Bart’s Bash attracts over 30,000 people

Final results show an amazing 30,717 participants took to the water, many for their first time, around the world, for the first “Bart’s Bash” on September 21, 2014. The sailing race was a fund raising event in memory of Andrew Simpson, the Olympic sailor who died in a training accident in May 2013.

Since race day the Bart’s Bash results team has been busy compiling and processing thousands of results and can now confirm that an incredible sixteen thousand, eight hundred and seventy (16,870) boats collectively sailed a staggering eighty seven million, seventy two thousand, seven hundred and sixty nine (87,072,769) metres, roughly the equivalent of sailing twice around the world.

The inaugural Bart’s Bash was a race run by sailing clubs around the world on behalf of the charity, the Andrew Simpson Sailing Foundation. Each sailing club sailed an individual Bart’s Bash race at their location. Race details were set locally by each club, but the course needed to be over 1km and sailed for more than 15 minutes.

Overall winners were; Hans Wallen sailing at Cape Crow Yacht Club in Sweden in a M32 Catamaran, Riccardo Macchiavello sailing at Circolo Nautico Rapallo in Italy in an Altura 1101 and Grant Piggott sailing at Weston Sailing Club in Great Britain in a Nacra 17. For the final results table please visit http://www.bartsbash.co.uk/results/table

Initially organisers had hoped for fifty (50) clubs to sign up with two thousand (2000) participants in the UK. As the day drew closer it became apparent that clubs all over the world were using the opportunity to get as many people sailing as possible on the day.

Delta Lloyd open Dutch Championships recorded the highest numbers of boats sailing from the club at 233. In the UK Parkstone Yacht Club recorded a whopping one hundred and ninety four (194) boats on the water.

The Laser Standard dominated the dinghy class leader board, taking the top spot with one thousand six hundred and seventy seven (1,677) entries, Optimists were in second place with one thousand one hundred and seventy eight (1178) boats on the water and the Laser Radial took third with nine hundred and fifty three (953) boats.

Event Manager for Bart’s Bash, Tim Anderton said “At no point could we ever have expected over five hundred (500) clubs in over sixty (60) countries to embrace the idea of getting on the water, racing, having fun and celebrating everything Bart stood for. This has to be one of the largest sailing participation events in the world. We would like to thank all those who took part in the event and a special thank to the volunteers, over seven thousand of them, who made it possible.”

A video showing the highlights of the day…