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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