Location: Rutland Water Sailing Club
The Rutland Dart 15 winter TT - RUSTY RUTLANDERS!!!!
15 Dart 15s congregated at Rutland Sailing Club for the penultimate event of the Dart 15 winter TT series on Sunday 23rd January. The entry was made up of 12 travellers and 3 locals and the race officer set a large triangular course in a fairly steady force 3-4 North Easterly breeze.
A clean start was made in the first race with all boats starting on starboard tack but Bob Carter and Steve Sawford tacked early while the majority of the fleet continued on starboard tack for some distance. By the Windward mark R Carter had opened out a reasonable lead from George Carter and Sawford. The third leg was a long broad reach down the lake for the tower to the leeward mark by the shore adjacent to the Clubhouse and the leader opened out a 200 yard lead and Stuart Snell had taken Sawford moving up to third place behind the two Carter boats. These positions were maintained for the following lap, but then George Carter started a charge on the third lap taking 1st place from R Carter, Snell, Paul Smith and Gordon Goldstone who both eased ahead of an out of form Sawford before the finish.
The second race started in similar conditions with R Carter, leading G Carter, closely followed by Chris Black, Snell and Bill Tusting sailing Sprint mode. After a lap G Carter had stretched a significant lead from the chasing pack and was never threatened. The middle ranks were having a tight race with Dave Holyoak, Philip Howden, Dave Stanbridge and Ashly Webb all involved in close duels. The finishing order was G Carter, R Carter, Snell, Black, Sawford and Smith.
Thus in the final analysis G Carter won the day with a 1,1, from R Carter (2,2) and Snell (3.3). Team Grafham were highly delighted with their team result (2,3,5) which was better than Beaver (1,4,10) and Rutland (6,9,14) and went away concluding that the opposition had eaten too much Christmas pud.
Thanks go to Dave Stanbridge for organising an excellent event.
| Overall Results | |||
| 1st | George Carter | Beaver SC | |
| 2nd | Bob Carter | Grafham SC | |
| 3rd | Stuart Snell | Grafham SC | |
| 4th | Paul Smith | Beaver SC | |
| 5th | Chris Black | Grafham SC | |
| 6th | Steve Sawford | Rutland SC | |
Sprint Results: 1st W. Tusting (Grafham)
