Sailors enjoy OnBoard Laser Bug Day

Laser Bug

Sailors from Hollingworth Lake and Hollingworth Lake Activity Centre enjoyed a festival of sailing at the OnBoard Laser Bug Day on Sunday (11 July).

60 children from six clubs across the North-Manchester area went to participate at Burwain Sailing Club, Colne.

OnBoard is a grass roots programme which introduces sailing and windsurfing to young people aged 8 to 18, through schools, youth groups and training centres and Brisk, dry weather made for ideal conditions last weekend.

It was the windiest OnBoard event yet in the Region, with winds up to 20mph, but the young sailors were quickly at home in the little Bug dinghies, and were soon flying round the lake in the morning practice session.

There were games on land as well for the fun fleet, while the more experienced sailors prepared to join the racing fleet in the afternoon.

With the high winds, there was no shortage of excitement in the afternoon as racing begun. Three races produced three different winners as Alex Dunston,15, took the first race, Lauren Smith,14, from Salford Junior Sailing Club took the second and James Grummett, 11, won the last race, which helped him to win overall by just two points in front of Lauren with Alex taking third place overall.

Meanwhile, the fun sailors enjoyed some team relay races which saw Team Hollybees earn top spot pushing Team Actimal into second.

The sailors were sailing a fleet of 30 Laser Bug dinghies, kindly loaned for the day by sponsor, Laser Performance.

The OnBoard Bug Day was a great day for competition between the OnBoard clubs in the Manchester North area, and teams came from Sailing Clubs at Burwain, Glossop, Hollingworth Lake, Salford, Hollingworth Lake Activity Centre and Astbury Sailsports.

The attendance was nearly 50% up on last year’s event as 60 people turned up for the event, showing the growing popularity of OnBoard in the area.

Organiser Adam McGovern, the RYA OnBoard Development Officer, said: “I was a bit nervous when I woke up to see how windy it was. But the kids amazed me, they sailed so well in such difficult conditions. What was even better was that they all loved the windy conditions!”

The prize giving went with a swing helped by generous doses of prizes from two sponsors, Laser Performance and Harken.

There were plenty of individual prizes as well as the overall ones above. Burwain sailors, Olivier Bates and Charlotte Gatty received prizes for the most improved sailors.

In the brisk breezes, capsizes were common, and Nathan Smith and Jack Monaghan, both of Glossop Sailing Club, were awarded the Endurance prize for carrying on after the most capsizes.

Astbury’s Owen MacCuish received a prize for his Almost Perfect Start.

Thanks went to Burwain Sailing Club for hosting a fantastic event, to the sponsors and to the volunteers who helped.

For more information about how to get involved in sailing visit the RYA’s website www.rya.org.uk or the OnBoard website www.ruob.co.uk.