North West Senior Traveller Series concludes at Elton Sailing Club
by Dave Woodhead 15 Oct 2017 01:12 NZDT
10 October 2017
North West Senior Travellers at Elton © Dave Scott
The North West Senior Traveller Series recently came to a conclusion on a blustery Tuesday at Elton Sailing Club. This mid week series for the over 50s, now in its seventh season, has once more enjoyed another successful year with over 40 boats taking part in one or more of the seven events. The events are hosted at seven different clubs in the North West of England.
This year has been a windier than average series with several of the events providing challenging conditions. This meant one or two more spectators / volunteers for safety boat and one or two less sailors on some occasions, but nevertheless provided some great sailing for the fitter and more confident of these ancient mariners. Twenty one races were sailed with twelve to count and fifty one sailors took part from 13 different clubs.
This year saw several experienced sailors taking part in the whole series for the first time to challenge the established pecking order of recent years, and eventually providing a new winner. From the outset Mark Fearnley from South Windermere S.C. sailing a Blaze showed some blistering pace, especially in the breezier conditions, to take 3 out of the first 4 races sailed. From that moment on Mark was the one to catch.
Andy Flitcroft sailing a Supernova from Bolton S.C. mounted a challenge and began posting race wins taking an overall win on the day at Hollingworth. On the less breezy days Dave Woodhead sailing a Solo from Elton S.C. also began to post race wins and took individual event wins at Southport and Bolton. After missing the first two events another Supernova sailed by Mark Platt from Bolton also posted some top results and again took an individual event win at Leigh and Lowton S.C. These four sailors began to amass a large points lead on the chasing pack.
At the last event Mark Fearnley had a clear points lead with only Andy Flitcroft in a position to catch him. On the breezy last day however Mark again showed the boat speed that allowed him to quickly leave the fleet and sail around on his own at the front. He took two more firsts and a second to clinch a well deserved win in the series. He had individual event wins at Delph, Burwain and Elton.
The ancient mariner prize for the first sailor over 70 went to Richard Hemingway form Etherow S C in a Solo and the first double hander was the Merlin of Jerry Cahill and Ian Beebe from Bolton S.C. The top club prize this year went to Bolton S.C. (calculated form the top 3 boats from each club).
Full results can be seen on the RYA north west web site under competition and events and this is also where in due course details of the 2018 series will be posted.
North West Senior Traveller Series Results: (top ten)
1. Mark Fearnley, Blaze, South Windermere SC
2. Andy Flitcroft, Supernova, Bolton SC
3. Dave Woodhead, Solo, Elton SC
4. Mark Platt, Supernova, Bolton SC
5.Dave Turtle, Streaker, Shotwick Lake SC
6. Stephen Roberts, Laser radial, South Windermere SC
7. Dave Thomas, Solo, Gresford SC
8. Richard Hemingway, Solo, Etherow SC
9. Steve Norris, Phantom, Leigh and Lowton SC
10. Jerry Cahill and Ian Beebe, Merlin, Bolton SC