Noble Marine Supernova TT at Bolton Sailing Club

Noble Marine Supernova Open at Bolton © Caz Hand

Alex Collins wins the Noble Marine Supernova Open at Bolton © Keith Roberts

On the 25th April Bolton Sailing Club hosted the 4th event in the 2015 TT Series sponsored by Noble Marine. This Supernova open meeting was day one of the Northern open events with day two taking place at Scammonden Reservoir on the Sunday.

Unlike the sunny weather experienced for the last 10 days Saturday morning was grey and a little damp! The wind was from a south westerly direction Force 4/5, with frequent shifty gusts. By 09:30 the registration desk was extremely busy with the club turning out 17 boats and 12 visiting boats from several clubs in the UK. Due to the direction of the wind the Race officer decided to use all but one of the fixed marks with a couple of temporary marks dropped in for good measure thus making use of all the entire lake and optimizing the beats in each lap.

In race 1, after a clean start there was a charge to the 1st mark and with a sudden gust and wind shift two of the leading group capsized Andy Flitcroft (Bolton) and Chris Hawley (Bartley), allowing Alex Collins to get ahead of the pack followed closely by Peter Mackin (Bolton) Tony Critchley (Bolton) and Tim Hand (Sutton in Ashfield). However, by the end of lap one Alex had established a good lead and there was a great battle for the 2nd to 5th places with Steve Hawley (Bartley) making an appearance with the front runners. The OOD decided to keep the fleet out for 4 laps and Alex took the win followed by Andy and Peter Mackin (Bolton), with Steve taking first place in the silver fleet.

After lunch the wind had moved further to the north west so the OOD decided that a course change was required to maximize the beats. From the start the race was tightly contested with Alex, Mike Critchley and Peter Mackin jousting for the lead. After the 1st lap it was Alex Collins followed closely by Andy Flitcroft, Peter Mackin and Tony Critchley. Lap 3 and Alex was now holding a 6 boat advantage over the chasing group. At the back of this group Steve Hawley was still contesting his place in the Silver fleet. At the end of the race the order of finishing was Alex, Andy and Peter Mackin.

Race 3 was run immediately after race 2 was finished. The wind had dropped off to a Force 3 and brightening skies and moved further to the north so the OOD simplified to a windward / leeward with a wing mark course much to the fleet's relief. Alex Collins had a great start and a battle ensued with Peter Mackin, Mike Critchley, Andy Flitcroft and Tony Critchley. However it was Alex who was in 1st place on lap 2 followed by Peter and Mike, with Andy Flitcroft battling to stay in contention. In lap 3 the positions changed again with Andy charging down the leader. Towards the end of lap 3 the OOD decided to shorten course. The finish order was Alex Collins, Andy Flitcroft, Peter Mackin, followed by Tony Critchley and Mike Critchley.

It is a credit to the Supernova fleet's discipline that the race officer was not called upon to use the recall or black flags with 3 clean starts, considering the challenging conditions experienced by the fleet. Worthy of note were several less experienced helms who took to the water and had a go although a number of boats had DNF's and the rescue crews were kept busy.

Overall Results:

Noble Marine Supernova Open at Bolton prize giving (l to r) Peter Mackin, Winner Alex Collins & Andy Flitcroft - photo © Caz Hand