Weather forecast told us it was going to be windy, it to be fair was OK , at least the rain kept away, Jen and the gang got stuff sorted out and we had a great windward leeward course along the favored East bank, 8 skipper’s on the start line, and off to a flyer was Mick C 46 on a B rig which I believe all but two skippers opted for, Martyn 66 got the second spot and Pete 65 with the A rig managed to get round the course and took third spot. We had three non finishers in the first race and one of them was the other Brave A rig starter. But buoyed by his decent position in the first race Pete opted to stick with the larger rig, a bit risky especially tacking, Mick stormed away on the second race but this time it was Sam 59 in close contention and they took the first two places followed home by Jen 69. Pete I think then realised the A rig was not the best option and quickly changed down to B and just made the start. The racing was close and it was a very good beat, the water was a little lumpy and you needed to pick your spot to tack, but once round the weather mark followed by the wing , sheets out and you were flying. Martyn took his first bullet with Mick 2nd and Sam sailing some very good races took the 3rd , Pete had not, to be fair had time to fine tune his B rig and came in in 4th, but hey look out cos we all know Pete is a slow starter.

Sure enough Pete then took the next two bullets, with Mick in his wake and Martyn picking up the bits, We had lost Dave R 180 from race three with a broken winch, and after race 5 we lost Mick for reasons only really known to him, with three 2nds and two first’s he was in a good position but hey ho. The breeze was a bit up and down for the last 5 races , I understand the sun came out and the breeze eased. the wins were shared but Martyn seemed to have the best setup , Jen 69 took a bullet in race 9 and it was pleasing that every body except Mick and Dave stayed the course. Richard J699 and Dave C 60 had their personal battles with Dave just coming out on top with 46 points, all in all a good morning’s racing for maybe the last one of 2024 ,(DF 95 on the 29th Dec ) many congratulations on the win albeit on countback from Pete .( They all count ) Many thanks to all who put the gear away ,

Merry Christmas everybody

Ok ,depths of winter and you would be surprised to get a few out , but let me tell you we had a fantastic entry , 20 skippers showed up including 4 visitors, which was exceptional, OOD’s Martin and Jen quickly got the course sorted with a bit of help on our favorite East bank , and with the breeze varying in strength from 30% to at times 90% of top rig, it was always going to be a great day of racing. 20 on the line and it was pretty congested, Micky boy 46 got the start he wanted in the first race and led the fleet from the start and took the first win with his Venti, Chris 74 taking second ” B Pop “and Dorian, 60 ” B Pop” one of our visitors took third spot. A few minutes sorting rigs to enhance the tune and we were of again, and this time Chris 74 took the win from Timmy 134 ” B P and Dorian 60 taking a win each, Dorian by the way was racing a Brit Pop, but I do apologise for not knowing our other visitors designs ” sorry ” what I do know is our very own Paul Kelly 98 ,who has only recently come into radio sailing from Dingy’s was sailing a borrowed Pikanto many thanks DB , and I am sure he enjoyed himself and we will certainly see more from Paul in future races at the club. Pete W 65 generally starts slowly but by race 4 was knocking on the door with a second place, and followed through with a couple of bullets in races 5 and 6. Lunch was had around races 8/9 a strict 35 minutes, as everybody I am sure was caught up with the excitement of the racing, it really was great conditions. Towards the end Pete took 4 bullets out of the remaining 6 races to underline his dominance, with Dorian and Timmy finishing on the podium. One or two bowed out early in the piece either with boat problems or rig failure’s but leaving a very strong fleet, Dusk was approaching as we did the last couple of races which took us right up to the 3pm deadline , For the record Pete won 7 races Dorian won 4 races Timmy won 2 races Micky boy, Chris ,and Rob, won 1 each , 16 great races, Many thanks to all , especially our visitors who will hope will come again , and many thanks to all for putting the gear away, very difficult with so many to give all a mention but you were all very much appreciated. I am sure you like me, enjoyed the day, we shall be having another extended hours day in January, just keep your eye on the calendar and MYA downwind .

Finally congratulations to Pete and the rest of the podium boys.

If I told you all it was awful you would all say ” yes not surprised ” The weather forecast was as bleak as it has ever been let me tell you , but I arrived and Tim and Roger our OOD’s for the day were both there , dingy launched ready to move the buoys, sign out flags up, wow I am thinking if no body else turns up we can cancel and go home to a roaring fire , but hey within 20 minutes we had 8 eager beavers rigging their boats in the wind ( yes it was friggin windy and the rain was horizontal ) so 9 of us Roger was not sailing, Even the Landlady turned up, I had already received messages from a few pussies, Not coming today etc etc, But hey what I am about to tell you is we had 9 fantastic races , we helped repair and rerig a couple of boats , big joint effort and we all raced to the end.

Timmy as he is fondly called down under was the master of the conditions, and won four of the 9races The old man Micky boy tried to keep him honest and had a couple of wins, Colin Helliwell sailed brilliantly and won a couple and took the final race of the morning and you could see the pleasure emanating from his face after that one , and the other win was taken by Kevin, The morning started on C rigs except for Colin Toll who only had a B rig but sailed very well with it, we could have probably gone to B rigs around midday when the breeze moderated , but we didn’t, The races were all fantastic I kid you not, If we were in dingy’s we would all have been swimming that’s for sure, just goes to show turn up and take what comes and sometimes you could well be surprised and we were .

Well done Timmy and well done to all for showing up and having a go it really was worth every minute.

Thanks also to everybody for putting all the gear away .

Weather forecast not great , a few trembling knees on the no shows, but hey it turned out not too bad at all , showers , sunshine and a decent breeze from the South West , what more do you want.

We had 5 skippers and we all started on the same rig which was B , Rigger’s Rigby got off to a flying start and took the first race , Mick C took the 2nd spot with a crafty little tack right on the finish line from Pete W , 2nd race Dave again took the win with great speed on beat and on the run , Pete got the 2nd spot , Richard was still finding his feet and a few adjustments were made on Dave C ‘s boat with some advice to make improvements, After 3 races we called a coffee break as it appeared the wind had got a little lighter , 4 boats changed to A rig , and after a banana and a biscuit we lined up again, to be fair it did not seem to have lightened , but hey ho , Pete took the win , Mick C went in irons just after the start and was lacking the skill to get going, leaving Dave to chase Pete down, Richard decided ( quite rightly in my humble opinion) to change back to B rig , and just before the start of race 5 Mick C had a catastrophic Bridle failure and was out of the mornings racing , Richard was getting to grips with the B rig and was sailing very well in fact he took the win in race 6 , Pete took the final race but Dave who had sailed a great morning to win the mornings bragging rights, with a great performance,

A good mornings racing for all proving that you miss it, at your peril, well done all. Especially Dave R 180 It was 14 C by the way .

Report done for Dave by agreement .