This weekend was the Jimmy Starling from the Burnham Sailing Club. 17 squibs entered and enjoyed 6 races over 2 days. The Jimmy Starling is raced for annually in memory of a young Tucker Brown apprentice shipwright who drowned whilst racing in Burnham Week 1957. As always, the Burnham fleet enjoyed close competitive racing, with the wins being spread out, and every place being hard fought for.

In Race 1, Spoof, owned by Micky Wright led during the first lap, with Malcolm Hutchings in second, and Dave Hyde in Sophie third. By the second lap, Sophie had taken the lead with Spoof second and Dan Wastnage had come up to third. At the finish, Dan Wastnage in Heartbeat came first, with Surprise, Duncan Grindley second, and Spoof third. This finish was really close between second, third and fourth.

Race 2 got underway after a general recall. On the second start two boats were ocs, but didn’t return. This race saw Robert Coyle in Humphrey lead throughout with Jason Phelps in By The Lee in second for the first two laps. Malcolm Hutchings in Lady Penelope took second on the last lap, with By The Lee holding onto third, and Surprise in fourth.

The final race of the Saturday also had general recalls, but when started was a closely fought race throughout the four laps. On the first lap, Nemesis led, with What’s The Story helmed by Nic Tolhurst in second. Micky Wright in Spoof sat in third, with Phil Aspinall in Guy Fawkes fourth. The second lap saw a lot of place changing, although Nemesis kept first, Spoof moved up into second, pushing What’s The Story into third, and Humphrey had come up to fourth. The third lap still saw Nemesis in front, Spoof second and Humphrey had come up into third. These top places didn’t alter on the final lap and Ray Apthorp in Nemesis who had had the lead throughout won by 17 seconds from Spoof.

On Sunday again the fleet headed down to the Roach as the wind was Southerly. The first race saw the 14 strong fleet have a cracking start, with Heartbeat and Lady Penelope closest and bang on the line. The rest of the fleet very close behind. Guy Fawkes led the first lap, with Surprise in second and Spoof in third. This had all changed for lap 2, with Surprise in front of Guy Fawkes, Lady Penelope third, Heartbeat fourth and Nemesis behind. The top three places didn’t change and Surprise took the win, ahead of Phil Aspinall in Guy Fawkes and Lady Penelope third.

Race two saw Nemesis, Ray Apthorp lead throughout with Malcolm in Lady Penelope chasing hard, finally losing out by only 10 seconds after a final tussle around the leeward mark before beating to the line.  Surprise worked up to third from fifth and Spoof took fourth.

The final race started in torrential rain; the tail end of a squall. It was still all to play for, and the fleet got away cleanly first time. Humphrey, Robert Coyle and Mark Rawinsky led all the way and took first, but retired after finishing. Malcolm and Jacqui Hutchings took second, but then had the win after the retirement.

Prize giving was socially distanced on the Burnham Sailing Club decking. Overall, Malcolm and Jackie Hutchings took the win, picking up the Jimmy Starling Trophy.  Surprise, Duncan Grindley and Julie Batchelor took second on countback from Micky Wright and Alex Porteous in Spoof. Thanks go to the Burnham Squib Fleet for their support of the event and the Burnham Sailing Club race team.

Sally Harbott