News, Results & Reports

Race Night Social Saturday 25th Septemer 7:30pm

Fri, 3 Sep 2010 21:13:56 +0100

How are your horse race forecasting skills? Join in an evening of fun at the clubhouse on Saturday 25th September 2010. This is the evening before the Solo and Laser Open Meeting, camping will be available at the club free of charge and the bar will be open until late. There is no entry fee and no real money will change hands. Every participant will be given a sum of ‘money’ in notes from the ‘Bank of Leigh & Lowton’ and the winner will be the person who can increase this stake by the largest amount over five or six races shown in the evening. Your bookmaker for the evening will be Mad Mike (he gets very upset when you win!) and his aim will be to keep as much of the Bank of Leigh and Lowton’s money in his wallet as possible!

Prizes will be awarded for the top three stakeholders at the end of the evening and the lady with the poshest hat (only worn at the judging).

Nibbles will be provided.

See you on the 25th. Betting opens at 7.30pm!

Mike Baldwin
Commodore

Laser & Solo Open 26th September

Fri, 3 Sep 2010 21:06:15 +0100

Entrance fee £8.00. First Race 11am. Three races (two to count). Lots of great prizes. Why not camp the night before and attend the RACE NIGHT (7:30pm start)

For more information please contact Chester:
E: chestercandish@gmail.com
T: 07841645812

Topper 6hr Race

Wed, 1 Sep 2010 18:37:05 +0100

11 teams entered the 2010 Topper 6 hour race at Leigh & Lowton SC on August Bank Holiday Monday. With sailors coming from around the North of England they were welcomed with an 8 knot Westerly breeze & sunshine, this is a competition where teams of 1 or more sailors race a Topper around a fixed course throughout the 6 hours starting at 10am, team changeovers are allowed as necessary. Juniors, Youths and Adults alike took part in this year's race with a number of sailors coming back into the class especially for this event, some of the sailors were a bit bleary eyed after the long trip back from the Topper Worlds in Garda but all were keen to get going.
In the early part of the race, Jamie Catchpole of "Team Tank" led initially but Tom Keegan of "The Green Machine" took the lead to pip him for the fastest first lap. This battle continued for the first 3 laps until a significant windshift allowed Tom, with the aid of his seemingly personal gust, to pull out a small lead. After the first changeovers Jenny Cant of "Can't catch us" and Yorkshire Dales' "Fat Buoys Slim" caught "Team Tank" and started a 3-way contest for second place, Jenny setting the best lap time of the day in the process. In a dying wind, all the teams were struggling to set good times. Bobby Hewitt, the local optimist helm, in "Help for Heroes" was on his way to sailing solo to a £200 fundraising effort which he completed successfully with a creditable 7th place finish. The end of the race saw a little more wind as Andy Green steered "The Green Machine" to just under a one-lap victory from "Team Tank". Three teams of younger helms arrived from Burwain SC, where a lack of water has limited sailing this summer, these sailors were very keen to get into Topper fleet racing & Leigh & Lowton will welcome all the sailors back for the NW Topper Traveller event at the club on 18th September, an event that is also part of the selection process for the RYA West Zone winter squad.
A great day out was had by all and once again the Leigh & Lowton Galley did everyone proud by producing a constant supply of excellent food all day. Roll on 2011!!

1st - "The Green Machine" - LLSC
2nd - "Team Tank" - LLSC
3rd - "Can't catch us" - LLSC
4th - "Fat Buoys Slim" - Yorkshire Dales SC
5th - "Budworth Buoys" - Budworth SC

2010 24hr Race - Want to join the fun??

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 18:42:45 +0100

It’s that time of year again where clubs from all over the country start making preparations to travel to Southport Marine Lake to take part in the famous 24 hour race hosted by West Lancs Yacht Club.

The entertainment starts on Friday with a BBQ at 6pm followed by music in the marquee until the early hours. Camping is available on site and we plan to have a LLSC team base set up on the water’s edge. The race starts at midday on Saturday with various mini races taking place throughout the 24 hours. There will be music in the marquee again on Saturday night and there is catering available throughout the weekend.

This year we will once again be sailing an Enterprise, this time it is our Commodore Mike Baldwin who has generously allowed us to use his recently purchased boat. Mike has been putting the boat through it’s paces over the past couple of months and it was also used by the Juniors in the 12 hour race in June where we recorded an impressive 7th place finish. We will be using the club Enterprise sails which were purchased a few years ago specifically for the 24 hour race and are still in great shape. We’ve got all the equipment, we now need your help to get the boat to the finish!

In the same way as last year, we are encouraging all members to come and join in what is an excellent weekend both on and off the water. If you are interested in sailing, please drop me an email to neil.skellam@uk.fujitsu.com stating whether you would like to helm or crew and any specific times throughout the 24 hours that you cannot commit to sailing. As always a strong team of helpers is required to make the weekend a success and if anyone wishes to come and assist off the water your efforts will be very much appreciated. We will aim to have the boat available to sail at the Marine Lake on the afternoon and evening of Friday 10th September if anyone would like to practise.

If you have any queries or need any additional information please get in touch or see http://24-hour-race.wlyc.org.uk/

Neil Skellam

Club members Lucy Yeates and Curtis Mearns made it a Leigh & Lowton 1 and 2 in the Sailing Solutions Topper 4.2 National Championship held at the club on 17/18 July.

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 10:25:47 +0100

Gallery  Event Microsite   The first ever, standalone Topper 4.2 National Championships sponsored by Sailing Solutions was held at Leigh & Lowton Sailing Club on Pennington flash over the weekend of 17th/18th July 2010. The Topper 4.2 rig is ideally suited to sailors who are 35–45 kg and who often struggle whilst racing with the full 5.3 sail or reef, neither of which is ideal for improving sailing skills. Sailors in this weight range are finding that this sail is extremely well balanced and great fun to race, no-longer is it thought of as anything less than a serious racing sail and as such, this event attracted top class competition from the main Topper 5.3 fleet in addition to Optimist & other class sailors – all were made warmly welcome by the usual 4.2 competitors and by those who have aspirations towards the next ITCA GBR 4.2 National squad for which this event is part of the selection process.
The whole of the Northwest of England were pleased that the visitors, who came from Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and all points of England brought some valuable water with them in the form of rain to help with the local water shortages – thanks guys! The forecast was for a mixture of winds, some rain & a chance of sunshine in generally warm temperatures.
Charles Glover, ITCA GBR class chairman, welcomed everyone to the club during the morning briefing and he was extremely pleased to report a fleet size of 45 sailors. He confirmed ITCA GBR’s commitment to the event by introducing the RYA Appointed class judge, Trevor Lewis, who was on hand to ensure that fair play was seen to be observed. Mike Baldwin, Commodore of Leigh & Lowton SC, introduced the assembled sailors to the post sailing activity, one famous at the club, a bottle boat race between the pontoons. Components were available, mainly plastic bottles, gaffer tape & Tesco bags with sticks for everyone to have a go at building their own designs. Dave Cockerill, the head coach of the 4.2 National Squad, welcomed the sight of smiley faces despite the rain. He confirmed that the 4.2 squad had been a delight to work with through the winter & acknowledged that there was a wide mix of talent in this particular competition – those that were looking at it as an indicator event should not be hung up on the results but just try to sail to their best ability and more than anything, have a really good time.
PRO, Peter Baldwin, and his team headed out onto the water on time to set the course. The wind was a little fickle at this stage but the Trapezoid course was laid & the fleet released for their 2 first races. It is proof of the seriousness of the sailors when at least 85% of the fleet were seen to sail the 1st beat before coming under starters order – textbook stuff! After a clean start it was the Venables Brothers who led at the windward mark for race 1 with Lucy Yeates (14) of the home club, taking a while to get in her stride, taking the lead on the final beat and the race win. The wind increased slowly through the morning and there were one or two very heavy rain showers which brought some more severe gusts. Race 2 brought out the sun but the increase in wind strength saw some of the 4.2’s being fully hiked & one or two spills were in evidence around the course. It is at wind strengths like this that this sail comes into its own, manageable yet great fun. Lucy took her 2nd race win just after her (lucky) sail shredded itself whilst rounding the final mark and the fleet went ashore for lunch whilst Lucy borrowed a spare sail – thanks Abi. It’s for this kind of help that the Topper is known as “the Friendly Class”. As the fleet launched for race 3 the wind kicked in with a vengeance, a steady 20 knots and gusting much more strongly, gave these young sailors the chance to show the true quality of the Topper 4.2 fleet. This time it was Curtis Mearns (14), also of the home club, who showed the way with bullets in races 3 and 4 in a hotly contested top ten giving him the overnight lead. Lucy lay in second place with Northern Ireland's top 4.2 sailor, Laura Gilmore (13) of Strangford Lough Yacht Club in third place and 2009 4.2 National Champion Dan Venables(13) just behind in fourth. These four were given a hard battle by Matt Venables (14,) also visiting from the GBR Topper Junior National Squad, Arran Holman (13), Optimist Inland Champion 2010, GBR Topper National Intermediate Squad member Jamie Purcell (14) from Redesmere and Scotland's Joanne Foster, the recently crowned Topper 4.2 National Series Champion. So no shortage of talent on show and the racing was incredibly impressive with Toppers flying down the lake in balls of spray.
As the wind again sent the anemometers spinning the race officer decided he had seen enough (and run out of memory on his camera) and sent the fleet ashore after the race was complete. It has to be said that the rescue fleet, headed by ITCA GBR Ribmaster Andy Millington, whilst being extremely busy & dealing with multiple capsizes when the gusts went through the fleet, kept control of the situation impeccably. Boats were tied onto marks & sailors who were tired & cold were brought to shore without delay – the new cockpit numbering system was put to good use today & is an invaluable aid to the rescue volunteers. 
Saturday night was memorable for the previously mentioned locally famous Leigh and Lowton bottle boat race won by Crispin Beaumont from Bartley SC whose boat stormed across the lake to take line honours well ahead of the rest of the fleet. The race was followed by a fab meal from the club galley and a quiz night with picture quiz and music clips! Well done the social committee.
Sunday dawned with the same brisk breeze blowing at the local Premier Inn and seemingly everywhere else but Pennington Flash where there was barely enough wind to set a course. However, with no tide to worry about the fleet duly set off for five more races. Race five looked like normal service being resumed with the same top ten again leading the way although Lucy was clearly going to be hard to beat in the lighter breeze as she had a very closely contested battle with Arran swapping places throughout the race and Dan was also loving the light stuff.
Race 6 was notable as Lucy missed her toestraps on the start line and again on the beat, 2 perfectly performed backward somersaults – where was that judge when you need him? It was Crispin Beaumont (13) of Bartley who took the win from Arran Holman and Dan Venables. At the beginning of race 7, Haydn Griffiths of Leigh & Lowton, who normally sails an Optimist in the West Zone and was sailing his first Topper event led the fleet for more than a lap but in the end it was Lucy, back on form, who took the win from National Junior Squad mate Danielle Thomas and Dan Venables who was racking up an impressively consistent streak, Haydn finishing a creditable fourth.   
The fleet came ashore for lunch just as the wind returned and then vanished again just as the fleet launched for race 8. (Does this sound familiar?) In a swinging wind the first start of race 8 was a general recall as the fleet correctly identified the huge starboard bias and the black flag returned, not for the first time of the weekend. The restart was then postponed mid sequence as another huge windshift brought back some real breeze with Toppers seen briefly surfing between capsizes. On a completely re-set course race 8 finally got away and saw Arran Holman’s efforts being rewarded with a bullet from Mr Consistent Dan Venables 2nd and Laura Gilmore 3rd. Despite a rapidly dying wind race 9 was also started with just eight minutes to spare from the absolute time limit, a 5th win for Lucy from Jamie Purcell and Curtis Mearns who finished 2nd overall with Mr Consistent Venables finishing 3rd overall.
In the final analysis it was Lucy who became the very deserving 2010 Sailing Solutions Topper 4.2 National Champion in an extremely close fought and high quality event with no less than three National Champions and six National Junior Squad sailors in the top 10. With competition of this calibre and 45 smiling faces returning to the launching area each day this event and the 4.2 class looks set for a bright future.
With specially designed trophies being flown in from Australia (that Google thing is great!) and an abundance of prizes offered by Sailing Solutions in addition to a new 5.3 sail donated by Topper International the prizegiving was well attended. Special endeavour prizes were offered to 2 sailors who caught the attention of the race committee during the windiest parts of Saturday, despite numerous capsize incidents both Izzy Stylianides and Matthew Harrison kept coming back with smiley faces whilst Ethan Dawson earned a prize for the highest points tally of those that finished all 9 races – well done guys.
The next Topper event on the Calendar is the main National Championships at Pwllheli during the 1st week of August – there is a dedicated 4.2 section to the Regatta fleet & a number of 4.2’s have entered to race with the main fleet.
Full results at http://www.sailracer.co.uk/sailwavepreview.asp?status=0&usr=sr&event=11232
Clubs own event microsite with Gallery at http://www.llsc.org.uk/4point2/

Regatta Weekend 2010 10/11 July 2010

Sat, 10 Jul 2010 10:32:54 +0100

Results   Gallery   The weekend of the 10th and 11th July saw the fourth annual Regatta taking place at Leigh and Lowton S.C. With a good forecast, both for the sun and the wind, the signs were showing a good weekend's sailing.

On Saturday morning as the sailors assembled, the wind was blowing from the south, not the best direction for Pennington Flash. Race Officer Mike Baldwin set a course avoiding some of the wind shadow from the shore using a large proportion of the lake with three beats keeping the fleets on their toes. All three starts got away cleanly and the 28 strong handicap fleet was led around the course by Louise McKeand and Cathy Partington from LLSC in a RS400, followed closely by Mike Webster from Delph in a Phantom. The top five slots were held by these two classes of boat throughout the race with Mike Webster finally coming out on top when the corrected times were calculated. Thirteen boats contested the Laser fleet with some close racing at the top. Richard Catchpole and Stuart Belfield led the field at the end of the first lap with Chester Candish and Andy Green in third and fourth places respectively, all from the home club. By the end of the second lap Andy had pulled through to second place with only seconds between the top three boats but it was Richard who held onto the lead at the finish gun with only 20 yards separating these three helms on the water after an hour of full on, tight racing. The junior fleet was again 13 strong with a mixture of Laser Radials, Toppers and Optimists with a Hobie 405 thrown in for good measure. The Lasers dominated the race on the water but it was Bobby Hewitt who took first place with Kirk Knights from LLSC taking second from John Wingeatt also from LLSC coming third.

After a fine lunch from the galley, the fleet returned to the water for two back-to-back races in the afternoon. With a dropping wind, the course was set slightly shorter and the Handicap start saw two boats OCS who unfortunately did not return. Again Louise and Cathy led from the front with Sam and Caroline Sutton-Reid in a RS400 and Mike Webster chasing them. Again, Mike took the result on corrected time. The Laser fleet, eagerly led by Howard Green, stormed across the line about 3 seconds before the start gun to be pulled back by a General Recall and a 10 minute wait until their next start. The junior fleet was won this time by Tom with Kirk in second place and John in third. When the Lasers started again, it was Andy Green who led from the beginning, with Richard and Stuart fighting out for second and third position, Stuart finally taking the second slot at the finish.

In race 3, Louise and Cathy didn’t have such a good start and were fourth on the water at the end of the first lap with the RS400’s of Joe Hartinan and Nathan Waring, the Parker brothers, Martin and Liam and the RS200 1311 with Alisatair Norris and Charlie (Charlotte) Marsden close behind them. However, Louise and Cathy battled their way through to the front taking the finish gun first on the water and first on corrected time as well. In fact, the RS 400’s dominated this race taking the first three places with Mike Webster not having such a good race this time, finishing in fifth place. In the Lasers, the racing was still tight but it was Chester who took first place with a thrilling finish between Andy and Stuart. As they rounded the leeward mark, Stuart was just ahead of Andy and made his way towards the line close hauled. Andy, spotting an opportunity, dropped away slightly and headed towards the committee boat end of the line, footing freer and faster. As they crossed the line, Andy took the honours about a foot ahead of Stuart. Thrilling stuff and a credit to his tactics. At just 14 years old, Andy shows maturity on the water that many of us adults would be proud to display. I’m sure we shall see a lot of him in the Laser fleets nationally over the next few years.

At the prizegiving, Mike Baldwin thank everyone for attending with a special thank you to all those who had supported the day on the committee boat, safety boats and especially Fiona White who had worked during the day, loading the results into the computer. Without all these people the day would not have gone so smoothly. The winners of the fleets at the end of the day were Mike Webster in his Phantom taking the Handicap Fleet, Andy Green in the Lasers and Kirk Knights in the Junior Fleet. Liam Kirby was awarded the junior ‘Endeavour’ prize for finishing all three races despite only starting to sail this year.

After the prizegiving, Ann and Helen, along with Ian and other helpers provided a wonderful BBQ which was followed by the traditional bottle boat race. Unlike previous years, the wind didn’t play ball and the course had to be reset from the shore to the middle mark. The winner by a wide margin was John Wingeatt with second place going to young Jack Exeley with his Tesco bag powered catamaran.

At 8.00pm Paul got the fancy dress disco going and there was a wide range of ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ fancy dress costumes on show from Mark Lowe in his ringlets and fancy jacket to Chester in his eye shadow (yes, that’s right, eye shadow!) and fancy hat. The winner of the male ‘Best Dressed Pirate’ was Chester and the female ‘Best Dressed Pirate’ was Gill.

Sunday morning greeted the sailors with a strong breeze and the more hung over youth sailors used this as an excuse not to go out on the water. With these dropouts and the conflicts of the World Cup Final and the British Grand Prix, the fleets were a little down in numbers compared to previous years. However, 22 boats made it to the start for the Handicap Fleet, 11 in the Lasers and 8 in the Junior Fleet. The wind was blowing from the west, straight down Pennington Flash and when the committee boat had gone out there were 18” waves at the leeward end of the course. The wind strength was gusting 20 knots and a number of sailors started but were unable to complete the course. Mike Webster again showed his dominance on handicap, closely followed by Greg Marshal and Chris Tooley in their RS200 who revelled in the conditions. Iain and Sarah Yardley had a great race as well, finishing third on corrected time. Louise had swapped her crew from Saturday and was sailing with Dave Exeley but they could not produce the same style of result as the girls had on the Saturday. In the Juniors, Megan Griffiths sailing a Laser 4.7 showed that this was the right rig of choice as she held her own against the Radials and Andy Green again dominated the Lasers taking his second bullet of the weekend.

After lunch, the wind had dropped slightly and the fleets increased in numbers as the two back-to-back races were run. A course with a longer, truer run was provided after the RS400’s felt that they were missing out. This time it was Steve White (who had had to retire in race 1) in his Solo who showed the Handicap fleet how to sail with Stuart Belfield, now sailing his RS400 with his wife Cath, taking second, Mike Webster having to make do with third. Bobby Hewitt in the Junior Fleet took another first place in his Optimist and Andy Green added another bullet to his tally with Paul Heath in second and Andy’s Dad, Howard, in third. The last race saw the numbers drop dramatically as many sailors decided that for once the footy would draw them away with 11 boats dropping out. This time, the Solos dominated the Handicap fleet with first place going to Brian Holt, second to Mike Broatch, third to Alan Catto and fourth to Steve White. In the Lasers Paul Heath took the first gun with Tom Keegan, newly returned from his time abroad, in second and Andy Green in third.

At the prizegiving, Mike Baldwin again thanked all those who had supported the event in the roles of committee and safety boats. The prizes were awarded to Mike Webster for the Handicap, Bobby Hewitt in the Juniors with Lee Knight getting the ‘Endeavour’ prize and the Laser fleet was won by Andy Green. The John Barnes Plate was also awarded for the helm in the Handicap and Laser fleets who, over the six races of the weekend, had the lowest score. This award also went to Andy who recorded three firsts, two seconds and a third. Well done Andy. Make sure you keep the plate polished!

Report - Southport Junior 12hr Race Report

Thu, 1 Jul 2010 17:25:09 +0100

For only the fourth time in the race’s history, LLSC entered a team of Junior sailors in this annual event. The team was made up of 11 people with ages ranging from 11 to 18. Captained by Laura Barnes, the team consisted of Laura, Ali Humphries, Andy Dawson, Andy Price, Bobby Hewitt, Brogan Griffiths, Chris Wheeler, Haydn Griffiths, John Wingeatt, Liam Parker and Tom Keegan. The team were sailing Mike Baldwin’s recently purchased Enterprise and, as none of the group had any experience in this class of boat, were there just to enjoy a good day’s sailing.

The forecast during the week had varied from 2 knots up to 8 knots but the day dawned with the halliards in the boat park slapping against the masts and a breeze of about 7-8 knots from the east. With the team numbers attached to the boat by Mike Baldwin and Steve Dawson, sails were raised and the boat launched about 15 minutes before the start. As the gun was sounded for the start of the first flight (Enterprises), the start team of Andy D and Ali crossed the line in sixth place. For the next two hours they worked hard around the course which consisted of a reach along the beach side of the lake, a beat at the end towards the new Ramada Hotel and a reach across the back side of the lake to the end buoy before coming back across the front of the Southport SC clubhouse and through the line. During the two hours on the water they worked up to fourth place at times and at the end of their stint they had consolidated a 5th place with a 1½ minute margin between them and the sixth boat as they handed the boat over to the next crew, Chris and Brogan. Working hard over the next hour, Chris and Brogan managed to improve the position to third. Tom and Bobby took over just after 11.00am and, despite that fact that the wind at this point had dropped slightly, they posted some superb times with Tom’s lap at 11.30am showing the highest speed against the rolling average of 70%. None of the teams who beat LLSC overall put in a lap as fast as this one against the rolling averages. Tom’s performance pulled LLSC up to 2nd place by the time they came off the water.

The wind was now veering around with the result that the back leg was a long run and with the wind slightly increased again meant that the GP14’s started to make inroads into the times posted by the Enterprises and began to move themselves up the leader board. John and Laura took over from Tom and Bobby for the next hour but the GP14’s took them down the rankings and the team found themselves back in 6th position by the end of their shift. By this time South Staffs and Bolton in their GP14’s were pushing the top teams hard and despite some good average times posted by Chris Wheeler with Brogan and Andy P and Bobby, the team found themselves in seventh position at 3.00pm. However, the differential between LLSC and the two or three teams above them only amounted to about 15 seconds on the average lap time.

By the middle of the afternoon, the wind had moved around to the west which meant that the course was mainly runs and reach with a small beat at the end of the leg across the back of Southport Marine Lake. The GP’s were flying their spinnakers to good effect and LLSC were struggling to make any headway on those above them. Their efforts focussed on keeping Chester SC Green behind them and to try and make headway on Pilkington SC.

Just before 4.00pm Laura, crewed by Liam, went out for the “Female Helm’s Fastest First Lap after 4.00pm” race and when the results were posted up found that she had achieved a very creditable 2nd place. The other special race the team were going for was the “Under 14 Helm’s Fastest First Lap after 6.00pm”. Haydn had been training with the Oppie Zone Squad at West Kirby all day and, when that was finished, was driven by Bryn at unmentionable speeds to try and reach Southport in time for him to crew for Bobby, finally arriving, after negotiating various closed Mersey tunnels, about 5.45pm. The aim had been to get Bobby and Haydn across the start line before 6.00pm so that they would have a lap to get used to the boat before they started their timed lap. Andy and Brogan came up to the changeover area about 5.59pm as the wind was now dropping considerably and their last lap had taken longer than expected. With Mike having to adjust the rudder blade back from its angled back position to shed weed to the vertical to make it easier for Bobby to steer, the gun went with them about 30 metres away from the line. So Bobby’s first time at helming the Enterprise was also his timed lap. Going down the leg towards the hotel they could be seen flying past other Enterprises and they maintained an average lap time of about 14 minutes throughout the hour they were on the water. When the results of the race were posted, Bobby had come second in the race. A credit to both him and Haydn, as Haydn had only been in the boat on one previous occasion for about 15 minutes and Bobby had never helmed an Enterprise before! Finally, at 7.00pm Bobby came off the water having put in three hours during the day and was replaced in the boat by Tom. After a lap Tom handed the helming over to Haydn who posted two good lap times of around 90% of the running average before he had the honour of taking the boat over the finish line. The finishing tactics in these races is always crucial and with about 5 minutes to go before the 8.00pm gun, the Pilkington crew were to be seen crossing backwards and forwards between the clubhouse and the islands in an effort not to cross the line before 8.00pm. If they had done so, they would have had to do another lap with a rapidly fading breeze. Tom and Haydn’s timing couldn’t have been better as they crossed the finish line about a minute after the 8.00pm gun.

Overall the LLSC team came seventh out of 31 boats with a team of sailors with very little Enterprise experience. Their enthusiasm throughout the day was brilliant and I want to thank them all (and their parents) for the efforts during the day. However, just to warn them all, Laura is already planning the campaign for 2011 with a goal of top slot!

Mike Baldwin

RYA Training run by Dave Eccles

Thu, 1 Jul 2010 17:21:52 +0100

Do you want more from your sailing? Do you want to get into racing? If so this day is for you.

The Aim: To get people club racing. To give inexperienced or non–racing members and those who have just learnt to sail, the skills and confidence to go club racing.

The RYA has been working on ways to increase adult participation and, as a result, we have arranged this day with a Level 2 Racing Coach to come to LLSC and run an Introduction to Racing Day.

The course will be run on Saturday 31st July 2010 commencing at 10:00, preferably using your own Laser 2000 dinghy although other classes will be welcome. It is aimed at people who are returning to sailing after a break, new to racing sailors or those who wish to revisit basic racing skills.

The format of the day will combine both practical & theoretical elements and will also offer the opportunity to gain valuable information about Laser 2000 racing in particular.

For more details or to book your place contact coach for the day Dave Eccles on 07748 118872
Or email him at sailfaster@kdx.org.uk

News - June Newsletter

Mon, 28 Jun 2010 12:04:20 +0100

Leigh and Lowton Sailing Club Newsletter June 2010

To all our members – welcome to the June Newsletter

June – almost half the year gone and lots to talk about – what’s gone on and what’s to come.

At the beginning of May we hosted our annual North West Junior Traveller Trophy event. This year it unfortunately clashed with the Eric Twiname Trophy event at Rutland SC so a number of our junior zone squad sailors, both from the club and the rest of the North West were away for that. Despite this, 42 youngsters took part including 9 in the youth section and 28 of the boats were visitors. The handicap fleet was won convincingly by Jamie Purcell of Redesmere with two bullets and an OCS in the third race. Leigh and Lowton recorded 5 boats in the top eight with Lucy Yeates, Kirk Knights, Jamie Catchpole, Brogan Griffiths and Alex Davies showing some consistent racing to achieve these places. In the youth fleet, Andy Green beat Chris Wheeler into second place by one point with Sam Hall from Bassenthwaite in third place, Andy Price in fourth and Megan Griffiths in fifth, giving LLSC four out of the first five placings. The wind did us proud all day with the Laser sailors especially getting some great reaches in.

Two weeks later about thirty volunteers were down at the club helping out at the club Open Day. Whilst the sun shone down the wind decided to ignore us and the sailing experience that most of our visitors had was not quite as inspiring as we would have liked. Despite that, I can report that, at the time of writing, we already have seven new sets of members from these efforts with several more interested in joining when we can provide places on our courses. Well done everyone. This success, however, does highlight that we need more instructors who can give support to John Kelly in providing Adults and Junior Training sessions. None of these courses can be run by John alone and he needs people to help out. If you currently have an instructor’s qualification and would like to assist or are interested in becoming an instructor, please get in touch with John at jbk@charnock11.freeserve.co.uk .

On the Open Day weekend, the Welsh Laser Nationals were due to take place where Neil Skellam, Megan Griffiths and Tom Keegan were due to defend their individual titles they won last year. However, the wind was as miserable there all weekend as it was at LLSC on the Saturday and in the end the event was cancelled. So they currently still retain their Welsh titles.

At the beginning of May eight sailors from LLSC went to Grafham Water to compete in the Topper Class Inlands Championships. With an entry of 247 boats competition was fierce. The boats only competed three races (due to the weather not co-operating on the Saturday) and Andy Green posted results of two fourths and a sixth to take eighth position overall. Ali Humphries also did well with an 8th and two 9th’s to take 14th overall. Well done to all our sailors. The wind speed on the Sunday when they sailed averaged over 20mph with gusts of over 30mph being recorded. Who says kids of today are big softies?

So that was May, what about June? There are a number of local Laser Open Meetings during the month. Check out the details on the Laser association website. There are NWJTT meetings at Ullswater and West Kirby and on Saturday 26th June, a team of our juniors will be taking part in the Southport SC Junior 12 hour race. The race runs from 8.00am to 8.00pm. Come along and lend your vocal support to their efforts.

July is the club’s busiest month this year. We start with our annual regatta which I talked about in the May newsletter. Full details are now on the website along with the opportunity to register for the event on-line. If you pre-register you qualify for a free T-shirt in a size of your choice. Free camping, the barbeque, the bottle boat race, the fancy dress disco and the bar open until late will make it a great weekend. Don’t forget you can sail on either of the days or the full weekend. The choice is yours.

One week later LLSC hosts the Topper 4.2 Nationals. Whilst I have mentioned this event before, details are now being firmed up. Whilst for most club sailors this is a Flash Closure, for young sailors, whether they currently sail Topper or not this should be a great event to compete in. If your child would like to participate in the event but does not have a Topper of their own we may be able to help. The club Toppers will be available for the event but it will be necessary for you to source a 4.2 sail. Andy Millington, the North West Topper Representative has a number of these sails available for loan. If you are interested, please contact Andy (arearep.northwest@gbrtopper.co.uk ) to see if he has one available. Once you have obtained that, please get in touch with me if you want to borrow a club boat. To enter the event, you must register through the Topper website (http://www.gbrtopper.co.uk/sailracer_events.htm ) before July 2nd, otherwise a late booking fee is imposed (about twice the normal fee). For club members who would like to make it a social event, there will be a bottle boat race, probably about 7.00pm with a quiz during the evening.

Finally, in July, we will be providing some support to the organisers of the Bolton IronMan marathon. For those of you who are unaware of the event, it consists of the athletes undertaking a 2.4mile swim in Pennington Flash, followed by a 125mile bike ride around the Rivington/Blackrod area and culminating in running a full Marathon. It makes me feel tired just thinking about it! The swim starts at 6.00am on the morning of Sunday 1st August so if any of you can’t sleep, come down and watch the competitors swim their way around the Flash. Whilst there will be some safety support camping at the club over the weekend and some extra buoys in the water, the effect on the sailing will be minimal as all activities will occur outside normal sailing times.

A lot of our news and focus tends to be on racing in dinghies but I know we have a number of members who do not currently race, either by choice or because they have not been sailing very long. For those of you who want the opportunity to sail with safety boat cover and the support of some more able sailors with advice and guidance, Mike Dean is running Saturday morning cruising sessions. Whilst they do not necessarily happen every week, dependant upon people’s personal commitments, several sessions have been run so far this year. If you are interested in participating, please get in touch with Mike. His email address is on the website.

One other piece of news from the Junior Section. I have just been informed that Lucy Yeates has been selected for Team GBR for the Topper Irish National Champs on the first weekend of July. Congratulations Lucy, the results of a lot of hard work from you (and some from your Dad as well!).

My final piece of news is connected with the new logos which appear at the base of this newsletter and which the eagled eyed of you may have already spotted. At the beginning of May we were very pleased to be told that we had been awarded a grant from the Big Lottery Fund, through their ‘Awards for All’ scheme, to support the work which Howard Green has planned for the old Lowton site. We will be working with an organisation called BCTV who work with Community Volunteers on conservation and environmental projects. An extract from the application for this grant says, "We wish to improve a disused area of the club to provide a better habitat for wildlife. The grant will be spent on carrying out environmental improvements to an area of the lakeside encompassing woodland and scrub and restoring existing ditches on site. The current poor quality of the site as a wildlife habitat is due to the low diversity of plant life and lack of suitable habitats for aquatic life to breed in. We will also clear and restore existing ditches to improve the drainage on site and provide further habitats for invertebrates, and introduce native water plants to provide a more natural habitat which will be better suited for attracting wildlife. The woodland has never been managed and therefore will require removal of some areas of scrub, thinning out and also formative pruning. We aim to improve the boundary and diversity of habitat types by hedge laying and hedge planting, and to carry out some replanting to increase the species diversity including species like oak and holly. We will remove rubbish from the woodland and carry out some under-storey planting to improve the ground vegetation including plants such as wild honeysuckle, ferns and wood anemones. We hope to involve local volunteers in the project." This work was begun this week and we hope it will be completed in about three months time. As well as addressing the various habitats the end result will be an area which will be much more appealing visually and will be much more useful to us.

This will be the last newsletter until after the summer due to the heavy commitments at the club over the next couple of months. I hope to see many of you at the regatta and out on the water at other times.

Mike Baldwin
Commodore

Help Please!

Mon, 28 Jun 2010 12:00:15 +0100

Hi All

Only a quick note to ask for assistance for a weed clearing day, a week on Saturday 03JUL10, from 10:00 ahead of the regatta weekend and topper 4.2 event. It's smelly, heavy work, bring whatever tools might be useful.

Whilst this is not the best job in the world, the club does need to get itself ready for the 2 high profile events that are scheduled in the 1st half of July and all the membership will benefit from this – please find time to help out.

Gareth

May Newsletter

Sun, 9 May 2010 20:21:44 +0100

To all our members – welcome to the May Newsletter. The summer season is now well and truly under way with a month of Saturday and Sunday racing already and two Wednesday evenings. For those of you who have not been to the club on a Wednesday, we generally have the biggest fleet of club members racing with over 30 boats most weeks with food from the galley (three choices of hot foot) and drinks from the bar (a full range of beers and wines at very reasonable prices). Even if you can’t make it in time for the race itself, the social side of things after the racing makes it worth the journey.

Training has started in earnest with the first Adult Beginners Course starting halfway through April alongside the intermediate and Advanced Junior training. The Junior Beginner’s courses start in May. To top up these courses a ‘Start Racing’ course is being run for adults in double hander dinghies on Saturday May 1st. Whilst it is organised by Dave and Kate Eccles for the Laser 2000 fleet, any other asymmetric double handers are welcome to attend. Just turn up on the morning.

The club annually runs an Open Day to encourage people who think they might be interested in sailing to get first hand experience on the water in several different ways. This year we are running it on Saturday May 22nd. This is supported by displays of the different dinghies we sail at the club and display boards outlining club activities and videos. This day takes a lot of people to run and if you can spare a couple of hours on the day, please contact me as soon as possible (by email at mike.baldwin@uwclub.net ) and I will include you in our list of helpers. Whether you are experienced or not, your help will be appreciated. We have lots of shore-based roles as well as those people taking visitors for a sail.

The first of our summer Open Meetings at the club is on Saturday May 8th when we host our North West Junior Traveller Trophy meeting. (This day is a Flash Closure). As I said in last month’s newsletter, this series of events is designed to encourage those juniors who have recently started racing to participate in open meetings as well as providing good quality racing for the more experienced helms and crews. We are hoping for a good turn out of close to 40 boats. The racing at these events is closely contested at the top end of the fleet and shows great determination from those at the tail end of the fleet where some of the juniors are experiencing their first big fleet. Come down and watch how successful this series is. The galley will be open all day.

Away from home our members have continued to show their abilities. On April 24th, West Lancs Yacht Club hosted their annual Laser 12hour race. Five teams from LLSC entered with over 15 helms involved including a good number of juniors. The oddly named team ‘TBC’ consisting of Chris Wheeler, Andy Green and Kirk Knights finished a very impressive second place being the only team to not be lapped by the winners. The LLSC NT team of Tom Keegan and Neil Skellam finished just behind in third place, ‘Chaz and Dave’ (Chester Candish and Dave Hawkes) in eighth, dropping from fourth having lost considerable time repairing a broken toestrap, the LLSC Ladies came ninth and our junior team (including several non-Laser sailors) nineteenth. With most other clubs only posting one or two teams, five from LLSC was a great turnout – well done everyone.

I must apologise to everyone for the postponement of the Race Night which was due to take place on Saturday 25th April. We shall be running this event during the year but at the moment the precise date has not been set. Keep an eye on the website for further details.

Whilst we are talking about social events, don’t forget to put Saturday 10th July in your diary for the Regatta Disco and Karaoke, hosted by local DJ Paul Atkinson. Paul has run several discos at the club and if you ask anyone who has been to one of these, they will tell you that they are always a really fun evening. Even if you can’t make the sailing over the weekend, come down to the club for the evening. Whilst it has a theme of ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’, fancy dress is not obligatory so if you want, you can just come along and look at all of us who are daft enough to don a silly costume. Whilst there’s an entry fee for the sailing, this social event is free.

Finally, I need to mention something at the club which is giving me some cause for concern – security. Very frequently the container, which holds all the Laser and Topper spars and sails, is being left open long after everyone has left the site for the day. The reason for using the container is that it affords protection against theft of these items and in some cases is an insurance requisite. Leaving it open negates all of this security. If you have spars in the container, before you leave the club, please check to see if the doors have been locked. If they haven’t, please don’t assume that someone else will close things up. Even if you haven’t got a key, ask around and locate one. It is far better that someone has to re-open the container to put their spars away than for it to be left open all night. Also, the main gate is being left open overnight as well. If you are one of the last people to be leaving, check to see if the person you are leaving behind has a key. If they haven’t, ask them if they can pack up quickly so that you can leave and lock up. There is no point in the club having gates which lock if they are never locked up. Security is the responsibility of us all – please take this seriously.

Good sailing over the summer months – fair winds and plenty of sunshine.

Mike Baldwin
Commodore