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BFSLYC Landyacht series round 1 at Brean Sand Yacht Club

by Nick Heather 2 Apr 12:55 BST 6-7 March 2025
BFSLYC Landyacht series round 1 at Brean © Mark Lloyd

Brean Sand Yacht Club hosted the first 2025 round of the BFSLYC Landyacht series for class 2/3, Standart and Mini yachts.

The event is held on the beach at Brean, near Weston-Super-Mare, with a practice day Thursday followed by racing on the Friday / Saturday. No sailing Sunday as it is a busy day with the public.

A good wind and weather forecast ensured a good turnout with eight in class 2/3, five in Standart and nine Mini yachts.

BFSLYC will be hosting the European championships later this year at Hoylake for Class 2/3/5 and Standart, this has attracted some more interest into the class 2/3 fleet.

Brean is a 'wet beach', this means the tide come in and covers the beach, sailing then takes place on the falling tide, with a completely fresh racing course surface. Best speeds are achieved to be on the hard smooth sand areas without ripples. Balancing the wind, yacht speed, apparent wind and maintaining the momentum are key.

Occasionally the powers that be throw a spanner in the works, the local council had been clearing some of the beach access paths and had spread the spoil onto the beach, great fun for kids building sandcastles but more like sailing on a ploughed field in a sand yachts, and areas to be avoided.

Thursday practice was sunny with 10-15mph near offshore leading to some light patches in the lee of the dunes, making use of the slight down hill could often be a saviour at these moments.

Class 2/3/ and Standart all use a stationary grid start, yachts are lined up on a predetermined grid giving all yachts the change to start at the front row. This is again to the bobsleigh, push the yacht up to sail speed and then jump in while avoiding the other yachts.

The mini yachts have more or a hectic moving start, or "dial up", 2 minutes warning the yachts start to sail around, typically in a circular fashion, the flag comes down at the start, the aim is to be on the line at speed.

If you have an interest in coming for a taster session in a training yacht and then on into a mini, please don't hesitate to contact British Federation of Sand and Land Yacht Clubs www.britishlandsailing.org.uk or pop along to one of the regattas to see what its all about:

  • St Annes 5th /6th April
  • York, Elvington Field, 26th /27th April
  • Wirral, Hoylake, 7th /8th June
  • St Annes, Lytham, 21st / 22nd June
  • Wirral, Hoylake, 5th /6th July
  • Wirral, Hoylake, EUROS 28th September / 3rd October (Class 2,3,5 & S)

Overall Results:

PosClassSail NoPilotR1R2R3R4R5R6Pts
1stClass 3K109Tim Spears2111110
2ndClass 3K62Jake Cookson1232329
3rdClass 3K43Chris Wilson44242315
4thClass 3K115Mark Lloyd33434417
5thClass 3K23Nick Heather55575525
6thClass 3K199Dave Myers6765DNSDNS32
7thClass 3K125Graham Miatt7676DNSDNS34
1stClass 2K800Gareth Rowlands1111120
2ndClass 2K45Nigel Spurr2222218
1stStandart351Craig George1212124
2ndStandart508Graham Harris21244311
3rdStandart434Derek George33312411
4thStandart427Darren Rhys44433114
1stMiniK916Dave Green2111110
2ndMiniK7Ed Ingles1222238
3rdMiniK2Keith Ecroyd33332213
4thMiniK917Emma Green46446422
5thMiniK950Martyn MacDonald64683524
6thMiniK121Mark Sidey55555625
7thMiniK911Simon Tomlinson88967736
8thMiniK3Martin Leach77778836
9thMiniK16Max Spears99999945

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