Hansa Class UK Traveller Trophy Series Round 1 at Frampton on Severn Sailing Club
by David Durston 19 May 20:45 BST
17 April 2024
The Hansa Class UK Traveller Trophy series has got under way. It was great to be back at Frampton on Severn Sailing Club after two years of cancellations due to bad weather.
This event threw up some challenging conditions, with varying wind strengths, and directions throughout the day. This left sailors with difficult decisions to be made regarding where to find pressure, and how to avoid the holes.
An impressive 24 boats made the journey to Frampton, which is a record for that venue. It is an encouraging start to what will hopefully be another successful Hansa class series. There were several new sailors at the event, which has been made possible by the availability of the rig, which transports boats to the events.
The sailing started off as competitively as it finished at the end of last season. In the liberty fleet places were continually changing between the top three rivals: David Durston, Paul Philips, and Paul Pearson. With marginally more consistent results, David won the battle and came out on top.
In the 303 1 person fleet, there were 13 entries, which included Jazz Turner and Henriette Smith, who are both para world sailors. Last year's winner, Rory McKinna dominated the morning with two first places. However, Jazz, accompanied by her assistance dog, Phoebe, came out on top in the afternoon to take the prize for the event. There was tough competition also for third and fourth places between Leslie Philip and James Woosnam. Leslie came out ahead by only one point.
The 303 2- person fleet was dominated by Harry Holland with his father, Nick, dropping only two places in the second race, which became their discard. Lynne and Stuart Swan came out on top in the battle between the two Chesil Sailability teams. There was unfortunately only one entry in the 2.3 class. We hope that we will see more people getting involved. This is a great entry level boat.
David Greenfield and his team put on a fantastic event as always. Frampton Sailing Club is a beautiful venue and always throws up some interesting conditions. We look forward to returning next season.
Full results are available on the Hansa website here.