North West Senior Traveller Series at Burwain Sailing Club
by Dave Woodhead 16 May 2019 16:01 BST
14 May 2019
North West Senior Traveller Series at Burwain © Paul Hargreaves
Burwain Sailing Club was the picturesque setting for the latest event in the ever popular NW Senior Traveller Series on Tuesday 14th May. Wall to wall sunshine greeted the 36 sailors who renewed old friendships whilst applying sun cream. All the ingredients for a great day were there except one, the reflections on the water indicating a total absence of wind.
A postponement, a chat and a cup of coffee were in order whilst waiting for the forecast 7 mph easterly to fill in. After a half hour delay a few tiny wavelets appeared and the fleet launched. The wind however had a few tricks up its sleeve, with small gusts, complete dead patches and large shifts in direction making the setting of courses and start lines very challenging.
This set the scene for the day making race strategy a combination of intelligent guesswork and luck as the wind randomly switched on and off and changed direction. Unusually for this series a number of general recalls were necessary as the start line bias often switched at the last moment.
It was a day for the Solos with four out of the top five places going to them.
Overall winner was local and new to the series Innes Armstrong who remarkably given the random wind, was consistent and never out of the top 3 in all 3 races. Second place went to Andy Flitcroft from Bolton S C in a Supernova who managed to string together two good results. The top five were completed by the Solos of Richard Catchpole (Leigh and Lowton SC) Dave Woodhead and Darren Nield (both Elton SC).
The first two-man boat was the RS400 sailed by Dave Read and Paul Salmon (Elton SC) and the first veteran was Peter Dewhurst in a Solo from the home club.
Full updated results for the series and details of future events are available on the RYA north west website: www.rya.org.uk/rya-regions/north-west/competition/Pages/senior-travellers-trophy.aspx
The next event will be at Bolton SC on the 11th June.