Lowrider International Moth Inland Championship 2026 at Burton Sailing Club

Russ Wheeler thinking he may have to sheet in a tad harder - Lowrider International Moth Inland Championship at Burton © Dougal Henshall

A Game of Two Halves

Three years ago, almost to the day, the Lowrider International Moths assembled at Burton Sailing Club for a weekend of Championship sailing, only to be greeted by hammering gusts and major shifts in wind direction, plus some massive holes to catch out the unwary. The Lowrider fleet has changed a lot since then with the arrival of many 'new -old' boats, but Burton seemed to want to keep up the good work by serving up another severe test on the Saturday as the Moths headed out afloat for their Inland Championship.

Headed out might be something of a misnomer as the Burton Race Team were all fired up ready for an on-time start, the only thing they were missing was competitors and most of the boats were still on the shore on their trolleys. In the end an exasperated RO sent a RIB to the shore to tell them fleet that he'd be starting soon and they could either get going or miss the start.

This though was just the first act in the drama that followed. The conditions were already officially 'brisk' but the reduced water level in the reservoir resulted in some strange wind patterns, with gusts that seemed to almost descend vertically onto the Moths as they cleared the shelter of the tree line.

The French entry of David Balkwill decided that it wouldn't wait for a helm and took off on its own but luckily drifted over towards a pontoon where it could be recovered but it would go no further that day, the near semi-circular hull on the vintage Duflos would have struggled big time in the conditions out on the lake.

Others got a little more than 200m from the slipway before they had their first taste of the water, there would be many more to follow but for the RIB teams, it seemed that boats were over everywhere.

Eventually a race did get under way but with boats already capsized around the course, the start was something of an anti-climax. Paul Higgnet, who will be the UK's representative at the Lowrider section of the upcoming Moth Worlds in Perth, Western Australia, showed that the prospect of strong winds down under should pose few problems for him as he sailed a controlled, steady race whilst showing good boatspeed in a borrowed boat.

Behind him would be lots of place changing, mainly caused by the masthead coming into contact with the surface of the water, a few escaped and those that did provided some great moments of high-speed sailing.

The Lowriders are already attracting younger talent into the fleet (why sail an ILCA when you can have so much more fun in one of these?!) with George Edwards going on to take a great win in Race 2 - Lowrider International Moth Inland Championship at Burton - photo © Dougal Henshall

Race 2 started as a rerun of the first heat, but then the weather started playing some really bizarre tricks. The long reach across the lake towards the dam had started off as a white-knuckle screamer, only for a sudden 100°-degree windshift to turn it into a beat. What followed was a brief, two-minute rain shower, then the wind shut off almost completely. One of the very quick younger members of the fleet, George Edwards, read the changing conditions the best to sneak around the mark in the lead then enjoy his own private bit of wind all the way to the finish. Meanwhile, most of the boats spent a period totally becalmed before the wind swung back to its original heading before returning in strength with a vengeance.

This was the call for the fleet to break for a quick lunch in the hope that the conditions might be better in the afternoon, but in many ways they were even worse. Some of the gusts now were little short of evil, to the point that George Edwards, who had done so well in Race two, found himself without a mast halfway through Race Three. The gust that did for George almost did for Lyndon Beasley in his Magnum 6, one of the most capable, all-round boats (and sailor) in the fleet. As he was already close to the top of the course Lyndon wisely carried on sailing to windward and headed for the shore, behind him the lake was strewn with capsized Moths.

None of this seemed to bother Paul as he sailed on, without any problems, to make it three wins out of four on the day.

Lyndon Beasley leading Division 2 in the Magnum - he would go on to win both races on the Sunday - Lowrider International Moth Inland Championship at Burton - photo © Dougal Henshall

Just as with the previous event, Sunday was the polar opposite of the Saturday, sunshine and a light breeze that was blowing down the lake. This brought the Division 3 boats out afloat, including John Edwards in an elderly Mistral that had been found in a garage somewhere 'oop North' and restored to sailing trim, a process that had only been completed the previous day.

John would enjoy a great day of joined at the hip racing with David Balkwill in the French Duflos, their close battle would be one of the high spots of the day. That was....once the fleet finally shook of their slumbers and made it out afloat as once again, the Race Team were all set and ready to go, with the RO's patience being tested as the fleet seemed to think start times were an elastic commodity!

With boats no longer in survival mode the starts were far more competitive with Russ Wheeler suddenly finding that there was no room left at the pin and bailing out, not an easy task in a narrow moth with wide wings. In the very different conditions more new faces hit the front, with Tom Foxall sailing very quickly (he would have been even quicker if he had checked the course layout first) whilst Martin Harrison was always lurking close by waiting for Tom to make another slip.

Two thirds of the 'Battle of the Butter Dishes', showing the tortured hull forms of these early boats (incredibly the Skol sailed by Hugh Dyer went afloat on the Saturday) - Lowrider International Moth Inland Championship at Burton - photo © Dougal Henshall

The second race of the morning, the final race in the series saw another close start but then the wind decided to switch off again for a while, but one boat that was able to keep going was the Magnum of Lyndon Beasley, who led all the much fast boats around to be first home and take his second win of the morning on handicap ahead of David Balkwill and Paul Burgoine.

For racing the Moths run first past the post results and handicap in parallel but with the four windy races on the Saturday playing such a big part it was clear that the top three on the water, Hignett, Harrison and Burgoine would also take the handicap prizes, though Lyndon Beasley's 2 wins and a second could easily have placed him in the chocolates with just one more result to count.

Overall, Burton again showed a fine, friendly face to the Lowrider Moths, which is more than can be said for the weather on the Saturday. It's great that the UK fleet will have a representative at the Worlds in Perth next month, but in the bigger picture the Moths are now casting their eyes towards 2028, when the Moth scene will be celebrating their centenary.

Even in the fruitiest of the gusts Paul Hignett looked poised, in control and quick, taking a well deserved win overall - Lowrider International Moth Inland Championship at Burton - photo © Dougal Henshall

Overall Results:

Handicap Results: