Flying Fifteens Northern Travellers Event at Burton Sailing Club
by David McKee 14 Aug 2012 14:41 BST
11-12 August 2012
The third event in the Waples Wines sponsored Northern Travellers series took place at Burton Sailing Club. On Saturday the wind was south easterly, extreme light and fickle. In this unaccustomed wind direction reading the beats was almost impossible reminiscence of the Nothe medal race course at Weymouth that many of the competitors had been studying for the last 2 weeks.
In race 1, Richard Hope from Draycot and Andy Goddard from Dovestone made the best of the conditions to round 1st and 2nd. Gradually David and Sally McKee worked their way through into the lead however on the last lap they were overhauled by Jon and Julia Ward from Ogston to take the win.
Race 2 was also testing with Andy Goddard round in 1st followed by Richard Hope with Colin Butler of the home club in close contention. David and Sally managed to pull through from 4th to take the win followed by Andy Goddard with Colin Butler in 3rd.
The third race also showed difficult conditions this time won by Andy Goddard followed by the McKees and Jon Ward.
Overnight there were therefore 3 separate winners from the three races and all to play for.
On Sunday the wind was slightly more easterly and whilst still fickle with a little more pressure produced great racing. In both races the McKees scored bullets with Andy Goddard and Mal Hartland taking 2nds, 3rd places were obtained by Richard Hope in race 4 and Chris Swallow in race 5.
The six race series attracted one discard. At the prize giving Waples Wines were thanked for their sponsorship of the series and generous contribution to the prizes. A special prize of a magnum was awarded by the sponsor to Chloe Hampton the first female helm a young and relatively new competitor in the Flying 15 fleet.
Results
1st 3905 David McKee, Sally McKee, Dovestone Sailing Club – 7 points
2nd 3959 Andy Goddard, Mal Hartland, Dovestone Sailing Club – 11 points
3rd 3667 Jon Ward, Julia Ward, Ogston Sailing Club – 15 points
4th 3949 Chris Swallow, Richard Nurse, Burton Sailing Club – 17 points