NW Senior Traveller Series at Southport Sailing Club

NW Senior Traveller Series at Southport © Brian Taylor

NW Senior Traveller Series at Southport © Brian Taylor

There is perhaps too much weather information available with a few clicks these days. (Do some of these weather sites exaggerate the gust potential just to cover their backs?)

Various weather websites were predicting a south westerly wind of up to 20mph with gusts into the 30s. It was enough once again to put off all but the seasoned travellers for this mid-week series for the over 50s.

The reality was quite a breezy first race (but not excessively so) and then superb conditions for the two afternoon races. Instead of the normal 20 to 30 boats only 8 boats enjoyed a great days sailing, such a shame!

The fleet consisted of 4 Solos, 2 Supernovas, an RS300 and a Dart 15.

The Solos had some very close racing but the day was all about whether the leading Solo would be close enough to beat the Supernova of Tony Critchley on handicap. In the first two races Philip Barnes from Budworth managed to make a break from the other Solos and was thus able to sail a clean race and claim the both races from Tony's Supernova.

In the final race it was Dave Woodhead who made the break only to get the under achievement prize by capsizing to windward when hit by a big header only two legs from the finish. This left Tony in the Supernova to take the final race closely followed by the next Solo sailed by Darren Nield.

Dave Smith in the fourth Solo sailed consistently all day to put pressure on the others.

Despite the poor turnout it was great to see 3 new competitors to the series this year taking part. These were Paul Harris, (Dart 15) Ian Hopkins, (RS300) and Chris Caton (Supernova).

The next event will be at Leigh and Lowton on the 15th September.
Don't check the forecast, just turn up.

Overall Results: