Winter Series 2012 - 2013 Report

The Sprint 15 winter series kicked off at Stewartby on 3 November with an excellent attendance of 30 boats (12 locals and 18 travellers). The winds were gusty and testing which made for some exciting racing. National Champion Stuart Snell won the first race from Paul Craft and Mark Aldridge but he did not get it all his way as Aldridge won the second race from Snell and Simon Farthing.  At the end of the day Snell won the event with Aldridge and Craft second and third. Simon Miles was the top local sailor in fifth place.

The Carsington open was held on 3 December on a very cold day with light but steady winds. 8 travellers were joined by 4 locals as doubtlessly the cold weather had deterred some travellers. Interestingly, 4 sailors had entered sailing the optional Sport mode. Snell took the first race from Peter Slater, Paul Grattage and Craft, The second race was won by Shanklin hotshot Grattage from Snell, Craft and occasional sailor, Richard Phillpott, who was making a welcome appearance.  At the end of the day Snell chalked up a victory from Grattage, Slater and Craft. Notably the 4 Sport mode boats were in the bottom 5 places even using last year’s handicap (883) – they would have been even worse placed on this year’s PN of 860.

The Draycote open on 7 January had an attendance of 17 boats including  6 locals. The winds were light but the fleet were happy to see that water levels had recovered since last year’s low tide during the drought.  The results had a similar look to earlier events with Snell winning with a first and a second place from Steve Sawford, Grattage, Craft and Slater. 

The weather conditions at the Queen Mary open on 16 February turned out to be completely calm in contrast to last year when racing took place in gusts of up to 30mph. Sadly despite a strong attendance no racing was possible in such breathless conditions.

The last event was scheduled for Grafham on 24 March but sadly a snow storm and warnings to avoid unnecessary travel caused the club to cancel the event.

Thus we lost 2 of our scheduled 5 events and with the best 3 results to count it meant that there were no discards. This caught out a number of the competitors who were planning on making a late surge. Never-the-less Stuart Snell had already built up an unassailable lead with 3 first places so Stuart retained the Winter Series Trophy. Paul Craft was second and Peter Slater third.

So the Fleet now move on to the Summer Travellers Series and hope that Global Warming kicks in sometime soon………….


Final Results Summary:


Overall TT Series Top 5 Places: 1st Stuart Snell (Grafham Water Sailing Club) 3 Pts , 2nd Paul Craft (Worthing Sailing Club) 11 Pts, 3rd Peter Slater (Draycote Water Sailing Club) 15 Pts, 4th Gordon Goldstone (Queen Mary Sailing Club) 33 Pts, 5th Paul Grattage (East Down Yacht Club) 39 Pts

Una and Two-Up Fleet Top 3 Places: 1st Stuart Snell (Grafham Water Sailing Club) 3 Pts, 2nd Paul Craft (Worthing Sailing Club) 11 Pts, 3rd Peter Slater (Draycote Water Sailing Club) 15 Pts

Sport Fleet Top 3 Places: 1st Michael Steer (Carsington Sailing Club) 19 Pts, 2nd Robin Hall (Stewartby Water Sports Club) 19 Pts, 3rd Robert England (RYA) 20 Pts

Full Series Results are available here



Event Summaries:



Total Number of Individual Competitors who attended at least one event: 37

Event Attendance Summaries
TT EventNumber of Home CompetitorsNumber of TravellersNo. of Una or Two Up CompetitorsNo. of Sport Mode CompetitorsTotal Number of Competitors at Event
Stewartby Water Sports Club111929130
Carsington Sailing Club398412
Draycote Water Sailing Club61218018
Queen Mary Sailing Club00000
Grafham Water Sailing Club00000



No. of Competitors From Each Club
Who Took Part In At Least 1 Event
ClubNumber of Competitors
Carsington Sailing Club3
Colne Yacht Club1
Draycote Water Sailing Club6
East Down Yacht Club1
Grafham Water Sailing Club4
Queen Mary Sailing Club2
Rutland Water Sailing Club1
RYA2
Shanklin Sailing Club2
Snettisham Beach SC1
Stewartby Water Sports Club11
Thorpe Bay Yacht Club2
Witham Sailing Club1
Worthing Sailing Club1