BFSLYC Landyacht series round 1 at Brean Sand Yacht Club
by Nick Heather 2 Apr 22:55 AEDT
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:
| Pos | Class | Sail No | Pilot | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | R5 | R6 | Pts |
|---|
| 1st | Class 3 | K109 | Tim Spears | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 2nd | Class 3 | K62 | Jake Cookson | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 9 |
| 3rd | Class 3 | K43 | Chris Wilson | 4 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 15 |
| 4th | Class 3 | K115 | Mark Lloyd | 3 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 17 |
| 5th | Class 3 | K23 | Nick Heather | 5 | 5 | 5 | 7 | 5 | 5 | 25 |
| 6th | Class 3 | K199 | Dave Myers | 6 | 7 | 6 | 5 | DNS | DNS | 32 |
| 7th | Class 3 | K125 | Graham Miatt | 7 | 6 | 7 | 6 | DNS | DNS | 34 |
| 1st | Class 2 | K800 | Gareth Rowlands | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| 2nd | Class 2 | K45 | Nigel Spurr | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 8 |
| 1st | Standart | 351 | Craig George | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| 2nd | Standart | 508 | Graham Harris | 2 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 11 |
| 3rd | Standart | 434 | Derek George | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 11 |
| 4th | Standart | 427 | Darren Rhys | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 14 |
| 1st | Mini | K916 | Dave Green | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 2nd | Mini | K7 | Ed Ingles | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 8 |
| 3rd | Mini | K2 | Keith Ecroyd | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 13 |
| 4th | Mini | K917 | Emma Green | 4 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 22 |
| 5th | Mini | K950 | Martyn MacDonald | 6 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 3 | 5 | 24 |
| 6th | Mini | K121 | Mark Sidey | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 25 |
| 7th | Mini | K911 | Simon Tomlinson | 8 | 8 | 9 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 36 |
| 8th | Mini | K3 | Martin Leach | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 36 |
| 9th | Mini | K16 | Max Spears | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 45 |