Southport 24hr Race 2026

  • Last updated
by Jon Hughes
With Friday Night racing over for the season and Saturday Club taking a brief rest, Team Draycote headed 150 miles north for the iconic Southport 24 hour race. For those not familiar with this, it is exactly what it says on the tin. A 24 hour race in Southport on the northwest coast. The race is held on a marine lake. Each team races one boat for 24 hours non-stop with sailors swapping around every couple of hours. It is unlike anything else on the sailing calendar and something that should be on every keen dinghy sailor’s bucket list.
 
For the second year, a team comprising entirely of youth & junior sailors came together to take on the challenge in our 67 year old Firefly, Benson. Following last year’s race, we discovered a significant leak that meant we did much of the race carrying a lot of water in the stern buoyancy tank. After major surgery, this had been located and fixed, and Benson’s nose had also been re-built after the discovery of some rather soft and structurally questionable wood in the area where the forestay was attached. He also had a funky new paint job.
An advanced party of Dunc and Dave arrived on Thursday to bag a front row spot for our team base. Benson arrived on Friday morning and the team assembled gradually as sailors and support crew arrived over the next day. Last to make it was Theo after a dramatic journey where car number one expired at Knutsford Services and a second car was despatched from Rugby to collect our stranded team member and get him to the race, finally arriving at about 10:30 on Saturday night. His rescue crew (mum) immediately headed back home to complete a 300 mile rescue mission!
 
With the team base established, Benson rigged and ready and the sailors briefed, we were ready to race! Ben and Laurie were tasked with starting the race, but before that a film crew wanted to interview them, so after their piece to camera, they headed off to get changed and we prepared to launch. Not easy as 75 boats try to get off one slipway! The forecast was for some fairly big breeze early on, tailing off into the evening and going lighter and lighter as we headed into the early hours.
At 12:00, the first flight was off. Each flight comprising 10 boats started down wind at 1 minute intervals until all 75 boats crossed the line. The course is a long, thin triangle, dictated by the shape of the lake. Hazards include 2 islands, a concrete jetty and various shallows. The entire lake is quite shallow, and it is possible to stand up almost anywhere, which sailors were doing rather frequently… the combination of big breeze, some cheeky shifts, and a long downwind leg to the first mark meant that capsizes were frequent and… spectacular!
 
With the frenetic pre-start activity done, we started to settle into the routine of counting laps and monitoring our boat from the team base. Another part of participating in this event is that teams need to put forward volunteers to help with running the event. Dunc, our Bosun, was on a busman’s holiday as part of the team, manning a rescue boat and was out in a RIB crewed by Steve, Ben’s dad, in this early and hectic stage of the event. Just an hour and a half into the race came a message from Steve out on the water, a message we really did not want to hear: “I think they’ve got a hole in boat. Coming in”…
The entire team was mobilised.
 
We were towed to shore, and Benson was full of water. With extra sailors jumping into the lake, 4 in the water and many on the shore, he was dragged onto a trolley and lifted out. Sure enough, we had a hole punched through the bottom of the boat, sustained during a capsize in winds gusting beyond 25 knots at tis stage in the race. Benson was rolled over on some nearby grass and repairs began. A raid on the nearby Southport Sailing club toilets yielded enough paper towels to dry out the affected area. A repair patch was improvised and taped into position on the bottom of the boat and a second similar patch was applied inside. Would it hold for 22 hours? Only time would tell…
 
Benson was returned to the water with a crew change to Pete and Josiah and they headed out into the lake and the ongoing carnage of the big winds. Fingers crossed…
It was a battle against the elements at this stage. A further capsize and the odd near miss followed as Pete and Josiah battelled on, but the repair was holding. With the unorthodox crew change at the repair site we had not yet changed over in the official docking area (we sought permission from the race officer to do this) so the swap to Oscar and Alex was the first time that Benson came into the dock. Boats sail around the 3rd mark of the course in the southwestern corner of the lake and head into a buoyed area where crews swap over in a manoeuvre which, if done well, is a supreme display of almost balletic elegance and if not is something more like a spectacular crash with added shouting.
 
The swap went smoothly and Oscar and Alex headed out. The wind was still up and forecast to stay that way for a while. As they came past our team base, we spotted a protest flag on the boat. What had happened? We would not find out until they came into the docking area, but Benson looked OK still. Once off the boat, Alex reported that we had been hit whilst on Starboard by the boat from Banbury S.C. who were on port. There was a “massive dent in the boat” We could do nothing about it now and so we raced on, now with Hari and Laurie. Winds were still up so the combination of a helm with multiple World and National titles to his name and our biggest crew looked good on paper and proved to be so in practice.
At the team base, Katy who, along with Dave, did a brilliant job fuelling the team throughout the weekend prepared our 6:00pm social with nibbles and champagne- very sophisticated!
Darkness fell and this is where the unique nature of this event really kicks in- we are sailing through the night. The marks and hazards are lit, and the boats carry red and green navigation lights. The sailors’ eyes become accustomed to the dark, but it is not so easy to see gusts coming so you have to sail a little by feel. The patch in Benson’s bottom was holding, we hoped, and the winds were starting to ease a little as our first night-time crew change took place- Ben on the stick, Finn, who had never been in the boat before in daylight, let alone the dark, took over.
 
The big breeze was gone and the forecast said that the rest of the race was to be a light wind affair. Theo finally reported into the team base after his epic journey, importantly bearing cake, and the team was finally complete! Winds continued to drop. Time for our light weight sailors to shine! Pete and Hannah were next up. This was Hannah’s first time in the boat too. Racheal went to check in for her scrutineering duty- another volunteer role, making sure that all the teams play by the rules and behave down in the rather chaotic at times docking area. Without all the participating clubs filling the many duties that are needed for such a massive event, it could not take place so a big shout out to Dunc, Steve and Racheal for making sure Team Draycote did their bit.
Midnight passed. Alex and Emme were in next. This was also Emme’s first time in the boat. (Note to self: more pre-race practice next year!!) Soon, the winds were down at a level where any normal race would probably not take place, but this is Southport…. The boats drifted on, trying to find patches of breeze in the dark is just as tricky as spotting gusts and we were in for challenging sailing of a different kind. The Firefly has no spinnaker but uses a jib stick to hold the jib out goose winged on downwind legs. We had destroyed ours, and the spare one too, in the big winds earlier so our crews were having to hold the jib out on the down wind leg to try and catch every breath of wind. The dog watch fell to Oscar and Josiah. They were in the boat as 4.00am approached and sailed into the first signs of light. Tortuous times in the almost non-existent breeze. 6.00 passed and Theo and Ben were on next. Theo sails Fireflies at school and was immediately on the pace as the light returned. Next up, Hari and Finn. Hari is a true light wind master, although it is fair to say, he is very handy in the breezy stuff too, and he was banging in some great lap times. Ashore, at the team base, Katy was preparing sausage and bacon rolls for everyone. Last up, Hannah and Emme for the Ladies Race at 10:00am. They would carry on to the finish. The breeze built just a little and they put in a couple of decent laps before the breeze once again fizzled to nothing across most of the lake, cruelly leaving them drifting for a while before a final puff of wind carried them across the line a little after 12:30. 41 laps done. 61st place overall.
The team leapt into action again to recover Benson, bruised and battered but still holding together after 24 hours, and load him onto the trailer for the journey back south. The team base was dismantled and packed up, and we were done for another year. Exhausting, both mentally and physically, but amazing fun too. What a team, what a weekend! Will we do it again next year- I think so.
An offer of expert assistance to re-build Benson for next year came is as soon as he returned home so we will break out the epoxy and surgery will start soon.
A big thanks to everyone involved in this year’s adventure:
 
The sailors:
Hari, Oscar, Alex, Ben, Laurie, Josiah, Finn, Emme, Peter, Hannah, Theo.
 
Team catering (and much more too): Katy Rowe & Dave Rowe
 
Additional team catering and motivation supplies (Chocolate, beer and champagne): Iain Swinton
 
Race duty volunteers: Dunc Dunkley, Steven Angell & Rachael Astley
 
Emergency sailor rescue & delivery services: Samantha Graves
 
Specialist Spanner consultant and keeping me sane when stressed: Wobble
 
All the parents for getting our sailors to Southport and pitching in to help throughout the weekend and, finally, getting some of the team home again.
 
Team Gazebo and boat graphics: XG Group
 
Keep your eyes and ears peeled for next years event dates and, please, sign up early so that we can do some practice before the race.
 
We hope to come back bigger and better next year!D

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