NW Senior Travellers at Bolton Sailing Club

The latest event in the NW Senior Traveller series saw a bumper turnout of 27 boats for this midweek series for the over 50s at Bolton Sailing Club. Warm dry weather and a force 2 to 3 shifty North Easterly greeted the competitors for the first race.

Unfortunately this was not a good direction for the lake as only short beats were possible across the lake. A biased and crowded start line placed only halfway up the possible beat length guaranteed plenty of shouting and incident! This was to be the pattern of the day with those getting a clean start dominating the results of each race. Consistency therefore paid with plenty of people getting a mixed bag of results depending on their fortunes on the start line.

Newcomers to the series, Ian Sinclair and Alan Jones sailing a GP14 from the host club managed 2 good races with a 1st and a 2nd to take the day. Consistent across 3 races (a rare thing on the day) was the Streaker of Dave Turtle with a 4th, 3rd and 2nd to take the runner up spot. Tony Critchley in his Supernova was the last of the consistent sailors over 3 races with two 3rds and a 2nd to take 3rd place overall.

On the last start, an observant Carol and Jon Haines in their scorpion realised that the outer limit line was just behind the line. To beat the start line mayhem they approached the line just before the start and then tacked inside the outer limit to sail parallel to the line on port and finally tack back onto starboard on the gun. All perfectly legal (Carol and Jon are judges) and gave them a clear uncrowded flying start. A trick others will now be looking to repeat in the future! It is legal as long as you don't sail away from the line again after your approach.

Overall Results: (top five)

1. Ian Sinclair and Alan Jones, GP14 (Bolton SC)
2. Dave Turtle, Streaker (Shotwick Lake SC)
3. Tony Critchley, Supernova (Bolton SC)
4. Dave Woodhead, Solo (Elton SC)
5. Carol and Jon Haines, Scorpion (Elton SC)

For full results see RYA North West website.