15 Strong Elliott 5.9 fleet to contest Bucklands Beach Traveller Series
by Gareth Howard - Elliott 5.9 Association 9 Aug 2021 23:43 PDT
Dirty Circus © Elliott 5.9 Association
The close competitive racing that exists throughout the one design Elliott 5.9 has attracted another large and competitive fleet with at least 15 Elliott 5.9s descending on Bucklands Beach Boating club this weekend for the fourth round of the Elliott 5.9 Traveller Series.
Much interest will focus on the two new crews who will be competing for the first time.
Jo Lowery, who sails out of Lyttelton, is the new owner of Bob. Jo has made the trek north for her first E5.9 regatta and plans to actively campaign Bob across the E5.9 Traveller Series and other E5.9 regattas.
Auckland based Ian Baker is the new owner of the well performed SMAK. Ian brings a wealth of sailing experience to the class and will also prove to be a strong competitor in this already highly competitive fleet.
Another boat to watch will be R+R. Craig Sattherwaite and Richard (Bart) Bearda have again campaigned R+R to a strong position. After three of the five Traveller Series events, R+R holds a solid points advantage over the second placed Slam Dunk. However, Craig and Bart will not be onboard R+R for the Bucklands Beach event. Instead, multiple national champion Derek Scott will team up with R+R’s national champion bowman Chris Maddock to form a strong combination on R+R.
Derek and Chris will be hoping to continue R+R’s strong season. A good result at Bucklands Beach will put R+R in a commanding position to reclaim the overall Traveller Series title that they relinquished to SMAK in 2020.
However, Slam Dunk, currently sitting in second overall, will be wanting to close the gap and give themselves a chance of taking the title at the final regatta to be held at Sandspit 25 - 26 September.
The battle behind R+R and Slam Dunk is also developing into an interesting contest. Dirty Circus returns to the fleet after missing the previous Napier event. With previous strong showings in Traveller Series 1 and 2, Dirty Circus will be hoping to quickly re-establish themselves in the chasing pack.
However, Zoot Allures will not be planning on giving up their current third placing easily and will aim to continue to exert their presence in the fleet.
Bloodline, currently sitting in fourth, will be looking to claw back some more points on Zoot Allures, as they did in Traveller Series 3 at Napier, and put pressure on for the final regatta.
The darkhorse of this regatta must be the return of Rob Ward sailing Hobo the Butcher. Rob has previously sailed Hobo to two consecutive National Championships. While Hobo has not been a regular in the series this year, they are always competitive and capable of race wins. Given the right conditions, they could well cause some upsets.
With a good number of new crews this year, the rookie title is still too close to call. Ewok, Ice Breaker and Reverly have all shown good form but will be looking for consistency to try and claim the outright rookie title of the currently well-performed Boat 1.
Full results will be available online here and pictures online here.
For more information on the Elliott 5.9, visit the Elliott 5.9 Class Association.
A full list of previous Champions can be found online here.