Winter Series 2010 - 2011 Report

The Sprint 15 winter traveller series was concluded at Grafham on Sunday 20 March on a pleasant spring day with a 23 boat entry. We managed to sail 4 of the 5 events but we failed to sail the Carsington event despite two attempts. The first attempt was postponed because the lake was frozen in the ‘big freeze’ in December and the second attempt was blown out in strong winds in early February. Never the less we were lucky to complete 4 events considering the winter we have had!

At Stewartby in November there were 23 entrants (including 8 locals) in a force 2-3 breeze. The forecast was for the wind to die at about lunchtime so some nifty footwork by the Stewartby race team rescheduled the races so they were sailed back-to-back and we just got 2 races in before the wind died. The event winner was Peter Slater from Draycote who won from Chris Black on a day when no one helm had 2 good results. Association Treasurer, Howard Hawkes was third and the new local man, Simon Miles, took a creditable fourth place on his first outing.

After the Carsington event in December was frozen out we moved on to Draycote on the 8 January. Luckily the ice had thawed and we got quite a decent breeze of force 3-4 but it was still a bit chilly. We had 19 entrants including 6 from the local club and the racing was very tight. The eventual winner was Carsington’s Robin Newbold from Slater, Ed Tuite Dalton and Gordon Goldstone.

We had another good attendance despite a poor weather forecast for the attempted re-run of the Carsington event on the 5 February, but sadly the huge gusts caused the event to be cancelled. So we moved on to Queen Mary on a cold, wet and murky day on 19 February. The wind was light and there was steady rain which reduced to a drizzle during the proceedings but the Queen Mary team managed to put on 2 races to test the 18 boat fleet. Events Secretary, Erling Holmberg, beat local hot shot, George Stephen into second place and Stuart Snell returned after a short lay off to take third place from the ever present Peter Slater.

By the time of the Grafham Icicle things had warmed up to a mild Spring Day with a force 2-3 breeze to greet the 23 entrants – including 11 from the home fleet. National Champion, Snell put in a consistent performance to beat Stephen, Mark Aldridge, Slater and Frank Sandells in some tight racing.

Fourth place was however enough to land Slater the Winter Series Trophy commonly known as “The Urn” for the first time. George Stephen’s second place at Grafham was enough to give him the runners up place in the series displacing Holmberg to third spot.

The raffle draw for the new mainsail, kindly donated by our sponsor, Windsport, was won by Robert England.

The fleet now rest for a short period until the Summer Traveller Series gets under way at Marconi on 16/17 April.

Mainsail Draw Winner: R England (Carsington)


Final Results Summary:


Overall TT Series Top 5 Places: 1st Peter Slater (Draycote Water Sailing Club) 7 Pts , 2nd George Stephen (Queen Mary Sailing Club) 10 Pts, 3rd Erling Holmberg (Shanklin Sailing Club) 12 Pts, 4th Jon Finch (Stewartby Water Sports Club) 19 Pts, 5th Howard Hawkes (Snettisham Beach SC) 22 Pts

Una and Two-Up Fleet Top 3 Places: 1st Peter Slater (Draycote Water Sailing Club) 7 Pts, 2nd George Stephen (Queen Mary Sailing Club) 10 Pts, 3rd Erling Holmberg (Shanklin Sailing Club) 12 Pts

Sport Fleet Top 3 Places: 1st Derek James (Draycote Water Sailing Club) 13 Pts

Full Series Results are available here



Event Summaries:



Total Number of Individual Competitors who attended at least one event: 38

Event Attendance Summaries
TT EventNumber of Home CompetitorsNumber of TravellersNo. of Una or Two Up CompetitorsNo. of Sport Mode CompetitorsTotal Number of Competitors at Event
Stewartby Water Sports Club81321021
Draycote Water Sailing Club61116117
Carsington Sailing Club00000
Queen Mary Sailing Club21416016
Grafham Water Sailing Club111223023



No. of Competitors From Each Club
Who Took Part In At Least 1 Event
ClubNumber of Competitors
Beaver Sailing Club1
Brightlingsea Sailing Club1
Calshot Sailing Club1
Carsington Sailing Club2
Draycote Water Sailing Club6
Grafham Water Sailing Club11
Oxford Sailing Club1
Queen Mary Sailing Club2
RYA1
Seasalter Sailing Club1
Shanklin Sailing Club2
Snettisham Beach SC1
Stewartby Water Sports Club8
Overall Winter Series Winner: Peter Slater


Mainsail Draw Winner: Robert England