Hurricane 5.9 SX TT at Starcross Yacht Club
by Ben Cutler-Sharp 3 Jul 13:41 UTC
29-30 June 2024
Hurricane 5.9 SX sailors from all over the country visited Starcross Yacht Club on the River Exe for the second TT event of the year. With the visitors arriving on Friday and plenty of beers to wash down a Chinese Takeaway, the fleet awoke to sunshine and no wind first thing Saturday morning. With a short delay to racing to allow the tide to fill in, the sea breeze dutifully delivered some stellar conditions.
The first race started light with most crews just starting to single trapeze. It was Royal Yorkshire YC's Kev Porter & Ellis Stonehouse getting a clean start and away up the left hand side of the beat to get to the windward mark first. They were closely followed by Geoff & Jack Tindale from Stone SC, local boat John Donovan & Nigel Hingston and Alex Farrall & Alex Warrington from Thorpe Bay YC. As the race went on Alex & Alex hit the front with Geoff and Jack following in third. Race 1 also saw Trevor Bawden & Tom Wass lead the fleet over the finish but only to be deemed OCS at the start.
Race two continued with the sunshine strengthening the breeze to marginal twin trapezing. This time it was Stone SC's Richie Hanmore and Kev Bawden who got to the first mark with a small lead and consistently stretched it out each leg to a country mile! Geoff & Jack finished best of the rest in another second with Alex & Alex in third.
Race three saw the breeze notch up a little further and Thorpe Bays Julian Reichart and Jeremy Sandford got the jump on the first leg leading the fleet around to the finish, followed by the ever consistent Alex & Alex and Richie and Kev.
With some great racing filling the day, the evening was a mix of football, BBQ, beer and live music courtesy of the nearby music festival at Powderham.
Sunday brought a strong and gusty north westerly breeze and a lazy morning in the sun as the fleet waited for the tide to fill in.
Race 4 got under way with Alex & Alex leading the fleet round, revelling in the strong gusty conditions which saw a few casualties to breakages and capsizes. Trevor & Tom took second with Julian & Jeremy in third. Despite the conditions there was still plenty of close contact racing even up until the last short leg from the gate over to the finish.
Race 5 saw Trevor & Tom take line honours followed by Julian & Jeremy and Howard & George Warrington from Thorpe bay all enjoying the stronger conditions!
The last race saw Alex & Alex lead around the first few laps only to be overtaken by George & Howard who found the conditions to their liking, with Trevor & Tom close behind in third.
Overall it was Alex & Alex who took the well deserved event win with a very consistent set of races over the two days. With the last event in this years calendar being the Nationals at Royal Yorkshire Yacht Club in August, the fleet look forward to some more close exciting racing!
More of David Maynard's photos can be found at alleycatphotographer.com/hurricane-5-9-travelers-trophy
Overall Results:
| Pos | Helm | Crew | Club | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | R5 | R6 | Pts |
|---|
| 1st | Alex Farrall | Alex Warrington | Thorpe Bay YC | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | (4) | 2 | 9 |
| 2nd | Trevor Bawden | Tom Wass | Stone SC | (S) 4 | | 5 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 15 |
| 3rd | George Warrington Howard Warrington Thorpe Bay YC | | | 4 | 5 | 4 | (6) | 3 | 1 | 17 |
| 4th | Geoff Tindale | Jack Tindale | Stone SC | 2 | 2 | (1) 4 | | 6 | 5 | 19 |
| 5th | Julian Reichert | Jeremy Sandford | Thorpe Bay YC | (11) | 8 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 6 | 20 |
| 6th | Mark Mawditt | Sophie B | Thorpe Bay YC | 8 | 9 | 6 | 5 | (12) | 4 | 32 |
| 7th | John Donovan | Nigel Hingston | Starcross YC | 6 | 6 | (9) | 7 | 5 | 8 | 32 |
| 8th | Rupert Greeves | Caleb Greeves | Starcross YC | 10 | () 10 | | 8 | 7 | 7 | 42 |
| 9th | Richie Hanmore | Kev Bawden | Stone SC | 5 | 1 | 3 | (DNC) | DNC | DNC | 43 |
| 10th | Kev Porter | Ellis Stonehouse | Royal Yorkshire YC 3 | | 14 | 7 | 10 | (F) 9 | | 43 |
| 11th | Tesni King | Bill King | Starcross YC | 7 | 7 | 12 | (DNF) | 8 | DNF | 51 |
| 12th | Mike Arstall | Eamon Tyrrell | Starcross YC | 12 | (13) | 13 | 9 | 10 | 10 | 54 |
| 13th | Robin Ponting | Rowan Greeves | Starcross YC | 14 | 10 | (15) | 12 | 11 | 11 | 58 |
| 14th | Hunter Warden | AJ | Starcross YC | (15) | 15 | 14 | 11 | 9 | 12 | 61 |
| 15th | Doug Smith | Lucy Loughton | Starcross YC | 9 | 12 | 8 | (DNC) | DNC | DNC | 63 |
| 16th | Paul Raven | Vicky Raven | Starcross YC | 13 | 16 | 16 | (DNC) | DNF | DNC | 79 |