NWJTT 2025
38 boats headed to Costa del Bassenthwaite for the 7th round of the popular North West Junior Traveller Series and the 2025 RS Tera Northern Championship.
Riding on the sun cream tales of another British heatwave, the forecast was a weekend of sunshine, high temperatures and little wind. Saturday was a splash-and-paddle-off, with zephyrs coming and going but nothing more than 2 knots ever settling for more than 10 minutes from multiple directions. Parents hid in the trees for shade, the kids enjoyed a day jumping off the jetty, paddleboarding and generally messing about on the water.
Around 3pm, PRO Andy Wilcox hoisted AP over A, announcing no racing would take place that day. Shortly after, a paddleboard relay race was organised from the slip to a buoy and back, with Bass taking line honours.
In the evening, the club BBQs kept away some of the midgies, and later a singer entertained members and visitors in the clubhouse, with several Oasis songs blasting out – around the same time the real Oasis was playing their in Manchester.
Following a small postponement, Sunday looked more promising, with a forecast of 7 mph. Eventually, a southerly breeze settled in, which slowly clocked to the east as the day progressed. This allowed the race team to run four back-to-back races, with the breeze building throughout the day some hiking out was required in the last race.
In the Fast Handicap Lilly Brown sailing an ILCA 6 took the win, narrowly beating Olivia Dembinska by one point. Zoe Goodden sailing a Splash was third. In fourth place and first double-hander was Bethany Skelding and Isla McKeown sailing an RS Feva.
In the slow Slow Handicap James Reekie counted three 1st places and took the overall win, being crowned Tera Pro Northern Champion. Oscar Davenport (Tera Pro) finished 2nd on countback from Molly Haslam (Topper). A successful weekend for the Reekie family, with Andrew finishing 6th overall and becoming Tera Sport Northern Champ.
A big thanks to Red Seal Safety Boats for supporting the event.
Flying 15 and GP14 Open 2025
Photo gallery�Photo gallery 2
A grey afternoon, with lighter than forecast winds, turned wet, and then the wind freshened to F2-3 for 10 F15s and 22 GP14s.
All starts bar one, which resulted in a general recall, were clean. There was some close racing, with positions changing throughout each race, thopugh the results suggest there was more consistency. There was a couple of capsizes in the gusts, and a F15 broached, but no damage.
With a light forecast for Sunday, a fourth race was held (much to the dismay of Neil!)
In the F15s, Andy Tunnicliffe/Richard Rigg secured tthree wins and are overnight leaders, followed by Steve Goacher/Tim Harper, and Robin Dawson/Mike Cowan 3rd
In the GPs, Mark Platt/Chris Jobson and Dave/Lynn Lawson are tied on points, though Mark leads overnight on countback. Nick Brook/Rhiann Bramwell are lying 3rd.
Sunday remained dry, began F1-2 , but freshened to full F2 over the remaining two races.
The GPs had a general recall, but when the F15s had a single recall on the final race, of the five boats OCS, three failed to return so had an early exit.
The wind had some major shifts, but favoured one side of the beat, and then the other, and enabled some substantial gains for those that picked the right side.
In the F15s Tunnicliffe and Goacher each had a win, so their overnight positions remained with Tunnicliffe winning the trophy, Goacher 2nd, and Dawson 3rd.
In the GPs, Lawson had the most consistent results to secure the overall win from Platt. Similarly, Paul Bowmer/Ken Bell sailed well to finish 3rd overall.
Flying 15 and GP14 Open 2025
Heatwave, What Heatwave?
While the south and east basked in a heatwave, it was a weekend of two halves in the Bass micro climate. Saturday’s forecast F3 didn’t materialise so the nine sailors had to make do with a F1 occasionally gusting F2, and various drizzly wet showers.
In the F15s, Robbie D/Toggle were late to the start after making some temporary repairs to the tiller extension, and were unable to catch up with Ian/Lezliann. They had a flying start in the next race, but Ian took the lead at the end of the first spinnaker leg, and continued to extend their lead despite various calm spots at the windward marks. Ian/Lezliann lead the series.
In the handicap fleet, Neil/Archie in their RS400 had some close racing with Mark in his RS100, but on handicap it was Olivia in her Aero 5 that won. In the next race, Olivia scuppered her chances when she sailed around an additional mark (which was no longer in the course) finishing 3rd behind Scumper and Neil/Archie.
MG etc latest results
Sunday was forecast to have NE F1, but racing started in WNW F1 rising to F2 by the lunch break, after which the effects of a sea breeze increased the strength to F3. With blue skies throughout the day the small fleet of six boats enjoyed some champagne sailing conditions. With no other GPs sailing, AJ/Sue raced in the handicap fleet and won both races. Ian finished 2nd in his Solo, with the next three boats finishing in just over 30 secs on corrected time. Artur in his Aero 7 finished 2nd in the afternoon race, and presently leads the series..
BL etc latest results
The Tera Inlands were held at Burton with excellent results by team Bass. James Reekie and Oscar Davenport were 3rd and 4th respectively in the Tera Pros, while Andrew Reekie was 13th in the Tera Sports and Rory Davenport finishing in the top half of the same fleet. Congratulations to them all.
Summer Solstice
The summer solstice on Saturday brought warm winds with the threat of rain. Twelve sailors were competing for the MJM trophy. The F2 southerly backed to SSW through the afternoon as it increased towards F3.
The starts were tight, but declared clear by the OD. Neil/Rory in their F15 led both races, and the bulk of the others were well bunched. On handicap, AJ/Sue in their GP with Neil/Rory 2nd, then Nigel/Glynis in a GP, and Paul in ILCA 6.
In the next race, despite spinnaker problems, Neil/Rory won, followed by AJ/Sue, then Neil and Archie, both in ILCA 6s.
Following the overnight thunderstorms, the wind had picked up as forecast, and only two sailors turned up but opted not to go out, so racing was cancelled for the day.
Championship Weekend
Despite being just a week away from the longest day, there was no hint of summer in the weather conditions. The campers on site had a wet, stormy night, with the occasional lightning flash!
Wind strength varied through the morning, and through the afternoon too, mainly due the wind swinging around Sale Fell, and the shadow that it cast over the northern end of the lake.
With other events drawing sailors elsewhere, together with the blustery conditions, the turnout of 23 boats over five fleets was lower than usual. All ten starts during the day were clear. Towards the end of the first race the wind backed more to the south, casting a calm shadow over 0, the windward mark, so there was an element of drifiting for a while before getting back into the stronger conditions which were the cause of some superb planing conditions, and various capsizes to keep the rescue crews busy.
In the asymmetric fleet, Matt/Oliver and Pix/Evie, both in RS200s, are 1st and 2nd respectively overnight. Dave/Lynn won the only GP race from Val/Ken. NeilC in an ILCA 6 leads the handicap fleet from Jonathon in his Devoti D-Zero. In the F15s, tied on points, Andy/Toggle won the last race to split their tie with Neil/Rory. In the slow handicap fleet, Oscar leads ahead of younger brother Rory, both sailing Tera Sports.
On Sunday morning the wind veered to the SW, minimising any effect from Sale Fell, but it continued to swing causing the main beat to be somewhat one-sided at times. As the boats approached the gybe mark 9, gusts would regularly appear, one of which caught out Andy/Toggle in their F15, and they were unable to depower/avoid hitting the mark, so had to do a 360 penalty. Again the gusts caused a few capsizes, and more great planing conditions.
Two races were held before lunch, after which it was only the diehard juniors in Teras that raced, making life easier for stand in starter Felix!
The overnight results remained in the Handicap, GP and F15 fleets, with trophies going to NeilC, Dave/Lynn, and Andy/Toggle respectively.
Matt/Oliver had two more wins in the asymmetric fleet, and won the series with Pix/Evie 2nd. Oscar won the slow handicap series, but Andrew in a Tera had some good results to overtake Rory and finish 2nd overall.
Fleet Challange A 2025
This weekend 17 boats competed in the first fleet challenge series of the year. Weather conditions were similar on both days, with a westerly F1-2 that freshened as the afternoon went on. Some of the gusts enabled great planing conditions, and resulted in a few capsizes.
On handicap, the conditions proved more suitable for the single handers with wins by Rory in his K1, Dave in a ILCA 6, and Olivia in a ILCA 4, while Neil in a ILCA 6 secured three 2nds.
Overall, Dave won with two wins and a 2nd, ahead of Neil, and AJ/Sue in their GP, who retired from the final race, 3rd.
Laser/Solo Open 7 June Cancelled
Bassenthwaite have decided to cancel the planned Laser and Solo open due to low entry numbers.
Club racing will continue as planned in the schedule.
Any visitors that were planning on entering on the day would be more than welcome to sail our standard club racing of two races back to back starting at 1430. Contact John Reekie on the day who is the race officer of the day to get signed in.
Bottoms Up!
Perhaps due to the tale end of half term, or the weather forecast F3 gusting 5, numbers sailing were low on Saturday.
Ginger Phil led the way in his VX One, but a powerful gust on the 2nd lap proved too much and there was a spectacular capsize after which they retired. Rory in his K1 retired after gear failure.
Hugh was in a Solo, and had several capsizes, but keen to take part in the second race. Oliver in a Tera, had the best start, stayed upright, successfully completed the first race. With Hugh capsizing before the next start, Oliver had the line to himself but only sailed the first beat before heading ashore, which was more than Hugh managed as his boat capsized again each time he righted it, and never made it over the start line.
On handicap, Hugh won the first race, with Oliver 2nd. Neil/Archie still lead the series.
Although Sunday’s forecast was similar to Saturday, in reality it was somewhat less blustery, with the occasional shower.
A capsize by Banter/Oscar in RS400 gave the lead to Robin/Toggle in their F15, but they lost considerable ground on the next beat as they retied the genny sheets after they came adrift. On handicap Banter/Oscar won, with Artur in his Aero 2nd, though he presently leads the series.
The Calvert Trust pennant followed, the wind strength picked up for a while, and Banter/Oscar enjoyed some spectacular planing conditions at times, but they could not pull ahead enough from Robin/Toggle who won on handicap. Artur capsized after being caught out by one gust on the beat, but recovered to sail on.