Bolton Sailing Club

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Light airs signalled the start of the 42nd 24 Hour Race on the marine lake at Southport on Saturday. Starting in the ‘A’ team was Ian Platt and Alex Pilkington and starting for the ‘B’ team were Chris and Julie Waddington.

Rounding the last mark of the course for the first time, Ian in our GP14 and the Lark of South Staffs had already pulled away from the chasing pack but as the wind dropped it was obvious it was going to be a hard battle to keep ahead of the pack. Many teams (not us) were penalised heavily for rule 42 (pumping).

As the ‘B’ team were out ‘for the fun of it’ we made sure as many people as possible got to sail so even in the middle of the night when the wind had dropped to nothing I even got a sail (ably crewed by Leanne)! Annoyingly, after two and a half hours in the boat and only three laps completed the wind picked up just in time for Paul and Curtis Mearns to have a go. At least we didn’t record the slowest lap of the ‘B’ team, which I believe went to Stuart Catterall and Helen Brittan who suffered the worst of the lack of wind to take an hour and a half to do a lap.

The wind filled in a bit more on Sunday morning and with only an hour to go we even saw some boats capsizing!

The ‘A’ team were missing Mike Senior this year as he’d defected to South Staffs but the ‘B’ team were still able to field a Senior with Mike’s mum, Pauline, completing the last three-quarters of an hour crewing for Julie Waddington.

In the end, the ‘A’ team were pipped to the post by a flying Lark and scored an impressive second place and several other trophies. The ‘B’ team thoroughly enjoyed their sailing as many hadn’t sailing in the event (and even a GP14) before.

Especially big thanks to Mark Platt and Peter Burton for lending their boats and to Dennis for doing the timekeeping for the whole 24 hours!

Also, thanks to Ian Platt, Alex Pilkington, Mark Platt, Ruth Shevelan, Gary Deighan and Dale Knowles for manning the ‘A’ team. Chris and Julie Waddington, Graham and Julie Courtney, Mike Critchley, Nathan Waring, Tom Robinson, Peter Burton, Simon Craig, Chris Aubrey, Stuart Catterall, Helen Brittan, Leanne Pilkington, Paul Mearns, Curtis Mearns, Keith Roberts, Becca Paul and Pauline Senior for sailing in the ‘B’ team. If I’ve missed any sailors out, sorry, I’m still suffering from the lack of sleep!

Not forgetting thanks to all the members who turned up to help and to support the teams over the weekend.

Dennis has some photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/ShevPix/2008_24hr

Photos I posted live from the event are currently still at http://www.sail.org.uk/24-hour-race (the times are wrong though!).

Next year three teams?

Andrew.

It’s the 24 Hour Race starting Saturday with Bolton entering two teams. You can keep up-to-date via the “24 Hour Race” link on the menu where I’ll (hopefully) be posting photos throughout the event.

August 30th & 31st 2008

By Craig Hewett

North West Dominates

An excellent turnout of 39 GP14s at Budworth SC for the UK Grand Masters’ and Masters’ Championship was dominated by Ian Platt and Alex Pilkington from Bolton SC. Ian & Alex posted 3 bullets in succession to claim the GP14 National Masters Trophy. The Grand Masters Trophy was retained by John Salomonson and Tim McGovern from South Staffs and Hollingworth Sailing Clubs with a consistent performance over the weekend.

With the forecast of very light winds over the whole weekend, Budworth’s Race Officer, Graham Tinsley, was presented with the challenge of changing the race schedule from the traditional 2 + 2 format. As visitors arrived from clubs across the UK on the Saturday morning they were presented with picture postcard tranquillity of Budworth Mere. But gradually a light South-Easterly filled-in and Graham made the brave decision to run the 3 qualifying races on the Saturday afternoon.

The gamble paid off, with the breeze increasing to a shifty, gusty force 3-4. Close racing was enjoyed throughout the fleet, though Tinsley and his team had their hands full shifting marks and coping with the fleet pushing the line.

The mirror sheen of Budworth Mere on the Sunday morning convinced a few that racing was impossible. The Race Office signalled a postponement. Despite calls to cancel the last race, Graham was convinced the wind would fill in, and sure enough, a lovely westerly force 2-3 came in for a couple of hours providing another highly competitive fourth race.

Neil Platt and Nicola Brook of West Kirby took second position overall from Paul Owen and Andrew Hattley of South Staffs by virtue of their second place in Race 3.

Helming, Joanne Platt crewed by Gary Deighan came top of the Silver Fleet, Joanne also securing the First Lady Helm position to take home to Bolton SC. Chris & Gill Beddow of South Staffs SC came second with Peter & William Gardner of Coombs SC third in the Silver Fleet.

Sailing the oldest boat of the fleet, Ray & Jackie Bailey in GP 2629 won the Bronze Fleet for Budworth from Mary Cunningham and Alan Thompson of West Kirby with Dennis O’Byrne and Fraser Kerr of Budworth in third position.

The meeting was generously supported by Dedicated Micros, who are leaders in CCTV systems design and installation. Dedicated Micros have provided Budworth SC with a CCTV installation that provides both club CCTV security and also allows members to record and replay the racing on Budworth Mere. This support ensured excellent hospitality and a memorable weekend for sailors and guests alike.

All in all, a great UK Masters and Grand Masters competition with North West sailing clubs dominating the entire event.