NW Senior Travellers at Leigh & Lowton Sailing Club

Leigh and Lowton Sailing Club hosted the penultimate round of this increasingly popular series on a stormy Tuesday 18th September. The over 50s who take part in this midweek series arrived at Leigh with white caps and driving rain in evidence.

However the wind calmed down and the rain stopped and so everybody began to rig. 20 boats came to the start line for the first race, a slightly reduced entry from normal attributed to the gloomy forecast. However the race started in about 15 mph winds from the west providing great conditions. It wasn't to last.

As the squalls came through Jerry Cahill's Merlin mast decided enough was enough and crumpled under the onslaught. Others took to having a closer look at the aquatic life in the lake. For those who survived there were some blistering reaches to be enjoyed and some rig shaking gusts up the beats. The eventual winner was Dave Woodhead in a Solo from Howard Green in a Laser and Steve White in another Solo. Out of the 20 starters 13 boats managed to finish.

The second race started with a reduced entry and some boats with a reduced sail area (cruising sails on an Enterprise – remember them?). This time Steve White took command from the beginning and never looked out of control as others fought to survive the gusts. One was recorded at 35 mph!

Second this time was Steve Walker in another Solo and 3rd Tony Critchley in a Supernova. There were more casualties so that by the third race the 20 boat fleet was reduced to only 7 finishers.

Steve White once again had a great start in the last race and took control of the race. Second after recovering from a quick dip at the windward mark was Dave Woodhead just beating Howard Green by a fraction of a second on corrected time.

Steve White was thrilled to win his first event after 45 years of dinghy sailing.

Underachievement award of the day went to Anne Stevenson who found herself locked in the ladies and banged and shouted on the door for twenty minutes before resorting to the fire escape. She later discovered she had been banging on the central heating cupboard door and the changing room door was unlocked all the time behind her! This can easily happen with the over 50s...

The seventh and final event of this series will take place at Elton SC on the 9th October.

Overall Results: