North West Junior Travellers at Bassenthwaite Sailing Club

Commodore Robin Dawson presents the Topper trophy to Lorcan Knowles during the North West Junior Travellers at Bassenthwaite © William Carruthers

Mirror Ian and Hannah Preston during the North West Junior Travellers at Bassenthwaite prize giving © William Carruthers

Over the weekend of 10-11 June Bassenthwaite Sailing Club held a multi fleet open meeting, mainly for junior sailors, generally sailing single handed boats. The two main events being held were the North West Junior Travellers Trophy and the RS Tera Northern Championship. Entrants came from as far afield as Loch Lomond to the north, and Llandudno to the south, so the onsite camping was very popular.

With 77 sailors in 65 boats in six fleets racing over two courses, plenty of wind from the SE, and some rain to boot, it was certain to be a busy weekend. Fortunately the morning rain had stopped, and the wind eased, by the time the ODs took to the water to set the courses. As soon as the ODs were ready, the competitors were allowed to launch, and the wind increased with a few boats capsizing before racing commenced.

The wind did ease soon after, but it constantly swung through 20-30 degrees, seemingly around different sides of Sale Fell, leading to different biases on the beat at different times.

In the first race there was good, consistent sailing by many, with only a few retirements following the early capsizes.

The wind shifted more to the SW just as the 2nd race started, but this time it didn't swing back again as it had earlier, instead the fleets had to contend with brief squalls passing through. As the race continued, the squalls were more prolonged and caused various capsizes so the OD opted to shorten the course slightly early while conditions were still sailable. As the boats were finishing conditions continued to deteriorate and rescue crews worked hard taking sailors from numerous capsized boats which were recovered later.

After a short break once all were ashore, with no sign of an early abatement in the conditions, it was decided to postpone further racing until Sunday. At least the sun was shining at last!

The blustery winds continued through Saturday night; on Sunday morning the ODs went on to the course area to check sailing conditions, but the gusty wind remained too strong to consider racing, even after an hour's postponement, so the outstanding races were cancelled.

A generous range of glassware, and various bags of chocolate, were awarded to lots of successful sailors by Commodore Robin Dawson.

Overall Results: