Issue date
While experience certainly proved telling at the first event of the Elliott 5.9 Traveller Series on Lake Rotoiti recently, the fleet welcomed three brand new boat owners and crew into the series.
It meant 12 teams lined up for the first four of the series, with newcomers Ewok, Wai kat a moo cow and Icebreaker looking to get up to speed quickly.
Icebreaker was the best placed of the new entrants in a very respectable eighth overall, making the six-hour drive from Opua a worthwhile one. That wasn't the biggest journey, however, with the team from Eagle (7th) making the long trip up from Nelson and they plan to keep their boat in the North Island so they can compete in the remaining 5.9 Traveller Series regattas.
The team of Craig Satterthwaite, Nathan Williams and Chris Maddock on R&R showed their class in the challenging but not a-typical lake sailing conditions, winning nine of the 10 races across the two days of racing. They mastered the 8-25 knot winds and rain squalls on the first day and then Sunday's much more mild (but equally wet) conditions.
The rest of the the one-design trailer yacht fleet will have a big job to knock R&R off the top at next month's national championships, which Satterthwaite has won for the last six years.
Rounding out the rest of the podium at Lake Rotoiti was Slam Dunk (Stu Clarke, Stu Molloy and Cam Horne) and Zoot Allures (Dave Cochrane, Mike Valliant and Garth Weinberg).
Both Dirty Circus and Boat 1, who are relatively new to the fleet, showed moments of potential and Dirty Circus finished on a high by placing second in the last race and Boat 1 also recorded a top-three finish.
2021 Traveller Series #1 (Rotoiti) Final Points
1st: R +R – 9pts
2nd: Slam Dunk – 27 pts
3rd: Zoot Allures – 30 pts
4th: Dirty Circus – 45 pts
5th: Boat 1 – 45 pts
6th: Bloodline – 50 pts
7th: Eagle – 51 pts
8th: Icebreaker – 63pts
9th: Shock Treatment – 64 pts
10th: Frivolous Fish – 87 pts
11th: Wai kat a moo cow – 92 pts
12th: Ewok – 103pts
Full results hereand you can also catch some footage of the racing here on Facebook.
The next regatta of the 2021 Traveller Series will be held at the Mercury Bay Boating Club on May 20-22 and includes the Elliott 5.9 national championships. The remaining events include:
- July 3-4 at Napier Sailing Club
- August 14-15 at Bucklands Beach Yacht Club
- September 25-26 at Sandspit Yacht Club
The notice of race for the season is now available online www.e59.org.nz.
The Elliott 5.9 Class is supported by sponsors including Kitchen Link, Switchpro Electrical, NZ Spars & Rigging and KPMG.
