On the weekend of the 4,5 & 6th a BUSA Team of 6 people, Athol King, Hamish Walker, Ed Males, Susie Short, John Pinner, and Bethan Cardin, travelled to Prague to compete in the Prague Grand Prix. The team sailed well to finish a respectable second place to RODOP.
The event was attended by 9 teams with two of them being British, West Kirby and BUSA, and the rest being Czech. The BUSA team arrived early to get to grips with sailing 420?s on the Friday afternoon only to find that there was no wind., fortunately a little later in the day some wind did turn up allowing us about ½ an hour to have a sail.
That done we were then invited to a party hosted by RODOP ( a company that sponsors a lot of Czech sailors) there was free champagne and beer all night, it would have been rude to just let them drink it so we helped as much as possible. One nameless team member managed to procure a blow up cow from the party and woke up with it in his bed the next day??? What can one do! Pics on the web for more info.
The next morning we woke up at 8 am for the briefing and a light breakfast. The start was postponed due to wind, racing finally got underway at 11. We did not get in a boat until about 12 though. Our regatta started very shakily with a narrow win and a loss, things then improved with a safe win over West Kirby, though by now all the Brits were finding that champagne makes for horrible hangovers! The rest of the day ran without incident, at the end of the days racing we were lying a solid 3rd with Team RODOP leading the field without loss.
That night we tried to hit town with our guide form RODOP and West Kirby, we failed,, our night finished in shame at a nameless bear house in Prague. Oh dear! On to Sundays racing?..
Due to a lame social performance sailing was actually going quite well, the round robin was completed with only one further loss to RODOP leaving us in second just before the knockout stage. This started with the last two teams form the round robin and was in winner stays on format, best out of 3. This meant that we were only on for the penultimate match. This was against the team that we had lost to on sat (NO NAME). This time however things went a little better, BUSA won 2 ? 0. The final was a best out of 5 with RODOP (3rd place in the Europeans). The first race was all but decided on the start with RODOP sailing into a 1, 2, 3 at the windward mark, BUSA pulled back to 3, 4, 6 at the end of the run only have one of us get a red flag barging in at the mark. The race finished RODOP 1, 3, 4. The second race once again was all about the start, BUSA came off the line strongest to reach the windward mark in a 1, 2 with separation, this is how the race stayed. The next race was altogether different at the top of the beat RODOP had a 1, 5, 6 however by the end of the run things were looking much less stable for BUSA with the fleet very compressed, up the final beat things were looking like they were going BUSA?s way, however due to a infringement on the finishing line a BUSA boat was left with a penalty, this we thought was completed RODOP disputed that the 360 was not legally completed, the jury decision went against BUSA, Race 3 to RODOP 1, 4, 5. The forth race was a comedy of errors from BUSA, with the loss of a 1, 2, 6 down the run to 1, 5, 6. Up the last beat RODOP split. Race 4 RODOP 1, 2, 5.
In all the event was well run, though it took time to get used to sailing the 420?s the BUSA team put in a very creditable performance in a very closely fought final. The Czechs pulled out all the stops to try and make things as easy as possible for us to get along out there and a good time was had by all.
Results: 1st RODOP, 2nd BUSA, 3rd NO NAME. 5th West Kirby
Athol King
Men’s Captain