Southport Race 2025

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This is exactly what it sounds like. A Race in Southport on the Northwest Coast that lasts 24 hours. Taking place on a marine lake, over 60 teams race in either Enterprises, GP14s or Fireflies. The boats keep going for 24 hours non-stop with the sailors swapping over periodically. The final results are based upon average lap time, so the name of the game is to keep the boat going as fast as it can for 24 hours and minimising the time taken to swap the teams of sailors over. Our weapon of choice for this event was Benson- a Firefly built in 1959 and acquired to do the race for the princely sum of £300. In the weeks leading up to the race, the boat was fettled to make sure it would survive the rigours of the event- various fitting were replaced as was all the rope- a big shout out to Mike Powell for donating the rope and a lovely Harken ratchet block for the upgrades. The advanced party arrived in Southport on Friday with the boat and we set up our base camp next to the lake and pitched tents. Friday night is party night, so a great evening was had with further team members turning up later on Friday or on Saturday morning when we rigged Benson and made any final tweaks.

The race started at 12:00. The lake is quite small so the fleet of over 60 boats was despatched in flights of 10 at 1-minute intervals. Hari and Bob were our starters. With a fixed course, the start was down wind and the fleet headed off on a run to the first mark, then hardened up for a beat behind the 2 islands in the middle of the shallow salt water lake to the second mark where the wind was reported to be rather erratic due to a building close by and the water was shallow enough to run aground if you put the boat in the wrong place. Finally, a reach across the lake- keeping off shore to avoid the wind shadow of a nearby retail park and finally round the third mark and off down wind through the start/finish gate and back to mark 1. Lap one done… 69 more to go!
 
This is a long race, so anything could happen… and it did! Our 3rd team in the boat were Katie with Will D crewing- as they passed our shore base they called out that the kicker had broken- how could this be? We had replaced it with a super heavy duty device, beautifully spliced by Dunc, our bosun. An emergency repair kit was gathered together, and we rushed to the docking area, still not sure what to expect as the boat came in. The kicker still looked OK from a distance. As they reached the dock, it transpired that we had misheard—it was not a broken kicker- it was a broken FINGER! Will had managed to re- break a recently healed injury. Well…. The boat was OK, so Millie and Laurie dived in to continue the race and Will was despatched to the first aid centre where he was strapped up. But did this stop him sailing…? No- he was insistent that he should get back out there and would be back out the following morning!

In the first part of the race, wind was about 12 to 15 knots, but there were some cheeky little gusts in there too, and the wind shadows from buildings and islands made things quite tricky at times.

As the hours ticked by we had everything from light conditions around dawn to a massive squall with high winds and thunder and lightning between 9 and 10pm, so it was dark too- except when the whole sky was lit up by the lightning! Oscar and Pete were in the boat when this came through. They battled on and survived, despite 2 capsizes and the loss of Oscar’s glasses. On balance, it was probably better that Oscar couldn’t see the carnage going on around him! Ashore, our team gazebo nearly blew away- we had several of our support team hanging onto it and had to tie it to a car to keep it under control!
As we headed deeper into the night, the breeze abated, and things were far more manageable. At about 10:00pm, Jai arrived- our final team member- he had just taken 2nd place at Hollowell and then headed straight up to Southport! Importantly, he was accompanied by a significant quantity of cake- Ronnie is already practicing for next year’s Cake of the Year competition so brought several recipes along for consideration by the team which were very welcome, we had nearly run out of brownies and flapjack supplied by Katy.

As we settled into the race, the crews continued to swap around- we did 14 changes in all- the boat has to sail into the docking area where one team jump out, the next hop in- controlled mayhem! Exiting the dock, you are heading on starboard straight into the stream of boats who have just rounded mark 3- there were plenty of boats who capsized exiting the dock- usually on the bear away onto a run- but our guys never did- great sailing from all the team!

Sailing in the dark is a whole different game, so concentration is key. Navigation lights on boats and marks guide the way and you cannot really see gusts coming as you can in the day.
 
Time ticked by and the crews swapped around again and again. We went to a slightly shorter shift pattern and a total of 7 pairs of sailors took the boat through the night. The breeze was at its lowest around dawn and it was Pete and Ted who saw the first light of a new day in Benson. There are various trophies awarded for fastest laps at significant points in the race and this was when we got our best result- 13th in the dawn race- for the fastest lap after 6:00am.
 
The next milestone race was the Heineken Cup- fastest lap by an all female team. This was at 10:00am, just 2 hours before the end of the race. Our last crew change put Millie and Katie in the boat to have a shot at this, and they would take the mighty Benson through to the end. Steve, our head Academy Coach, and at the event as part of the support team, thought Benson was looking a bit low at the back- but Fireflies can look that way- no matter- there was nothing we could do about it now. As the final laps went by, there was a festival atmosphere on site, and the edge of the lake was packed with cheering supports from all the teams. The girls took the boat though the line for the final and 70th time at 12:01
 
Mission accomplished! Benson and the team had done it!
 
The shore crew greeted the boat and a frenzy of activity saw the basecamp cleared up and Benson de-rigged and strapped onto a trailer within an hour- more awesome teamwork from Team Draycote! As we packed Benson up, it became clear that Steve was right- we removed at least 20 litres of water from the rear buoyancy tank, so the back end HAD been rather low…. Something to investigate over the winter as we prepare for next year.
The event was awesome…. the teamwork from everybody was awesome, both sailors and support team.
 
And the results…? We were 36th out of a fleet of over 60 boats in our first attempt at this iconic event as a club for 35 years, in a 66 year old £300 boat. Of our 15 sailors, only 6 has ever set foot in the boat and that was last Sunday, in no wind!
 
Just think what we can do with a year to train and prepare for the 2026 event!
 
Benson sleeps for now and will receive some TLC over the winter. Next year’s event is 12th & 13th September. Put it in your diary now!
 
The sailors:
Hari, Jai, Peter, Bear, Katie, Millie, Bob, Tristan, Will, Oscar, Henry, Ted, Will D, Ben, Laurie.
 
The support Team:
Jon, Dave, Dunc, Steve, Rachael, Claire, Liz, Richard, Ann, Arthur, Emily, Ronnie, Steve A, Wobble.
 
The Bakers:
Ronnie, Katy
 
Supported by: XG-Group- the funky graphics and team gazebo. Mike P- all the rope!

Jon Hughes

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