Bridlington-Report

30 June 2010

Bridlington 26^th & 27^th June 2010

Press Release / Report

Last weekend the UKWA were again given a warm welcome by East Riding of Yorkshire Council, for our northernmost venue.

52 competitors turned out to race last weekend 26^th and 27^th June 2010 for round 3 of The UKWA Cup Series.

Saturday greeted competitors with clear blue skies and no wind. The race crews headed off early to launch the boats and monitor the shift winds. Once registration had closed and a briefing was held sailors went off to enjoy the good weather. At 10:30 as the wind filled in race officer Tessa Ingram asked her race crew to set the standard UKWA box and gate course. Her committee boat crew took to the water to run a race for the raceboard, RS:X and techno fleets. Throughout the race conditions improved, and as the wind built the formula fleet was called out to the race course.

The raceboard fleets completed two races and went in for lunch and formula completed one shorted race before being sent in as the wind dropped. After lunch the race officer ran another 3 rounds of racing for the raceboard fleets and one further round for formula.

Race crews sat out on the water until early evening hoping for enough wind to run some more formula racing, but their efforts were to no avail and racing was called off for the day.

Saturday evening saw the majority of competitors and their families off to enjoy the free swimming session at Bridlington leisure world.

Sunday saw lovely weather and absolutely no wind. The race crews took it in turns to monitor the wind conditions, but it never blew above 4 knots until around 3pm. Wind reading built to around 5-7 knots so the entire crew and race officer took to the water to try and lay a course. By 3:35pm 5minutes before class flags had to be flown for last possible start of 4pm the wind picked up to a steady 7 knots and appeared to be building. The race officer made the decision to raise class flags for the raceboard fleets and try and get a race in, a windward leeward course was set. At 4pm on the dot the 7mintue warning signal went up, unfortunately the wind dropped and in the last minute the sequence had to be abandoned and that was end of racing for the weekend.

Once again there was great public interest in the event with many questions being asked of competitors and at the race office. There was TV coverage on the BBC with a film crew in attendance on Saturday, plus a radio interview also going out on Saturday and other local media at the event over both days.

Thanks to East Riding of Yorkshire Council, for supporting the 2010 event

Thanks to event sponsors Overboard, for the product prize awarded at the event

Thanks to the UKWA race team, the admin team and to all those who volunteered their time to support the event.

UKWA Cup Series event 3 Bridlington

6.8 Robert York

7.8 Kieran Martin

RS:X Robyn Robinson

Raceboard Robert Kent

Formula David Coles