… The weather that is! The good weather’s resulted in another good turnout for Thursday evening racing, or is it just Pat’s after race food?

The weekend should start off well, but they reckon rain’s on its way

The first evening racing of the series got off to a busy start (with a fleet of 21 boats) although, as often occurs, the evening wind was a bit shy. In fact it kept coming and going. Ginge and Dave Nicholson got away from the start only to fall into a hole which let most of the fleet past them. The wind did fill back in to bring them back into the game again, but the frustrations continued…

Sunday started off wet and windy (and it didn’t get much better), although not as strong gusts as were encountered on Saturday. Accordingly, there weren’t many takers – Mike and William were there for some more, Hugh (or was it Rhonwen?) thought better of it, and Paul Burnell ventured out as well.

Mike sailed the beats well to stay ahead of the RS400s, and although William and Jonathan managed to maintain an overlap on the run to 5, a jammed gennaker halyard meant it would take another lap before William caught up with Mike again. Paul Burnell seemed to be sitting in for Roy in terms of the capsize stakes, since he went in on the first beat, and again on a fetch. On handicap, Mike won the race.

The honourable OD, who had been evacuated from the hen house (well, the hen party lodgings), being concerned about the discontent with the morning’s course, was fully intent on putting things right in the afternoon, so with a south westerly wind swinging around Sale Fell, he set a course with two beats – the first to 0, the second to 7, problem being everyone had to sail through the shadow of the fell to get to 7. Shunty, who had managed to get Toggle to crew for the afternoon race, opted to fly his kite part way up to 7 – strange thing to do, especially as he occasionally had to tack with it up! The OD having seen the error of his ways opted to shorten the race after the first lap, and even came to apologise – what a gent!

As for the headline, that refers to Herb – some may think that he’s no longer got the control over the ODs in terms of guiding them to a good course, but no, it’s because the starter motor on the Bates is in for repair, and the engine is being started with the hand crank, and he admits to not having enough swing anymore!

Christenings and Weddings

The first taster session of the season proved to be popular and has hopefully resulted in four new memberships. The next session is to held on 5th June.

The 5mph wind forecast for Saturday seemed to be a bit of an error, but obviously they were not allowing for the Bass micro climate, as Herb reckoned that some of the gusts were hitting force 7 (but that could be fanciful in the extreme!). There were six boats that prepared for the race, five that ventured out, two that finished, and only one that didn’t capsize (and that was only because it had the advantage of Mike Moore sitting on the side plus a heavy keel!). As for the christenings, firstly there was Toddy in his new Mirror which, with the bermudan rig, got the mast stuck in the mud. Secondly, William and Jonathan were caught out by a self tacking header (verified by Rhonwen), and ended up donating their first burgee of the season to Neptune.

With no-one to follow, Mike Moore took the wrong course and let Hugh and Rhonwen get into the lead before he realised his mistake. The OD took pity on the two boats still upright, shortened course, picked up the anchor and start line, headed for shore, and abandoned racing for the rest of the day.

The weddings are in fact hen nights – so watch out Blackpool and Edinburgh, various Bass WAGS are on their way!

BARF PLATE

PN    Boat  Helm          Class        1   2   3   4 Pts
 1    1049  M SOMERVILLE  RS400        1   1   1 DNS   3
 2    1298  S HUNT        RS400        2   2   2 DNS   6
 3    1303  W CARRUTHERS  RS400        3   7   4 RTD  13
 4    1140  J CHRISTIE    VORTEX       5   4 DNS DNS  33
 5    1029  R BLACKBURN   RS400        4   6 DNS DNS  34
 6  130579  S HALL        LASER RADI RTD   3 DNS DNS  37
 7  167828  I MACPHERSON  LAS        RTD   5 DNS DNS  39
 8     303  M COWAN       VAREO      RTD RTD DNS DNS  43
 9   13905  H GODFREY     GP         DNS DNS DNS   1  49
10    3473  M MOORE       FF         DNS DNS DNS   2  50
11    1003  A SMITH       RS200      DNS DNS   3 DNS  51
12  160516  T CHITTENDEN  LAS         OD DNS DNS DNS  51
13   69960  M CHAPPEL     MS         DNS DNS DNS  OD  51
14  174889  S HALL        LAS        DNS DNS   5 DNS  53
15   70466  D TODHUNTER   MS         DNS DNS DNS RTD  54
15     338  R YARDLEY     VAREO      DNS DNS DNS RTD  54
16  125514  R BRYCE       LAS        DNS DNS   6 DNS  54
18   13259  J ROBERTS     VAREO      DNS DNS   7 DNS  55
19     501  J CROSBIE     RS400      DNS DNS   8 DNS  56
20   13161  S SPENCE      RSFEVA     DNS DNS   9 DNS  57
21     379  R DAWSON      RS 200     RTD DNS DNS DNS  58
22     103  A NICHOLSON   VAREO      DNS DNS RTD DNS  60
22     379  R DAWSON      RS200      DNS DNS RTD DNS  60

                     Points for RTD = 10   9  12   6
                     Points for DSQ = 10   9  12   6
                     Points for DNS = 24

 3 races to count

Another exciting days sailing interspersed with calm patches as the wind fought with itself from two directions. With no GPs or Mirrors, there was only the handicap fleet competing and with 12 boats overall.

Due to the changing winds, not surprisingly, finding and staying in the wind or gusts made all the difference. Shunty used the gusts to his advantage to catch Scumper, and finally broke away with a big lead to take the morning race.

The afternoon race was a pennant race that took the boats around the lake. The OD had discussed missing marks at lunchtime and was told that 14 was missing, so left it out of the course. However, after Neil Currie rounded 12 in the lead he headed across to 13 and kept looking and looking but to no avail. So some bright spark suggested the fleet went around 14 instead. Unfortunately this was to seriously disadvantage the leading RS400s and the race was eventually scrapped.

Boring…

… That was Toggle’s thoughts on the events that filled last week’s report. Now that may have been because he wasn’t here to contribute to the weekends events. Of course, he had to make up for it on Saturday as he learns to get to grips with his RS Vario. It could be that Toggle is finding gybing (without capsizing) one of the more challenging aspects. However, after several capsizes, and much barracking from Scumper and Robbie D, he was still smiling at the end of the day. Whether he feels that way this morning with various aches and bruises who knows?!

Toggle was not the only casualty of the day, but amongst others, we can’t fail to mention Roy and Kayla’s capsize – much to Kayla’s delight, it didn’t stop them finishing ahead of William. Subsequent to this Roy exited the boat a little early as they came ashore leaving Kayla to stop it running aground while he waded out of the water. There were several occasions when William and Jonathan were close to joining them in the league of casualties – firstly when the William didn’t realise the main had cleated itself again during a tack, and then when a knotted halyard prevented Jonathan getting the gennaker down for so long that they almost ended up on the A66.

As for the racing, Scumper and Andy T left the fast handicap fleet standing having broken into the lead and taken advantage of some of the good gusts that were around. Similarly, Hugh and Rhonwen won both of the GP races comfortably. In the mirror fleet, Mik was back on the water at last showing Toddy (the young(?) pretender) the way home

Well that’s the quote of the day (or is it the season?) from Mike Fairlamb. Some winter refinements to his rudder led to a tangle of ropes and his first capsize of the season on the start line of the afternoon race. It must be pointed out (so they told me) that neither Mike, or crew Ian Macpherson, actually went swimming during the capsize. However, they didn’t take the trophy for the first ducking of the season – that went to vice commodore Dave Nicholson closely followed by sailing secretary Roy Blackburn and Kayla – Some habits die hard! Having sucessfully completed the first race the gybed (well, didn’t quite make it) for the shore and in they went. That was to prove one capsize too many, especially as Kayla was wearing a shorty, and so they didn’t sail the second race.

Sunday saw the launch of another new boat which was sailed by William with Jonathan Connor crewing. Although nothing dropped off (apart from the quick release tiller extension!), there still seems to be a mass of ropes that need cutting down to size.

There were 10 boats on the water for the first race in winds that seemed as if they were going to be marginal. By the time Herb had reset the start line in the shifting winds, the wind settled down to the east and led to some good racing which probably took many by surprise, so much so that they opted not to sail the second race.

Jose’s excuse for not sailing the 2nd race was that she didn’t even have the energy to lift a teapot!

Although Shunty and Ruth won the first race, it was Hugh and Rhonwen that won the second race and the series overall to take Starter’s Prize.

STARTERS PRIZE

PN    Boat  Helm          Class        1   2 Pts
 1   13905  H GODFREY     GP           2   1   3
 2    1298  S HUNT        RS400        1   2   3
 3    1303  W CARRUTHERS  RS400        5   3   8
 4   13885  M FAIRLAMB    GP           4   5   9
 5   13867  D NICHOLSON   TOPPER       9   4  13
 6    1049  M SOMERVILLE  RS400        3 DNS  16
 7     103  A NICHOLSON   VARIO       OD DNS  16
 8   13655  N LEWIS       GP         DNS   6  19
 9   13733  A HODGKINS    GP           6 DNS  19
10    1029  R BLACKBURN   RS400        7 DNS  20
11   70142  T SMITH       MS           8 DNS  21
12     374  M RIMMER      VARIO       10 DNS  23

                     Points for RTD = 11   7
                     Points for DSQ = 11   7
                     Points for DNS = 13

 2 races to count

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It’s All Happening at Once!

The sun has shone for the training and tuning day, and although the wind faded through the middle of the day it turned to the north east to bring a sharp breeze that tempted Toddy to launch his new mirror named Wen.

However, he wasn’t the first on the water, that honour went to Daphne and Ian in his Lark. Nor was Toddy the last – Mike and Sue ventured out in a GP.

Many others were doing a bit of head scratching as they tried to work out which bit goes where, especially for those that have changed fleet.