Bala Long Distance Weekend 2025

Bala SC Long Distance © John Hunter

Asking around the committee, no one could pin down the exact year that Bala SC introduced the "Long Distance Weekend" but being based at the longest lake in Wales, at 3.7 miles long and 0.5 miles wide, with the wind coming up the lake as a nice South Westerly, it makes a perfect windward-leeward endurance race.

Over the last few years, this has been developed as one of the clubs key open events, attracting a strong percentage of visiting competitors and over the last four years participation has increased from 31 starts in 2022 to an amazing 58 boats this year. It was great to welcome 40 visitors with some travelling over 6 hours to enjoy Llyn Tegid for the first time. It was also great to see a few small fleets come together and having a collection of seven Wetas and seven Lasers as well as eight mixed type Multihulls allowed for a few informal "in fleet" result tables to be presented.

Bala SC Long Distance - photo © John Hunter

The event started as usual with the amazing galley team providing bacon and sausage baps whilst the race officer team came to terms with the challenging forecast. Whilst the wind direction was favourable with the local forecast saying 10 knots gusting 18+, the forecast had the wind dropping 1 hour after the start 1pm but then building again as the afternoon progressed so the Saturday course was set to race from the bridge on an extended start line, send the boats on a nice long beat way past the weather station to the bottom of the lake, take the windward mark to Port then run back up the lake taking A and 1 to starboard to finish the lap through X and around we go again.

Whilst it is advertised as a 4 hour handicap race, due to the distance the club over the last few years has ran two additional classes with juniors and cruisers having the opportunity of a fixed 1 lap handicap race. This was put in place to encourage more diversity on the start line and give our junior members the opportunity to sail the full length of the lake with sufficient safety boat cover but not over exert themselves and hopefully develop an appetite for club racing.

Bala SC Long Distance - photo © John Hunter

Needless to say, the Bala weather goblin woke up in a mischievous mood and following a clean start the boats set off in relatively light winds with the first lap ranging between 1 hour 45 mins and 2hr 30 mins. With this is mind and the forecast set to build, the race officer consulted the team and the decision was taken to send the fleet around for a second lap. Unfortunately as the afternoon progressed, the wind dropped off significantly leaving the fleet struggling to maintain 2- 3 knots SOG and forcing the majority of the fleet to be at risk of timing out.

With only 16 of the 58 boats potentially coming within time, the Race Office consulted the Race Committee and agreed to extend the finish time allowance to ensure a larger proportion of boats crossing the line were provided with a time. As this was not a national event and purely a club run open, it was felt that this was in the spirit of the event and with the majority of the competitors travelling to get to the event, it was felt that this was the correct course of action.

Bala SC Long Distance - photo © John Hunter

As the competitors came in, de-rigged and got changed, the club house came alive with the BBQ being fired up and the bar starting to fill up with lots of chatter of what was a challenging race. The majority of experienced racers commented on two common themes. Firstly, it was definitely a race of reading the wind shifts and it was apparent on the water that there were groups of boats sat drifting whilst 200 meters away a sustained puff giving another group a steady opportunity of progress.

Secondly, those who know Bala have experienced the way the wind can shift in different sections of the lake and it was not uncommon to see kites being raised at very unusual times and in the middle of the lake there was a period that both boats on the defined Leeward Leg and the Windward Legs we heading towards each other with kites aloft.

Bala SC Long Distance - photo © John Hunter

The following morning we knew that the forecast was reported as 12 knots gusting 28 and whilst boats rigged and safety boats went of standby, the decision was made in readiness for the 11:00 start time to delay for 30 minutes. Wind speed readings from the jetty were taken and a rib was dispatched to the middle of the lake to assess the conditions out on the water and with the gusts being in the 30 knots range, the conditions were consistent at a force 5 to 6 with an occasional 7.

This was monitored for a period of time and the decision was taken to abandon racing for the day. Whilst this is always a difficult decision to make, especially when so many people had travelled it was felt that for the safety of the crews and to minimise any damage to boats it was the appropriate decision to take.

The event was therefore scored based on the results of the first day and in the general handicap class, honours were presented to Mike Allen of Bala SC (Devoti D-One) with a corrected time of 3hrs 38 minutes and 43 seconds (who also took the John Hunter Trophy for the highest placed Bala SC competitor on the Saturday). Its amazing that over 4 hours racing the second place was so close with Paul Ridgway and Bronwyn Ridgway from Leigh and Lowton SC (Tasar) recoding a corrected time of 3hr 39 minutes and 24 seconds, just 41 seconds behind Mike. The following three places were taken by Emma Robertson and Ben Gregory from Toddbrook/Swarkestone (RS 200), Andy Todd from Bala SC (RS100) and Tom Fletcher from Hunts SC (RS100).

As part of the main event, the Cruisers and Juniors had a single lap class and in the cruiser class, top honour were taken by Gary and Julie Darch in a standard Drascombe Lugger and second place taken by Dave Ellis in a Cornish Cormorant.

It was great to have five juniors take to the water. Top honours were taken by Finley Partington from Bala SC (ILCA7) with Aiden Hughes and Charlie Partington also from Bala SC in Toppers taking second and third spots respectively.

Bala SC Long Distance - photo © John Hunter

Unfortunately, we cannot control the weather, but we can control the experience for our members and visitors and with Bala SC being a volunteer run, not for profit club we have to mention the 40 volunteers who are needed over the weekend plus all of those who help with the pre-work. Without you, we just cannot operate!

We will be running the event next year and hopefully see even more boats take to the start line. A huge final thank-you to every visitor to the club, we look forward to welcoming you back next year.

Bala SC Long Distance - photo © John Hunter

Cruiser Fleet Results:

Bala SC Long Distance - photo © John Hunter

Junior Fleet Results:

Bala SC Long Distance - photo © John Hunter

Main Handicap Fleet Results:

Bala SC Long Distance - photo © John Hunter