NW Senior Travellers Finale at Elton Sailing Club

NW Senior Travellers Finale at Elton © Dave Scott

The seventh and final round of the 2016 NW Senior Travellers took place at Elton SC on Tuesday the 4th October. Now in its sixth year this mid week series for the over 50s remains as popular as ever with 53 boats taking part in one or more event. Typically each open meeting has an entry into the 20s with many new very competitive "youngsters" (just over 50!) now taking part.

Going into the final day the points for the overall winner were very tight with four possible winners dependent on the results on the day. The winner would be one of the Solos of Darren Nield and Dave Woodhead, the Supernova of Tony Critchley or the Streaker of Dave Turtle. The scene was set for a great showdown with perfect weather conditions to provide some close and exciting sailing.

After the first race it looked like it might be going the way of the Solos with Darren and Dave taking first and second places. Dave Turtle and Tony Critchley taking third and fourth respectively. There was a bit of an issue over the number of laps sailed and the realisation from the OD team that they had had the sailors sail one lap too many. A later suggestion was that the series be renamed the senior moments trophy.

After lunch the two remaining races were sailed back to back. This time the conditions appeared to favour the Supernovas whilst the Solos got stuck in mid fleet traffic. New comer to the series Andy Flitcroft(Supernova) took the race closely followed by club mate Tony Critchley. Darren managed to break free of the pack to claim third place from Dave Turtle.

NW Senior Travellers Finale at Elton - photo © Dave Scott

It would all come down to the final race. A situation never to have occurred before and the tension was felt on the start line. In six years of this series there has never been a general recall, but before this race got away we had two! Tony Critchley secured the victory in this final race to just take him past Dave Woodhead in the overall standings and also give him the top place on the day. A thoroughly well deserved result especially as Tony has been nursing an injured hand all season following surgery to restore his grip.

In other categories Elton SC took the champion club trophy, calculated from the top three boats from each club. Steve and Liz Marsh took the first double handed boat sailing an RS200 and Richard Hemingway sailing a Solo took the over 70 trophy.

Overall Results: