Six Catapults visited  Bewl Water on April 13th for the first TT event, in warm sunshine and in light, variable and shifty conditions. We were pleased to see John Coster at his first TT.

The gusts and big shifts made for some interesting racing. Alex Montgomery won the event with 2 wins and a 3rd.

Alex led the first race from the start followed at the end of lap 1 by Paul Ellis and Chris Philips. On the 2nd lap there were two big wind shifts which saw John Terry and John Peperell pass both Paul and Chris to finish 2nd and 3rd. Thanks to the shifts John P gained over 3 minutes on Alex, finishing only 3 seconds behind John T.

Race 2 saw Paul, John T and Alex taking turns after touching marks - pinching to make the mark did not pay! - and a close finish with only 33 seconds covering the first 4 boats. Paul was 1st followed by John P and Alex.

Paul made a good start in the 3rd race to lead on the first lap but then touched a local boat resulting in another turn. Alex took the lead which he extended to over 3 minutes at the finish. John T and Chris benefitted from another big shift on the final reach to pass both Paul and John P just before the last mark. Chris was unlucky to be impeded by a local, enabling Paul to retake 3rd place.

 Paul Ellis

                                                                           RESULTS

                         1st      Alex Montgomery           1              (3)             1              2

                        2nd      Paul Ellis                           3               1              (3)             4

                        3rd      John Terry                         2               (4)             2              4

                         4th      John Peperell                   3                2              (5)             5

                        5th      Chris Phillips                     (5)             3               3              6

                           6th      JohnCoster                        6                6          (DNF)         12