The Sheffield Shuffle 2025
by Tom Keep 31 Oct 10:06 GMT
25-26 October 2025
The Sheffield Shuffle © Henry Medcalf
The 2025 Sheffield Shuffle brought yet another excellent weekend of team racing to Pennine Sailing Club, hosted by Sheffield University Sailing Club on the 25th and 26th of October. Despite challenging winds for both the hosts and competitors, the first event on the northern university team racing calendar did not disappoint.
Teams from across the north, midlands and south took the trip to Sheffield for the weekend: the fleet stood with teams from Newcastle, York, Liverpool, Lancaster, Manchester, Leeds, Lincoln, Loughborough, Hallam and Southampton Universities, as well as two Sheffield University alumni teams.
The event began Friday evening with teams arriving in Sheffield and heading straight out into town for a night in Sheffield's city centre. Saturday morning brought strong wind (and some achy heads) with gusts of up to 30 knots forecast. First came the army of Sheffield University helpers, arriving before dawn to begin the days setup. With the sun rising above the dam wall, teams began to trickle into the clubhouse ready for the 8:30 briefing. With sailors fed, boats rigged and helpers at stations racing was soon under way by 9:30.
Saturday morning ran smoothly with wind less than forecast, a bit of sunshine and boats all reporting minimal issues. However, this calm didn't last long, and helpers were soon rushing up and down the slipway with spare pieces of boat to keep racing flowing. As the afternoon approached the wind built, with capsizes leaving some soggy sailors in their wake. Races continued until 16:30, with 84 races completed and Southampton Hot Pink in the lead.
Along came Saturday night with an inevitable trip to the student's union for Pop Tarts, dressed in a range of weird and wonderful costumes from minions to cows to kitchen appliances (?) With the clocks going back in the early hours, sailors bagged an extra hour in bed (or in Pop Tarts) ready for the next day's sailing.
Sunday brought along rain and even more wind, yet all remained cheery and ready to sail. The round robin resumed from race 85 with the weather slowly deteriorating. After a good few more capsizes, the round robin was called early at race 95, the wind gusting in excess of 33 knots. At the end of this stage, the top four stood with Southampton Hot Pink leading, followed by both Sheffield alumni teams and Loughborough Purple.
After a quick break for lunch, Southampton and Loughborough headed back out into the breeze for the first semi-final. However, one race, broken toe strap and broken rudder stock later the race committee, led by Pete Cowley (PRO), decided to let the wind have it's way and declare racing over for the weekend, leaving Southampton Hot Pink winners of the 2025 Sheffield Shuffle.
A massive thank you to all the University of Sheffield helpers for hosting teams, running the sailing and overall making such an exciting weekend possible. Also, thanks to Sheffield Hallam and Leeds University Sailing Clubs for lending boats for the event, Pennine Sailing Club for the use of their excellent venue, the umpires, photographers and all the sailors who came to compete.
Overall Results:
| Team | Rs Sailed | RWins | Total Points | Sum of wins of beaten opponents | Sum of points of beaten opponents | % wins | Average points | Sum of percenatge wins of beaten opponents | Sum of average points of beaten opponets | Average percentage wins of beaten opponents | Average average points of beaten opponents | Rank by Wins |
|---|
| Southampton Hot Pink | 9 | 9 | 61 | 48 | 829 | 100% | 6.78 | 506% | 894444 | 56% | 10 | 1 |
| SLAGS | 10 | 9 | 75 | 26 | 949 | 90% | 7.5 | 268% | 101.9417 | 30% | 11 | 2 |
| SLUTS | 9 | 8 | 79 | 35 | 782 | 90% | 8.78 | 366% | 82.44167 | 46% | 10 | 3 |
| Loughborough Purple | 10 | 8 | 90 | 30 | 758 | 80% | 9 | 324% | 87.77143 | 40% | 11 | 4 |
| Manchester Purple | 10 | 8 | 80 | 28 | 767 | 80% | 8 | 309% | 85.64643 | 39% | 11 | 4 |
| York Black | 9 | 7 | 72 | 17 | 605 | 80% | 8 | 186% | 69.27143 | 27% | 10 | 6 |
| Newcastle Brown | 8 | 6 | 68 | 19 | 640 | 75% | 8.5 | 188% | 66.43333 | 31% | 11 | 7 |
| Liverpool White | 10 | 6 | 85 | 13 | 684 | 60% | 8.5 | 133% | 73.60476 | 22% | 12 | 8 |
| Leeds Green | 9 | 5 | 87 | 13 | 567 | 60% | 9.67 | 135% | 59.225 | 27% | 12 | 9 |
| Loughborough Pink | 10 | 5 | 103 | 9 | 553 | 50% | 10.3 | 100% | 61.46667 | 20% | 12 | 10 |
| York Gold | 10 | 5 | 102 | 9 | 537 | 50% | 10.2 | 95% | 61.13333 | 19% | 12 | 10 |
| Lincoln Blue | 9 | 3 | 90 | 4 | 350 | 30% | 10 | 37% | 37.6 | 12% | 13 | 12 |
| Newcastle Blue | 10 | 3 | 118 | 6 | 294 | 30% | 11.8 | 76% | 36.8631 | 25% | 12 | 13 |
| Leeds Red | 7 | 2 | 88 | 3 | 235 | 60% | 12.57 | 32% | 24.66667 | 16% | 12 | 14 |
| Lancaster Red | 8 | 2 | 101 | 3 | 235 | 25% | 12.63 | 32% | 24.66667 | 16% | 12 | 15 |
| Newcastle Bombers | 9 | 2 | 105 | 1 | 259 | 20% | 11.67 | 4% | 27.33333 | 2% | 14 | 16 |
| Manchester Yellow | 10 | 2 | 116 | 6 | 233 | 20% | 11.6 | 60% | 23.3 | 30% | 12 | 17 |
| Liverpool Blue | 8 | 1 | 99 | 3 | 90 | 50% | 12.38 | 33% | 10 | 33% | 10 | 18 |
| Hallam freshies | 10 | 1 | 130 | 3 | 90 | 10% | 13 | 33% | 10 | 33% | 10 | 19 |
| Manchester Blue | 9 | ‑1 | 129 | 0 | 0 | ‑5.60% | 14.33 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 0 | 20 |
