The Windsport Catparts Sprint 15 Traveller Series 2009 Report

The Windsport Catparts Traveller Series for 2009 was won for the second year running by Charles Watson who beat Erling Holmberg into second place by his performance in the last event at Grafham. The Queen Mary duo of Gordon Goldstone and Keith Chidwick took third and fourth respectively with Howard Hawkes in fifth place. The leaders were a bit lucky as several of the top sailors were struggling to get in enough events to qualify. This was particularly true of John Postlethwaite who only got back into travelling later in the year but he took a first and a second – so watch out guys for next year!

The biggest event of the season was at Grafham with 38 entries and some challenging windy conditions. Brian Phipps of Windsport won but John Postlethwaite, Steve Sawford and Charles Watson gave him a run for his money. John Postlethwaite won from Robin Newbold narrowly at Carsington where we had 17 entries and light and fickle winds. At Marconi we had 16 entries and strong winds and it was a local trio of David Ball, Peter Tovey and Jenny Ball who took the honours leaving the travellers struggling for the minor places. The Open Dinghy Club at Angmering was our smallest event with just 10 entries but it is a nice relaxing venue and Erling Holmberg took first place from the local, Chris Ricard, and Gordon Goldstone took third place. Kevin Dutch stole the show at Seasalter with a masterful performance in Sport mode. Kevin has been recently grounded by the arrival of a baby daughter but he promises to be back in the fray next year. There were 18 entries at Seasalter and the northern contingent of Charles Watson and Ben Tunnacliffe muscled their way to second and third places. This was despite the Tunnacliffs leading the locals astray with a late night drinking session until 5am Sunday morning.

Sadly we did not get enough entries sailing Sport mode to present the Sportster Traveller Cup.
We now look forward to the winter series of one day races which kicks off on 7 November at Stewartby. The teams of Draycote and Carsington are looking forward to their interclub contest. Last year they both seemed to think that they had won – I wonder if someone will document the rules this year?