Six schools were represented from Lancashire, Yorkshire and Cheshire. Yorkshire was hoping to retain the trophy they had won at last year’s event at Otley.

The day was well attended by local RYA Coaches who gave ‘on water’ adviCe and encouragement to the sailors – some who were sailing for the first time.

Susie Charles, Cabinet Member for Lancashire County Council who has responsibility for schools and children spent the day ‘on and off’ the water and presented the sailors with their trophies at the end of the day.

Her comments were very positive:
“Absolutely fabulous day, helped by the wonderful weather. I am in awe of the children who are participating, for some of them it is their first time on the water. Their bravery and mastery of the dinghies is incredible. I would urge many more Lancashire schools to participate allowing their students to gain so much independence, self confidence and sense of achievement whilst learning an age appropriate sport. I hope I will be invited again next year”

7 boats sailed 2 races on a simple course with a constant Force 4 wind.

Race 1  winners Ainsley and Kim from Cheshire, Race 2 winners Alex and Joe from Lancashire. Overall winners were Alex and Joe (Astley Park School) so Yorkshire lost the Trophy to Lancashire on the day.

Warren Price, Sailability Coordinator for The North West Region who organised the event said:
“It’s been a great day’s racing- all the children have been a credit to themselves and their schools. I am delighted Lancashire has won the trophy.”

A fantastic day for all- even the helpers were rewarded with a Tee Shirt. Next years event will be held over the border in Yorkshire and lets hope we have more entries from all the regions.

Competing schools;
Yorkshire
John Jamieson School
John Smeaton School
Cheshire
Green Lane School
Lancashire
Sir Tom Finney School
Astley Park School
Pendle Community High School

Other comments
Ian Irvine – Volunteer “the smiles on the  youngsters faces said it all!!”

Dave Williamson Chair , R.Y.A.  N.W. Executive “An excellent day, the young people were superb, keen and very enthusiastic”.

Advert we are trying to raise money to purchase more of these superb little sailing boats “Access Dinghy”. In order that more people can experience and enjoy thrill of sailing in the North of England. If you would like to help or donate ,please contact either:

Warren Price ( NW) – warren@sail.org.uk
Or
Peter Fox  (Yorkshire) – pfox119@btinternet.com

We need help with rigging, launching and kitting out.

Free Buffett lunch for all Helpers.

If you can offer any help, please contact me to let me know for numbers for lunch.

Thanks

Warren Price
Sailability
North West Regional Organiser
01772 321014
warren@sail.org.uk

The 2011 RYA Volvo Zone and Home Country Championships will welcome in excess of 1,000 young sailors across nine different venues throughout the United Kingdom on the weekend of the 24-25 September.

With Volvo continuing their support of all nine events for the third year running, the Championships traditionally mark the end of the Junior racing season and the start of a hard winter’s training.

The event is the RYA Regional Championship for each Zone and is aimed at sailors in local clubs under the age of 16 who are racing in the RYA pathway classes. It is a great first-time event for club sailors, giving them the opportunity to get a real feel of a Championship atmosphere.

The Championships are also a key event for any young sailor wishing to be selected for the RYA Zone and Home Country squads and provide the stars of the future with the perfect opportunity to test their racing skills in a fiercely competitive environment.

Each one of the nine venues used are renowned for staging major events and will provide the Junior sailors with the perfect setting to develop their sailing skills and racing ability whilst under the watchful eye of the RYA High Performance Managers and coaches. Racing takes place across the nine RYA-supported Junior dinghy and windsurfing classes including the Mirror, Optimist, Topper, RS Feva, Cadets and the windsurfers on the Bic Techno using the open 4.5, and 5.8 rigs, and the Techno 6.8’s and Techno 7.8’s – classes vary according to each venue.

For the first time, three of the Zones (Restronguet, Grafham, Derwent Reservoir) and all Home Counties Championships will offer ‘novice’ regatta fleets in Toppers and Optimists. This is an event for sailors to set themselves an end-of-year goal after training and racing during the summer months. It will give young sailors a good learning experience to help start them along the pathway to success.

Competitors are urged to submit their entries online at www.ryaracingevents.org.uk before Friday 16^th September - due to safety considerations and the size and complexity of the event, entries after this date cannot be accepted. RYA organisers are urging athletes to confirm their attendance and submit their on-line entry promptly to avoid disappointment.

In addition to the RYA High Performance Managers, sailors will have the chance to showcase their talents in front of Skandia Team GBR and Team Volvo for Life sailors. 470 sailor Saskia Clark and Elliot 6.0m sailor Lucy Macgregor will be visiting the South Zone, top British RS:X Windsurfer Nick Dempsey will be at the East Zone, Paralympian Helena Lucas will be appearing at the South East Zone and the West Zone will welcome Lucy’s fellow Match Racer, Kate Macgregor.

The Skandia Team GBR and Team Volvo for Life sailors will meet the youngsters and chat about their sailing career, from club level to first regional event and how they progressed to elite level.

The 2011 RYA Volvo Zone and Home Countries Championships will be staged at the following venues:

• The RYA Volvo South Zone Championships – Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy, Dorset.
• The RYA Volvo South West Zone Championships – Restronguet Sailing Club, Cornwall.
• The RYA Volvo South East Zone Championships – Bewl Valley Sailing Club, Kent.
• The RYA Volvo East Zone Championships– Grafham Sailing Club, Cambridgeshire.
• The RYA Volvo West  Zone Championships– Blithfield Sailing Club, Staffordshire
• The RYA Volvo North Zone Championships – Derwent Reservoir, County Durham
• Volvo Welsh Youth & Junior Championships  – Pwllheli Sailing Club, Gwynedd
• RYA Scotland Volvo Youth and Junior Championships – Largs Sailing Club, Largs.
• RYANI Volvo Youth Championships in association with McCready Sailboats – Strangford Lough Yacht Club, Co. Down

All sailors wishing to be considered for a National Junior Squad OR a Zone Squad place are requested to complete an online application form. This can be found at www.ryaracingevents.org.uk by following the links to Junior Squad applications.

…also…

On Sunday mornings, as you will probably know, we run a short training session for members new to sailing. We currently have over a dozen people attending regularly and we would appreciate any help in assisting with their training needs.

You don’t need to be an Instructor to help (but we’d love more instructors helping), we need people to be on hand in safety boats and to help rig boats.

If you’re coming up to sail anyway, or are on OOD duty, we’d appreciate a few more helpers, starting around 9.30am.

If you can help, again, please contact Andrew (andrew@sail.org.uk) for more info.

Thanks

Over a dozen volunteers from the sailing club gave their time to take the children sailing in a variety of sailing and power boats. Without the volunteers commitment and enthusiasm this opportunity would not have taken place. For many of the children from the special school this would have been their first sailing experience and their reaction to being on the water was wonderful to see, pure enjoyment . Their smiles told the story more than any words could. The week was a great success for all, great weather, good sailing and most important of all lots of happy smiling children.

Dennis was on hand with his camera and there’s three albums of photos:

12th July: https://picasaweb.google.com/ShevPix/20110712

13th July: https://picasaweb.google.com/ShevPix/20110713

14th July: https://picasaweb.google.com/ShevPix/20110714

In addition to the grant money the treasurer gave authority to spend some money and we have purchased an Ex demonstration Wanderer to replace our aged Wayfarer dinghy.

Friday morning working party assembling the new boats

This event was the most competitive of the series so far with different winners in every race. On a shifty race course with big wind holes ( the worst wind direction according to the locals) and in wind varying from 2 to 17 knots it was Tony Critchley (Supernova) who stormed off into an unassailable lead in the in the first race, with Dave Woodhead (Solo) second and  David Ivins and Lesley Johnson ( Graduate) 3^rd. The Phantom of David Helme was 4^th which was a very good result considering David took a swim part way round! After David took a bit of gentle ribbing for this over lunch from fellow RYA coach Dave Woodhead the second race got under way and as Dave Woodhead rounded the first mark first he fell out of the boat, which immediately capsized causing chaos for the chasing pack! ( justice was done)It was left to Dave Ivins and Lesley to clean up in this race whilst Mark Platt in a borrowed Supernova was beginning to find his feet to take second place, meanwhile Dave Woodhead recovered to take 3^rd and David Helme once more took 4^th.

In the third Race Mark Platt took the lead at the second mark and eventually took the race by just 2 seconds on corrected time from Dave Woodhead and this result gave him the event. Third in this race was John Cronshaw ( winner of the first event in the series) in a Solo. David and Lesley took fourth.

Second and third place overall had to resolved by tie break with 2nd place going to David Ivins and Lesley from Dave Woodhead in third, whilst Tony Critchley came 4^th and another tie break had to be used to separate David Helme and John Cronshaw, with the result going in John’s favour.

The prize for the oldest competitor went to David Hill ( we won’t mention his age) who gave a very creditable performance in his laser. (The age range of the competitors was 50 to 75, with several competitors in their 70s)

Another great day was had by these senior sailors, full of competitive sailing and good humour whilst the rest of the world went to work, and this made it feel all the better! Certainly it was great way for Mark Platt to celebrate his 50^thbirthday!

Initially this series was conceived as a trial for the members of 3 clubs, Elton, Delph and Bolton. It has aroused so much interest however that a fourth one is now being planned at Leigh and Lowton S C in September. So far 29 boats have taken part in the series showing the potential for local mid week competitions for those senior sailors fortunate enough to be retired or working flexible hours. For 2012 there is already some discussion about an expanded series. If any other club in the region wishes to be part of the series please email Dave Woodhead  - quicksail@virgin.net

Click here to see the full list

Big movers…

Supernova +2 to 1065
RS400 -1 to 949
Phantom -5 to 1030
Graduate -67 to 1098

( www.ryasailability.tv )

Thursday -otherwise known as the ‘Glamour Day’-saw several high profile celebrities show us how it’s really done! Mike Goulding(around the world sailor) and Leigh McMillan (Olympic Tornado sailor)came and gave their  time and skills to taking the young people sailing. However, their skills were overshadowed by Lucy Siegle’s (off the BBC 1 show)prowess in an Access dinghy!

Everyone had a great day and numerous pictures were taken, T-shirts signed and gifts arranged. The week has raised the profile of Bolton Sailing Club nationally. We are now not only recognised as a strong racing club but acknowledged for our hard work within the wider sailing community.

My thanks go to all of the people who gave their time freely to help make this week the success it has been.

Warren Price
(Rear Commodore)

Photos by Warren Price and Andy Bury

The team consisted of James Shevelan-Hobbs, Peter Mackin, Alex Woods, Rebecca Kershaw and Amy Kershaw.

All the boats were Laser Pico’s, kindly lent by the Hollingworth Lake Water Activity Centre. The teams could decide whether to go for single, or double handed and Bolton opted for single handed.

James agreed to start the race at 10am, being the only member of the team to have competed in the event before. Lots of Friday and Sunday training slotted nicely in to place as James took up the the best place on the start line and by the first mark was 2nd, hot on the heels of the first place boat and pulling away from the rest of the pack. After three laps, Peter Mackin was in and battled past the boat from Jumbles/Salford to take the lead! Next in was Alex, followed by Amy and Rebecca.

The rest of the race was a continuous battle of skill and wind reading with the top spot being won and lost on each lap. Unfortunately, with Jumbles/Salford fielding one of the best Topper sailors in the North-West, it was a battle for the mainly new sailors from Bolton to keep the lead and at the end of the race Bolton were pipped to the first place having lead the race for much of the 8 hours.

With 20 boats on the water it was the biggest turn out for the event and the Bolton team finished a brilliant 2nd overall!

Two teams and first place next year?

Photos available at SailPics.