Contender Travellers Trophy at Highcliffe Sailing Club

by Gary Langdown 1 May 2024 21:27 BST 27-28 April 2024

After the first two events of the Contender Travellers Series were blown off, if was a relief for the Contender fleet to finally get the season under way at one of the premier locations in the UK, Highcliffe, over the weekend of 27/28th April. The venue did not disappoint as although unseasonably cold the venue and race team provided six high quality races over the two days.

The Contender's equivalent of Max Verstappen, Graeme Wilcox, again dominated the event, however unlike Formula 1 the rest of the fleet did appear to be making progress with Graeme only winning three of the six races this weekend, the other race wins being shared between the veteran Stuart Jones, Tom Hooten and Gary Langdown.

Despite the tide holding the fleet back Race 1 incurred the only general recall of the weekend and started in a 10-12 knot very cold easterly wind, Wilcox led from the first mark establishing a significant lead by the end of the first triangle that was sustained to the end, second was Rob Smith narrowly beating brother Adrian in third.

For race 2 the wind had increased slightly and the pumping flag was up Langdown led at the first mark but was overtaken by Wilcox and Jones on the second beat, it looked as though this was going to be Wilcox's race again but an error misjudging the tide and hitting the leeward mark resulted in turns and allowed Jones to go by and secure the win.

In race 3 Langdown again led for the first half of the race but was overhauled by Wilcox and Adrian Smith on the final triangle. The fleet returned to shore cold but happy, looking forward to the evening's pizza and beer.

Sunday arrived, and the wind had swung to the Northwest, was around 15 knots and again cold. Race 4 was led by Tom Hooten followed by Langdown and Wilcox, Wilcox over took both of them on the second beat to take the win.

In race 5 the wind started to drop and swing to the south west resulting in a number of place changes throughout the race, going down the run the front four of Langdown, James Spikesley, Wilcox and Jones had broken away from the fleet with the race being shortened it should have finished in that order. However, unfortunately, Spikesley didn't realise the race was shortened and turned to go upwind resulting in dropping from second to fourth. Jones showing unexpected tactical ability headed to the committee boat end and managed to overtake Wilcox for second with Langdown just holding on for the win.

Race 6, and the wind was now firmly in the south west blowing 15 knots Tom Hooten used his expanded winter waste line to good effect and lead all the way round, holding off Wilcox in second, Rob Smith crossed the line third but discovered he was OCS resulting in Duncan Ward finishing in third.

After the scores were counted Wilcox was first overall, Jones second and Hooten third.

With the circuit now up and running the Contender fleet are looking forward to the next Travellers event at Hayling Island on 11th & 12th May, followed by a trip up-north to Yorkshire Dales Sailing Club. Then a Contender Training day and 1 day open to be held at Oxford Sailing Club ready for the Nationals at Paignton in June.

Overall Results:

Pos	Sail No	Helm	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	Pts
1	2787	Graeme Wilcox	1	2	1	1	3	2	7
2	2706	Stuart Jones	4	1	5	8	2	6	18
3	678	Tom Hooton	6	5	9	2	6	1	20
4	2484	Gary Langdown	10	3	3	3	1	23	20
5	2730	Adrian Smith	3	6	2	11	7	7	25
6	2449	Rob Smith	2	10	4	7	9	23	32
7	2420	Simon Mussell	14	7	12	4	8	4	35
8	787	James Spikesley	9	14	8	9	4	5	35
9	2711	Duncan Ward	15	8	7	6	15	3	39
10	2702	Chris Boshier	5	13	11	12	10	10	48
11	2708	Ed Presley	7	9	23	5	23	8	52
12	2710	James Daniels	13	16	10	17	11	9	59
13	2423	Simon Dodds	11	12	13	14	12	12	60
14	2714	Martin Jones	16	15	16	10	5	23	62
15	2607	Carl Tagoe	8	4	6	23	23	23	64
16	718	Stuart Doe	18	17	15	13	13	13	71
17	6	Nick Curry	20	20	18	16	14	11	79
18	2589	Nathan McGrory	12	19	17	15	16	23	79
19	666	Bill Hooton	17	11	14	23	23	23	88
20	712	Rodger White	19	18	23	23	23	23	106
21	672	Trevor Lloyd	21	23	23	23	23	23	113
22	2383	David Davies	23	23	23	23	23	23	115