Wayfarer L'Escargot Trophy at Aldeburgh Yacht Club this weekend
by Tim Townsend 6 Jul 2017 12:21 BST
8-9 July 2017
2017 Wayfarer National Championship at Arun © Sue Blessett
This weekend sees the travelling Wayfarers descend on Aldeburgh YC for the L'Escargot Trophy which is the fourth event of the Craftinsure National Circuit and Travellers Series 2017.
The Travellers Series incorporates eight open events including the National and Area Championships throughout the season at a variety of venues, including the sea, rivers, large reservoirs and smaller lakes. Prizes are available for the best performing boats over the season as a whole, but also for the National Circuit Series where the best three results count (so long as they include at least one salt water and one fresh water venue).
After the third event of the Series (the National Championships at Arun YC last month) several boats have already competed in the three events which are required to qualify for the National Circuit and several more have competed in two events, so good results at Aldeburgh will give the opportunity to shake up the order of things, either by getting in the mix with three events or getting the opportunity to discard a result.
There is no doubt that the provisional standings will change because four of the top six boats at this stage will not be at Aldeburgh as the holiday season kicks in. However, other crews who are knocking at the door will be competing; these include Nigel and Belinda O'Donnell who are looking to perform well and discard a less than stellar result from an earlier event and Bill Whitney and John Shelton who will be competing in their third event of the Series with two excellent results in their pockets already.
Registration for the L'Escargot Trophy opens at 10am on Saturday 8th July, with two races scheduled for Saturday afternoon and two more races scheduled for Sunday morning. Free camping for competitors is available at Aldeburgh YC with lunch and snacks available during the day and a dinner on Saturday evening. The forecast is for sunshine and force 2-3 winds all weekend. More details are available at www.aldeburghyc.org.uk