Winter Series 2007 - 2008 Report

The Sprint 15 winter traveller series was concluded at Grafham on Sunday 16 March. In spite of a poor weather forecast 15 travellers joined 9 locals to take part in the last traveller of the winter series. Sadly, the wind exceeded the weather forecast and remained force 6/7 throughout the day causing the organisers to abandon running the races and presented the Winter Series prizes based on the results of the other 4 events. This cost quite a few sailors ‘dear’ as they were depending on the last regatta of the series to get the 3 results they needed to qualify. This list included Kevin Dutch, George Stephen, Ed Tuite-Dalton, Derek James, etc. but additionally quite a few others lost the opportunity to improve on their place by gaining the discard. It did not matter to Steve Sawford who won the series easily with two firsts and two seconds. The next 5 places were taken by sailors from different clubs with Erling Holmberg (3,4,7) from Shanklin taking second from Chris Black (4,5,7) of Grafham.

All the other 4 events were raced. A variety of weather conditions were experienced through the winter. Stewartby had light/variable winds, Draycote got better winds with force 2-3, Carsington had strong gusty winds (force 4-5) on a cold day which attenuated the competitors somewhat, but probably the best conditions were experienced at Queen Mary on a bright fresh day.

The attendances of the 4 events that were sailed and were Stewartby 16, Carsington 9 (with a number sitting it out), Draycote 17 and Queen Mary 16.

So sadly were not able to sail our prospective biggest event (24) due to the wind at Grafham and Steve Sawford took the Travellers Trophy (affectionately called “The Urn” ) for the second consecutive time. The Sprint 15 Summer series starts at Marconi Sailing Club on 19/20 April.