2018 Jon Montgomery Travelling Trophy Leader Board
Home Page Results and Reports Sailing  Programme Rigging and Tuning  Sailing Catapult Tactics and Rules	Helm             Rutland Bassenthwaite Carsington Bala Stone Bridlington Yorks Dales Grafham TOTAL                 7   10 8 13 5 8 7 8 66 1st  Gareth Ede   2    1 2 1 1 3 2 1 4)         1 1 1 1 1           1 1 1 (9) 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 22 2nd Alastair Forrest 1 (4) 3 1 (5) 3 (4) 3 2 2 3 1 1 (4) 3 (6) (6) 3 3 2 3 3 2 (7) (6) (4) (5) 3 (4) (4) 3 (3) (5) 4 (5) (5) 4 56 3rd Stuart Ede 3 1 2 2 3 2 (4) (5) 3 1 1 1 2 (5) 3 3 (5)  (4)           (5) 4 3 3 (4) 3 3 (5) 3 (5) (5) 3 4 3 56 4th George Evans 2 2 5 5 2 5 5 3 7                   1 2 3 5 3 4 3 3 4 2 2 2 2 2           68 5th John Terry         1 1 1 2 1         2 2 2 2 1           2 2 2 1     14 14 14 2 1 2 4 3 76 6th Mike Gough 4 5 (5) 4 (7) 7 (8) 4 5 3 (6) (6) (9) (9) (6) (8) 2 (6) 4 4 5 2 5 3 4 2 1 (8) (8) 5 4 7 (8) 6 (8) 6 6 90 7th Syd Gage                   4 4 2 3 (7) 4 (7) (7) 5 5 5 4 4 4 6 6 6 (9) 6 6 6 6 8 (7) (7) (7) 6 6.5 104.5 8th Paul Ellis             14 14 14         3 4 5 3 2 1 1 1 1 1       14 14 14 14 14 14 2 3 2 2 2 131 9th Damien Cooney 7 7 7 8           6 2 5 9 (10) 8 (12) (13) 9           9 9 9 9 7 7 7 8 8           155 10th Nigel Harrison          6 6 6 8 6 5 2 4 4 6 7 7 6 7           14 14 14 14 14           110 11th Chris Phillips 6 5 6 8 8 4 5 6 6             14 14 14                   14 14 14 14 14 4 4 7 8 6.5 195.5 12th Chris Upton          8 9 7 9 8 6 2 5 5 9 9 9 11 9           14 14 14 14 14           217 14th Markus Reuber         9 10 11 11 (11) 8 5 6 6 15 15 15 15 15                   14 14 14 14 14           258 15th John Peperell         14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 8 14 4 8 14                   14 14 14 14 14           272 16th  Justin Evans         14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 11 14 14 9 14                   14 14 14 14 14           285                                                                                     Brian Cooney                                                                                Alex Montgomery                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             Event Winner: flies the Blue Pennant: at the next event he attends TT Leader: flies the Yellow Pennant     Helms score 60% of the total races.  Races not sailed  are scored as 14 (being one point more than the expected  number of qualifying helms  in the season) not shown on the chart until scoring is affected.    2018 SEASON SUMMARY    TT AT RUTLAND MAY  With the planned opening to the season at the Grafham Cat Open blown off the water, Catapult opened the season 7th-8th April back at Rutland (the home club of Mike Gough and John Terry) with the Club again hospitably welcoming the combination of Catapults and Squibs (with enough crossing of the contrasting fleets to add some tactical interest and surprises, without any serious interference.)  Light breezes on both days (under grey spring skies!) still let a 5-race series complete, until it dropped away and a final race was cancelled.  In close racing, three helms shared the first places, until last-year's TT winner Gareth Ede took the event by 2 points. Stuart Ede came in second, and added the event Handicap win, under the new 2018 handicaps adjusted by John Terry.  (Report)  MAY BANK HOLIDAY TT  AT BASSENTHWAITE    Catapult returned to a favourite event, the May Bank Holiday TT at Bassenthwaite The record UK temperatures and sunshine gave a challenging mix of light shifting breezes, with a moderate SW settling in each afternoon. John Terry won his first 2018 event from Gareth Ede (decided on the last race) with Alastair Forrest similarly plucking third from Stuart Ede on the last race result. (Report and photos)  John could count his string of wins and seconds (just pipping Gareth.)  Chris Upton scored two Handicap wins to take the event, with Stuart just holding top place on the Leaderboard.  TT  AT CARSINGTON 8th-9th JUNE A fleet of ten boats returned to Carsington for the third TT of the season, 8th-9th June, getting in the full 5-race programme in spite of breeze varying light to nothing, and swinging NE to E and back again. Stuart Ede consistently found the boat-speed to pull out ahead, and was unlucky not to get a clean sweep, still taking the event counting three wins, ahead of Alastair Forrest. (Report and photos) NATIONALS AT BALA June 30-July 1st. Thirteen boats raced at Bala Sailing Club for the 2018 Nationals June 30-July 1st. The ENE breeze off the land at the top of the lake was light but useful, markedly shifting and fluctuating through the weekend, with places lost and gained unpredictably, but the top two helms came to the front consistently. Gareth Ede was a clear winner, able to count 5 first places, ahead of John Terry, equally consistent in gaining second places. Paul Ellis in his first event of the year had gratifying boat speed to take third, three points ahead of Stuart Ede. (Report and photos) The club through Ken Hull generously opened on Friday, to support a full menu of the traditional fun races--pairs, relay, pursuit, and team. (Report and photos) Syd Gage took the Handicap win, and John Terry's expert handicap judgements meant that 4 points covered the first 5 handicap places.   NORTHERN CHAMPIONSHIPS AT RYYC, BRIDLINGTON, AUGUST BANK HOLIDAY The NE coast at Brid gives the Catapult 2018 racing Programme  its true open water sea sailing (with the traditional hospitality offered by the Dinghy section of the Royal Yorkshire YC) and Brid delivered again across the August B/H weekend. With strong winds looming, three races back to back were completed on Saturday, with the priority of keeping boat speed in the steep chop. Gareth Ede and John Terry dominated, with Gareth scoring straight wins. On Sunday, a 9.30 start (!!) allowed two back-to-back races in steep seas kicked up by a strong SW breeze, just before the big wind arrived, with lighter helms dropping out and Mike Gough coming through for a win and a second. On Monday, with the building westerly giving a flat sea, the RO (after a Dart trial) thought the conditions manageable, but the Dart fleet, and two Catapults trying it out confirmed that racing downwind would not be survivable. (Report) John Terry, able to count two wins and two seconds was a clear winner of the Northern Championships, with Mike Gough, relishing the stronger winds, coming in second. Mike clearly won the handicap event.  Alastair holds on to second place on the  just one point ahead of Stuart Ede, both well behind Gareth Ede.  TT AT STONE WEEK, BLACKWATER, JULY 30th-AUGUST 1st  Catapult again enjoyed the hospitality at Stone Sailing Club, running a TT event across the first three days of Stone Week, July 30th-August 1st The Blackwater Estuary sailing waters brought back the challenges of managing the tides effectively, in winds ranging across the three days from strong to non-existent, to give absorbing races. Paul Ellis, in home Essex waters, could count five wins from six races for an emphatic victory, with Alastair Forrest second a point ahead of George Evans. (Report) Paul took the Handicap win as well, but only 2 points covered the total scores of the five helms. PENULTIMATE EVENT: TT AT YORKSHIRE DALES SC, OCTOBER 6th-7th.  The Catapult fleet joined the Contender Northerns and D-Zeros on Grimwith Reservoir high on the Yorkshire Dales for the penultimate TT event for 2018, the weekend of 6th-7th October. Well organised racing overcame the challenges of low water in the reservoir, wind (on Saturday) across the reservoir, with many short legs, and (on Sunday) wind from nothing to strong. Gareth Ede consistently took to the front, with six straight wins, and George Evans was equally emphatic with straight seconds, pushing Gareth at times. (Report) On Handicap, George's pursuit of Gareth kept him well up to take the event easily, ahead of Syd Gage. FINAL EVENT: GRAFHAM CAT OPEN October 20-22nd The final event of the  2018 racing Programme  was again the TT as part of Grafham Cat Open on October 20-22nd; third time lucky (after two attempts at Grafham Opens were blown off the water) we had Indian Summer sunshine with light-moderate and always easily-sailable SW breeze. Grafham again gave excellent racing, and again we shared the course (a rectangle suiting Catapult) with a big Sprint fleet (with a usefully-separate bottom mark.) Catapult with eight helms was the third biggest fleet on the Open event. Paul Ellis returned to racing to challenge John Terry and Gareth Ede, with Gareth taking the event (Report) This further sealed his season victory for the Jon Montgomery Travelling Trophy for 2018 (TT Leaderboard .) Behind, Alastair Forrest and Stuart Ede went into the event just a point apart, and although Stuart was a clear fourth at Grafham, the narrowest of margins (a count-back to the number of first, then second, then third, and finally fourth places in the season!) allowed Alastair to take the TT second place. Stuart Ede also went into the final event on top of the 2018 Handicap Leaderboard  but with only five points covering first three. Chris Phillips was a clear handicap winner with his upwind speed throughout the Grafham weekend, ahead of Syd Gage, but they could not displace Stuart from his second podium place for the 2018 season. (Report) CATAPULTS ROUND SHEPPEY A fleet of three Catapults took on the 40 miles of the Round the Isle of Sheppey race, Sunday 9th September, starting in the third fleet. From the close start (photo below) broad-reaching in a fresh westerly, Alastair Forrest went well out to sea, planning to avoid windshadow from the bluffs on the island, but lost out badly to Mike Gough and Alex Montgomery with plenty of breeze inshore. As they turned onto the tight lead on the seaward shore, Alex built boat speed stretching out to lead the Catapults. Once round into the Swale, he took off, on a long port tack, hard on the wind and occasionally freeing, sometimes flying a hull. He caught the early fleets, and could land on an almost empty beach at the bridge to tip the boats. Behind Mike welcomed the fresh breeze but had to come through the cloud of early starters up the Swale. At the bridge, he and then later Alastair (well back) struggled with the tide plastering them against the pontoon marking the small beach. Once through under the bridge (the race 3/4 done) the stretches were easy and fast on broad reaches around the top of the island to the club. Alex was around in 2hrs 55 mins, the fastest singlehander, and 5th on handicap, beaten only by the Dart 18 fleet (which relished the fresh breeze and could punch through the chop with the wind and tide opposed.) (In 1991, Alex' father Jon, sailing the Catapult he designed, came 3rd, still noted prominently on the Race website.)           Back to top               Results and Reports             Home Page    Below: Close enough! Catapult offers some of the best catamaran sailing and racing in the UK