New Year’s Day Pursuit Race at Leigh & Lowton Sailing Club
By Paul Allen on 2 Jan1 January 2012Leigh & Lowton New Year's Day Pursuit
All photos © Paul Allen
A bumper sized fleet of 81 boats gathered at Pennington Flash to kick off the the 2012 sailing season with the New Year's Day Pursuit Race.
The anticipated 12-20 knots of breeze never materialised and competitors had to make do with damp air and inconsistent southerly breeze. The Toppers and Lasers boasted significant numbers and were
joined by a variety of other classes including GP14s, Phantoms, Flying 15s, Streakers, Enterprises, RS200s, RS400s and Fireballs.
Spectators had their money on the young and brave Optimist sailors who were first to start in the best breeze of the day. The impressively sized Topper fleet started next but were soon overhauled by the later starters as the breeze dropped.
Ian Jones (Dovestone) and Alan Gillard (Sheffield Viking) quickly sailed their Streakers to the front of the fleet. Initially the RS300s looked good, making good ground on the long reach but they slowed, as did the RS400s and Fireballs as the breeze dropped and displacement sailing and roll tacking became the order of the day.
After 100 minutes Chris Pickles and Laura Westell (Yorkshire Dales) lead the competitive RS200s whilst Andy Tunnicliffe (Royal Windermere) was some way ahead of the next Solo. The lead Phantom sailed by Ed Thomas (Pilkington) was clear ahead of the next Phantom as were Dave and Caroline Exley (RS400) but both struggled to make an impression on the top 5 in the light and shifty breeze.
After 170 minutes the Streakers of Ian Jones and Alan Gillard were clear ahead, comfortably taking 1st and 2nd. Andy Tunnicliffe finished in 3rd with Chris Pickles and Laura Westell in 4th. Andrew Brown was 1st Laser in 22nd and Bobby Hewitt was 1st Optimist finishing in 33rd place.
Commodore Cathy Partington thanked visitors for supporting the event and winner Ian Jones thanked Leigh and Lowton for a great day.
Full results are available at www.llsc.org.uk
The Tipsy Icicle Open Winter Series starts next Sunday at midday. Fleet racing for Solo, Laser,
Juniors, Handicap and asymmetric.
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