Harken Lancashire Special Schools Sailing Regatta at Bolton Sailing Club
by Warren Price 9 Jul 2016 22:34 BST
July 2016
Harken Lancashire Special Schools Sailing Regatta at Bolton © Dennis Shevelan
This year's regatta was again very kindly sponsored by Harken who generously provided "goodies" for all the competitors and the winners. The event was hosted by Bolton Sailing Club and supported by ten of their hard working volunteers.
All the competitors came from special schools across Lancashire, with most of them being new to sailing and some complete novices. What makes the event possible is the dinghy, the Hansa 303w. This double handed boat is extremely safe with very simple controls (joystick and mainsheet). This arrangement allows novices to sail the boat with complete confidence.
Though the weather was not a typical summers day (low cloud and drizzle with a gentle wind) the racing certainly made up for that with every race being keenly contested and the lead changing hands several times.
The format of the event was six (one lap) races with one discard and the final race a double points race that had to be counted. This ensured that the races came thick and fast and every boat was in contention until the last race. In three races three boats contested first place, all finishing within one boat length.
At lunchtime the top three schools were: 1st Pendle Community High School (2), 2nd Bramble School (2), 3rd Sir Ton Finney School (1).
After lunch battle was resumed and the competitive nature of the young people came to the fore with different teams winning the first two races. Everything now depended on the last race, the double point race. At the first mark four boats were very close with a small gap to the rest of the fleet.
On the reach to the second mark the positions repeatedly change with Pendle Community High (1) making a decisive move and breaking clear of the front group to win the double points race and put themselves in contention as the overall winners.
The final results for the podium places were very close after the doubles race and discard had been taken with only 2 points separating the top three boats.
This event could not have been run so successfully without the support of the volunteers at Bolton Sailing club, RYA Sailability, Harken, and the clubs and centres who loaned their boats.
A big thank you to all those involved!
Top three results:
1st Pendle Community High School (2)
2nd Pendle Community High School (1)
3rd Bramble School (2)