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A great turnout of travellers joined the 2 local boats for a total of 23 entered in the first event to be held at Oxford Sailing Club based at Farmoor Reservoir. The forecast during the week ranged from 20 knots to 2 knots but on the day a fairly sailable force 2-3 stayed around long enough for the now familiar 2 races to take place.

Competitors at the recent Grafham TT were joined by Sissy Dewhirst and son, Benny who came to say “Hello” and watch the racing. Following Nick’s death, Sissy asked if there were any copies of Phil’s superb cartoons featuring Nick. It is a well known fact that Nick did indeed feature in many, both as a starring role and many cameo appearances, much to his great delight.

Eight boats from the Stewartby fleet were joined by 16 visitors for the first event in the Sprint 15 Winter TT series. The weather forecast was for a stiff breeze rising through the day. Utilising the whole of the 220 acre lake, the race officer laid a large Trapezoid course and kicked off the first race bang on time!

The Windsport Catparts Traveller Series for 2013 was concluded at Grafham on 26/27 October with our biggest traveller attendance (40) for more than 5 years which added to another big attendance of 37 at Thorpe Bay a few months earlier shows this cat class retains it’s popularity.

It was with some trepidation that the Sprint 15s gathered at Grafham on the weekend of 26/27 October for the Inland Championships and the last of the Summer Traveller series. The forecast was for strong winds leading up to an 80mph storm (St Jude) on Sunday night. Never the less an impressive 40 Sprint 15 sailors signed up for an exciting weekends sailing. The forecast on Saturday (18mph SW winds with gusts up to 30mph) looked sailable so Grafham played their trump card which was to bring one of the Sunday races forward to sail 4 races back to back on Saturday leaving just 2 races for Sunday (as the Sunday forecast was for strengthening winds).

A warm and sunny reception welcomed us at Northern Championships at Carsington SC on 21^st & 22^nd September. There was just enough wind to provide an enjoyable challenge to the seventeen competitors, fifteen of which were travellers. Fresh from his Nationals success, Stuart Snell dominated proceedings from the onset but the chasing pack were to be never far from his heels.

The Winter series timetable is now available on the website, click the link above!

We held our (almost) annual go-kart Grand Prix on Wednesday 28 August at the Liskeard Kart World straight after the sailing championships. We got excellent conditions and a new record attendance of 24 keen karters took part. Both clubs and families were well represented. Leading families included the Berisfords (4), the Bunyans (3) the Whaleys (3) The Galls (2 + Tom’s girlfriend), the Aldridges (2) and the Smiths (2). Club representation was as follows Carsington 4, Brightlingsea 4 (all Berisfords), Grafham 3, Swanage 3 (all Whaleys) Stewartby 3 (all Bunyans), Beaver 2, Draycote 2, Shanklin 2 and Worthing 1. As usual the competition was hot and as fiercely contested as the sailing.

The Sprint 15 Nationals took place at Pentewan Sands Sailing Club over the bank holiday weekend 25th to the 27th August. In total over 70 boats attended and many of the fleet are staying down for the remainder of the week for the fun events including the hotly contested go karting competition.