage was to our visitor Pete Greatrix from Waldringfield who put his back out dancing … we wish him a speedy recovery.  The fleet was domininated by husband and wife/partner combinations including the normal smattering of crew/wife swapping.

Many boats had a fleeting glimpse of brilliance including the club Squib, Woody, in the hands of the Hutton-Penmans.  Sarah Sullivan was back on the pace after a few years' absence and Simon Sanders cemented his place in gold fleet by winning the Duerr Cup on Friday.

The social programme had the usual theme of cocktails at Bill's, drinks at Malcy's and champagne supplied by Robert – we thank them for their generosity and hangovers.  The benefit of a big fleet is that everyone races somebody (usually for a bottle of champagne) and at the business end it was Robert Coyle and Marc Rawinsky narrowly edging the weekend from Malcolm Hutchings and Marion Aspinall.  Supercrew Marion then joined Guy Fawkes to be runner-up in the mid-week points to Malcolm and Jackie.  Malcolm won the week overall.

Another great week … we'll all be back next year.