Laser North West Travellers at Leigh & Lowton Sailing Club

Laser North West travellers at Leigh & Lowton © Ian Nixon

Laser North West travellers at Leigh & Lowton © Ian Nixon

Laser North West travellers at Leigh & Lowton © Ian Nixon

On the 3rd August 2014 Leigh & Lowton Sailing Club hosted their annual Laser open meeting which forms part of the North West travellers' series.

The 24 helms who attended were greeted by bright sunshine and a fluctuating SSW Force 4 breeze that increased as the day went on with some big gusts. The direction meant that PRO Cathy Partington and her team fleet had to use the width of the lake for the beats and runs but they did put in a long reaching leg across the length of it.

Race 1: The first attempted start resulted in a general recall but on the re-start Neil Skellam (LLSC) nailed it and sailed a superb first beat to round the windward mark first closely followed by Paul Heath (LLSC) With a bit of a gap behind them they both then benefited from a big gust to allow them to sail away from the rest of the fleet. Behind them there was a tussle between Andy Green (LLSC), Jamie Catchpole (LLSC) Jack Hopkins (Delph SC) and Patrick Heston (Dovestone SC) but as the wind increased so did the number of boats that succumbed to a capsize and/or gear failure which included Green and Catchpole. At the end Skellam pulled away to take the win with Heath in second, Hopkins third, a wet Green fourth and Hesten fifth.

Race 2: After a big lunch to prepare themselves for 'back to back' races the fleet rigged up to take to the water as the breeze began to increase in strength. This was enough to put off several helms who decided that they had had enough for the day. At the start it was Andy Green who hit the front and mastered the gusty conditions as he pulled out a big lead to take the win. Behind him there was a battle between Jamie Catchpole, Greg Marshall (West Lancs SC), Bill Busby (LLSC) and Hopkins and in the end, after plenty of capsizes to keep the safety teams busy and several retirements, the finishing order was Catchpole second, Marshall third, Hopkins fourth and Busby fifth.

Race 3: Going into the final race the results were so close that there were a number of potential winners of the event. One of the hopefuls was Hopkins who showed he meant business as he hit the front and sailed off into the distance to take the bullet. Green and Catchpole were comfortable in second and third until Catchpole capsized and allowed Heath to close the gap. It was close at the finish with Green covering Catchpole on the short beat to the finish line. Heath split tacks with them just after the leeward mark and managed to squeeze past Catchpole to take third with Marshall close behind Catchpole in fifth.

After the dust had settled it was Andy Green who won the day from Jack Hopkins in second and Paul Heath in third. During his speech Andy praised the hard working safety boat crews who had a very busy day.

Overall Results: