Bolton Juniors entered two teams in the Annual 12 Hour Race at Southport over the weekend. After a slow start due to the lack of wind the rest of the day saw light shifty winds with 180 degree changes in wind direction. A fantastic effort by both teams with some people who’ve never sailed in a big event before. The ‘A’ team came 3rd with the ‘B’ ‘Bolton Pirates’ team finishing a fantastic 22nd.

Photos by Dennis at http://picasaweb.google.com/ShevPix/2009Junior12hr

This weekend saw Bolton boats heading up and down the motorway and Merlin Rockets decending on Bolton.

Merlins from across the North-West descended on Bolton for the Annual Open Meeting, this year a Silver Tiller event. The wind wasn’t kind to the sailors fanning out across the lake from Turton (Number Eight) towards the club. This made for some interesting racing with not much chance for spinnaker work.

The GP14s headed down to Budworth for a blustery GP14 Open Meeting. Due to the weather conditions only two Bolton boats made it on to the water with Gary Deighan and Becca Paul finishing 8th with Julie and Chris Waddington finishing right behind them in 9th out of 24 entries.

Finally, Stuart Catterall and I made our way up to Windermere for the Annual Waterhead race. Starting at the bottom end of the lake, near the Lakeside Hotel at Newby Bridge, the race was up to the Waterhead 6mph speed limit marker and back – 20 miles as the crow flies. The first part of the upwind leg to Bell Isle involved an awful lot of taking and battling the wind as it swung across the lake in all directions. By the time we got to Bowness the local boats were a long way ahead – obviously used to the fluky conditions. Stuart had followed the pack and was now quite a way ahead of me.

After what felt like an age, I made it round Bell Isle to be greeted with a change of wind direction and thoroughly enjoyed the close reach to the top of the lake where I pulled away from the boats that I’d been stuck with up the beat and also caught up to some of the boats that were at one point way ahead. On the way I passed Stuart as he desperately tried to repair a broken halyard by capsizing his boat. Stuart sorted his boat out and was catching again when he was informed by the rescue that as he’d received outside assistance one of the other competitors had threatened to protest (BOO!) so Stu swung round and headed back to the club.

I made it round the 6mph limit mark at the top and with another good reach down the lake soon made up some time. It was a dead run down from Bell Isle to the finish which was made worse by the gusts coming from different directions. I crossed the line 3 hours after the start and finished 13th out of the 29 boats with Stuart lying 29th due to his retirement. It was good to finish the full length as I head the last few years have suffered light winds and the races have been shortened.

The event raised over £500 for McMillan Cancer and was well supported by local companies who donated some excellent prizes. Thanks to South Windermere Sailing Club for their hospitality and Stu and I have said we’ll be back next year, hopefully with a few more boats…and cleats for our mainsheets!

Topper Open at Bolton Sailing Club
Saturday 23rd May 2009

By Keith Roberts

Bolton Sailing Club hosted the Topper Open on Saturday 23rd May with 32 boats taking part in the competition. The competitors had travelled from as far away as Carsington and Blithfield. The weather lived up to the forecast of overcast conditions in the morning, with some sunshine in the afternoon. There were 6 home boats with Leigh and Lowton and Redesmere fielding 9 boats apiece.

In the first race Sarah Yeates (Leigh and Lowton) led from start to finish. Ruth Shevelan (Bolton), James Asquith (Redesmere) and Andrew Green (Leigh and Lowton) had some close racing, changing positions several times until local girl Ruth took second place. The girls dominated race 1 taking first and second. Third place went to James Asquith. Unfortunately Andrew Bridgman, Jamie Purcell and Jamie Catchpole failed to fully read the sailing instructions and were disqualified for sailing on the wrong side of the island.

After lunch the sun came out and the wind had increased slightly to a F3. Lucy Yeates (Leigh and Lowton) got a good start and sailed away from the fleet to take first place. The rest of the fleet had some extremely close racing. Andrew Bridgman (Blithfield) managed to get some clear wind and sailed into second place where he finished. Sarah Yeates took third place. The finish in the middle rankings was extremely tight with the OOD having to use photographs to decide the position of boats as eight boats finished within 2 seconds of each other making identification of the sail numbers very difficult.

By the time the third race started the wind had shifted 180 degrees and the wind speed had dropped to a F2. Andrew Bridgman (Blithfield) got a fantastic start and sailed to victory taking first place. Yet again there was close racing within the rest of the fleet. However, at the end of the race Andrew Green took second and Sara Yeates third.

Overall Results:

1st Andrew Bridgman (Blithfield)
2nd Sarah Yeates (Leigh and Lowton)
3rd Lucy Yeates (Leigh and Lowton)
1st Under 14 Jamie Catchpole (Leigh and Lowton)
1st Home boat Ruth Shevelan (Bolton)
Endeavor award went to George Mitson (Bolton)

Bolton Sailing Club hosted the Supernova Open on Saturday 25th April with 17 boats taking part in the competition. The weather lived up to the forecast of overcast conditions, sunshine and showers with a shifty F4 South Easterly wind in the morning with blue skies and a moderating Southwesterly wind by the end of the day. There were 6 home boats with 11 other competitors travelling from as far afield as Haversham, the Midlands and the South.

In the first race there was a tight battle at the front of the fleet between Tony Critchley (Bolton) and Mike Gibson (Bartley). Whilst Tony led for most of the first lap Mike managed to get past Tony and pulled out a lead of 5-6 boat lengths to take the win. Andy Jenkins (Bolton) held onto third place until he was overtaken by Steve Hawley (Severn) on the last downwind leg of the last lap.

After lunch the wind had moderated slightly. In the second race, the OOD decided to use almost all the marks on the lake which led to the entire fleet having close racing. Tony Critchley led on the first beat to the windward mark however the wind filled in from behind which allowed the chasing group of Gibson and the Hawley brothers to catch up and get past Tony. Mike and Steve changed places several times with Mike taking the lead on a downwind leg two marks from the end of the race Gibson was first followed by Steve Hawley in second with Chris Hawley in third and Tony Critchley in fourth place.

The third race was run back to back with race two. By the time the third race started the wind had picked up again and varied from a F2 to F4. Paul Undrell (Haversham) got a cracking start and led the fleet for the first lap however he went too far left on the beat on lap two and allowed Mike Gibson past who then got a good lead to finish in first place. Second place was taken by Paul Undrell with Steve Hawley third.

Overall Results:

1st Mid-Life Crisis 687, Mike Gibson (Bartley)
2nd Gilbert 705, Steve Hawley (Severn SC)
3rd North Star 525, Tony Critchley (Bolton SC)

The OOD list for 2009 is now available to download! You can find it here.

It is with great sadness that we’ve heard that Richard Estaugh has died. Richard was good friends with many members of Bolton Sailing Club and supported our 24 hour race team.

Richard was one of the best known and most successful dinghy sailors this country has seen and he will be sorely missed. As well as being a keen sailor himself he also set up and ran Speed Sails for over 25 years helping thousands of others within the sport.

Further information regarding the funeral and donations will be posted on the Speed Sails website.

GP14 Open 2009 @ Bolton Sailing Club

Despite the early season date of the Bolton SC GP14 Open it was warm sunshine that greeted the 17 competitors at the club on Sunday April 5th.  A tricky Southerly force 2 made it a tough day for Andy Flitcroft and his OOD team as they attempted to set courses in the variable wind.
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This Sunday was the first day of the new sailing season. It was a glorious day for sailing!

Some photos can be found in the gallery at http://gallery.sail.org.uk/v/2009/1stday/ and http://www.sailpics.co.uk/zenphoto/index.php?album=2009/2009March29

RYA Sailability, the charity of the Royal Yachting Association which provides disabled people with access to sailing activities was today (07 March) joined by inspirational yachtsman Geoff Holt and Paralympian Helena Lucas to launch its brand new online information resource ‘Sailability TV’.

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