SW Topper Travellers at Chew Valley Lake Sailing Club
by James Willis 13 Oct 16:59 UTC
5-6 October 2024
Topper Travellers at Chew Valley Lake © James Mills
A huge thank you to the very friendly and scenic Chew Valley Lake Sailing Club for a superb weekend as we sailed the last but one SW Topper Traveller event of the season on 5th and 6th October 2024. A no tide inland lake was a first and quite a novelty for those of us who do most of our sailing in Salcombe.
Saturday featured the usual coaching sessions in building and eventually breezy conditions, setting everyone up for race day on Sunday. Sunday's race day brought shifting conditions that varied from race to race for the four that were sailed back to back over a trapezoid course. The threatened rain thankfully managed to hold off until the fourth race had been sailed and all of us were ashore. Close competition filled the fleet but with a particularly fitting dominant performance by Thomas Semmens and Harry Mills swapping the 1st and 2nd positions between them in their final event in the Topper class.
Thomas had a strong start, winning both Race 1 and Race 2. Harry followed closely behind, finishing in second place in each race. Charlie MacKenzie also performed really well, securing a third place in both.
The third race saw a shift in the order as Harry took first place, moving Thomas to second. Amelie Ballantyne from Starcross YC delivered an impressive performance, finishing in third. In the final race, Thomas regained his lead, finishing first again, with Harry in second and George Reynolds taking third.
The PRO Tim Johnson was very complimentary of the high standard of racing but particularly impressed that, although the fleets pressed the start line to the limit, nobody was OCS in any of the races.
Chew Valley Sailing Club were exceptional hosts, providing very well organised races and a warm Topper welcome and it was great to be able to fuel up with delicious sausage baps before and chilli fries after racing.
Congratulations to Thomas Semmens, Harry Mills, and George Reynolds for placing 1st, 2nd, and 3rd respectively in the 5.3 fleet class, and to Brooke Browning, Finley Kirby and James Colis who were 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the 4.2 fleet.
The next and last SW Topper Traveller event this season is a two day championship at Parkstone on October 19th and 20th. Look forward to seeing everyone and rounding things off there.
Best of luck to Thomas and Harry and their support teams as they continue their sailing journey into ILCAs. We will miss them but it will be good to have some room at the head of the SW Topper fleet to aim to move into and they will be hard acts to follow.