The BOD fleet put in a great showing at Brightlingsea Sailing Club’s Bart’s Bash Race on Sunday 20 September with six BODs on the start line and four boats in the overall top ten.
Conditions could not have been more perfect for the race, which is run in memory of British Olympic and America’s Cup sailor Andrew “Bart” Simpson and raises fund for the Andrew Simpson Memorial Fund. Glorious hot sunshine and a gradually decreasing sea breeze gave something for everyone both in the race and spectating from the prom.
Despite a flooding tide and reaching start the entire fleet was over eager and it took two general recalls before the race finally got away at the third time of asking. The BODs had some super close racing amongst themselves, but in the overall race the ultimate battle came down to a fight between childhood Mirror fleet rivals Pete Kyne, sailing a Fireball, and Jeremy Newman in BOD C32 Avocet. Despite Jeremy’s best efforts the conditions slightly favoured the planing Fireball so Pete claimed first place with Jeremy second and the National 18 of Jessica Berney third.
Dan Willett sailing C9 Bidi and Danny Fox in C8 Egret fought it out for fourth place with Dan getting the upper hand and Danny taking fifth. There was also a fantastic fight to the finish between Mark White in C53 White Spirit and Mike Hempstead in C18 Gelesma. Right on the line Mark claimed tenth place overall with Mike eleventh.
Geoff Gritton had also started the race in C51 Grethe, but gear failure forced him to pull out of the race at the end of lap 1.
Brightlingsea One Design 
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