Phantom Northern Series at Hollingworth Lake Sailing Club

Stop two on the 2024 Phantom Northern Series saw a fleet of six sailors descend on the historic tourist resort of Hollingworth Lake, for a day of racing to be shared with the Solo fleet.

Sailors were greeted on the Sunday morning with a Manchester summers day of grey skies, with light showers of drizzle, heavier showers of rain and a light southerly breeze that in places was causing a few ripples on the lake, conditions that improved throughout the day.

With much of the fleet sailing in the recent sporty winds of the Rudyard Lake open and Northampton Inland Championships there weren’t many complaints about the more leisurely F2-3 that had built as the morning progressed, with the major deliberation being made around if rainwear was required (it certainly was for the 10:30 briefing and launch but it wasn’t by the second beat as six boil-in-the bags made their way upwind).

Race one - Race officer Chris Massey and Assistant officer Sally Townend placed the start line at the northern end the of the lake, setting a course to give racers a good tour of the water. With conditions enough to allow some sitting on the side of the boat and the occasional hike, Adam Froggatt continued his recent dominance to lead at the starboard rounding windward mark and took the pack round for the following four laps, with some close racing in the chasing pack that saw Jim Hopton, and Martin Knott take second and third.

Following lunch where logistics and accommodation arrangements were being made for the forthcoming Northern Super Series event at the 2024 Bassenthwaite Regatta weekend (hopefully see you all there!) racers returned to the northern end of the lake where the Race Committee were trying their very best to set a decent start line. With Burgee’s spinning, the clock counted down and approaching the line on Starboard became somewhat difficult, as the gun went the fleet could be seen pointing in differing directions and one on the wrong side of the committee boat. Martin K and Jim H got the best of the committee boat end with Andy P away on port at the pin end, with the three of them reaching the Windward mark in that order, only for Martin to decide he’d attack the mark for a Starboard rounding, before realising a more conventional course had been set. After a few laps of windward leeward legs, linked with a couple of fetches it seemed like everyone could have been in contention at some point, Martin K settled into a decent lead half a leg in front of the fleet to win, with Adam F match racing his way back up the fleet to make the second. Third, fourth and fifth almost required a Tour-de-France photo finish as Andy S, Jim H and Andy P converged on a run to the finish line where nobody was quite sure on final positions.

The final race started in a more traditional fashion with all the fleet on Starboard, starting close together, with Adam F on a recall, Martin K made it to the windward mark first followed by Andy P with the chasing pack constantly looking for opportunities to pass. As the wind swung further to the west most legs became more of a fetch with mistakes providing the best opportunity for position changes. Into the final lap it remained Martin K in First and Andy P in an unfamiliar second. With Adam F continuing to chase pressure mounted on Andy P towards the end of the final run, and unsure whether to go high, low or gybe he did all those things too late and had to do turns for being in Adam’s water.

Race three finished with Martin K, Adam F and Jim H in first, second and third which also matched the overall placing for the day. Thanks to the Hollingworth Sailing Club team for a very well run day, we’ll hopefully see you next year.

Next stop on the Phantom Northern Series is Filey Regatta this coming weekend on 13/14th July then the Northern Super Series event at Bassenthwaite on 10/11th August.

Overall Results: