London Corinthian SC at West Lancashire YC in 2005 for the Southport 24 hour race.

Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th September 2005.

A team of ten sailors took a club Enterprise (with lots of spare bits) and headed north to compete in the Southport 24hr race. This ‘does what it says on the tin’ - it is held every year in Southport (just north of Liverpool) and involves lots of dinghies sailing round a course from noon on Saturday to noon on Sunday. The planning and race entry was done by Chis Crosland – thanks Chris!

This year there was almost no wind till about 15 minutes before the start, when it picked up very rapidly! Rhys and Jenny started things off, followed by Jeremy Clarke and Simon then Jan and Kerstin. Changeovers were interesting as some crews decided to do them on the run – literally!

The dark hours were enlivened by lots of little glowsticks whizzing past – red on the port shroud, green for starboard- together with the odd capsize (no, not from Jeremy Whiting…). These resulted in the only damage of the race – a horizontal burgee. Towards sunrise the wind started to drop again giving Beverley and Kerstin a chance in the ladies’ race and the race was finished in style by Rhys and Jenny.

the row of guns used to acknoledge competitors finishing

There was great team spirit shown by all involved, but special mentions should go to Jeremy Whiting for his hard work preparing and towing the boat, and Nick Wilson for crewing at night for 4 hours non-stop, then cheerfully getting up 2 ½ hours later to do another 3 hours…

Our results were sadly well down the rankings – to see just how far look at the WLYC 24 hour race web site. However, finishing the race is an achievement in itself – a plaque will be added to the collection at the club bar – and it also leaves plenty of room for improvement for next year…

by Liz Petrie

The 2005 team:

Beverly Lawrence Beech (joint manager)
Jenny Drife
Kerstin Exner
Liz Petrie
Simon Ashenden (joint manager)
Rhys Triffitt
Nick Wilson
Jan
Jeremy Whiting
Jeremy Clarke (not in picture)