Sprint 15 Winter TT 5^th Jan 2013Draycote Water Sailing Club

11 visitors from as far afield as the Isle of Wight joined 6 Draycote sailors to form a decent fleet of 17 boats for the annual Draycote Water Sprint 15 winter TT.
The wind didn’t look promising on arrival at the reservoir with a light SSW wind leaving glassy patches all over the lake.
A perfect square course was set and the wind increased slightly to around 6 mph for the first race.
National Champion Stuart Snell was first to the windward mark and promptly did a horizon job while the rest of the fleet battled it out for the remaining positions.
As usual Steve Sawford, Paul Grattage and Paul Craft sailed consistently well and took the next three places.
The wind strength increased further for the second race which meant everyone had to hike out hard up the beat and play the mainsail to stop the windward hull from flying too high.
Peter Slater managed to take the lead on the first down wind leg and went on to win the race after a tense battle with the ever present Snell.
There was close racing further down the fleet where Erling Holmberg managed to win the ‘battle of the heavy weights’ from Jan Elfring.  Derek James managed to lose several places by stalling a tack just before the windward mark but still managed to beat arch rival Jan Elfring overall.
And so Stuart Snell took overall victory yet again after another impressively consistent performance and now has another trophy to add to his bulging cabinet.
Nice food and beers after the racing all added to the day’s enjoyment with everyone now looking forward to the next event at Queen Mary on 16^th Feb.