New Year's Day Pursuit Race at Leigh & Lowton Sailing Club

New Year's Day Pursuit 2015 at Leigh and Lowton © Ben Unwin / www.benunwinphotography.co.uk

New Year's Day Pursuit 2015 at Leigh and Lowton © Ben Unwin / www.benunwinphotography.co.uk

January 1st - it was time for the New Year's Day Pursuit Race 2015 at Leigh & Lowton Sailing Club. The forecast was a little less than appealing to some, with some websites suggesting that winds at 17 gusting to 40+ knots would be the order of the day. However, the 52 crews that braved the elements found a decent, if building breeze with some reasonably fierce gusts to stretch the legs & work off the recent festive excess & over indulgence. The Bacon rolls on arrival were so tempting that at least one member of the organising team, who arrived for their own 9:15am briefing, did over indulge with a second breakfast before spending several hours in the cold & rain manning the rescue boats. That 9:15 call made by the Race officer was a big ask on New Years day morning but shows the commitment that this team (of about 20 volunteers) has to ensure that a good days racing was enjoyed by the competitors.

The main competitor briefing was well attended before the slowest boats made their way to the start line for the 12:40 Optimist start, these young helms managed to start in good breeze which died off a little to about 10 knots shortly afterwards. The Race Officer & his team managed to set a course in the awkward wind direction that used the whole of the available water with 3 good beats & a reach back along the length of the lake.

Next away were the highly competitive and very keen Topper fleet some 33 minutes later, the wind had increased again by this time & stayed for the remainder of the 170 minute race at around 15 gusting 30 knots. The starts were separated by PY Handicap with the fastest RS400 boats having to wait till the end of the 74 minute start sequence – all starts were clear & some were highly contested, most notably being the biggest fleet of Laser Radials, the Solo/Streaker start was particularly hard fought, the 2 horse RS400 start was close & the Phantom start was notable for the split between those that started on the gun & a couple of boats who its thought were having a Ben Ainslie style match race before the start & who followed on a short while afterwards.

The racing was extremely close with boats swapping places all around the course as they chased down the earlier starting classes. The proceedings were watched by enthusiastic followers from the comfort of the clubhouse where lunch, tea & cakes were consumed whilst passing comments about the sailing skills of those on the water – clearly some in the clubhouse could have sailed a lot faster than those on the water if some of the comments were to be believed. The Optimists held out for 5 laps before being overtaken by the first of the Toppers, these in turn were only overhauled on the last of the 7 laps that the fleet completed. The wind was gusty and those boats that raised spinnakers on the long reach along the lake were particularly brave, some ended in a bit of a swim. Many boats did capsize today, some were seen to be simply knocked over by the stronger gusts, it was a day to concentrate hard on managing these gusts. The Rescue crews were kept busy but were able to cope with all the incidents safely.

As the race drew closer to its 3:30pm finish it was a beat to the final mark and any of 5 boats could have clinched victory. The 2 leading Solos and Streaker had traded places for the whole race and had seemed clear but a Phantom and a Blaze were closing fast. Onto a short run the Phantom of Ed Thomas rounded 4th and on his final gybe with less than 10 secs to go squeezed past Ian Jones in the Streaker to take 2nd place. Jones attempts to hold off Thomas in the final seconds let Andy Tunnicliffe edge a few boat lengths clear to a hard-fought victory with a boat length separating 2nd through to 5th. The first youth Haydn Griffiths was not far behind in his Radial and was closely followed by Samuel Cooper in the Topper. Mark & Sam Platt brought their 420 into the top ten which was represented by 8 different classes of dinghy.

New Year's Day Pursuit 2015 at Leigh and Lowton prize giving - photo © Richard Catchpole

Gallery of Photos available From Ben Unwin Photography at www.benunwinphotography.co.uk/Client-Galleries/LLSC-New-Years-Day-Pursuit-15

The 2015 Crewsaver Tipsy Icicle Series, which is open to all monohull dinghies starts on Sunday 4th January at 12 noon – 2 races every Sunday until 15th March – Highly competitive dinghy racing is assured. Full details at www.llsc.org.uk

Overall Results: