Burnham Week 2024 - Preview: 131 years of sailing on the East Coast
by Petru Balau 14 Aug 01:51 NZST
24-31 August 2024
With only a few short days before the start of the Burnham Week 2024, let us take a quick glance at the history of the event.
The 1893 saw the arrival in Burnham-on-Crouch of the London Sailing Club, previously based in Hammersmith, joining the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club, which moved there the previous year. By September an inter-club regatta was arranged, the Burnham Week Regatta.
The Burnham Yacht Club (later the Royal Burnham Yacht Club) was established in 1895 and joined the Burnham Week Regatta immediately as did the Crouch Yacht Club after 1907.
With the London Sailing Club and Eastern Yacht Club of England being assimilated into Royal Corinthian Yacht Club, a Joints Clubs Committee was established, formed by RCYC, RBYC and CYC, to organize and promote Burnham Week.
Established on 15th October 1930, for the working locals, Burnham Sailing Club joined the Burnham Week Regatta in the late 1960s.
In later years, the JCC was replaced by Burnham Week Limited, an organization involved not only in running Burnham Week, but also in a number of other projects related to the river, such as Wallasea Wetlands Project.
In the years before year round berthing, the Burnham Week Regatta established itself as the end of the season event, due to the wide availability of mud berths on the river Crouch, remains of which can still be seen today, or even felt, if one pushes too close to the shore to beat the tide.
The event always starts on the August Bank Holiday weekend and ends with the Trophy Day the following Saturday, the day of the Town Cup Trophy, one of the most coveted sailing trophies in the country.
With an eclectic mix of boats, from the cheerful dinghy slow handicap fleet, with the Corinthian Otters racing against BSC Seals, the Squibs and Sandhoppers, Burnham being their spiritual home, the sleek Dragons and the RS Elites, the venerable RCODs, RBODs and East Coast One Design, the fast dinghies, the class 1 and 2 cruisers along with the class 5 local handicap yachts, the regatta is always packed with competition on the water, while the three organizing clubs - RCYC, RBYC and BSC - have social programmes packed full.
There are a few days left until the Early Bird discount expires, at midnight on 18 August.
Event website: www.burnhamweek.com