Sailing Matters 16th September 2026
SAILING MATTERS 160926
Remarkable is an adjective that means unusual, surprising, or exceptional in a way that catches your attention and makes you want to talk about it.
A remarkable three days - last Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
CELEBRATING OUR NEW 420 NATIONAL CHAMPIONS
Friday, because in the evening, Neil Marsden (with David Bromilow, very recently became 420 National Champion) gave an impromptu talk. What was remarkable out his talk to me was his expression of how much fun and joy he had sailing a Mirror dinghy when he was young, discovering racing at Blackpool and Fleetwood YC, moving up to open events, then national and world championships. BUT the bit that impressed me most was when Neil expressed his absolute pleasure in stepping back from racing to take up coaching young sailors.
Thank you Neil for inspiring our young sailors who were lucky enough to be in the main room last Friday evening to hear you and to this oldie who was re inspired ! (Neil owned and sailed an IC once you know ? …. Oh yes !!)
Neil Marsden & David Bromilow (wearing the medals) on Friday Evening
Now Saturday was the first day of the Falcon Championships. But it was blown off with gusts up around 27 knots from the south west. From that direction it kicks up ugly on the tidal slipway. Great for damaging boats and morale. Nope - not doing that.
WKSC at the WEST LANCS YC 24 HOUR RACE
Nothing remarkable about that then? Correct… the remarkable thing was that through sheer determination and persistence Kieron Inman pulled together a team to compete in the West Lancs YC 24 Hour Race which started at 12:00 Saturday and finished 24 hours later. Well done Kieron and team: Paul and Alan Jenkins, Nicki and Georgina Inman, Steve and Wendy Shallcroft, John Carlin, Jamie Marston and Lisa Keenan for flying the flag for WKSC. Kieron did well to muster the team together but would certainly have welcomed more support. He and Paul sailed from 23:30 on Saturday night through till 08:30 on Sunday morning. Thats a long shift ! From the start at mid day it was windy - up around a force 5. The wind eased back around 16:30. The WKSC team achieved 45th out of 74 teams.
West Lancs YC 24 Hour Race arial pic
Kieron and Paul masterminded WKSC's team for the 24 Hour Race
FALCON CHAMPIONSHIPS Day 2
The weather played fair for the second day of the Falcon Championships. It was a lovely day but the wind was forecasted to be light. The sailing instructions required that three races be completed for the event to be deemed a championship. A 9.11Mtr tide height meant that the flood and ebb tide would have some strength. The engine on Little Arvor the committee boat, was reluctant to start but did so on the fourth attempt. Once in position and the course set, the race team consisting of Tony Marston RO, Andy Bell and Derek Lynn AROs got the start sequence underway. In the last minute the wind was very light. The unwary were washed away on the flood tide. One competitor anchored on the start line and this looked to be a smart move to avoid being washed away. Others had positioned themselves well for a start at the committee boat end of the start line, the favoured end with the wind shifting east of north and had kept some way on, just about enough to move forward over the ground. But as if by magic in the last thirty seconds to the start the wind filled in.
That shifting wind looked like it was going to make it easy to lay the windward mark on one tack but no …. the wind shifted back enough to make it a reasonable beat. Those that tacked inshore found more breeze and less current. The main beneficiary was Mike Hartley and team, who held the lead on the one lap race to take a win. Once the last boat had rounded the mark the race team had the mark moved easterly to ensure that the second race would have a decent beat.
The second race was held over high water and into the first of the ebb. The wind remained fickle and shifting easterly again but a slightly shorter course enabled two laps to be completed. Richard Robinson and team mastered the conditions to take a win from Mike Hartley.
The third race, started with the ebb tide running. Surprisingly there were only two boats over the line at the start. Just as well as had there been a general recall it would have likely resulted in the race running out of water. As it was, there was just enough time to complete one lap and a beat to the finish line, which, because of the easterly shifting breeze, was close to the tidal slipway, ensuring all craft were recovered onto the slipway just a few minutes before the tide receded. Remarkable ! Good teamwork by the race team and the RIB teams: Bob Shepherd and Adam, Neil and Will Lycett. Mal Jones and team won the last race with Richard Robinson second. Close racing with just one point separating first and second boats overall.
Final Results:
1st Richard Robinson, Angus Armstrong and Tom Price
2nd Mike Hartley, Ali Pharaoh, Edie Rogers
3rd Mal Jones, Jamie Uren & Dave Evans
4th Tony Clark, Jonny Cross & Ella Marston
5th Lee Matthews, Chantelle Matthews & Warren Bidwell (sorry no pic)
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Sunday Autumn Tidal Series racing
Ten dinghies competed in the fast handicap races held in the light winds of last Sunday. Liz Potter (D-Zero) back home after her away tour taking in Dartmouth Regatta in which she won her class, remained on form to win both races. Ioannis Koutsokeras (ILCA7) was second in the first race with Steve Ferrington (Solo) third. Jean-Louis Simon (Finn) was second in the second race with John Carlin and Thomas Teubner (Albacore) third.
Liz Potter (D-Zero) Liz won both races
Jean-Louis Simons (Finn) 2nd in second race
John Carlin & Thomas Teubner 3rd in second race (Albacore)
Three Stars racing on Sunday. Nick Leadingham had a first and second as did John Dowler. Coming third in his first race in a Star - Alan Barr.... well done Alan and welcome to the fleet.
There were three Hilbre teams out on the estuary but one of them was the Race Officer and team. Peter Bramley and David Pontin both had a win.
The crews names were not recorded... more's the pity !
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HELP NEEDED!!
In order to keep everybody sailing safely, the club provides safety boats for all sailing on the tide and many events on the lake. However, we are finding it increasingly difficult to find crews for these safety boats. There have been a number of instances recently where races have almost been cancelled because of lack of people to help with safety boats.
People in safety boats dont need a lot of experience. There are usually two people and the second person is there to learn. You dont need PB2 or any particular qualifications to crew although if you are keen to progress your Rib driving skills then the club will help you with further training.
Can you help?
In addition, there are a lot of club members who do have sufficient skills and qualifications to drive a safety boat who perhaps have moved onto other things. If this is you, and you could help say once a month then that would be brilliant!
We are not looking for a weekly commitment necessarily any help would be extremely welcome.
If you would like more information or if you think you could offer some time either crewing or driving safety boats then please get in touch with Sam Riley (email: captain@wksc.org.uk).
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INTRODUCTION TO RACING COURSE
There is a 'sign up' for this course on Saturday morning at 10:00 in the Macdona Room. There is no cost involved.
The course runs each Saturday from 10:00 to 12:00 from 3rd October to 12th December.
There's an explanation of what to expect. Allow at least an hour. Entertainment value 9/10.
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RACE OFFICERS REQUIRED !
You may have noticed a number of Special Tidal Events or Tidal Sailing in the Handbook / Sailing Programme.
All these events are utilising useful tides on a Saturday for sailing in the autumn / winter months.
I am down as RO for all of them. I am also running the Introduction to Racing Course. I can't do both at the same time.
Any of the days where the tide is greater that 8.7M the racing could be run from the boat park which makes life easier for the RO and reduces the resources needed to make it work.
If you want to have a shot at being an RO or ARO for some or any of these events please come and talk to me. If we can pull a group of ROs together to run these races it could be a good series.
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Thats it for this week;
Tony Marston
Sailing Secretary
Last updated 17:19 on 16 September 2026