Budworth Sailing Club

Budworth SC hosted the sixth round of the GP14 Northern Bell Championship with its Open Meeting on Sunday 7th June.In one of the best attended open meetings of the season 24 GP14s sailed in a mixture of challenging conditions, ranging from a brisk easterly force 4 under bright skies for the first race through to a light F2 in torrential rain for the final race. But, as ever, the competition was close and PRO Graeme Bristow and team coped superbly with the conditions ensuring good beats, clean starts and no protests in all 3 races.

Mike Senior of South Staffs SC with crew Luke Shaw were on commanding form, dominating all three races from start to finish. But competition was intense amongst the rest of the Gold Fleet sailors with Bill Kenyon (Budworth SC), Gary Dewhurst (Burwain SC), Innes Armstrong (Burwain SC) and Bruce Deppe (Hollingworth Lake SC) all swapping positions from beat to run and lap to lap. In the end home fleet sailor Bill Kenyon was second overall and as a result Bill extends his lead in the 2009 GP14 Northern Bell Championship, which is generously sponsored by Omega Sails.

Competition was also close in the other fleets. Whilst half the Bronze fleet suffered retirements in the challenging conditions of race 1, the remainder showed some great form and very close racing in races 2 & 3 clearly benefiting from their training session of the day before.

Results:

Overall:
1st Mike Senior & Luke Shaw (S Staffs SC & Budworth SC)
2nd Bill Kenyon & Ben Ditchburn (Budworth SC)
3rd Gary Dewhurst & Thomas Bennett (Burwain SC)

Silver Fleet:
1st Bruce Deppe & Alistair Knott (Hollingworth Lake SC)
2nd Matt Birks & Andy Hunter (Nantwich & Border Counties SC)
3rd Mandy Mitchell & Jon Close (Winsford Flash SC)

Bronze Fleet:
1st Ray Bailey & Jackie Bailey (Budworth SC)
2nd James Downes & Judith Downes (Budworth SC)
3rd Hugh Devereux & Ellie Devereux (Budworth SC)

Seven boats entered the Snipe Ladies and Junior event at Budworth Sailing Club.
Luckily the forecasted 1mph wind turned out to be 5mph with plenty of Sun. Two Junior Snipe teams, Tom Ditchburn crewed by Alex Sharp and Will Williams crewed by Tom Lancaster, were keen to fight it out between them. The start line was shared with another five ladies Snipe teams so the boys had to negotiate experienced and lesser experienced helms.
It soon became apparent that the boys had the upper hand and finished first and second alternatively in every race (five sailed in total). At times they were challenged by Deborah Love (crewed by Chris Campey). Deborah normally sails a Firefly but showed that she has mastered the Snipe and is able to sail at a very competitive level. The other ladies’ teams challenged each other and ensured that there was a good competition going for fourth and fifth place.
Two Snipes contained female helms with male crews. Although not being able to qualify the event proved an excellent learning experience for those and hopefully next year they will enter with a qualifying crew.

After race four the boys were level pegging with two wins each. The final race would determine the outcome. Until now Will Williams proved to be the better starter whilst Tom Ditchburn had the upper hand in open water benefiting from plenty of practise with Alex Sharp. The last race saw Will Williams leading Tom Ditchburn around the first mark. Tom managed to keep his head cool and Will didn’t cover him on the next beat. Tom rounded ahead of Will and on the reach Tom pulled a lead of about 4 boat lengths that Will couldn’t get back.

So Tom Ditchburn & Alex Sharp won the overall and Junior event with Will Williams & Tom Lancaster a worthy second. Deborah Love & Chris Campey came third overall and won the Ladies competition. Sarah Cotton crewed by John Love couldn’t qualify, thus second place went to Pauline Penny & Michelle Ditchburn.

One of the races saw 10 year old Charles Whitaker helming. He looked very comfortable and with a bit more practise he should be able to sail next year the whole event.

Thanks go to Snipers who were prepared to lend their priced possessions out to sometimes less, or more, experienced helms. Without this typical spirited Snipe behaviour the event might not be as successful. See you next year.

Eric Paalman
BSC Snipe fleet captain.

Members,  the May-June Newsletter from our hard-working Commodore is now available for you to read in the Members/Mere-Views section of this site. ( Remember you need to Sign-In first to access it ).

On Saturday 2 May 09, Joe Glanfield will give a presentation and Q&A session to club members entitled ‘ Pathway to the Olympics’ at 1100hrs in the Club house.

All welcome.

Despite the early season date of the Bolton SC GP14 Open it was warm sunshine that greeted the 17 competitors at the club on Sunday April 5th. A tricky Southerly force 2 made it a tough day the OOD and his team as they attempted to set courses in the variable wind.

Race 1 saw a clean start, no more so than for Bill Kenyon and Ben Ditchburn who raced from the blocks into a clear lead as the wind swung and made it a rather one sided beat to the first mark. In hot pursuit were Ian Platt and Alex Pilkington and before long these leading two boats had built up a comfortable gap ahead of a chasing pack. Position changes were few and hard fought as the wind made for a processional first race that resulted in Bill and Ben taking the first winners gun of the day.

Bolton’s recently refurbished clubhouse hosted a hearty lunch for all before the competitors returned to the water for race 2. After a general recall the fleet got away on to the short beat to the windward mark. With much hailing as the pack fought round the mark Gary Deighan showed first. Gary worked up a nice gap at the head of the fleet as the race unfolded before a navigational indiscretion saw his cushion evaporate and ultimately the lead relinquished to Mark Platt.

Race 3 and the event was still wide open with any one of a number of boats in with a chance of taking the overall victory. In a carbon copy of race 1 Bill and Ben lead around the first mark and once more had Ian and Alex on their tail intent on making the leaders work really hard for any victory. Work hard they did and once more the Platt strangle hold on the Bolton open trophy was broken with a well deserved victory going to Bill and Ben from Budworth Sailing club.

A testing day perhaps for the OOD but an enjoyable and sun drenched one for all those that competed.