North West Senior Travellers at Bolton Sailing Club
by Dave Woodhead 17 Oct 2019 10:01 BST
15 October 2019
North West Senior Travellers at Bolton © Paul Hargreaves
The final event of the North West Senior Travellers took place on Tuesday 15th October at Bolton Sailing Club. This mid-week series for the over 50s goes from strength to strength.
Sixty-three boats from 16 different clubs took part in one or more of the 7 events at different clubs in North West England. There is a great atmosphere of friendly but competitive racing allowing local clubs that otherwise would have little contact to build connections and friendships.
The series is based on cheap, local and manageable events. Entry fees are just £5 a day, competitors bring packed lunches and the seven events are in a fairly tight geographical area. It is a recommended format for other regions, it helps to keep pensioners off the streets.
This year we saw some extremes of weather with light winds at Burwain and Bolton whilst Elton saw the occasional gust topping 30 knots!
For the second consecutive year the winner of the series was Richard Catchpole from Leigh and Lowton SC in a Solo. Richard was remarkably consistent no matter what the wind strength, only twice being out of the top three in any race. Runner up was Dave Woodhead in another Solo from Elton SC. Next followed two Supernovas from Bolton sailed by Andy Flitcroft and Mark Platt. In 5th place was the first double handler, a Miracle sailed by Dave Southwell and Michelle Raines from Leigh and Lowton. Full results are listed below.
Top club was awarded to Leigh and Lowton after a tie break with Bolton. The ancient mariner award went to Richard Hemingway from Etherow S C.
The details of the 2020 series will be posted when finalised on the RYA north west web site.
Full series results can be found here.