Leigh & Lowton Sailing Club Regatta Weekend

Leigh & Lowton SC Regatta Weekend © Mike Baldwin

Leigh & Lowton SC Regatta Weekend © Mike Baldwin

With the club celebrating the 25th Anniversary of its creation from the two clubs of Leigh SC and Lowton SC, the 2011 Regatta was billed as a full weekend of sailing and socials.

Starting on Friday night with many people camping on the site and cooking on their BBQ before retiring to the clubhouse to listen to the indie band, The Lottery Winners, with the forecast for the weather looking promising, the weekend looked ready to fulfil all that was hoped of it.

Saturday morning arrived with a good breeze of 12-15knots coming down the length of Pennington Flash as forecast and the first race at 12 noon started with over 50 boats out on the water, split into three fleets of Handicap, Laser and Junior Slow Handicap. The RS500 of Alex Taylor, crewed by Bryan Mobbs from Budworth SC led the fleet from the beginning with some monster reaches on the course allowing them to fly the spinnaker down most legs after the windward mark. In this race they were lapping some of the back markers after the third lap and easily took the bullet on handicap.

In the Laser fleet, Paul Heath from LLSC stamped his authority on the fleet with a large winning margin over the second placed boat. In the Junior Fleet, the Optimists and Toppers fought it out with the Optimist of Bobby Hewitt (LLSC) winning in the end.

After a wonderful lunch from the renowned galley, the fleet returned to the water for two back-to-back races in the afternoon. The wind stayed consistent in strength and direction and yet again in Race 2, the winners were Messrs Taylor and Mobbs, Heath and Hewitt.

For Race 3, the Race Officer, Commodore Mike Baldwin, decided to mix things up a bit and put more downwind legs in the course to appease the appetite of the asymmetrics. But it’s a funny old game, this sport of sailing, because despite all of the expectations that the more ‘windward/leeward’ nature of the course would help the asymmetrics, it was the conventional dinghies which dominated the race with Graham Bristow taking pole position in his Solo, Dave and Ross Southwell in their Miracle second and Richard Catchpole in the RS300 in third place, the RS500 only managing a 10th place.

In the Lasers, Stuart Belfield won with Dave Hawkes gaining second place, Paul Heath taking things easy in the bar having gained the overall first place and Bobby Hewitt recorded his third bullet winning the Junior Fleet.

After the prize giving came the great Hog Roast and feverish activity could be seen in and around the clubhouse as finishing touches were made to the bottle boats, ready for the start of the traditional bottle-boat race between the two club jetties. Two classes were being raced this year and a large number of variations on the theme were seen in the different constructions. Taking the Open Class rules to the ultimate this year Tom Keegan, Andy Price and John Wingeatts presented the spectators with the sight of a catamaran built out of over 50 two-litre water bottles, part of a pallet and powered by an Optimist sail. Having persuaded Junior Fleet winner Bobby to helm, it looked as they might have sewn the race up. Unfortunately, about ¼ way down the course, Bobby was losing out to the high speed catamaran of John’s sister, Stephanie and decided to try and kite the boat as he would do his Optimist. The whole craft promptly capsized and broke up with the two hulls coming away from the pallet. Bobby finished the race paddling one of the hulls over the finish line, leading to prompt disqualification by the race officers. Nothing would stop Stephanie’s boat as it romped along, finishing the course in about 1/3 of the time taken by the next boat (entered by Richard Catchpole and which finished the race despite being upside down).

In the One Design Class (hull made from two 500ml bottles and sail from a supermarket bag) the race was dominated by Exley ‘B’ (owned by Jack Exley) and Exley ‘A’ (owned by brother Charlie) who demolished the competition with their entries.

The evening was concluded with the 80’s disco in the clubhouse, using the recently extended area as the dance floor.

Sunday dawned with a few sore heads and wind from the south, definitely not the direction that had been ordered or forecast. The wind held as the fleet launched for the first race and a course was set with a thunderstorm skirting the Flash in the west. As the time neared for the start, the wind dropped away completely and the postponement signal was made. Over the next 15mins, nothing changed other than the storm got closer. The wind then picked up coming in from the west and the start line and windward mark were lifted with the committee boat making its way down to the bottom end of the Flash to set a new course. By the time the fleet arrived at the east end of the lake, the wind had veered even further into the east. After waiting for a few minutes, the race officer laid the course and went into the start sequence. After all three fleets had got away (including a general recall for the handicap fleet), the skies opened, the rain came down in torrents, the wind dropped away and for the next half an hour the fleets drifted around the course until the Lasers reached the leeward mark and the shorten course signal was sounded to a host of cheers. Tom Keegan (LLSC) won this race in the Lasers with Howard Green (LLSC) snatching second place at the last minute from Graham MacWhirter from Scammoden. In the Junior Bobby Hewitt once again took line honours with Matt Leckie (LLSC) in second and Lucy Yeates (LLSC) in third.

The handicap fleet was dominated by Chris Day and Sophie Richards form LLSC in their National 12, winning both on the water as well as on handicap. By the time the rather late lunch was over, the wind had returned to the west although not as strong as on Saturday and stayed that way for the rest of the day.

The Laser fleet saw some close racing with John Wingeatt and Tom Keegan getting a first and a second place each. Chris and Sophie recorded their second bullet in the last race, leaving the Solo’s to battle for the places behind them.

In the Junior fleet Hannah Bristow and Lucy took a race each. These results gave Tom Keegan first overall in the Lasers, Chris and Sophie first in the Handicap with the Solos taking 2nd to 6th and 8th and Hannah first place in the Juniors.

At the prize giving the annual presentation of the John Barnes Plate was made to the helm recording the best result with all six races counting. This year it was awarded to John Wingeatt with his 1, 2, 4, 4, 5 & 8. A good result for this 16year old who shows great promise for the future.

All in all a great weekend’s sailing and social as always with a total of 65 boats taking part over the two days. Here’s to next year!

For full results go to www.llsc.org.uk