RG65 TT-1 15th April 2023

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

RG65 TT-2 16th April 2023

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.

RG65 TT 2023 R2 16 Apr 2023 685612

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

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.

Here are the proposed dates for the TT Series in 2022.

There are a total of 9 TT events (including the Nationals) and so the Overall Series result will be based on 5 of these to count.

Now that the UK Nationals have been sailed, the positions in the Overall series have been updated. Graham Elliott has taken over the lead from John Brierley who has also been pushed by John Tushingham into third place overall. Full details on the final positions are available in the Table below, which is likely to be the final standing for 2021, with no more planned events.

Many thanks to the 32 helms who turned out at the four locations for this years TT series. Hopefully we will be back to something like normal next year and a more extensive TT series.

The day started with a heavy rain shower and minimal wind, although this was fortunately short lived and racing got underway after only a short delay. The wind was just as unpredictable as Saturday, with the strength and direction changing to catch the unwary out if you chose the wrong direction up the beat.

We had an extended lunch break whilst the wind decided to disappear and change direction for a while. The RO setup for a course off the far bank, but in the end all races were sailed from the near bank and a mark placed 60m or so away causing eyesight issues for some sailors with boat on boat and mark contacts resulting in a number of penalties to be done.

Mister consistent Graham Elliott, continued his form from Saturday with a string of top 3 places with only a thirteenth in one race early on Sunday being his worst result. So we ended up with 28 races sailed over the two days and Graham Elliott crowned Champion. John Tushingham secured second place nearly 50 points behind with Martin Gray topping out the podium only 4 points behind John. Derek Priestley was awarded a special prize for the “most improved” sailor of the event as he moved up 2 places between the results at the end of Saturday and Sunday, no doubt helped by two good results in races 27 and 28 after changing down to suit the increasing breeze at the end of the day.

Thanks must go to the Keighley Club for hosting the event and Race Officer Damian Ackroyd assisted by Judith Baldwin for running the races under trying conditions. Everyone was kept fed and well watered throughout the two days by Liz and her support crew in the galley and we were also grateful to the work undertaken by the boat team over the two days.

Event photographs from the excellent Sue Brown are in her Catsails Flickr account here