SYS 1 Hour Endurance Race 2025
Sunday 28th September
Report, results & photos by Russ Chilcott
We had 7 skippers entering our annual 1 hour endurance race for the Dragonforce 65 yachts. The wind was very light coming from the west. I set a rectangle course at an angle across the lake to follow a narrow band of wind that seemed to be just about reaching water level! A start/finish/lap counting line was set in the middle of the course.
Just before things got underway Graham’s winch sheeting elastic broken and all the line dropped off the winch drum. It’s not a quick fix but luckily for him the Clubs Loan Boat was on hand and ready to go so he was able to switch to that one.
We started the race roughly on time at around 10.15am. I got off to good start with John (Woodman) and Rick close behind. After 20 mins John and Rick had both nicked the lead from me for a short while. I then got lucky for a spell as I seemed to find all the wind shifts and pulled away a slight lead. Rod was running in 4th with Graham, Malcolm and Ed all falling into wind “holes” as they dropped back over half a lap behind.
By the halfway point Graham found a lovely wind shift and in just a few minutes he had suddenly moved up and was alongside Rick fighting for 3rd place! The race carried on in this order for while with the gaps throughout the fleet opening and then closing again as the very light wind picked up and dropped away.
Roughly 45 minutes into the race I made a bad move deciding to take a higher line I sailed my boat right into a hole and stopped dead! John soon passed me to take the lead followed by Graham. I picked up again and dropped into 3rd place with Rick not too far behind. Now it seemed to be the turn of John to get all the nicely timed wind shifts and he made the most of it.
Over the final 10 minutes John sailed away stretching out further ahead as the final few minutes passed. Kevin (Roberts) was our Lap Counter/Timer, and as he called time John was the only one to have completed 10 laps. He had won the race by a very good margin.
I had gained on Graham and was close behind him chasing down 2nd place. As he rounded the final marker with only a short distance to the finish line there was a slight wind shift which stalled his boat. This was enough for me to slip through and nick 2nd place. To say he was a bit gutted was an understatement! On reflection he should be very pleased with a 3rd place considering he was using the Loan Boat and had not had time to do any tuning.
Rick was a little way back but happy with his 4th place and pleased to have been in the lead of the race once, if only for a short while. Rod, also on the same lap but a bit further back took 5th place with Ed a lap behind in 6th and Malcolm another lap back in 7th.
Racing a boat non-stop for an hour can be quite taxing especially at Apex with its usual “tricky wind shifts” but I think everyone enjoyed it. John had made the best of the conditions and is a worthy winner of this event for the third year running. Well done to him.
A big thank you to Kevin for doing the Lap Counting and timing, it was very much appreciated.
Results;
Place Sail No name laps finishing order
1st 60 John Woodman 10 (3)
2nd 7 Russ Chicott 9 (1)
3rd 00 Graham Small 9 (2)
4th 72 Rick Hamerslag 9 (4)
5th 88 Rod Butler 9 (7)
6th 73 Ed Olliver 8 (6)
7th 13 Malcolm Pearson 7 (5)
John (right) collecting the trophy from Kevin