Border Counties Midweek Sailing at Bala Sailing Club

If you have not heard of this series, it is described on the website as follows: "Inspired by the North West senior travellers series,which we have attended and enjoyed (except for the travelling part) for many years,we have set up a series of races at various clubs throughout North Wales and the Border Counties."

This probably does not do it justice, because what you actually get is a fantastic bunch of people, spanning a huge age range in one of the most diverse cross section of boats we have seen at Bala SC for quite a while!

2023 Border Counties Midweek Sailing Series at Bala - Glad we brought a coat lovely July in Wales - photo © John Rees

With 26 boats in 2021 and 2022, it was great to see a small increase this year with 33 boats taking to the start line. Once again, the mix was fantastic with a strong showing of Supernovas, Blazes, Comets, Solos and Lasers. These were complimented by a diverse ticklist of most dinghies you could find on Apollo Duck as well as a couple of multihulls. It was great to see five double handed teams out on the water as well.

Eleven Bala SC members appeared on the signing on sheets with ten also from Shotwick. Winsford pulled in eleven members and representation was also present from Bassenthwaite, Leigh and Lowton and finally Nantwich and Border Counties. A huge thank you to everyone who travelled!

2023 Border Counties Midweek Sailing Series at Bala - How much rain can fall? - photo © John Nield

The weather was very changeable but at the start, a SW breeze allowed a perfect set of starting conditions from the clubhouse with about 1/3 of the lenght of the lake being used in the first beat. 3 different courses were used with 2 races taking place before lunch then a final race after. Each race consisted of 2 laps with an average time on water of around 45 to 50 minutes per race so plenty of sailing time for everyone. Fortunately the conditions were not overly challenging and the 3 safety boats had a quiet day with only a couple of people taking a light bath but recovering with no problems to resume their racing. The competitors were also treated to regular fly overs from various aircraft (I assume) from RAF Valley, honestly we did not arrange this in advance but they were great to see!

2023 Border Counties Midweek Sailing Series at Bala - Lots of spectators - even the RAF came by for a look - photo © John Rees

Previous winners (Dan Partington - 2021 and Peter Coop - 2022) were part of the starting line up with Peter still sailing a Supernova which he had contested the previous 2 years in but Dan moving from from the D Zero he used in 2022 across to a RS Vareo (previously winning in a Laser radial in 2021).

The front of the pack was very tight, mainly consisting of the RS100's, D-Zeros, Aeros and a few Supernovas. With 3 races and 1 discard forming the final positions, Dan Partington (Bala SC) having spending plenty of time getting use to the Vareo this year on Balas waters took a clean sweep of first places to reclaim top spot for 2023. Second place was taken by Paul Allen (Bassenthwaite SC) in his D-Zero with a (14)-3-2 and Peter Coop (Winsford Flash SC) taking 3rd in a Supernova with a 3-2-(5). The final 2 spots in the top 5 were picked up by Andy Todd (Bala SC) in an RS100 and Gareth Williams (Leigh and Lowton) in an Aero 7.

2023 Border Counties Midweek Sailing Series at Bala - photo © John Hunter

Highest placed junior went to Nayth Kukla (Windsford Flash SC) in his Topper, just pipping local lad Finley Partington (Bala SC) in his Laser radial by half a point! Highest place female went to Dawn Frost who took 14th place overal crewing with Peter Thoms at the helm (Nantwich and Border Counties) in their GP14 also taking first double handed.

2023 Border Counties Midweek Sailing Series at Bala - photo © John Hunter

As usual, events like this do not arrange themselves and a huge thank-you needs to go out to all of the volunteers at Bala SC for supporting on this event. As well as the Race Control and administration team, it was great to have 3 fully manned safety boats out on the water as well as a busy galley providing hot drinks and breakfast baps at the start of the day.

2023 Border Counties Midweek Sailing Series at Bala - Thanks to the safety and OOD's - without all of you none of these events could take place - photo © John Rees

We hope every attendee enjoyed their day at Bala SC but I think the sound-bite from the series social media page sums it up perfectly...

"Thank you to all the team at Bala for putting on a great day of sailing at Llyn Tegid, great to see so many home boats out hopefully you all enjoyed yourselves. Lots of messages off people saying how much they enjoy your club, lake and hospitality. Thanks again we couldn't put these events on if it wasn't for all the volunteers. Best turnout ever 34 entries (33 sailed) but if you factor in double handers then that goes up to 38 people sailing, not bad for a Tuesday. Thank you all."

Next Event in the series (Number 5) is at Llyn Brenig, Wales highest sailing club let's see if we can beat 34 boats.

Overall Results: