RS100 Rooster National Tour at Leigh & Lowton Sailing Club

RS100 Rooster National Tour at Leigh & Lowton © Cathy Lunn

Leigh & Lowton SC is a friendly club just outside Manchester set on the beautiful Pennington Flash lake. A South Easterly force 3 to 4 meant that the RO could only set a short windward leeward course meaning a dizzying 7 or 8 laps per race with lots of marks to round. Boat handling would be key.

The wind direction also meant that conditions would be shiftier than a lover's promise and puffier than Thomas the Tank Engine.

What did we learn?

1) The RO was very wise in encouraging competitors to 'keep your head out the boat'. The wind was all over the place - it was pointless trying to spot the windshifts on a compass.

2) It paid to go left up the beat, except when it paid to go right. Fortunately, it was the same downwind.

3) There was always a gust to be seen, but someone else was normally getting it, especially downwind.

4) Andy (late drop) Todd showed that leaving a kite drop too late can lose you a race (or two), but most other sailors thanked him for waving them through. It should be noted that he was very quick when spotting the shifts and is a force to be reckoned with.

5) Nearly everyone led at some point, however nobody led a race from start to finish, not even Tom Halhead with his 5 bullets. When in the lead, you could guarantee that someone would be on a mega shift upwind, or in a big gust downwind, gobbling up that hard earned lead. There was simply no relaxing.

6) Adam Catlow was using his local knowledge to regularly pop up at the front, with a seeming knowledge of when a gust was going to come over the trees from the other direction.

7) Hiking hard was high risk. A 45 degree shift could send you for a windward swim. The set up was taught toe straps and a very tentative hiking stance to allow for quick reactions.

8) 7 or 8 laps is a lot! That meant lots of turning corners and lots of mark rounding incidents, especially when a big gust hits at the spinnaker drop - carnage! The best example (of many) was in the last race when David Smart was just ahead of Jon Elmes at the leeward mark on the first lap. Going for a safe drop, a big gust hits, sending Smart into an uncontrolled broach into the path of three boats honking in with water from 50 metres away (Catlow, Halhead and Gareth Wlliams). Smart missed the mark to windward, Adam Catlow went for a swim and Elmes had his boat speared by a wayward spinnaker pole. As I said, carnage!

9) To do well you needed to be patient and consistent. Tom Halhead showed that he had these qualities in spades, proving almost unbeatable at the finish line. His five wins meant nobody could get close to him in the overall results. He claimed his results were a result of luck, but sometimes you make your own luck!

10) Leigh & Lowton put on a great event. The RO and her team turned round the races super quick and had us enjoying an early lunch on Sunday. The rescue crews were kept busy, but everyone was always smiling which provided a very welcoming feel to the club.

RS100 Rooster National Tour at Leigh & Lowton - photo © Cathy Lunn

Rooster sponsor the prizes for the National Tour, with Gareth Williams of LLSC taking the midfleet prize and Martin Tubbs of LLSC taking the Endeavour trophy for battling his way through every race and the challenges of about 45 laps completed over the weekend.

The next event is the Rope4Boats Inlands at Chew Valley Lake SC over the weekend of 22/23 October. As they have 19 RS100s at the club and most at LLSC were hoping to attend, it should be an event not to be missed.

Overall Results:

RS100 Rooster National Tour at Leigh & Lowton - photo © Cathy Lunn