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!

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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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.

Well done to Ian Platt who finished 3rd in the GP14 Worlds at Abersoch, behind Neil Marsden in second and Ian Dobson in first.

Other results:

Dale Knowles took 7th place crewing for Tim Jones

11th Mark Platt with Malcolm Marsden crewing

20th Gary Deighan with Dave Jobson crewing

27th Ian Sinclair and Alan Jones, who also took 3rd Place in the Silver fleet

38th Ian Thompson and Andy Flitcroft

42nd Julie and Chris Waddington

49th Tony Critchley and Sue Foster

56th Graham Hutchinson and Andy Bury

… out of 107 entries

Low grey cloud and incessant rain look ominous for both the competitors and the OOD as they turned up at Bolton Sailing Club’s GP14 open. Eleven travellers weren’t deterred from making the journey to join the thirteen club boats and despite continuous rain during rigging spirits seemed to be high at this the second event of the Northern circuit. Read the rest of this entry »

Sunday 27th April 2008

Registration opens 10.00am

Time of Briefing: 10.30am

First Race 11.00am

Races: three, two to count

Entry Fee £9.00 per boat

Galley open, serving hot food and drinks

Bronze Silver and Gold classes

The bar will be open after sailing.

Paul O’Neill, GP14 Fleet Captain at Castle Semple Sailing Club in Scotland, is the lucky winner of GP14 14000.

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