Snow Globe 2023 at Royal Corinthian Yacht Club, Burnham - Races 7 & 8

Blazes and a Phantom battle for first position - fourth week of the RCYC Snow Globe © Petru Balau Sports Photography / sports.hub47.com

James Hutton-Penman goes to the top after winning both races on the 4th day of the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club' SnowGlobe series, on 2nd of December 2023.

James Hutton-Penman won both races of the 4th day of the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club SnowGlobe series, on 2nd of December, to go top of the overall results table.

The forecasted clear day being replaced by negative temperatures and heavy fog, made for two interesting races, with the club safety boats having to work overtime due to low visibility.

With a westerly wind direction, Adam Prior, Royal Corinthian Yacht Club Dinghy Class Captain, and Mark Flynn, the series Race Officer, set a course through the start line set between a triangle on the RCYC pontoon and a pin end on the club's moorings, with a windward mark close to the Priors Pontoon, back downwind to Fairway 5 and up through the start line, with a target race time of 45 minutes.

Twelve boats lined to the start, including a Phantom, sailed by Bill Taylor from Creeksea Sailing Club, along with the regular mix of RCYC Lasers and Blazes and the guests from Burnham Sailing Club.

The first race saw Charlie Matthews, on a Blaze, take the lead, followed by Bill on his Phantom and Malcolm Hutchings, Blaze, on 3rd, with Jason Phelps, Blaze, Jo Tribe and Marcus Collingbourne, RS200, and James Hutton-Penman, Laser Radial/ILCA 6, hot on their tails.

The low visibility made Malcolm lose track of the lay line to the windward mark and allowed the RS200 sailed by Jo Tribe and Marcus Collingbourne, from BSC, to sneak past, making the order at the first mark: Charlie first, Bill second, Jo and Marcus on third.

James Hutton-Penman won both races - fourth week of the RCYC Snow Globe - photo © Petru Balau Sports Photography / sports.hub47.com

The conditions made it hard to see the constant position changes, but after the race was shortened to 2 laps, Charlie took the line honours, second on corrected time, Bill was second, 7th on corrected time, followed by Jason and Malcolm.

James shared the line finish with Jo and Marcus, and won the race on corrected time, with two other Laser Radial/ILCA 6 boats not far behind, Otter Nathan Flynn taking 3rd on corrected time and Nick Peel taking the 4th.

The second race saw a few sailors retiring and the fleet down to 9 boats, with the 3 Blazes and the Phantom taking the lead, followed by James and the RS200.

Finding the right wind shifts proved to be a challenging task, mainly due to fluctuating fog thickness and this made for some spectacular position changes, with the RS200 dropping all the way to the back of the fleet, just to profit from a momentary improvement in visibility and ride a lift to almost overtake James.

Eventually Malcolm took line honors after a heated battle with Bill and Charlie, the three boats finishing in less than 30s of each other, but that was only good enough for a 4th on corrected time, with James Hutton-Penman taking the win.

Otter Nathan Flynn and Nick Peel - fourth week of the RCYC Snow Globe - photo © Petru Balau Sports Photography / sports.hub47.com

Nick Peel, Laser Radial/ILCA 6, had to use all of his skills to fend off Otter Nathan Flynn, Laser Radial/ILCA 6 and Burnham Sailing Club's James VanSchagen, on Laser/ILCA 7 to take the second, with Nathan taking third.

Talking about the day's difficulties, James said: "Staying warm was one, given it was below freezing".

"As the tide was running you wanted to be out in the tide, but that meant you couldn't see the marks and therefore the lay lines".

Going into the last day of the series, James Hutton-Penman has the overall lead, with 7 points, followed by Charlie Matthews in second with 9 points and Steve and Alison Hall in third, with 12 points.

Next and last day of the series will take place at Royal Corinthian Yacht Club, on 9th of December.

Charlie Matthews is second overall now - fourth week of the RCYC Snow Globe - photo © Petru Balau Sports Photography / sports.hub47.com

Results after Week 8: