Sprint 15 Winter TT at Draycote Water Sailing Club
by Peter Slater 10 Jan 2011 10:01 GMT
8 January 2011
13 visiting boats joined 6 home boats on Saturday 8th January to form a 19 strong fleet at the 2011 Draycote Water Winter TT.
On arrival visitors were greeted with the sight of white horses on the recently thawed lake and a few anxious sailors could be heard muttering about being out of practice after a long period in which frozen lakes around the country had made sailing impossible. Nevertheless all 19 boats made it to the start line by which time the wind had dropped slightly making sailing conditions close to ideal.
The race officer set a square course and after the first start the two boats with DX sails helmed by Steve Sawford and Ray Gall established an early lead which was never challenged.
The standard boats were left to battle it out and there was close racing throughout the fleet.
Winner on handicap in race 1 was Robin Newbold from Carsington Water closely followed by Ed Tuite-Dalton from the home fleet.
The second race was held back to back with the first race and after a clean start all the boats were now enjoying the strengthening wind and sunshine which gave near champagne sailing conditions.
Generally the left hand side of the beat seemed to pay but this could never be relied upon and so there were many place changes on each lap.
In the strengthened wind the reaches could now be sailed at full power and speed resulting in a few buried bows as people fought for position. All the boats managed to remain upright as nobody fancied a swim in the freezing cold water.
Eventual winner in Race 2 was Peter Slater from Draycote but Robin Newbold held on to his second place after a close fight with Howard Hawkes and this was enough to give him overall victory.
Despite winning both races on the water the two DX boats would have been relegated to 9th and 11th position overall after taking their PY of 844 into account so some adjustment of this experimental PY may be required?
Overall this was a highly enjoyable event which shows how much fun winter sailing can be.
The fleet now look forward to the third round of the winter series to be held at Carsington Water on 5th Feb.