Lightning 368 Sanders Sails Travellers Series at Shotwick Lake Sailing

Seven visitors joined the seven local boats for the first leg of the Northwest double header of the Lightning 368 Sanders Sails Travellers Series at Shotwick Sailing club.

The wind was down on the force 5-6 that was forecast to start with, and the fleet was grateful for this as they lined up for race one. With the start line being so close to the bank and plenty of weed the entire fleet tried to start on the pin end and were very late except for Andy McLeish and Mark Heaton who timed it perfectly. As the fleet approached the windward mark Simon Hopkins found a good shift and rounded just ahead of Andy and Mark.

Clear air being an advantage he soon opened up a gap that allowed him to control the race to the finish. Jeremy moved through to third and as the race progressed Caroline Hollier moved through to fourth as Mark H. sadly had to retire with a broken Halyard. Jason Gallagher took fifth ahead of Jude Stratton.

Andy McLeish - Lightning 368 Sanders Sails Travellers Series at Shotwick - photo © Adrian Hollier

After lunch, and Silverstone F1 Sprint race, the fleet took to the water in a building breeze. Whilst everyone was fighting for the pin end Jason had noticed a wind shift, started slightly down the line. As the fleet all tacked onto port, he had the clear air to windward and was lifted all the way to the first mark to round first ahead of Jeremy and Simon.

By mark three, Jeremy had an inside overlap on Jason but managed to capsize on the gybe. The in a very bizarre incident as he was recovering the wind flipped his boat round and his mast knocked Simon out of his boat and he joined Jeremy in the water. This was a then a race of catch up for the pair of them. Andy took advantage of their misfortune to give chase with local boat Mark Nield. Now the wind was up Jeremy used his exceptional downwind speed to recover to second, ahead of Andy, with Simon recovering to fourth and Mark Nield fifth and Mark Heaton sixth.

Caroline Hollier keeping Jason Gallagher honest at the gybe mark - Lightning 368 Sanders Sails Travellers Series at Shotwick - photo © Adrian Hollier

Race three and Simon repeated Jason's start from race three and got to windward of the fleet for the biased beat to mark one. Jeremy infringed Mark Nield on the line and had to do turns. As the fleet headed downwind the order was Simon, Mark N, Mark H, Jason and Caroline. As the race progressed the wind picked up considerably. With flat out planning and exciting gybes which took their toll on Caroline who retired.

By lap three Jeremy had flown through the fleet and rapidly closed Simon down with his superior downwind speed to take lead. Simon kept him honest round the penultimate lap and when Jeremy tried a risky tack on port in front of Simon, almost capsized, and Simon taking avoiding action got another dose of Jeremys mast. Was Jeremy trying to tell Simon something? The resultant penalty allowed Simon to get clear for the win. Mark N sailed a great race for third ahead of Jason.

With two wins Simon won the open meeting ahead of local boat Jeremy. Jason and Andy tied on five points, but third went to Jason on account of his win in race two. The Fleet now moves on to its second leg at West Kirby YC on the Sunday after a social evening kindly hosted by Shotwick.

Lightning 368 Sanders Sails Travellers Series at Shotwick - photo © John Butler

Overall Results:

Simon Hopkins sails to victory - Lightning 368 Sanders Sails Travellers Series at Shotwick - photo © Adrian Hollier