Team SCSC at 54th Southport 24 Hour Race 12-14 September 2025
Published 14:20 on 13 Nov 2025
After last year's phenomenal 'under the radar' 10th place result at the 53rd Southport 24 Hour Race, Team SCSC arrived at West Lancs YC on Friday 12 September with high hopes of another Top 10 finish. New team members Bruce Harper, Al Sim, Bruce Ward and Oscar Ward had all been spotted getting some GP14 training in during the preceding weeks and refinements to the boat's spinnaker pole system promised incremental gains for the downwind legs. The weather, however, had different ideas and the rather bleak forecast for the event seemed to dampen the spirits of even the most buoyant teams; except of course the happy green sailors of Team 'Toddbroccoli' (aka Toddbrook SC)!
The team retired early from the customary WLYC Friday night party as tiredness and the need for sleep beckoned after the long drive north. Saturday dawned bright and sunny with the SW breeze building during the morning countdown to the noon start. The team rigged early so that Richard 'Burt' Burton and Oscar could get in some last minute practice - having never sailed together before although a casual onlooker would have thought differently as they put GP 13862 through her paces. Other teams had similar ideas but went swimming instead as the 'breeze' was by now gusting quite viciously around the 20-22 knots mark. The wind direction dictated a broad reach/ running start with spinnakers up, Burt and Oscar starting in the second flight of 10 boats and showing good speed down to the leeward mark (A) at the top end of the lake. Things were going well until an unfortunate port/starboard encounter with the GP14 of Leigh & Lowton SC (Team 26) put a severe dent in our starboard gunwale and caused Team SCSC to incur a 3-minute penalty.
Team Managers Jonny and Burt had devised the team sailing rota enroute to Southport but the steadily increasing wind saw changeovers taking place around the 90 minutes mark, instead of the anticipated 2 hours. The designated docking area was a good place for some spectator sport with the boats approaching on a port reach (the more ambitious with spinnakers still hoisted) and the new crews scrambling aboard whilst their team mates struggled to prevent their boat sailing away empty! Team SCSC wisely worked out a more cautious approach: a controlled close-quarters tack onto starboard to bring 13862 in against the dock virtually head-to-wind.
Al Sim sailing with his regular crew Will Hancock (aka the 2025 GP14 'Junior Great Grand Master') were next up, sailing the boat fast and upright to roll GP 13953 (Team 19 Warsash SC Masters) to the delight of their cheering team mates on the bank. Bruce and Bruce followed, driving the boat hard and looking invincible downwind as they ground out places lap after lap. Mid-afternoon saw Alex and me paired again but we got blown over by a vicious gust on the beat up from mark A to mark B and only managed 5 laps before handing over to Bruce Harper and Charles Barrett. This pairing put in an incredible performance with more fast laps and Team SCSC's average lap time steadily falling: amazing considering that Bruce had never stepped into a GP14 until the previous Thursday evening! Jonny crewed by Nicola were next up, reveling in the planing conditions, never being overtaken and putting in consistently fast average lap times for a solid 90- minute stint. Capsizes became the order of the day now with several teams wading around their boats (Southport's Marine Lake isn't very deep) to right them and then sail on. Out on the water Harriett was doing a sterling job crewing one of the safety boats for several hours and probably has far better recollections of just when/ who capsized upwind when hidden behind the lake's two islands maybe we'll find out over a few drinks before the season is out?
Ali Wallace and Bruce Ward took over in what was meant to be dying winds as the evening skies darkened. But the quirks of the marine lake are never predictable, Team SCSC capsizing again or so it transpired later before Burt resumed the helm, this time crewed by Bruce Ward as the wind continued to build into the upper-20 knots region and the rain came down in torrents. I retired for sustenance in the form of Nicola's bespoke hot lemon drinks and then fell asleep around 2000 so missed most of the heavy weather drama which followed; including the lightning storm and too-close-for-comfort bolt which came down just south of the lake. Burt and Bruce were sailing against this backdrop and deserve a lot of credit for holding their nerve. When the rain eventually stopped Jonny and Ali took over, the team reliably informing me that the 'boys' kept the boat going for almost 2 hours and steadily notching up fast laps. On their last lap just before midnight, though, there was another collision at the approach to the windward mark (B). This time it was Team SCSC doing the 'T-boning', Jonny (helming his own boat it must be pointed out) having a port/ starboard encounter with the Enterprise of West Oxfordshire SC (Team 14): the result of which was a capsize for them, another 3-minute penalty for us and a fairly deep bow ding to GP 13862.
Al and Will resumed their partnership just after midnight and put in a solid 2-hour performance with very fast downwind legs: Al later describing the experience as "surreal" and "a fantastic night sail we loved it"!. Well, no problems with next year's rota then when the rest of us need to get some proper sleep! Charles took the helm with Ava crewing as the wind moderated further just after 0200. My recollections of Sunday morning are a bit vague except for waking up at 0430 and getting down to the lake for 0600 to take over from Team 'Australia' Bruce and Bruce.
Sailing with Rosie the lighter weather conditions clearly suited us and we put in several fast laps to keep our closest competitors firmly receding in the rear view mirror. Rosie used her seamanship skills to great effect in doing a temporary holding repair on the spinnaker pole bridge before it disappeared overboard which would otherwise have proved catastrophic to the boat's off-wind performance.
The final few hours ticked away to the noon finish with Burt and Ava displaying total focus to complete lap 85 and give us an aggregated average lap time of 17 minutes 4.2 seconds (17:04.2). We finished in 20th place overall out of an enlarged entry of 61 teams (there were 52 teams last year). The 6 minutes of penalties that we incurred during the 24 hours equate to 4.24 seconds, effectively tying us for 18th place with Budworth SC (B) Masters. Six of the teams which finished above us were sailing (the re-introduced) Firefly class dinghy and their 'revised' PN handicap continues to be a topic of discussion!
I think I speak for the whole team in saying that we all had a great time at Southport and are already looking forward to the 2026 event. GP 13862 may be slightly more reticent having spent the last 3 weeks in my garage undergoing damage repairs. Many thanks to Jonny for bravely letting us sail his boat and for the dedicated support team who fed, encouraged and generally looked after us throughout the weekend: Harriett Hancock, Jonno Hancock and Colin Ward.
Malcolm James
14 October 2025
Full results with average lap time downloads for each team can be found here:
https://wlyc.org.uk/wlyc-24-hour-race/wlyc-24-hour-race-2025-results
The Yachts & Yachting report for the event is available at:
https://www.yachtsandyachting.com/news/290229/54th-West-Lancs-24-Hour-Race
Other related (and amusing) reports of interest include:
https://www.yachtsandyachting.com/news/290313/Enduring-24-hours-at-West-Lancs-YC
https://www.yachtsandyachting.com/news/290064/Team-Toddbroccoli-at-the-Southport-24-Hour-Race
Last updated 16:23 on 13 November 2025