Brass Monkey winners!
Published 20:39 on 1 Mar 2026
St David was hopefully watching on as the final two races of the Brass Monkey Open Series were completed. It has been a great series enjoyed by members and visitors alike. The reputation of Shotwick Lake Sailing, a friendly, welcoming and fun club, with competitive racing is spreading. At least one local club is giving our back-to-back format a go!
With twice as many races this year the racing was tight and as racers took to the water on Sunday there was all to play for. Commodore Jeremy Cooper was back too to add to the excitement.
Dave Thomas commented: with 25 boats competing in the series and some very competitive visitors spicing things up it has been a superb open series. Amongst our members were several new faces, which is fantastic and I hope they enjoyed the experience and will be back for the next series.
We also had some members fairly new to sailing and very new to racing, some who proved that age is no barrier to taking up a new sport!
But none of this could have happened without the team of volunteer OODs, organising the racing and operating the safety boat. Thanks for turning out each weekend, in all weathers. And of course thanks to Dot and Ron and their helpers for ensuring a warm welcome to all in the galley, keeping everyone well-fed and watered.
Although our visitors are heading back to their home clubs we hope to see them again at our next open event: Border Counties Tuesday on May 19th.
For the Shotwick sailors there is no need to wait, as the Spring Series kicks off next Sunday. Hopefully the varnish is dry for those still not sailing and we will get a great turnout.
So how did today go? Well visitor Eric Haselden kept Jeremy honest, chasing him hard right to the end. But Jeremy was clearly on great form and managed to pip Eric to the line in both races, although race 9 this was by a single second on corrected time! It was also good to see the second Supernova, Shotwick helm James Stark, take a podium place in race 10.
The results were enough for Jeremy to take the top spot overall, with Eric in second place followed by Mark Nield in third.
Sunday 1st March Brass Monkey Open Series:
Race 9: 1. Jeremy Cooper (Lightning) 2. Eric Haselden (Supernova) +1s 3. Mark Nield (Laser) +1m14s
Race 10: 1. Jeremy Cooper (Lightning) 2. Eric Haselden (Supernova) +44s 3. James Stark (Supernova) +53s
Brass Monkey Open Series final results:
1. Jeremy Cooper (Lightning) 8pts
2. Eric Haselden (Supernova) 11pts
3. Mark Nield (Laser) 16 pts
Photos by Jon Davies - more photos on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ShotwickLakeSailingClub
Last updated 11:49 on 2 March 2026
