Topper Southwest Traveller Series at Paignton Sailing Club

by Amelie Ballantyne 28 Apr 2025 05:51 BST 20 April 2025

On 20th April 2025, lots of keen SW Topper sailors descended on Paignton Sailing Club for Traveller 2 of the ITCA race series. Many of the sailors had also taken part in a windy and wavy training session on the Saturday lead by Issy Smith and Mark Ripley.

Unlike the Saturday's training session that was very windy, by Sunday the wind had dropped but we still had huge rolling waves to play with. The wind was blowing from the east to start with, and the plan was to get four races in. Paignton is great for racing with many experienced race officials; we had committee boat starts and nice long races. Both the 4.2 and 5.3 fleets raced together.

Race one was led by Charlie Mackenzie and Tom Smith was close behind throughout: both had excellent starts and went on to gain first and second, with Eddie Phillips in third place. By the end of the first race the wind had shifted so the windward mark had to be moved giving us sailors time to refuel and chat. For the 4.2s Audrey Yang had an excellent race gaining first place Race two was also very close with Victory Montgomery leading for the majority, but Harry MacLeod and I were on his stern the whole time trying to take his wind. I took second and Harry third. Once finished, the wind had shifted again to south easterly, so the windward mark was moved yet again. It was a close race for the 4.2s in race two with Audrey gaining first place closely followed by Hattie Steel coming in second.

By race three the wind had really started to die off making racing very challenging and a game of patience and perseverance. Once again Victory led the way, but Charlie was back on his tail and George Reynalds come in third. Hattie on her 4.2 sail won the third race.

After yet another mark moving wait as the wind was playing with us, race four was really tricky with minimal wind and big pushing waves. Victory and I had good starts and managed to lead the whole race with Charlie close behind us coming third.

We all had a wonderful time at Paignton Sailing Club and received, as always, a very warm welcome from the hosts. We had a lovely prize-giving where everyone was given a well-deserved prize for their efforts - it was not easy sailing and several sailors become victims to bout of seasickness from the waves, including some of the adults! Thank you to the coaches and volunteers for helping. The next traveller is at Parkstone Yacht club but safe to say we can't wait to return to Paignton in the summer for NS5.

Overall Results:

5.3
1st Victory Montgomery
2nd Charlie MacKenzie
3rd Amelie Ballantyne
4th Harry MacLeod

4.2
1st Audrey Yang
2nd Hattie Steele
3rd Martha Shorter
4th Grace Mongomery