The TT Series Overall after 3 rounds and the rescheduled TT#5 at Woodspring are as follows:
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The nine committed sailors that found their way to Woodspring near Bristol for the TT5 of the RG65 class were not disappointed. The rainy night gave way to a mostly sunny day and brisk westerly wind. Thank you to Woodspring MSC, particularly Race Secretary Alan Barnstable, for supporting the RG65 class on such short notice after the event could not be held in Bournville due to weed.
The course was set along the north side of the lake and racing started timely after the skippers’ briefing. Most skippers choose their B rigs, with some changing between B and C through the day. Consistency came from Tobi Laux, who, in the end, won all but one race. The only race he lost was to Rohan Williams who sailed well to secure an overall second place. In third place was Chris Elliott who had a terrible morning but a much improved afternoon session. The remaining places were keenly contested with many lead changes and tight finishes making for entertaining sailing.
The whole race was well sailed with all skippers showing great honesty with penalties or when over the line at the start. Its encouraging that the event was possible without any officials.
We are looking forward to the next meeting!
Woodspring have kindly agreed to host TT5 in place of the one which had to be cancelled at Bournville on the same day. Unfortunately there will not currently be a TT6.
For more details such as the NoR and to enter, please head over to the relevant MYA Event page:
https://www.mya-uk.org.uk/events/#events/event-details/64f06a7510164b002affb293/
John Tushingham heads the overall TT series after the first two 2024 events at Keighley.
It was a bright and sunny morning with a decent swing rig breeze that greeted the eleven sailors for Round 4 of this years TT. However, by the time racing started under the watchful eye of RO Damian Ackroyd, the breeze had started to build and most boats were sporting their full sized conventional rigs. During the day, the breeze built (needing a change down) and remained from a mostly Westerly direction, giving a course where the windward mark was at the limits for good visbility and boats that were sailing away from the skippers. There was plenty to be gained (and for some lost) in the gusts and shifts that existed across the course and throughout the day.
However, the one consistent aspect of the day was Graham Elliott sailing an Electronica, which managed to win 15 of the 16 races, with only Peter Baldwin (Uno) spoiling his clean sweep by winning race 1, although that was by the slimmest of margins having had a good lead throughout the race.
There was a good tussle all day between Peter and John Tushingham (Sliver) to see who might get the second place and by the end, John took the spot with a slightly more consistent set of results over the day. Special mention should go to Grant Rowe, who only started out Radio Sailing recently and had never sailed an RG65 before this weekend and finished a very creditable fourth in his borrowed Scurry.
This was a great days sailing at a relaxed pace and minimal walking with the course situated in front of the launching area and with some seating for a few as an added bonus!
The next two rounds of this years TT are scheduled to be held at Borunville on 6th and 7th July.
Here are the dates for the 2024 TT Series. Further information and how to enter will be communicated via the MYA Events page:
https://www.mya-uk.org.uk/events/
TT1 & TT2 – 13/14 April at Two Islands (Milton Keynes)
TT3 & TT4 – 1/2 June at Keighley
TT5 & TT6 – 6/7 July at Bournville
TT7 Nationals – 21/22 Sept at Eastbourne
TT8 & TT9 19/20 October at Birkenhead.
Apologies, but I forgot to update the overall results after both the Nationals and then the final two events at Eastbourne. The planned series had eleven events, although Watermead was lost due to lack of entries. So 10 events and 6 to count for the series. Congratulations to our series winner this year Tobi Laux sailing his own Ivy design.
Rounds 8 and 9 of the 2023 were held at Eastbourne over the weekend of 7th & 8th of October. Two contrasting days sailing as indicated in the attached report from Race Officer Peter Kemp.
It was probably one of the best weekends of weather at Eastbourne this year, especially for October. A highly competitive fleet of nine boats enthralled spectators over the two days, with over thirty races completed. Tobias Laux won each day, with Sunday being another ‘first’ with all first positions to count after discards! Well done, Tobi!
Entry: There were nine entrants each day, most of whom were registered before Saturday. Competitors came from many clubs across the south of the country.
Weather: Saturday’s forecast was very accurate, starting and finishing with a predominately south westerly force 3 to 5, needing skilled sailing as well as good tactics. 18 races were completed without protests and plenty of time for rig changes and repairs!
Sunday, as forecast, had no wind to start with, but just after an hour’s delay, a decent sea breeze filled in and stayed through to four o’clock. Foregoing lunch another 18 races were completed.
Many thanks go to Jes Collier on Saturday and Dave Allinson on Sunday for moving marks and resetting the course as needed, making the races challenging and enjoyable.
Scoring: No heats were necessary over the two days. Our ‘Racemaster’ race control system, ensured that race results were 100% accurate. Our thanks go to Mike Parris for creating the system.
Protests: No protests were lodged. Thanks go to the club’s race team of starters, finishers and observers; John Crix, Tony Marshall, Rob Ahier, Dave Allinson, Scott Pearce and Rob Shepperd.
Social: The club team provided hot and cold drinks at the waterside, with an après sail beer later back in the clubhouse.
Results
A video of Sundays racing was taken by club member Terry Connell and is available on Youtube:
https://youtu.be/yoewPdCWohc?si=sQX0PqjBBG8hppQ9
Day 2 dawned with 14 knots from a SSE direction with a forecast set to move this to a Southerly and increase in strength at some point during the morning to be 20 knots with gusts of up to 30. At least it was mild in the breeze and there was only a small amount of rain most of it falling during an early lunch break. Course changes were also minimal as the breeze probably only changed in direction by 20 degrees and so all racing could be conducted from the good vantage point of the promenade.
Graham Elliott (Electronica) continued where he left off after the first day and had a dominating day winning 9 of the 15 races sailed. There were4 race wins for Victor Izquierdo (Ivy), plus one each for Rohan Williams (Uno) and Bill Culshaw (Ivy). Tobias Laux (Ivy) also had a very consistent day, but without a win to his name.
Unfortunately the combined effects of the strong winds, leaking boats with salt water led to a good number of retirements from racing during the day, so that having started the day with a potential 12 boats racing, by the end there were only 6 boats in each of the last 4 races.
The final result gave the Championship to Graham in first, well ahead of Victor in second who narrowly beat Tobias into third place. Full results are below along with pictures of the podium sailors.
Winner Graham Elliott, 2nd Victor Izquierdo, 3rd Tobias Laux
Photos from both days of the event are available on the Birkenhead Flikr Album HERE
A video of Race 10 was taken by Birkenhead member John Beech is available on Youtube here
It was a tricky day at West Kirby for both the sailors and Race Officer. After setting up a proposed Course prior to the briefing the wind had swung through nerly 90 degrees during the briefing and so had to be reset and caused a 20 minute delay to the start of racing. As the day progressed, the 6 to 12 knot wind kept the Race Officer and his mark laying team on their toes with changes or potential changes after every few races even up to the final Race (16) which was completed by 18:00hrs. The day was rounded out with Graham Elliott sailing an Electronica leading the event, with Spaniard Victor Izquierdo sailing an Ivy in second and Tobias Laux also sailing an Ivy in third.