Border Counties Midweek Sailing 2023 concludes at Winsford Flash Sailing Club

Pete Coop wins overall - Border Counties Midweek Sailing concludes at Winsford Flash © Brian Herring

Border Counties Midweek Sailing has now completed the 2023 series, and what a great series it has been! There was a fantastic turnout throughout, with 84 individual entries (15 of which were double-handed boats).

We started the series off at Shotwick where Pete Coop started as he meant to go on with a first place out of 26 boats, and first double Dave Thomas & Shan Stapley in their Enterprise. Will Pete continue his winning streak next year when he changes class to a Streaker?

Then onto Budworth with 29 boats on the water where a very unusual result with the GP14 of Andy & Tim Mcgovern taking two firsts and a second - so double-handers can beat the singlehander fleet.

The third event of the series took us to the narrow waters of Chester where Border Counties co-founder Dave Turtle took first place in his Comet in really light winds. First double-hander was locals Pete Blundell & Jackie in their Enterprise.

The fourth round took us to Llyn Tegid (Bala) in the heart of Wales and our biggest water, where local Daniel Partington took first in RS Vareo; first double Pete Thoms & Dawn Frost in their GP14. Being a large water we were joined by an F101 Foiling Trimaran with Steve Pooley at the helm.

Our fifth event took us to Llyn Brenig - our new venue for this year - which at almost 380 metres above sea level is the highest sailing club in Wales, where Daniel Partington from Bala in his RS Vareo took first place; first double-hander was Pete Thoms & Dawn Frost in their GP14.

The sixth event took us to Redesmere where Dave Turtle took first place in his Comet and first double-hander was Dave Thomas & Shan Stapley in their Enterprise.

The penultimate event at Nantwich had 24 boats out on the water with Phil Snewin from Chester in his Solo taking first place and Dave Thomas & Shan Stapley taking first double-handed in their new Miracle (after changing class due to a Laser attack on their Enterprise).

Dave Thomas and Shan Stapley, first double-hander - Border Counties Midweek Sailing concludes at Winsford Flash - photo © D Thomas

The final at Winsford Flash saw 25 boats on the water with a a battle for second place overall between Ted Garner, Budworth and Andy Todd with just half a point between them. Ted took second overall with series winner Pete Coop taking 1st place having already secured first overall in the series. First double-handed was taken by first timers at the series of Dave Southwell & Michelle Raines in their Miracle.

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 email us with any questions.

Nayth Twiggs, first Junior - Border Counties Midweek Sailing concludes at Winsford Flash - photo © Brian Herring

The series has been a great success with many competitors wanting to compete again next year and want the dates so they can book their holidays. We now have the 2024 dates confirmed.

The Tuesday Club:

• Nantwich - April 9th
• Shotwick - May 14th
• Llyn Brenig - June 11th
• Llyn Tegid (Bala) - Jul 9th
• Redesmere - August 13th
• Budworth - September 3rd
• Winsford - October 1st

Some of this years prizes were from the RNLI just as a little thank you to them for all the hard work they do.

The series has all only been made possible by all of the clubs putting on the events and all the volunteers from OODs to safety boat cover to all the others behind the scenes without these people giving up their time none of these events could happen, so a massive thank you to all.

See you all in 2024 for another great series.

If you want any further information please see our website: bordercountiesmidweeksailing.wordpress.com Or contact us via our contact page or email

Absolutely fantastic turnout with 61 entries and over 20 boats at five of the venues - the other two had reports of no wind at one and big wind and rain at the other but still twelve and nineteen boats (22 sailors) out at these and our best turnout of 26 boats (31 sailors) making the trip up to Bala.

It just goes to show people want to sail midweek all helped by a very low £5 entry fee.

We encourage all age groups with no upper or lower limit. Our oldest with a age of 162 years were Brian & Ros Herring in their National 12, and at Redesmere we had a great turnout from their juniors as the event was in the holidays.

We try and encourage double-handed boats as everyone seems to be in singlehanded nowadays and so we have a trophy for first overall and first double-handed, but as usual the series was dominated by the various singlehanders.

The series was led virtually from the start by last years series winner Pete Coop in his Supernova; let's see if anyone can challenge him for 2023.

There are reports on Yachts & Yachting for all the individual events.

We had a prize-giving after each event and then finally the series prize-giving after Winsford - the series results are all on our website.

We have an extra prize for the best attending club so 1 point for every sailor that attends and this year - it was won by Winsford again who put a great touring show bringing a good number of sailors plus their support crew followed by Shotwick.

Overall Series Results: