Bolton Sailing Club

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

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

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!

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)

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.

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.

We’ve all finally dug ourselves out of the mud and made it back from Bass Week.

I was using the week as a bit of a holiday with some sailing thrown in. On Thursday all sailing was abandoned due to lack of wind and lots of that fine rain that soaks you through. That day I headed over to Buttermere and then up the Honister Pass and had a tour of the slate mines.

Friday again saw not much wind, not enough for a Phantom sailor to do any good so Tom and I hopped on our bikes for a bit of a ride in the hills. The copious amounts of alochol consumed during the week (Tom more than me) soon caught up with us as the downhill bits were a welcome break. Tristan had also made an appearance so in the afternoon I sailed down the lake with him and enjoyed probably some of the best wind of the week. Shame we weren’t racing as the kids, ladies and oldies were out.

Saturday started with a gale and only twenty something boats out on the water. I watched from the shore for the first one and watched many boats limping back to shore. The second race, I had a cracking start and had a battle with a Lazer Vago (they do actually go quite fast occasionally!). We rounded a mark together and found it was a dead run to the next mark. He headed off on a zig-zag with his gennaker whereas I decided to risk it and run to the mark. It was very rocky and felt like we were sailing on the sea as my boat crashed through the waves. The move paid off as I pulled miles ahead of most of the fleet, with only Andy Pilkington in his Merlin ahead. Unfortunately, I capsized spectacularly (for me anyway) while trying to gjbe and got stuck in the mud allowing the Vago and Jeff to pass me. Trying to get my boat back up I twisted my back and that was my sailing over with as I couldn’t lean out.

It was better for Jeff who on Sunday picked up the trophy for first place in the Medium Handicap weekend series, I think the Pilkingtons were second. David and Lesley were pipped to first place in the slow handicap weekend series by a GP14.

So, it’s back to work and the thought of a very dirty tent in a big pile in my garage to sort out and a lot of wet muddy clothes to wash!

Well done to the Bolton sailors who brought back trophies and other various prizes of glasses and mugs.

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

Sunday saw a change in racing format to help raise money for the RNLI at our annual Regatta Day. The order of the day was for three pursuit races and a fun team race.

The first and third pursuit races were run on standard PY handicap, the second on personal handicap. Prizes were presented by the Mayor of Bolton with the winners prize going to Ian Platt and Alex Pilkington sailing a Merlin Rocket.

Whilst racing proceeded on the water, the Mayor and Mayoress of Bolton were entertained in the lounge by the Commodore and many of the clubs senior and life members while juniors had their faces painted. Hopefully a thoroughly enjoyable day was had by all. Thanks to the OOD and other volunteers.

Photos are available on Richard’s gallery at http://www.sailpics.co.uk/g2/v/regattaday_2008