WATER SPORTS

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sailing

Budworth Sailing Club

GP14 Open Meeting

Another Budworth Success for Neil Platt

SAILORS from Trafford competed in the Open Meeting for GP14 sailing dinghies, which was held at Budworth Sailing Club on Sunday 6th June.

The event is part of the GP14 Northern Bell championship series and was open to competitors from other sailing clubs in the North West and beyond.

As usual Budworth's attractive Cheshire setting combined with a reputation for keen racing and good hospitality produced an excellent turnout with a total of 41 boats including 16 visitors from 8 clubs.

To encourage competition at all levels the entry was split gold, silver and bronze fleets with prizes for each.

Initial hopes of a good day were temporarily depressed by light winds, heavy rain and thunder which caused many to question the virtue of aluminium masts!

With the wind shifting unpredictably, Race Officer Duncan Fraser, had a challenging job to set a start line and get the first race underway.

Fortunately, by midday the wind settled down to a SW force three which provided good racing for the rest of the event.

In tricky conditions at the start of race one, Steve Graham from Burwain Sailing Club got away to a good start and made full use of clear wind to maintain his lead to the finish with Ian Platt second and brother Neil (winner of last years event) in third place.

The Platts dominated the start of the second race once again, with Ian initially leading and then being overtaken by Neil on lap two who then held on to win.

Steve Graham recovered from a poor start to briefly take second place from Ian Platt during lap three, but eventually had to settle for third.

The results meant that a win in the last race for Graham or either Platt would secure first place overall.

Ian won the battle at the start and held the lead for lap one but was again passed by Neil who once in front, held his nerve to record his second win and retain the trophy.

Steve Graham eventually secured the runners up spot by battling through the fleet to finish second.

Paul Bowmer, Frank Haslam and Bill Kenyon who finished in sixth place, seventh and ninth places overall in a highly competitive fleet recorded notable performances by Budworth sailors.

Send your sports reports to Mike Crockett, SUM sport, Brindley House, 25 Ashton Lane, Sale, M33 6TP.

Or, fax them on 0161 908 3403

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.