Bolton Sailing Club

We’re just collating the results from this year and getting them on the website.

We have the Fast Handicap so far and are awaiting the other fleets. For now, you can go here to find them.

With the Sailing Committee deciding to discount the results for the first race (of the senior fleet) due to a timing error, the revised results are now as follows…

Senior Club Championship

Handicap Fleet

Junior Fleet

Junior Club Championship Fleet

Big thanks to all who came to Southport over the weekend, whether sailing or supporting! Especially huge thanks to the Courtneys for the ‘B’ team boat and Pete Burton for the ‘C’ ‘A’ team boat.

Well done also to those who had never sailed in the 24 hour race before! Maybe we should introduce initiation ceremonies like they have when you sail across the equator for the first time.

Bolton ‘B’ came 36th and Bolton ‘A’ came 60th. Well done to South Staffs for coming 1st and 2nd (and Mike Senior, ex-Boltonian and their captain).

There were no prizes for oldest pairing but I think the Bolton ‘A’ team would have won that when Dennis Shevelan and Geoff Benson donned buoyancy aids for an hour on Saturday night. We think the combined age was around 143 years!

Photos: here, here and here

This weekend is the Annual West Lancashire Yacht Club 24 Hour Race.

It starts at noon on Saturday and finishes noon on Sunday and takes place on the marine lake in Southport.

If you don’t know what it’s all about, WLYC website says…

“The 24 Hour Race is the premiere opportunity for Sailing Club teams to compete for serious trophies (and status), whilst also enjoying the unique hospitality provided by one of the best social events in the dinghy racing calendar (The social event lasts for 48 hours – Friday, through to Sunday).”

Thanks to the Courtneys for lending their boat to the ‘B’ team and Pete Burton for the ‘C’ team speed machine.

Who can sail?

This year we haven’t got our usual crack ‘A’ team to challenge for the win, I believe they’re taking a well deserved break. That doesn’t mean we don’t mean business! I believe the ‘B’ team is all sorted for sailors as Warren has hassled and hounded the top club sailors who will be available over the weekend.

The ‘C’ team is more of a ‘anyone who wants to sail can sail’ team. There are some conditions though…you must be competent at sailing a GP14, either helm or crew and as a crew must be able to fly a spinnaker.

Friday night?

Yep, the event starts on Friday with a party in the beer tent. I’ll be there and I believe Andy Bury has already reserved his spot at the bar so come over Friday to start the event early!

Support

Even if you’re not sailing, the marine lake is a great place to come and watch some close racing and it’s always good to see familiar faces (with cakes). There’s also plenty of shopping opportunities in Southport if your other half ain’t interested in sailing.

Getting there

Here’s a link to Google Maps. It’s on the marine lake near the pier.

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UPDATE

There’s now a menu item at the top of this site titled “24 Hour Race 2009” where you’ll be able to see photos taken live at the event and uploaded to the website!

Two sailors who started sailing at Bolton finished inside the top 10 at the 2009 Fireball World Championships in La Rochelle held 15th to 20th August.

Chips Howarth who now sails at Emsworth won (for the third time), with Mike Senior, now at South Staff finishing in seventh.

Both started out in cadets at Bolton, and moved away due to university and work. It’s a great testimony to the training that Bolton has provided for many years, supported by a strong racing fleet. It just goes to show that getting out there and competing is the best way to progress your skills.

Well done chaps!

Full results are here, with pictures here and here

Richard Craig
Commodore

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)

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

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.