For the third time since Covid stopped play West Lancs. Yacht Club ran the 24h race on the Marine Lake in Southport. We were there along with 75 other GP14s, Enterprises and Fireflys (Fireflies?). At the beginning of the year our team manager, David Williams-Baldwin, started planning for the event. A small committee helped David with the work and planning. We would need a robust boat with decent performance, a place to set up home by the water, food, drink, sailors who were familiar with the boat and flying it's spinnaker. One boat was entered as it is quite expensive. The Duffin, gifted to us by Kim Pickering was selected and Jon and Colin set to work renovating it and making it strong enough to last the punishing 24 hours. Training sessions were arranged to get the volunteer crew up to standard. Many of us were not really familiar with the GP, in fact many of us were not used to having more than one sail. Having an extra body in the boat moving around unexpectedly was also novel. We took up the challenge though and were amazingly proficient come race day. A lesson from previous years was that we needed a homely base camp and some provisions to keep the crew fed and watered. Lewis and Lesley took care of this. The RYA gazebo with the red walls from Lesley's gazebo were ideal. Trips were made to Costco for provisions, sausages, cheese, ham, bread, flap jack and cake, quite a lot of cake. Tea, coffee and hot chocolate and several cooking appliances. Our camp was very cosy with maybe 10 folding chairs, 2 tables and 8 people squashed in to it's 3m square footprint at any one time. Racing started on time with our Duffin in the 5th flight with Pete and Jon aboard. Pretty windy for the first afternoon 15-20kt gusting 25kt and from the south. Safety boats were kept busy monitoring the numerous capsizes but Jon and Pete kept the mast pointing upwards and the burgee intact. Later in the race we did have one capsize and collected some plant life on the shroud. Around teatime on Saturday the wind decreased. We entertained some visitors on Saturday, Malcolm and Jenny Friar, Keith Sowley and Carol, and Kim Pickering with his family. Carlos came to support us and did the midnight shift of lap counting for the organisers. Wind decreased during the evening and overnight to just a few knots, sitting still and not rocking the boat was the order of the day. On Sunday morning Steve Bellamy volunteered on the safety boats which was pleasant in the warm sunshine. After 12 O'clock the first boats were crossing the finish line to the cheers and applause of the crowd on shore. South Staffs 'A' team took first place overall after the results were calculated. Our Winsford Flash team came 48th from 74 finishers. Fair result considering most of us were not dyed in the wool GP sailors. We will improve next year! Many thanks to all who sailed, provided support, logistics and made tea. David Williams-Baldwin Jon Close Lesley & Zoë Goodden Lewis Bowden Carl Ellis Vicky, Duncan, Jess & Beth Skelding Colin Cumming Caroline & Thomas Carrig Catherine & Steve Bellamy & Joyce Bingham Lyndon & Finley Monks Frank Lafferty Ian Foulkes Pete Chambers Richard Moss Robin & Isabel Powell | 
