Hollingworth Lake Sailing Club

Hollingworth Lake Sailing Club House

There were three different race winners again at the Lake on Sunday (13 March). In a strong south westerly wind, there were a few capsizes at first until nerves steadied to focus on keeping boats moving forward.

It was Daisy Fisher in a Laser who came out on top overall with second place consistency in races 1 and 2. As a Junior sailor she showed impressive skill in the challenging conditions.

In the first race Richard and Heather Marsh in the fast RS400 were well ahead with planing reaches across the lake under spinnaker, the hull almost out of the water. Chris Massey in his RS300 took third place, while Stuart Bates with Emma Turner were a bit outclassed in the Merlin Rocket.

There was a change around for the second race. Richard Marsh took the helm with Adam Din crewing, in his RS200, giving a master-class of speed sailing. Daisy overtook Nick Hornsby in his Solo, who finished third. Nick Heginbotham got going with Steve McCann in a Merlin Rocket keeping ahead of Chris Massey, now in his Mirror dinghy.

The wind eased for the third race and there were fewer boats out, perhaps exhausted. There was no doubt about the winner in the Merlin Rocket of Nick and Steve, ahead of Nick Hornsby in his Solo. Stuart Bates (Merlin Rocket) and Chris Massey, now crewing, came in third.

On Saturday, there had been a training day for young North West Topper sailors who learnt about capsizing in the breezy conditions and enjoyed the experience.