105 competitors at the warmest Regatta Weekend in history!! Results & gallery now online.

Results can be found here. Chris Leigh’s pics Gary Coops Pics A glorious weekend was had by those on the water and those socialising in the grounds of Leigh & Lowton Sailing Club. .What a glorious weekend for our fantastic regatta. A building, warm wind and beautiful sunshine, both days. It doesn’t get any better than that for sailing. 82 boats entered and there were 4 fleets. Handicap , Lasers, Miracles and Juniors. The 15 Miracles were having their Inland Championships incorporated in the weekend. I have not seen so many miracles for years. It certainly brought back some happy memories of when I used to sail one with Nige, back in the days when we used to be young and thin and light, alas those days are gone. It was lovely to see so many competitive optimists, 12 for their NW area champs. 28 out of the 82 boats were visitors, great to have you at L&LSC – thanks for coming.
Richard Catchpole (God of wind) was the OD for the weekend with his motley crew to help on the committee boat. Commodore Cath was AOD ( or ABB as I prefer to call her, Assistant Bossy Boots ! ) . Third in command was vice commodore Heathy (CDB – chief dogs body!). There were also 2 other dogs bodies each day, Beth Catchpole, the brave sunbather on the cabin roof, Sally, myself and Anne. I hope you all appreciate the hard work that goes on in that committee boat. There is no rest for the wicked on there you know. For each of 3 races, I spent 15 minutes of intense mathematical brain torture, reading a clock that counts up and converting it in my little brain to a countdown for the flag flyer and the line spotter. Gosh I felt like Carole Vorderman on Countdown, but a slightly thicker and uglier version. The responsibility was immense. If I hadn’t pressed that horn button at the precise second well it would have been a disaster. Then all that writing of sail numbers, every time you went through the finish line and then at the finish we had to write down the sail numbers, read by Richard, and times, read by Heathy. We had 3 copies of numbers and times and a dictaphone and we just about managed to cobble together a full set of results. At times there were about 10 boats crossing at once. Then the stress would build to a crescendo. At one point all I could do was giggle, it helped with my stress management. At the end of the day I was a little brain dead and wanted to go and lie in a darkened room. Anyway only joking don’t let this put you off helping on the committee boat, it was great fun too, honest !. At one point, we had a sail-by water-pistol shooting by the Exley’s pirate ship.
Most competitors and helpers had Leigh and Lowton light blue regatta t-shirts. It was great to see everyone matching. I did notice that some people wore the same t-shirt 2 days running though – pooh wee !
All the competitors were very good, only one general recall all weekend, by them naughty miracle sailors. The wind was straight down the lake, so there were some great courses. Then at 6 o’clock was the serious race, the Annual Leigh and Lowton Bottle Boat Race, what a great race. All competitors were standing on the westerly jetty, listing to starboard with all the weight of everybody waiting nervously to launch their sailing contraptions. There were all sorts of designs, all homemade from plastic bottles and bags. I had a bit of a late start, oh no surprises there then !.
Then it was time for the delicious, lake side barbeque in the sun and a few beers and cocktails. DJ Rob turned up with his super disco to entertain us for the evening and the dancing turned into the conga around the club. Some people camped overnight. Gosh who needs to go to the Lake District or abroad when we can have all this fun at LLSC.
Sunday was, again, a building, sunny north westerly. There was lots of planing and hiking and the odd capsize. Anyway, it has been yet another successful L&L Regatta weekend well done everybody who entered and thanks very much to everybody who helped out, it is very much appreciated. Thanks to our glamourous barmaid Sue and her helpers. Thanks to Anne and Helen for the world renowned delicious homemade food. Oh yes and thanks to the photographer for the fantastic gallery of photos. And finally a huge thank you to OD Richard, ABB Cath and ADB Heathy who did a very professional job of running the whole weekend. Well done I vote for you 3 next year !