It's all over... yesterday was the last raceday of the FISLY European Sand Yacht Championships which is being being hosted by the BFSLYC at the Wirral LYC homebase at Hoylake. It's been an interesting event with a mixture of some frustrating days and some extreme racing such as Wednesday's Force 6 outing where the  sand flew as fast as the yachts! The championships kicked off last Saturday, September 17 and concluded yesterday (Friday, September 23).

Over 120 people from across Britain, Ireland and Europe  competed in the five race classes of landyachts (c2, c3, c5, Class Standart and Class Promo) for the European Championship titles. They came from near and afar with competitors from Ireland, Germany, Belgium, France and even a representative landsailor from the Southern Hemisphere in Colin Palmer from Auckland, New Zealand, who competing in the Class 2 category in KZ11, a  borrowed landyacht from Gareth Rowland.

 

THE VERY LATEST...

 

FINAL RACE RESULTS:

Final Class 2 Results

Final Class 3 Results

Final Class 5 Results

Final Class Standart Results

Final Class Promo results

 

COUNTRY RESULTS:

Class 2 Country Results

Class 3 Country Results

Class 5 Country Results

Class Standart Country Results

Class Promo Country Results

 

EXCITING PHOTOS:

And, don't forget to check out photographer Walter Carel's amazing race images, taken every day throughout the event. Walter's website is:

Walter Carel's View of the 2011 Euros

 

PLUS our daily updates & photos further down the page...

This page has "broadcast" the news, reviews, results and photographs as the event progressed.

Thursday Sept 22 (9.11am):

Brown trousers several times yesterday. Wind picking up and blowing sand. Lots of sand blowing making visibility poor, not good when looking for soft sand areas on the beach.

 

All the recent reports, pix and results to hand:

Friday Sept 23 (9.39am):

Today is last race day. Forecast a Force 3 to 4, no rain. We (Class 2) race at 1pm. Then a long pack up and home.

(Have posted some of Wednesday's wild racing pix below)

regards to all
Gareth (K800)

Thursday Sept 22 (8.46am):

Force 6 to 7 yesterday. Still shaking and digging sand out of my eyes.Two close calls while hiking. Will look at trying another mast today. My mast broke as I was towing in with no sail! Not happy sailing with someone else's rig in today's moderate winds.

Wednesday Sept 21 (9.30am):

Today it's Class 5 on the grid first followed by the Standarts. Wind forecast today up around 20 to 25 mph.

Tuesday Sept 20 (8.23pm):

Promos had the best race 1st thing. We (Class 2) were 2nd race. Sailed in light winds, I finished in third place. Then the wind dropped but picked up last minute to run a Class 3 race is a moderate breeze, but the tide was coming in on a gully. The photographers had all gone home, but I hadn't (see some of the racing pix from the last race of the day below).

Monday Sept 19 (7.24am):

Good wind this morning but with dark clouds around. Hope to file a report from the beach.

 

Sunday Sept 18 (8:09pm):

Forgot my mobile so using Gareth's. I'm a bit stuffed from pushing my heavy yacht (Gareth's Class 3) and too much Turkish kebabs. We're hoping for better conditions tomorrow.

Sunday Sept 18 (8:07pm):

In Antib, a Turkish place with Colin and Bev Palmer from New Zealand. I was 1st in the Class 2 lap then race cancelled. Cat among the pigeons!!

Saturday Sept 17 (evening):

Having Gammon and Eggs for dinner with another "Wytchfinder" (check out the Wychwood Brewery in Oxfordshire at www.wychwood.co.uk). Beach is now better. We'll be on outer banks tomorrow as the inside pan is too wet Typical Hoylake. Have a two-hour window.

Saturday Sept 17 (late afternoon):

Registration, scrutineering and briefings all done. No sailing. Having "Wytchfinder" ale at Hoylake Lights (Wetherspoons) pub in Hoylake. We (Class 2) are on first at 10.00am so early to bed tonight.

Probably the best way to describe ice sailing in the United Kingdom is "Patience, Patience" not easy with keen ice sailors. Probably the most extreme sailing you can do, a yacht designed in 1937 made of wood and resin with top speeds of 70 mph, no brakes and raced in sub zero temperatures.

The waiting bit....

Britain had the coldest late November/ December on record, for K11, Gareth Rowland living on the East Coast of Lincolnshire was watching the weather like a hawk. We had too much snow on the east coast, inland at Lincoln and the wolds, our hills, the sub zero temperatures reached double figures, great for getting some ice on lakes but the snow showers kept coming in covering any ice, also making road travel difficult. We even had thunder and lightening in a snow storm, amazing! The rest of the north and west of the UK was very cold, for at least at a week, so the hunt for good ice was on.

The problem with the UK is someone owns something. Any lake or area of water belongs to some one so getting any kind of contact with the appropriate person is very hard, especially as most cannot get to work because of the snow and ice. Phones go unanswered, Emails get returned " out of the office" So we were very happy to make contact with the Leigh & Lowton Sailing club who run a winter sailing program. Neil Marsden ( K10) had ice sailed at the club last year, so we knew the lake.

Leigh and Lowton sailing club is just North west of Manchester, google maps will find it as Pennington Flash, I think the lake is old mine workings that have flooded and subsided making the present lake. An almost rectangular lake almost a mile east to west and a third of a mile north to South maybe relatively shallow. That is maybe why it freezes well. Any other larger deeper lakes will not freeze add our variable british weather and you find you are limited to only a few lakes that freeze safely.

So the scene was set, cold weather, little snow west of the pennines , for us on the East side of the pennines it was snow, snow and more snow making road travel very, very difficult. The weekend of the 4/5 December was the favoured date. Ice reports came in Friday of three inch's of good ice with cold night of -12c. Day temperatures not above 0c. So it looked good. But the wind!! Need I say freezing fog! The forecast was for No wind Saturday and Sunday with very cold nights. The phones were busy as us brits tried to arrange the first ever British ice sailing Championships. By Friday night we agreed to postpone the Championships as the prospect of sitting on a frozen lake that was sailable with not a breath of wind was unbearable.

The Weather forecast was for some wind on Thursday but bringing rising Temperatures, so the scene was set, travel to Pennington Flash Wednesday, set up and race the British Championships Thursday 9th December. The problem was the wind would bring warmer temperatures, better for those snow and ice bound but not for us, so the sailing window was very narrow.

Wednesday

K11 managed to pack the DN K11 and the Class three ice yacht. Getting out of Lincolnshire was a steady trip as the roads were only just passable after last week's snow storms, the only way was over the M62, thankfully snow free, the further west you went the less the snow, so by the time I was at Pennington Flash at 2.30pm there was virtually no snow.

Neil Marsden was already on the ice with his yacht and his dad's, so I unloaded and set up. Within 30 minutes K11 was on the ice sailing, The ice was over four inch's thick and strong, so we had a good blast around the lake. Neil's second ice yacht was skippered by Johny McGovern an instructor and experienced 470 water sailor. Johny had a quick instruction from Neil how ice yachts work and away he went.

Later the three yachts set up a ad hoc circuit, little realising we were actually racing the first ever heat of a National Championship. The wind was light from the NW but we clocked 32 mph in the race, maybe 5 to six times the wind speed. Neil had an earlier problem as in his training he broke his mast and the front runner was not the sharpest. K11 won the race on the downwind runs. I had tell tails on the sail but lacked a wind pointer, Neil had a wind pointer but no tell tails, plus Neil's house mouse had a little nibble to the luff of his sail. I managed to sail fast across the wind then point deep downwind watching the tell tails all the way. Three laps later we finished for a welcome coffee. By now the wind dropped of so we called it a day very happy with a few hours sailing on a British lake. K11 booked in a hotel one mile from Pennington Flash and tried to connect to the internet only to find the server was down!

Thursday

By now the local radio and TV had caught wind of the story and all were set to come and talk and film us on what might become a historic regatta, but the weather had a twist. 6.30am it was -5c, by 7 am I thought the frost had gone from the cars outside my hotel, no, it was rain! Then the skies cleared and It promptly froze on any surface, luckily my land rover 90 is winterised with a pre heater and heated screen. Everyone else was scraping ice off their windscreens like mad. Worse still were the roads as the rain caused black ice on busy rush hour roads. Result... a 40 car pile up and chaos on the main roads and motorways. I left the Hotel only to be told the main East Lancashire road was closed and you could see long tail backs on every road. It took me 45 minutes to travel one mile. At the Lake K11 set up and was told the local BBC Radio would not be coming as they were stuck in Traffic. Neil was also stuck in the huge traffic jam on the M6 that made national headlines. He arrive 90 minutes late, but at least safe.

This was the day we had a wind forecast of 12 to 15 mph from the NW, what did we have, Zero mph!! With three yachts rigged, set, ready to go, we busied ourselves with yacht tuning and comparing. Just before The BBC TV turned up a light NW finally plucked up. We had a quick cruise round on the ice as the TV cameras set up. Then we performed for the cameras and decided on a course and had a race in a little more wind. Neil's sailing partner Johny McGovern did well on the down wind beating Neil into third place.

The next race we had was almost across the wind using two white balls on an anti clock wise course. K11 was wired up by the BBC to get some sound of us sailing on ice, K11 was also asked to provide a commentary. Neil was faster upwind as he tried K11's loaned polish bandy mast. With an internal mast stiffener it looked like this would be very good for Neil's weight. See the pictures. Time was about PM and the temperature was rising with a hazy sun, the lake changed to having a fine layer of water on the ice, also the fine cracks we opening up. As we sailed some more, the ice was fast but the top layer was getting softer and we were slopping about in an inch of water at the pits. We decided to call it a day as the clouds were building and the light going. We packed up in light rain, very happy we had sailed and raced on an English lake a few hours on Wednesday and Thursday with out mishaps. Perhaps we may have not done the racing by the book but we were all happy to call it the first Nationals. In Britain I think any ice-sailing will be at short notice, so getting good ice and people with the time to race will always be difficult, also we were very wary of the fact if we did announce it in advance there might be too many spectators.