Leigh & Lowton's New Years Day Pursuit 2025
by Richard Catchpole 5 Jan 06:32 UTC
1 January 2025
Leigh & Lowton New Years Day Pursuit © Gareth Williams
Storm conditions the day before, torrential rain and a forecast for gusts up to 30 knots kept some in bed after New Year's Eve but 26 boats still turned out for the Annual NYD Pursuit at Leigh & Lowton Sailing Club.
Juniors were first off with Alex Welfare starting his 3-hour marathon in his Optimist while a good turn out of Topper Squad sailors made an impressive sight shortly afterwards. These started in 12-18 knots and many thought the forecast might have been over-egging it as all appeared quite smooth sailing.
However, by the time the OOD had got to the D-Zero and RS400 started the weather decided to do its utmost with a feisty 25-30 knots squall with hail accompanying their first lap of the course. With all the other competitors already started, the rescue crews were kept busy with multiple capsizes all over the racecourse.
Half an hour later you would never have known it was there, as the wind moderated to a more comfortable 10-15 knots. Finally, competitors were able to work out where they were in the race and settle down to what became a very close contest.
The Optimist was overtaken in the last 20 minutes and the leading Topper (Tristan Shaw, Budworth) held out until 5 minutes from the end, before being overtaken by both the Supernova of Alex Collins (Supernova, Bolton) and Neil Marsden (GP14, Blackpool & Fleetwood). There were three junior sailors in the top ten, so an impressive finish by the juniors.
It was an excellent day's racing organised by the OOD team Gareth and Jen Williams with worthy prizewinners who battled through the initial storm to take the honours.
Overall Results: (top five)
1st - Alex Collins (Bolton)
2nd - Neil Marsden (Blackpool & Fleetwood)
3rd - Tristan Shaw (Bolton)
4th - Andy Carter (LLSC)
5th - Steve Balckburn (LLSC)
Full results can be found here.
The winter series continues with the Icicle Series starting 5th January and continuing until the middle of March. More details here.