Leigh & Lowton 14th May 2005

Leigh & Lowton Juniors stayed at home-
We shared out the chocolates at Leigh & Lowton

The 4th event in the 2005 North West Junior Travellers series was held at Leigh & Lowton SC on Saturday 14th May. A bright & sunny day greeted the 21 Handicap & 5 Optimists that entered 15 of which were visitors from 6 local clubs. It is fair to say that the number of entries was diluted by the 20knot winds & white capped waves that were sweeping the Flash. This series is intended to be an introduction for juniors that can sail, to racing on different waters. The atmosphere is a lot more relaxed than at major championships or open meetings and the courses were set with the ability of the entrants & wind conditions in mind.

Launching into the strong north easterly was interesting, there was plenty of help on hand and the rescue boats were kept busy even before the starts. It was race 1 when the wind blew the strongest, many boats went out sporting reefs but there was still a number of retirements. The lunch break allowed time for the one or two repairs that were required, the wind dropped a small amount & many reefs were shaken out for the remaining 2 races.

Alistair Mitchell (Winsford SC), series leader & sailing a Laser dominated the Handicap fleet with 3 straight wins, Luke Pitt (Killington SC) took second in his Laser 4.7 with Jak Cornthwaite (East Lancs SC) 3rd in the 1st of 18 Toppers that entered. Highest finisher for the home club was Sophie Stott 7th, who relished the conditions with a creditable best finish of 5th in Race 3, Katlyn Green finished some 3 points behind & Daisy Murphy got an award for being the highest placed under 14 non-prizewinner. The other local juniors that took part were Gideon Slayen, Laura Barnes, Andrew Price & Andrew Green.

The Optimists had an interesting 1st race, the Yeates sisters simulated syncronised swimming as they both capsized on the 2nd lap during one of the stronger gusts that appeared, this left visitor Rachel Wilcock (Budworth SC) to take the race win. Sarah Yeates recovered her composure for the 2nd race taking the win with Rachel 2nd, Lucy Yeates 3rd & Charlie Faulkner 4th, this meant that for the 4th event in a row the last race was to be the decider. Sarah took off to win in confident fashion with Rachel & Lucy having a great tussle for 2nd place, which Rachel duly won.

Everyone got a prize today & everyone deserved the applause they got at the prizegiving, this was a real test of not only ability but endurance. A special prize medal was presented to Steve Slayen who was helping out, whilst not being a junior he was seen sailing a Topper back to shore, closely followed by his first sail in a waterlogged Optimist & several acts of rescue all in a 20min timespan. Laura Stott was a rescue assistant for the day & enjoyed (?) jumping into the Flash to right capsized/turtle boats on 5 separate occasions.


Both Redesmere (displaying their new & eyecatching team teashirts - Redesmere Rocks!) & Winsford brought teams of 6 juniors to the event & therefore got a box of chocolates each.

There is a bit of a break before the next event at Ullswater on 11th June - all juniors are assured of a friendly welcome.

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