North West Senior Travellers at Delph Sailing Club
by Dave Woodhead 25 Apr 20:27 BST
23 April 2019
North West Senior Travellers at Delph © Dave Scott
The first of the 2019 North West Senior Traveller events took place at Delph Sailing Club on Tuesday 23rd April. In total 38 sailors from 9 different clubs sailed 31 boats, a great turnout for the first of the series. With every sailor being over 50 years old (and some in their seventies) there must have been hundreds of years of sailing experience on the water!
After an entertaining briefing the OD Dave Helme set a course based on the light westerly wind, only to find it switched to a breezy easterly as soon as everyone had launched! With a new course set the first race got under way in conditions that held for the rest of the day. This consisted of strongish gusts rising over the dam end of the reservoir and bouncing and fanning out down the length of the lake. These were interspersed with lighter patches. Definitely a day for getting your head out of the boat.
The top group in all three races consisted unsurprisingly of previous event and series winners. Tony Critchley in a brand new Supernova from Bolton Sailing Club seemed to find the turbo button and with two race wins took 1st place overall on the day. His nearest rival was club mate Mark Platt also in a Supernova who took the other race win. Next came 3 Solos with last years series winner Richard Catchpole (Leigh and Lawton) having a very consistent day with 3 seconds. Richard enjoyed some close racing with two Elton S C Solos who came in 4th and 5th, sailed by Darren Nield and Dave Woodhead.
The first veteran prize went to Alan Barton and Nicola Gilliam from Delph sailing a Miracle.
It was great to see some new faces and new boats appearing this year and this bodes well for the remaining 6 events. The next meeting will be at Burwain Sailing Club on the 14th May.
A technical hitch prevents the publication of the full results here but these are available on the RYA North West Web site along with full details of the series. The basics are friendly competitive handicap racing in any class for the over 50s. Just £5 entry fee on the day and bring your own packed lunch.