Border Counties Midweek Sailing 2024 Season Wrap

Border Counties Midweek Sailing at Shotwick Lake - They're away! © Geoff Weir

Border Counties Midweek Sailing has now completed the 2024 series and what a great series if a little rocky in places from storms to weed, however we carried on and it has been another fantastic turnout throughout the series.

We were due to sail our first event of 2024 at Nantwich and Border Counties until reports of storm Kathleen due to hit (and it did) so unfortunately had to cancel, however Winsford Flash stepped in and we held the event our first Tuesday of the series albeit a week later, thanks to the Winsford team for putting this on at such short notice.

Onto Shotwick for the second event which saw 30 sailors on the water from nine different clubs with the first place and the first doublehanded being taken by home boats.

Go D Zero during the Border Counties Midweek Sailing Series at Llyn Brenig - photo © Pete Chambers

Tuesday number 3 took us to the highest club in Wales Llyn Brenig with its open waters and home of the Ospreys. The forecast did not look promising with winds of 15 and gusting 28mph and 9 degrees to feel like 7degrees,people had drysuits on (in June!) which probably contributed to the lower turnout of 18 sailors.

What a difference for Tuesday number 4 at Llyn Tegid (Bala) lovely warm weather but sadly race 1 was was cancelled due to the lack of wind and so we all went for an early lunch and waited, the wind was due to pick up about 1 o clock and rather pleasingly it did so off onto the water, no discards today the the Supernova of Eric Haselden taking the win ahead of the locals, Tuesday number 5 should have taken us to Redesmere but due to a sudden surge in weed we decided with the club the hold the event elsewhere, Shotwick stepped up and put on a great day with 29 boats and 33 sailors with nine of the sailors being juniors as we were in the holidays. The day was won by the reigning series winner Pete Coop in his Streaker followed by Local Paul Newman also in a Streaker, 1st double handed went to the GP14 of Pete Thoms and Dawn Frost.

Pete Coop in his Streaker during the Border Counties Midweek Sailing Series at Llyn Brenig - photo © Pete Chambers

Tuesday number 6 took us to Budworth for the penultimate race in the series would the winners be decided here, possibly. We had some fine wind and sunshine to sail in with 23 boats and 27 sailors on the water it was a tight start for race 1 and we had our first general recall of the series as there too many keen to get away. We finished with three streakers taking a first in each race all of them being visitors and the first double handed being Pete and Dawn in their GP, by now the series winner was decided.

2nd Overall Ted Garner in Solo 6107 during the Border Counties Midweek Sailing Series at Llyn Brenig - photo © Pete Chambers

The final Tuesday in our series took us to Winsford again where the team put on a great day of sailing, first place was decided but 2nd was up for grabs with just 1 point between the Streaker of Paul Newman and the Solo of Ted Garner. We rounded off the day with prize-giving firstly for the Winsford event followed by the overall winners in the 2024 series.

3rd Overall Paul Newman in his Streaker during the Border Counties Midweek Sailing Series at Llyn Brenig - photo © Pete Chambers

Overall Series Winners:

1st Pete Coop, Streaker (Winsford)
2nd Ted Garner, Solo (Budworth)
3rd Paul Newman, Streaker (Shotwick)
1st Junior (and 7th overall) Nayth Twigggs, Topper (Budworth)
1st double handed Simon and Julie Dolman, Miracle (Shotwick)

1st Junior Nayth Twiggs in his Topper during the Border Counties Midweek Sailing Series at Llyn Brenig - photo © Pete Chambers

Simon and Julie Dolman - Border Counties Midweek Sailing Series event 4 at Llyn Tegid - photo © John Hunter

Most number of sailors attending the series: Shotwick

Throughout the series we have had a real mix of boats ranging from a Tera Sport to an RS400. We had 74 individual entries, 11 of which were double handed, with the best turnouts from:

• Solo - 11 different boats
• Laser full rig - 7 different boats
• Streaker - 6 different boats
• Supernova - 6 different boats
• Various double handed - 11 boats with the Miracle being the most attended at 4 boats

For the 2025 series we have taken the decision to raise the entry fee to £10 per boat, we have done this due to the increasing costs that the host clubs have from fuel to prize, so hopefully this won't put anybody off.

We would like to thank all of you who have turned up on a Tuesday for a day out with your friends but most of all thank you to all of the clubs and their teams who have given up their time to put these events on without you we could not go sailing on our Tuesdays.

Again this year we had Junior Nayth Twiggs join us for almost all the events as he had special permission from his school to come and join us, it has been great to see such an enthusiastic junior joining in with all the rest of us lucky enough to be free on a Tuesday.

If you want to come and join us you are all welcome and if you want more information see our website and please feel free to contact us with any questions. Visit bordercountiesmidweeksailing.wordpress.com or email

The dates below are for 2025 most are confirmed but check on our website under Venues for the latest information.

Dates for 2025:

• Nantwich - April 8th
• Shotwick - May 20th
• Venue to be confirmed - June 17th
• Llyn Tegid (Bala) - July 8th
• Llyn Brenig - August 12th
• Budworth - September 2nd
• Winsford - September 30th

Overall Results: