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24 Hour Race Report

HLSC joined 62 other teams from all over the UK, though primarily the NorthWest and the Midlands, and took part in the 45 th 24 Hour race hosted by WestLancs YC and held on the marine lake at Southport over the weekend of the10th/11th September.

For many years HLSC have competed but never won and so it was decided toput a team together with the aim of winning. So a team made up of youngsailors boosted by a couple of oldies, Richard Whitworth and Martin Brennanset forth.

It was pleasing to see many HLSC members enjoying the Friday nightsfestivities and staying to support the team over the weekend.

Matt Mee and Chris Robinson started first and very quickly won the firsttrophy on offer for the fastest first two laps of the race. After two hours sailingit was becoming clear that the likely final outcome of the race would be

between ourselves and South Staffs SC. Matt and Chris came off after 3hours with us in second place and some minor gear failure. Jonny McGovernand Bruce Deppe came on and started to chase after the leaders. They finallygot through to the lead at 16.45 and began to pull away. Martin Brennan andChris Robinson went on and did a great job in holding onto the lead whichwas going up and down as the lake and wind did a great job of playing snakesand ladders. The snakes generally being weed or no wind, whilst the ladderswere represented by a good shift or a great gust on the downwind legs.

Matt went back on with Nicola Brook and to our consternation lost 3 minutesas they found the biggest snake on the lake. South Staffs meanwhile hadonce again turned to their top helm, Mike Senior, who started to chase usdown.

In the meantime Richard Whitworth had arrived, having been in Cherbourg at9.00 on Saturday morning. Having been fed, along with the rest of the teamby Pat and Janice he took to the water with Jonny determined to get us backin the lead which we had just lost. The intention was 2 hour stints in the nightbut they took the challenge back to South Staffs and stayed out for 3 hoursand as both teams were now 2 laps ahead of the 3 rd team a match raceensued. South Staffs cracked as they hit a mark with Richard and Jonny justbehind them and had to take a lap penalty and then they were overtaken onthe water and we pulled away again. Martin and Bruce continued the great

work, keeping Mike Senior behind them.

South Staffs had to rest Senior at this point. Matt and Chris followed by Jonnyand Nicola sailed through the night and into the dawn and created an 11minute lead. Richard and Bruce took over with South Staffs bringing Seniorback to do a marathon 6 hour shift to the end of the race. It was clear that theSouth Staffs pairing were running hot as they whittled down our lead. Mattand Chris were brought back for our final stint at 9.30 and we could onlywatch as the South Staffs boat always seemed to be flat out planing

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downwind whilst we wallowed in no wind. On the second last lap we werecaught and an incident at the B mark meant the South Staffs flew a protestflag against us, and also nipped into the lead. Matt was confident that he hadnot infringed any rule, and didnt take a penalty. The lakeside crowd wasenthralled as to how this titanic battle would work out as South Staffs crossedthe line 30 seconds ahead of us after 24 hours of racing. The race now

headed to the protest room.

South Staffs did not have an independent witness; however we did whohappened to be the son of a leading race judge. The jury deliberated, Mattremained calm, and the rest of the team didnt! Matt was called back for theverdict.

Matt held his arms aloft, the protest had been thrown out, and HLSC weredeclared winners.

All the sailors would particularly like to thank Pat and Janice for feeding themall weekend and the many supporters who cheered lakeside. The club would

like to thank the following sponsors:

Winder BoatsGoacher SailsCraftInsure

We won 9 trophies which will be on display in the club and were lookingforward to defending the title next year.

Nick BrookCommodore HLSC