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 .

High pressure over most of the UK meant this was always going to be a Light wind affair, and so it was, but not so light to make it totally frustrating , just a tad for some, 12 skippers turned up so cant complain on the turnout, a couple fresh back from visiting the Worlds in Australia, (I think they picked up some tips), new member Paul came down and tried out a couple of boats, Dave Rigby finally got his hands on his Venti, but he know’s it will not happen overnight. OOD’s were down early and got a lot of help from Darin and Pete , nice to see Greg assistant OOD after a fair old absence. Racing took place on the South bank and after a bit of fine tuning by Darin, Colin H 20 was raring to go, And managed a very good third place after Darin and Jen in first and second respectfully , so well done, his smile told the story, and it was ear to ear in the second race that he won with ease, with Cooper ala Mick taking a well deserved 2nd place, fantastic and well done, Darin was never far away keeping his powder clean ( leant that from the Worlds ) Pete W started slow as usual but gradually found his rhythm and took a couple of wins during the morning, I was told that there was a bit of jet lag around but Martyn showed none of it, and stormed thru taking a win and taking third spot over the mornings 7 races , it was a long course with three full length beats that were both shifty and fluky at the same time, Roger C picked up the pace after coffee and finished of with three 2nd places, Sam P did ok, got a second spot , but is itching to get hold of a more competitive boat, and when he does look out, he will be one to watch. I am thinking Adrian could do with some help on his Sedici with the rig tune ( maybe next time ) cos the Sedici is definitely a lot quicker than it showed today. Paul our new member probably leant a lot today trying out his 2 boats and we look forward to seeing more of him on the water. At the end of the day Darin took the top step and is still the guy to beat at the club, so very well done to him , and many thanks to all who helped get things sorted and put away.

Sunday 27th October, DF65

Sunday dawned bright and clear, with a nice wind from the SW. Pete, who was OOD was out on the water first thing setting 2 courses, one on the East Bank, the other on the South Bank (just in case the wind shifted). In the event the wind stayed consistent and we stayed on the East Bank, not even having to alter any marks all day!
Pete (65) got off to a great start and opened up a commanding win, winning the day, even more commendably managed to win in spite of having Gremlins attacking his boat! Pete experienced radio clitches which by the end of the day having to retire  yet still managed to win.

Mick C (46) had a good day, sailing constantly well finished just behind Pete. Mention must be made about Sam (59), bit of a dark horse that lad, he one one race, crossing the line whilst the rest of the fleet hadn’t turned the bottom mark! He was always just behind Mick and Pete.

Unfortunately Richard (699) also was attacked by the Gremlins, having issues all morning with rig problems, by his own admission wasn’t his finest hour.

All in all a great day’s sailing, enjoyed by all and blessed with great conditions allowing for 11 great races,Well done all..

Report by Colin Toll the race officer