Guy Fawkes Pursuit Race 2022 at Leigh & Lowton Sailing Club

Richard Catchpole wins the Guy Fawkes Pursuit Race at Leigh & Lowton © LLSC

Leigh & Lowton SC kicked off their winter programme with the traditional Guy Fawkes Pursuit. Forecasters were predicting anything from 8 to 25 knots in the run-up to the event, so it was a major upset when competitors arrived to a near flat calm.

The talk ashore was all about this being a fast boat's race as the wind was expected to build.

The juniors started in a gentle breeze, navigating the holes in the course as best they could, but were destined to be at a disadvantage. The rest of the fleets started in a variety of conditions, but still not much to work with. The Optimists' lead held up for a couple of laps, but were soon overhauled by the Solos, with Darren Nield (Elton) taking an early significant lead with home boat Andy Carter in hot pursuit.

At the half way point both the GP14 of Mark and Sam Platt (Bolton) the Streaker of Steve Blackburn (West Lancs) were catching fast and looked like they would have a good shot at overhauling the Solos - Steve would be later penalised for a hasty start. The RS200s, 400s and 2000 were taking good advantage of the long reach on the course to grind down the distance to the front runners.

The wind continued to be fickle and despite looking like it would fill in it never got beyond a gentle breeze. This allowed the Solos the opportunity to shimmy away again. With a lap left, stronger wind on the right side of the beat allowed the Solo of Richard Catchpole (LLSC) back into the battle for honours, taking the lead for the first time in the race with 15 minutes left on the clock.

Richard held on in some tight tussles to fend off Andy and Darren as the clock wound down. The RS200s were closing fast by this point too but couldn't quite do enough, one more long reach might have done it! A great course from the OOD Gareth Williams tested all points of sailing and made it an even contest in difficult conditions.

The Leigh & Lowton winter series continues with the Revett Series up until Xmas, the renowned New Years Day pursuit race and the Icicle Series running through to mid March. Enter online now.

Overall Results:

1st Junior - Paul Roberts - Laser 4.7 - LLSC