GJW Tipsy Icicle Week 3 – A Chilly, breezy, brilliant day’s racing
The GJW Direct (GJW) sponsored Winter Season continued at Leigh & Lowton Sailing Club on Sunday the 20th of January 2013 with the third weekend of the GJW Tipsy Icicle Winter Series. A very chilly day with a pleasant force 3 east north easterly greeted the 57 boats which arrived to take part in the third weekend of the 2013 series. Hot water was order of the day to get a few masts in and a few bits of rigging running. Now in total 107 individual boats alone have taken to the water for the series.
The race teams for the day consisted of Peter Baldwin on the water, Anne & Helen in the galley, Mike Broatch & Ken Lawrenson in Safety 1 and (Streaker) George Evans on the reception desk. Peter is the Club’s full time PRO for the GJW Tipsy Icicle Winter Series and is training Club members on his and the RYA processes and methods for running successful racing.
The wind direction made things pretty straight forward for the PRO with the breeze coming across the Flash from the right hand side looking out from the Clubhouse. Series race 6 started at 12 noon on the dot with the Asymmetric fleet. The fleet was led by Hamish Gledhill & Simon Dowse (West Riding SC/RS400), Chris Pickles & Matt Sharman (Delph SC/RS400) and Curtis Mearns & Jamie Catchpole (Leigh & Lowton SC/29er). The first race in the Laser fleet was dominated by Jack Hopkins (Delph SC), Howard Green (Leigh & Lowton SC) and Glynn Purnell (Leigh & Lowton SC) who all showed great boat speed and consistency. The Handicap fleet was dominated by the Toppers of Tom Wallwork (Leigh & Lowton SC), Nick Devereux (Budworth SC) and Oliver Blackburn (Leigh & Lowton SC).
After a hot & hearty lunch the second race of the day was sailed in a building and backing north easterly breeze. The Asymmetric fleet was led this time by Paul & Mike Allen (Leigh & Lowton SC/RS400) with Hamish Gledhill & Simon Dowse (West Riding SC/RS400) and Chris Pickles & Matt Sharman (Yorkshire Dales SC/RS400) all snapping away at the heels of the Allen’s. Race 2 in the Laser fleet witnessed Jack doing another horizon job. The Handicap fleet saw a split bullet between Oliver in his Topper and Christian Day & Sophie Richards (Leigh & Lowton SC/National 12).
The Solo fleet (starting as part of the handicap fleet start) was given a master class by the new boy Paul Heath (Leigh & Lowton SC) with the veterans Steve White (Leigh & Lowton SC) and Andy Fox (Crosby SC) both in close attendance but both in awe of the new boy’s pace up wind.
All in all it was a fantastic day at the Club with close racing throughout the fleets. The Club would once again like to say a big thank you to all the visitors and members for coming to the Club and to everyone from the Club who helped to run the day. See you all on 27th January 2013 for round four – visit www.llsc.org.uk for the results.
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