Burnham Week 2024 Overall
by Petru Balau 18 Sep 01:43 NZST
24-31 August 2024
Storms and sunshine, heartbreak and mast breaks, parties till dawn, series decided in the last race, a regatta of many firsts - Burnham Week 2024 ended with a bang.
It's been just a few days since fireworks going off into the night sky signalled the end of the 2024 edition of Burnham Week and memories start to settle.
The firsts
It is hard to pick whose week this was, since as an onlooker emphatically put it: "everything happened everywhere and all at once".
The week's winner could be Mia, the 11 year old who helmed a Squib for a more than honourable 4th place, beating in the process some of the legends of the Squib class.
Or it could be Dan Halley, first time sailing, first time helming, winner of the East Coast One Design, a venerable fleet with 8 boats competing in this year's Burnham Week, out of a total of 10 built, with a promise of having the full set present for the 2026 regatta.
Another first timer was Vicky Brookes, crewing on the winning Royal Corinthian One Design boat, who despite being thrown into the deep end with the week's weather, ended up loving each day for different reasons: "first Burnham Week and first time sailing, but I'll be back".
A mention needs to be made about the Hill family, competing in classes 5 and 6, the oldest aged 63 years of age, whilst the youngest was only 7 years old, with a long sailing career ahead.
Part of the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club Wednesday night 707 sailing crowd, Paul Stratton, after helming for most of the season, stepped aboard the RCOD Corpo Santo for his first ever competitive sailing regatta and is now determined to enter a team for the 2025 edition of Burnham Week.
The culmination of efforts started in the latter part of the last sailing season, the inaugural Dinghy Town Cup saw the cheerful fleet race up the river in winds exceeding 30 knots, with some of the boats clocking more than 20 knots of speed, and the dinghies Race Officer, Ant Law stating: "the Dinghies Town Cup is here to stay".
The special ones
Some of the competitors found themselves in hairy situations, either due to bad luck or, in most cases, by their own doing.
Stephen Herring, the undisputed winner of the Royal Burnham One Design fleet found himself in a bit of a pickle during the prize-giving ceremony, when he didn't have enough crew to hold all the trophies they won.
It looked like Jack Mills and his crew's dreams of winning the Town Cup were shattered when they broke their Beneteau Platu 25's mast in no less than three pieces during the Bank Holiday Weekend, yet, taking advantage of a 707 chartered from the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club and finely tuned by way of the temporary boat name duck-taped to the cuddy, they went on to win the highly contested Commodore Cup.
With the lowest combined crew age on any non single handed boat entered for this year's edition, the duo Noah Mathers and Rory Luddington, on their RS Feva XL, felt a bit "done for" when they were promoted to the Dinghy Fast Handicap Fleet, their smiles returning after not only winning two races and even beating some of the faster boats on the water, but also being second only to a Merlin Rocket in the overall Bank Holiday results.
There is a lot to say about the camaraderie between the Royal Corinthian One Design boats as the fleet decided to postpone their start for the day race when Graeme Page's climb up the mast, to set up a new wind indicator, resulted in an underwater experience for his boat, Corpo Santo, who needed a bit of time to re float and make it to the racing area.
While there is an excuse for the visiting yellow East Coast One Design Gi Gi to spend an afternoon hard aground waiting for the tide to rise, as navigating the river can be tricky, the same cannot be said about the other yellow boat, the Squib Guy Fawkes 72, who managed to almost dredge a new channel in the Branklet Spit and, despite the early strategic retreat to the bar to prepare beer offerings, earned its helm the not necessarily coveted Leprechaun of Folly outfit.
The sponsors
The event could not have happened without the support of the sponsors, ranging from century old businesses, to local, but with global reach, to well meaning individuals.
With its factory just 10 minutes up the road in Southminster, Allen Brothers' hardware is used by the world's top dinghy sailors as well as race winning yachts, including the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club's fleet of Hunter 707's, one of which won the Commodores Cup.
Burnham Yacht Harbour has been a constant feature of the town' sailing life since its opening in 1989, with the marina providing free berthing to the Burnham Week competitors.
Founded in 1975 and with 16 offices world wide, the superyacht industry leaders Burgess, specialising in yachts over 30m/100ft, is guiding clients through every aspect of the yachting experience, including sale and purchase, charter, new construction, management, crew services and insurance.
Church & Hawes have been successfully selling properties in Essex for over 40 years, by combining traditional values and ensuring the highest level of customer service along with the latest technology in property marketing.
With a history spanning over a century, Dewhirst are leaders in fashion design, development, sourcing and manufacture, supplying multi product clothing to a cross-section of global retailers.
A feature of Burnham Week in recent years, with their tent set up on the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club terrace, East Coast Kit was started as a team clothing company, specialising in Zhik kit, while also being the Elvstrom Sails UK East Coast supplier, covering all areas between Hull and Brighton, along with Kingfisher Yacht Ropes products distributor for all UK.
Part of the Yacht Havens family, Fambridge Yacht Haven offers 220 sheltered and fully serviced pontoon berths in the marina, as well as 120 deep-water swinging moorings and 120m visitor pontoon with full tidal access, along with free Wi-Fi for berth holders, extensive boatyard services, peaceful countryside views and a children's Adventure Playground.
"There when sailors need us before, during and after", Holt provides a complete range of yacht and catamaran hardware as original equipment and replacements, offering professional logistics and in-house technical know-how, in addition to other relevant product lines from leading brands.
Situated in the heart of Maldon, LAS Solicitors was founded by Angela Noonan in 2015, with the solicitors working alongside an experienced, knowledgeable and friendly legal support team, focusing on Property, Litigation and Probate.
Burnham based sailmaker Lonton & Gray, provider of quality sails for dinghies, one design boats and all cruisers up to 50ft, can boast more than a century of sailing experience between the two founders and the working relationship dating since 1970 is testament to their dedication to the craft.
Surrounded by the rich maritime heritage of the Blackwater river, with its sailing clubs, charter boats, massive barges, and stunning vistas, the Ramsey Island Brewery lais hidden in the heart of Essex on the scenic Blackwater Estuary and is more than just a place where beer is made, it's a shrine for craft beer lovers and a testament to the hard work of brewing, with the small brewery, adorned with reclaimed wood and gleaming stainless steel brewing equipment, representing the fusion of tradition and progress at the heart of craft brewing.
With its factory neatly tucked away on the side of the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club day boats yard, The Old Sail Loft is the home of bespoke sailcloth products, which include bags, cushions, boat covers, printed clothing, embroidery, graphics, gifts, deck chairs, mugs and last, but not least, the wonderfully designed Burnham Week t-shirts.
Established in 1892, Prior's Boatyard enjoyed a strong reputation for the skill of its shipwrights and the beauty and craftsmanship of their work, with the company pivoting to building houseboats in the later years, while the pontoon was gracefully made available to the Burnham Week, this enabling the fireworks to be sited on the river and providing a great show on the last Saturday of Burnham Week.
Recognizing the importance of the Burnham Week for the town and surrounding areas, Burnham Town Council supported the regatta through the years and has made a very well received contribution to the fireworks display concluding the end of Burnham Week.
Despite business opportunities taking him away from the area, Mickey Gooch never forgot the wonderful times spent sailing on the river and his contributions to the organisation of Burnham Week were very well received by the committee and competitors alike.
The behind the scenes
An event of this magnitude requires a lot of work and Burnham Week Ltd was set up in 2017 to take over the work done by Joints Clubs Committee in organising the week long regatta and is involved with a number of river related projects, including the Wallasea Wetlands Project.
It is very rare for a sailing event on the river Crouch to not feature Edwin Buckley's Team Phoebe, whose professionalism was not only showcased by the successful mass finish envisioned for the 5th day of racing, but also praised by the competitors, with Bill Blank, sailing on the RS Elite Blind Squirrel, noting: "the race officer was very kind to us, we never had to wait for more than 15 minutes in between our races on the days with two races scheduled, despite other classes still having their starts".
The week's headquarters for the dinghy fleet, the Burnham Sailing Club, all volunteer team had a very busy schedule, with the club hosting, along with the traditional Wednesday evening John Torrance Trophy, the dinghy racing over the Bank Holiday Weekend and the highly anticipated first edition of the Dinghies Town Cup, but also the week's kick off welcome party and the dinghies Bank Holiday Prize Giving ceremony, with one member in particular, Julie Loasby, somehow finding the time to keep the various social media channels up to date, in between all her other duties.
With a full week of breakfasts, lunches and dinner parties every evening, the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club kitchen and bar staff had a monumental task ahead of them, rivalled only by the Otter Week earlier in the year, yet that was not a problem for the team, with the House Manager Jason Iontton stating: "I would not have it any other way".
After a week of great sailing and parties galore, the final Trophy Day prize-giving ceremony was held in the Royal Burnham Yacht Club's courtyard which was a great finale to the week, with the prestigious Town Cup presented by the Mayor, Fiona Clegg to the David Evans and his crew of Hullabaloo XV for the second year in succession.
But, enough looking back, time to mend the sails and wash the salt off the kit, the sailing season on the river Crouch is still going on strong, with the BSC Wednesday night sailing moving to the weekend, with the club taking over the Sunday morning dinghy sailing for the autumn and winter, the Endeavour Trophy - Best of the Best, just around the corner, the day boats sailing until The Laying Up Supper and the 10th edition of Royal Corinthian Yacht Club Snow Globe going on until just before Christmas.
Results are at www.burnhamweek.com/results-2024