North West Senior Travellers at Bolton Sailing Club
by Dave Woodhead 9 Jun 2022 19:59 BST
7 June 2022
North West Senior Travellers at Bolton © James Wheeldon
Round 3 of the North West Senior Travellers took place at Bolton SC on Tuesday 7th June and for the third time this year a forecast of light winds (under 5mph) put off a few of the regular travellers. Nevertheless three races were completed by a dozen intrepid travellers and the fleet was further enhanced by six Hansa class boats organised by the North West RYA.
In the Hansa fleet Rory McKinna called in to win the event on his way back to Glasgow from international events in France and Belgium! (Podium finishes in both.)
For the senior travellers the wind although patchy did at times achieve a little more than the forecast to provide some very tight and close racing.
With a patchy wind and handicap racing it was always question of how far in front the faster boats could get and would the slower boats have a fast or slow finish. Would the faster boats finish in wind whilst the slower boats became becalmed?
The results showed that a mixture of these scenarios occurred. Going into the last race Richard Catchpole from Leigh and Lowton in a Solo was ahead but could have easily lost out to the Supernovas of Mark Platt and Andy Flitcroft from the home club. However Richard held his nerve in the unpredictable wind to take the last race and the event on the day.
Mark and Andy took second and third places overall and the top five were completed with Dave Woodhead in a Solo and Tony Critchley in a Supernova. Dave was first in the Grand Master category Tony took the Master prize.
Interesting that four out of the top five are previous winners of this series. It should be a closely fought contest this year.
The next event is at Hollingworth on the 28th of June. Full details of the series can be found on the RYA north west web site and on the North West Dinghy Sailors Senior Traveller series Facebook group.