52nd 24 Hour Race

THE West Lancashire Yacht Club (WLYC) held its 52nd 24 Hour Race, over Saturday, 8 September to Sunday, 9 September 2018. An important element to this race, as usual is the social life and as teams arrived on the Friday, they were entertained within the Main Marquee, by the 24 Hour Race favourite band:- 'Elephant Juice,' followed by the legendary party host, Steve Blackburn's, disco This made for a warm and inviting atmosphere which prevailed throughout the event and enabled amateur and some professional sailors to mix and exchange stories. If you have not heard of this event; shockingly, we continue to find many locals still do not know about it... This event is an national / international endurance race for classic sailing dinghies (Enterprise, GP14, Lark and Firefly) which sees teams from all over the world sailing around the Marine Lake, next to Southport's beach, for 24 hours.

Despite the race being held on relatively safe, shallow waters, weather conditions still make this an extremely hard race to take part in. In fact it is now regarded as 1 of the top 5 classic sailing dinghies in the World, even attracting Olympic sailors at times. With over 70 boats, sailing round and round the lake, no matter what the conditions and not stopping at night, this can prove very dangerous at times, so safety boats are constantly working throughout the race and 2018 was no exception. Oddly, the curious concrete jetty that often catches out the teams at night, was not the biggest culprit this year,. It was the sudden changes in wind direction, with what was to become became a force 3 wind, that kept swinging around, off setting the crews and leading many of them making some very interesting manoeuvres. In fact during 2018 race, the drama continued right to the very end, keeping the rescue boat crews powering around the lake, helping boats that had capsized or had collided with one another, and sadly, not all the teams managed to finish... For a few teams, the challenging conditions lead to them having to abandon further participation after sustaining damage to their dinghies. Well done to all the teams who took part, and especially to South Staffs for yet again coming 1st!

This year winners:-

► Allen Brothers provided a voucher for ₤120 of deck ware:- West Oxfordshire SC

► Marlow Ropes 3 hanks of rope:- Leigh & Lowton SC

► Special prize for last place:- Liverpool YC B (76th)

► The most identifiable boat:- Lancaster University, this year the theme was Christmas (48th)

► The Mersey Tiller (1st uni Ent):- Plymouth University B (40th)

► The Porter Trophy (fastest 50th lap):- National Firefly Assoc (32nd)

► The Yorkshire Cup:- Ulley SC (30th)

► Kicking Strap (clubs from 100 miles+):- Cambridge University CRC (25th)

► GJW Direct Trophy (1st Firefly):- West Oxfordshire SC A (23rd)

► Pilkington Cup (3rd Ent):- Leigh & Lowton SC A (19th)

► Hayward Cup:- (1st uni) Manulife Trophy: Plymouth University A (17th)

► PaperCourt Trophy (2nd Ent)-: Glossop SC (15th)

Flight winners:-

► Flight 1 - Budworth SC B

► Flight 2 - Glossop SC A

► Flight 3 - South Staffs SC C

► Flight 4 - South Staffs SC E

► Flight 5 - Ulley SC (30th)

► Flight 6 - Winsford Flash SC (14th)

► Flight 7 - Cambridge University (25th)

Overall Top 10:-

► 1st South Staffs SC A GP

► 2nd Bolton SC A GP

► 3rd Budworth SC A GP

► 4th South Staffs SC B Lark

► 5th Staunton Harold SC GP

► 6th Midland SC A GP

► 7th West Lancs YC A Ent

► 8th West Lancs YC B GP

► 9th Budworth SC B & Masters GP

► 10th Chase SC A GP


The 53rd 24 Hour Race, we have been told will be held over the weekend of 14 September and 15 September 2019. Go to:- WLYC.Org.UK/24-Hour-Race, for more information and to sign your team up to take part in what is truly, a rather overlooked world class event.

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