Nothing beats experience at Elliott 5.9 Traveler Series

Elliott 5.9 Traveler Series Prizegiving on Lake Rotoiti © Kristine Horne

While most other sailing events around the upper North Island were called off for the day due to extreme wind and rain on Saturday, the Elliott 5.9's were commencing their first races of the 2021 Traveller Series on Lake Rotoiti.

The 12 competing boats had no option but to quickly find their feet for the season in typical lake sailing conditions that threw challenging shifts and rain squalls into the mix of what is already intensely fought one-design series.

In Saturday's 8-25kn and Sunday's much more mild (but equally wet) conditions, the very experienced crew of Craig Satterthwaite, Nathan Williams and Chris Maddock on board R&R were quick to put their '1' on the scoreboard, and went on to win nine of the ten races that were sailed over two days. The rest of the fleet will have a big job to knock R&R off the top at next months' National Championships, which has won by Satterthwaite for the last six years.

Rounding out the rest of the podium at Lake Rotoiti were equally experienced crews: Stu Clarke, Stu Molloy and Cam Horne on board Slam Dunk in second, with Dave Cochrane, Mike Valliant and local sailor Garth Weinberg on board Zoot Allures only three points behind overall.

Relatively new to the fleet are Dirty Circus and Boat 1 and both showed moments of true potential by pushing the top boats around the course. Dirty Circus finished the regatta on a high note of a second place finish, while Boat 1 opened with their best result of a third place, and the duo wound up on equal points to finish fourth and fifth respectively.

Boat 1 was the best placed of the three boats who came across from Napier including Bloodline (sixth) and Shock Treatment (ninth).

While experience was clearly the winner at this first event of the season, the 5.9 fleet were pleased to welcome three brand new boat owners and crew into the series including Ewok, Wai kat a moo cow, and Icebreaker.

Icebreaker was the best placed of the new entrants in a very respectable 8th overall, having made the 6+ hour drive from Opua along with club-mates Frivolous Fish (10th) who also come from the Bay of Islands. A special acknowledgement must also go to the team from Eagle (seventh) who made the big trip up from Nelson and plan to keep their boat on the North Island for the remaining 5.9 Traveller Series regattas.

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 here