Catapult Travellers Trophy Series at the Rutland Sailing Club Catamaran Open 2025

John Terry (behind the lens), Syd Gage, Gareth Ede, Stuart Ede - start of Race 2 - Catapult Travellers Trophy Series at the Rutland Sailing Club Catamaran Open © John Terry

Shifty breezes that came and went characterised the Rutland Catamaran Open over the weekend of 17-18 May, where the Catapult fleet competed in the third event of its Travellers Trophy Series. Nevertheless Gareth Ede showed great consistency in winning all four races.

Race 1

Because of the generally light airs all the races comprised a single triangle and sausage. For the first race Eamonn Cotter went for a port tack start slotting between Stuart Ede and John Terry who led the starboard tack starters. Eamonn then tacked onto starboard to follow Stuart and John out to the left side of the course, while Gareth Ede, who started behind the others, tacked off to the right of the beat.

That proved to be advantageous, because he found more pressure there. Meanwhile Stuart, John and Eamonn were tacking on the shifts. On one shift Stuart tacked right, but John persevered to the left. That paid off because he found more pressure enabling him to round the windward mark only a few boat lengths behind Gareth. George Evans who had followed Gareth up the right side, came in to take third place.

Down the reach, George was 100 m behind Gareth and John and 100m ahead of Stuart. On the second reach to the leeward mark Eamonn closed the gap on Stuart as the wind filled in from behind.

On Lap 2 a battle was developing between George, Stuart and Eamonn. Stuart and Eamonn had closed the gap on George by going up the middle and tacking on the shifts, whereas George found less pressure than he had hoped for on the right. Ahead of them Gareth and John managed to get round the windward mark before a lull and a major shift that left George, Stuart and Eamonn struggling to make the mark.

George was able to round first followed by Stuart and then Syd who had come in from the right and pipped Eamonn, whose sail then tore when he pushed it out for the run. The final run did not afford any overtaking opportunities, so George, Stuart, and Syd finished in quick succession, but still a full 8 minutes behind Gareth and 5 behind John.

By now the breeze had largely died away leaving the back markers struggling to finish. There then followed a long wait for the wind to return, but it never did, and racing was abandoned for the rest of the day.

John Terry (behind the lens) pursues Gareth Ede around the windward mark - Catapult Travellers Trophy Series at the Rutland Sailing Club Catamaran Open - photo © John Terry

Race 2

Sunday dawned with a bit more breeze but still averaging Force 2 with the odd gust.

At the first windward mark Gareth, John and George rounded in quick succession. Not far behind Eamonn, Stuart and Syd were vying with one another. At the start of the second beat, Eamonn sailed free for speed, but lost too much ground to leeward leaving Stuart and Syd to continue the fight for fourth place. Stuart rounded the windward mark ahead of Syd, but downwind Syd drew level.

At the leeward mark Stuart had the inside berth and used it to sail over Syd as they raced for the line finishing just 10 seconds ahead.

Meanwhile the leading group had finished within 30 seconds of one another in the order Gareth, John, George.

Yet again the breeze died away leaving the back markers to trail in a long way back. Disheartened they decided to bail out of the rest of the day's races.

Race 3

So it was a hardy core of five boats that hung around waiting for enough breeze to start Race 3. Gareth, John and George found more pressure up the right of the beat and reached the windward mark ahead of Stuart who had gone up the middle.

On Lap 2 the leading three again went up the shore where they had found more pressure on Lap 1. Stuart figured his only chance of catching up would be to take a risk and go left, only to sail into a major lull and put himself further back and within the sights of Syd, who had been trailing on Lap 1.

To add insult to injury Stuart and Syd fell foul of another lull and major shift as they approached the windward mark together with a knot of other cats in the same predicament. Eventually they broke free, but by now Gareth, John and George (in that order) were well ahead. Syd started the run just behind Stuart, but he was able to overtake and round the last leeward mark sufficiently clear ahead of Stuart to beat him by 30 seconds.

Meanwhile Gareth had won the race by a two minute margin over John with George another minute back.

Race 4

With the breeze very light, Stuart and Syd opted to keep close to the start line, but in the last minute it freshened leaving them rapidly running out of line at the pin end, forcing them to gybe round. Stuart turned this to his advantage by starting on port behind the other starters and going right up the beat. There he found quite a lot more pressure which turned into a 100m lead at the windward mark ahead of Gareth with John another 50m back.

Unfortunately for Stuart his luck didn't last. At the leeward mark a Dart 15 tucked inside and claimed water. When the Dart then headed off downwind blocking Stuart from going upwind, Stuart realised the Dart was heading for the finish line. Although Stuart had right of way as leeward boat, it took some time to break free, by which time he had lost all his lead to Gareth, as they crossed tacks near the shore.

Meanwhile John rounded the mark into a lift enabling him to close the gap on Gareth. These two battled it out up the beat, and Gareth just held on to finish 20 seconds ahead of John with Stuart a minute behind in third.

Jon Montgomery Travellers Trophy Series

Gareth Ede has maintained his unbroken record of race wins over the first three events of the Catapult 2025 TT Series. The Blue Pennant for the event win and the Yellow Pennant for being series leader are becoming fixtures on his forestay. John Terry, last year's series winner, was as ever the bridesmaid, but his string of seconds still leaves him poised to take the top spot if Gareth slips.

Alastair Forrest Personal Handicap Series

When personal handicaps were applied to the results Syd Gage and Stuart Ede were tied, but Syd emerged as winner on tie break with two race wins to Stuart's one. So Syd will be flying the Lilac Pennant at the fleet's next event at Bala. But George Evans, who was just a point behind Syd and Stuart at Rutland, retains the Magenta Pennant as overall leader of Personal Handicap Series.