Allen Contender UK Travellers Series Round 1 at Burton Sailing Club

 Burton Sailing Club hosted the first round of the 2023 UK Travellers trophy on the weekend of the 18/19 March. As it was the first event of the season the weekend was split into a training /tuning day on the Saturday, followed on Sunday by a scheduled four race event.

Wind forecasts were not the best for the weekend - 4 to 12knts and shifty, north westerlies. It was therefore great to see 20 helms made the trip, and a reward to the organisers from the class and club who put on an excellent event - well done Ed and Bill.

Saturdays wind never breached about 8knts so made the training more challenging. The training consisted of various exercises - short races, starting techniques, hold and gun, buddy pairings, and a final long rudderless beat back to the shore - very long for some ! We all benefited from the day, and learnt some skills we had forgotten about. Many, including me, realised that the fewer tacks you do the quicker you are to the first mark !

Sunday saw a modest increase in wind, but it came with oscillations of maybe 20 degrees, so if you could put all that Saturday tacking practice into effect you would benefit. Consistency was going to be important too, as the race schedule was reduced to 3 races, back-to-back, with no discard, as the wind was forecast to drop away later. This proved accurate.

We hope to see everyone for the next round of the travellers at Oxford SC on the 1st/2nd April.

Overall Results:

Pos Sail No Helm Club R1 R2 R3 Pts

1st 695 Graeme Wilcox Netley 1 1 1 3

2nd 705 James Spikesley Netley 2 2 2 6

3rd 2708 Ed Presley Castle Cove 3 4 3 10

4th 2504 Tim Holden Halifax 5 3 7 15

5th 678 Tom Hooton Burton SC 4 7 4 15

6th 2702 Chris Boshier Thorpe Bay 9 5 8 22

7th 2484 Gary Langdown Highcliffe 6 12 5 23

8th 2729 Chris Howe Oxford 11 9 6 26

9th 2710 James Daniels Netley 10 8 10 28

10th 712 Rodger White King George 14 6 12 32

11th 2315 Ben Holden Halifax 7 11 14 32

12th 666 Bill Hooton Burton SC 12 15 9 36

13th 2733 Neil Ferguson Yorkshire Dales 13 13 11 37

14th 2420 Simon Mussell Highcliffe 8 10 38

15th 686 Nathen McGrory Poole 16 14 13 43

16th 674 Craig Hellon Burton SC 15 16 16 47

17th 696 Tony Cook Downs 18 18 15 51

18th 2490 Paul Green CHYF‑PDSC 17 17 17 51

19th 634 Buz Burrell Covenham DNF 60