Hollingworth Lake Sailing Club

Photo: Graham Knox

Hollingworth Lake Sailing Club

Racing at Hollingworth Lake on Sunday 23 May was not for the faint-hearted! The strong westerly breeze was at the top of the range for many and there were quite a few capsizes.

The winner of the day was Chris Massey, sailing his RS300 single hander, displaying his skill in a fast and light boat. He only capsized after finishing the second race. Second overall, and runner-up in the first and second races, was Nick Brook in his Solo. Nick was in good form and able to cope with the heavy gusts.

Also on form was Nick Heginbotham in a Merlin Rocket, crewed by Daisy Fisher in her first experience of crewing in such a boat. Wisely, they did not hoist the spinnaker! On Saturday, 16 years old Daisy had been to the North East Topper Championship at Scaling Dam which she won convincingly with three wins in four races.

The club’s younger sailors showed that they could manage to race well in such windy conditions. There was a close battle between Jasper Bramwell (who sailed all three races) and Hector Droungas in their Toppers. This was quite an achievement as they were easily blown over in the gusts, got the boat upright again and carried on. Jasper scored two 3rd places though he was just beaten by Hector by a few seconds in the second race.

On Friday evening, it was great to see a dozen or more young sailors out on the lake enjoying an informal training session.

Over the weekend club members Adam McGovern and Ellie Davies travelled to Bassenthwaite Sailing Club in the Lake District to compete in the GP14 Northern Area Championship which they won by one point.