The race team turned up to 15-18 mph winds from the north with light drizzle. Fortunately the drizzle stopped around 09:00 never to reappear. This just left the wind where it was and the skippers debating which rig to start with.
Racing got under way at 10:00 with Graham Elliott taking the first win followed by Chris Elliott & Rohan Williams. This was followed by an enforced break while the Sea Scouts launched their dinghies. The wind eased slightly during the break so all started race 2 with top rigs.
Although the wind strength was fairly consistent throughout the morning the direction wasn’t, there was fair amount of mark moving. 10 races were managed by lunchtime with Graham Elliott taking 9 wins and Chris Elliot the 10th. Second and third places were shared between the rest of the fleet.
We continued after lunch but after 4 races, in a break and without warning, the wind veered 90 degrees in around 30 seconds and stayed there for the rest of the day. A new course was quickly set on a different part of the lake and racing got under way again.
By the end of the day we had managed 22 races with 17 wins to Graham Elliott, Rohan Williams 3 wins, Chris Elliott and Dorian Crease with 1 each.
Later that evening, several beers were drunk, Toby Laux joined us and a good curry was eaten.
Thanks to the East Kent RSC race team Ralph Wilkinson and John Nash for their help in running the event. Results as follows:
RG65 TT 2023 R1 15 Apr 2023 713727
It didn’t look very encouraging on arrival Sunday morning. The water looked like glass. By 09:00 a few puffs here and there had appeared from the south. A course was set and racing started at 09:30.
2 races were completed in light airs before the wind backed to the east and increased to 10-12 mph. Once again a new course was set on the same part of the lake as on the Saturday. It stayed there for the rest of the day.
19 races were completed, Graham Elliott with 11 wins, Toby Laux with his new Ivy got 6 wins, Chris Elliott & Rohan Williams had 1 each.
Again, thanks to the East Kent RSC race team Ralph Wilkinson, John Nash and Ian Lloyd for their help.
2023 TT Series
East Kent are finalising details for the first TT at Bartons Point on 15/16 April and hope to issue an NoR in the near future.
Potential Continental Championship
We thought that you might like to know that there is a Continental Race in the planning for 2024. The likely venue is Lake Idro (20km West of Garda) over the period of 12-16th April 2024. We will provide more details when the dates and location etc are confirmed. As there is likely to be a limit on entries per country, the GBR RG65 NCA will be using the 2023 Traveller series as a qualifying ranking series. The plan is to use a competitors best 5 counting races from the 11 events in this years Calendar. At this time we do not have allocation information per country.
The UK 2023 Traveller Series Events have been published on the Calendar page here
Results as follows:
Sunday pictures thanks to Judith, although light levels were a little poor for the mobile phone camera.
Overall Results have been updated after Birkenhead and available on the Overall Results page here
After consultation between Two Islands Radio Yacht Club and the NCA it has been decided to cancel TT6 and 7 that were scheduled for the weekend of 17/18 September.
The situation with the weed on Furzton lake remains unpredictable and no other suitable location could be found.
It was considered to postpone the events till later in the year but this would have taken us into November and it was thought that attendance would not be high enough to justify the organisation.
The Club and NCA will start to make plans to host an event next year as part of the 2023 TT series.
We would like to than TIRYC for their efforts in leaving no stone unturned to try and make these TTs happen and we look forward to enjoying your hospitality again soon.
We also apologise to all of you who were planning to take part and especially to those of you who had already made travel and accommodation arrangements.
This leaves us with 2 TTs to go in the 2022 series on 22/23 October at Birkenhead. We hope that many of you can join us there.
Sincerely
Your RG65 UK NCA committee.
Here is how the series overall stands after 5 events. With 9 events in total and 5 to count for the series, there is plenty of opportunity for the standings to change by the end of the season.
Rounds 4 and 5 of the TT took place at Keighley on the 16th and 17th July.
A great days sailing on Saturday in a breeze which was generally towards the top end of full size swing rig. Later in the day some sailors did change down to a full size conventional or low aspect full size swing after a few nose dives but the winner held onto his Swing Rig all day. Winner was once again Chris Elliott, with Peter Baldwin 2nd and John Brierley third, all sailing Uno’s.
After a slow start and delay of about 90 minutes due to a distinct lack of wind, 17 races were completed on Sunday in conditions that were difficult for the sailors, but more especially for the Race Officer, John Sharman.
The event started in swing rigs with about 4 or 5 knots of breeze, but by lunchtime, the breeze had picked up considerably averaging at least 8 knots, with gusts of around 15. Everyone therefore opted for a rig change, with a combination of low aspect swing and conventional rigs in use.
Unfortunately by the end of the day a number of sailors had gear failure so that having started with 10 boats only 7 were left racing.
Today was eventually won by John Tushingham in a Scurry, with Graham Elliott (Argon) second, and Peter Baldwin (Uno) third.
The locations for TT6 & TT7 have now been agreed as a weekend event consisting of two separate days of racing at the Two Islands Radio Yacht Club on Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th September 2022. Further details and NoR will be available in due course.
Every now and again things come together to create a special event. 15 very capable skippers with well sorted boats, wind in the right direction and strength, and a reasonable day, weather wise. The intention was to sail 16 or more races over a two lap, windward/leeward course with an upwind spreader mark and a downwind gate. Designs in use included Uno, Sith, Scurry and a lone Argon and Visionary. All were carbon or glass, having no 3D printed ones was a surprise.
Chris Elliot took the first heat, followed by Chris Cockayne in the second, John Brierly in 3&4, Peter Baldwin weighed in on 5, Augustin Moreno in 6 and so it went on. Putting the scores together at the 4 heat break points made for fascinating reading. The leading pack were swapping places with the overall lead changing at each heat. The quality of sailing ability was superb, rule observation was excellent, that was across the fleet and the event. A short break for lunch was taken and it was clear that it would be a struggle to get the 16 heats in the allotted time, after discussion with all the skippers, it was agreed to extend the finish time to 16 heats. If you look through the results, which I’m sure the skippers will, you can see it was a close-run thing between the top 3, Chris Elliot came out on top, taking also the new Midland District trophy, from the Birkenhead duo of Peter Baldwin (2nd) and John Brierley (3rd). There were a couple of withdrawals when boats and skippers broke but all stayed on to watch the racing. It was that sort of an event, a pleasure to take part in, and to run.
Bill Green – Race Officer
Heading photo by Gordon Sears and presentation photo’s by Rohan Williams.
Overall Series positions have also been updated and are available here
A Gallery of photo’s from the event is available here
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