Solution Travellers' Trophy at Leigh & Lowton Sailing Club
by Kathryn Clark 29 Apr 2017 08:57 BST
22-23 April 2017
Solutions at Leigh & Lowton © Paul Hargreaves
The Solution Travellers' Trophy series kicked off at Leigh and Lowton Sailing Club on 22 April 2017. The club laid on more wind than the met office forecast and wall-to-wall sunshine to start the series in fine style.
Local boy Martin Tubb led the fleet round the course for the first lap of the first race before doing the gentlemanly thing and handing the lead-boat role to Paul Nix. Paul hung onto first for the rest of the race while Kathryn Clark made the best of the shifts to work through to 2nd. Kevin Clark wasn't going to let another man come between him and his wife and pushed Martin back to 4th in a photo finish. Peter Fisk fought off man-flu to hang onto 5th place while Richard Horovitz made the most of being at only his second open meeting by keeping the rest of the fleet in front where he could see what they were doing to learn from them.
The second race started in much the same vein but this time Martin was able to hang onto the lead. Kevin Clark snuck through to take 2nd place and with Paul Nix relegated to 3rd, it left the overnight positions too close to call.
Sunday dawned just as sunny but with lighter and shiftier winds than Saturday. The Llandudno pair were unable to join in for the second day leaving the leading four to battle things out. Paul dominated the first two races which gave him the overall win before Kevin Clark took advantage of the increasing wind and port-biased start line to get a bullet in the last race and 2nd overall.
Overall Results:
| Pos | Sail No | Helm | Club | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | R5 | Pts |
|---|
| 1st | 440 | Paul Nix | Glossop | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | ‑4 | 6 |
| 2nd | 456 | Martin Tubb | Leigh & Lowton | ‑4 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 7 |
| 3rd | 458 | Kevin Clark | Delph | 3 | 2 | 3 | ‑4 | 1 | 9 |
| 4th | 455 | Kathryn Clark | Delph | 2 | ‑4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 12 |
| 5th | 436 | Peter Fisk | Llandudno sc | 5 | 5 | (DNC) | DNC | DNC | 24 |
| 6th | 402 | Richard Horovitz | Llandudno sc | 6 | 6 | (DNC) | DNC | DNC | 26 |