The late late late Leigh & Lowton New Year's Day pursuit race
by Paul Allen 24 Feb 2014 10:12 GMT
22 February 2014
The late late late New Year's Day pursuit race at Leigh & Lowton © Paul Allen
Due to the forecasted (and materialising) gale force winds and heavy rain that were to lash the country over the new year period, Leigh & Lowton sailing club made the decision to postpone its annual New Year's Day pursuit race. This proved to be the correct decision as on the day it was blowing straight down Pennington Flash from the east at a steady Force 6 gusting 7 with driving horizontal rain.
The race was rescheduled to take place on the 22nd February and on this day the club wished a belated 'Happy New Year' to a the crews and supporters of the 59 boats that took to the water. This fantastic turnout may have been swelled by the crews looking at the forecast for the following day and believing that this was their one chance to get afloat this weekend.
The competitors were greeted to a bright cloudless day with a Force 3 breeze gusting 4 from the south. The race team, led by pursuit race guru Howard Green, set a course using all the marks of the Flash to optimize the sailing area available. This involved a number of short beats and reaches but also included one long reach the whole length of the Flash which provided exhilarating and fast sailing in the gusty breeze.
As usual first away for their near 3 hour of racing was the Optimist fleet followed a short while later by the Toppers and it was these boats that made the most of the early breeze and clear air as they disappeared over the horizon and presumably, or so they hoped, never to be headed by the bigger boys and girls.
As the clock ticked down the pursuing boats began to eat into the large lead the Oppies and Toppers had pulled out but it all but appeared to be in vain as time began to be running out. In the end it proved to be very close as the overall top 6 postions were not settled until the last 30 seconds of the race during the final 250 metre long last beat.
Drew Gibbons (Optimist – Redesmere SC) had led the race from the start but was overtaken at the start of that last beat by Steph Wingeatt (Topper – LLSC) but just as victory was about to be hers, and as the second hand on Howards watch was about to signal the end of the race, she in turn was overtaken by the RS300 of Richard Catchpole (LLSC) who was then immediately finished and took the win. Behind the front three Alex Morrison (Phantom – LLSC) just managed to get ahead of Oliver Blackburn (Topper – LLSC) to take fourth and as Paul Heath (Solo – LLSC) was on the transom of Blackburn and about to squeeze past him they were both finished so Blackburn took fifth and Heath sixth overall. The race team then set about sailing back through the fleet and finishing them in their on the water positions.
After a brilliant day's racing the presentation of prizes was made to the top twelve boats and was rounded off by a speech from the winner Richard Catchpole who thanked all competitors for their attendance and support of the event and a special thanks to the race and safety boat teams for their hard work after a long day on the water and excellent management of the event.
Full results and pictures from the event can be found on the Leigh & Lowton Sailing Club wesbsite, www.llsc.org.uk/1/?p=8398