Well at least it’s not raining! Another glorious morning, unfortunately the wind is continuing to blow in from the North East so it seems highly unlikely that there will be any sailing as OD Ian Preston seems quite happy to sit back reading his paper and having another cup of tea. He’s avoiding the bacon and egg baps this morning especially after his experience yesterday when the egg ‘exploded’ down the front of his shirt

The wind hasn’t eased, the anemometer has stopped working so we can’t tell how windy it actually is – perhaps fortuitous!? There’s no prospect of sailing, or even anyone going out for a play

With racing cancelled for the day, several of the ‘boys’ opted to go out for a trash around in the club toppers. Of course Toggle isn’t one to miss out on the action and he prepped up to go out. His boat capsized while it was on the trailer! The others made the most of the weather. The first capsize happened when the helm fell, or was washed, out of the back of the boat.

Having gone out for a sail, they certainly made the most of it, and are now all suitable shattered after numerous capsizes, some caused by their opponents, whether it by T-boning each other, or tugging at someone else’s main to unclip the mainsheet, but many just the general conditions.

The weather wasn’t going to stop the Russians who were visiting the area, and had arranged a tour of the SSSI parts of the lake. It was Shunty that took them out in The Bates, but we’re not too certain whether he brought them all back as the boat certainly seemed to have more gaps when it returned!

After a beautiful start to the morning the cloud came in together with another cool north easterly breeze. Pre race discussions revealed some of the events of yesterday, notably an incident between Mik and Mike. Mike’s version being that he was sailing merrily on starboard tack, chatting to Kayla, when suddenly Mik came in on port and rammed him. The collision was sufficient to do a bit of damage to the mirror, and if it hadn’t of been a flat end to start with it would be now!

As boats were setting off for the start the onshore wind proved a challenge for several, especially Hugh sailing a Vareo in his first race of the season as he ended up in the reed beds with Dave Wright in an RS200.

In the Asymmetric Cup, Andy Smith sailed his RS200 single handed and was able to trounce his brother Bean, partly due to taking better advantage of the offwind gusts, but his result would not count due to not having a crew. Shunty started at the wrong end of the line and had to work his way up the fleet, but on the second beat he and Ruth were on port tack as Joan and Jack were running towards the mark on starboard. Shunty reckoned both boats luffed up, but at the end of the race he retired, although he won on the water. Although William and Elaine were next to finish, on handicap it was Bean and Naomi that won on handicap. The driest wetsuit award goes to Naomi – she wasn’t going to go over the top of her wet boots so left Bean to get her close enough to the shore so she could step out into shallow water, and left Bean to struggle getting the boat on the trailer and bringing it ashore

In the MJM Trophy fleet, Mike Moore led even though he couldn’t remember where mark 1 was from the previous day (even if it was nowhere near where it should be!). Ian Macpherson was late for the start having been told by Herb that the MJM fleet was starting, only to find he told the asymmetrics they were starting second!

Perhaps sanity will be restored for the second race, but that seems unlikely

During the lunch break the wind seemed to have strengthened to some like Saturday’s strength, and certainly on the beat many had to work to keep their boats flat. However, offwind the power didn’t seem to be there and it was a struggle for the ‘faster’ to break clear. Although Shunty broke away in the asymmetric fleet, William struggled to stay ahead of Joan and Jack Hardy! Toggle almost got a mention for failing to keep up with Hugh, but Hugh slipped back and Toggle secured a 3rd on handicap behind Joan, and Bean. Anyway Toggle, opted to have a go in the Vago with T and duly caused a capsize as they came ashore – Bean reckoned it was because Tog was floundering in the bottom of the boat instead of being out on the wire

In the MJM fleet, Mike Fairlamb came out on top in front of Scumper in his laser, with Mike Moore slipping back to 5th

Flying 15 open is being held next weekend alongside club racing

Not as muggy as Saturday, but certainly a lot sunnier 🙂 The light airs struggled to fill in, but when the OD went out and set a line, Herb started to get frustrated when the boats on the shore with sails up made no effort to move to the start line. Robbie D checked what was happening on the radios only to be told that the line was set and everyone had to get on the water NOW! Well Herb did reckon they’d been waiting 45 mins. So the boats that were ready went out and others followed only to find Herb wasn’t waiting any longer, so Scumper, Toggle, and William gave the rest of the fleet about 6 mins start. Robbie D and Ethan took an early lead and their only competition was Roy Blackburn with Lewis Tyson. The light breeze did hold, and it looked promising for the afternoon race around the lake.

Not sure what is it about water from the sky (rain), but sailors seem to avoid it where possible. So when it came down torrentially everyone huddled in the foyer waiting for it to pass over, which it did after 15mins or so. However, it had killed the wind so racing didn’t seem to be too enticing. About half an hour after the start the wind filled in from the south and boats were able to do some planing. Alan Nicholson christened his new Solo with his first capsize of the season.

NB Separate report for Youth racing on Youth Squad pages

After a hot sunny week, Saturday was disappointingly hazy and muggy. A taster session was held during the morning for newcomers to the sport. This was followed by some Youth Squad training and a race (or should that be a drift). With the lake mirror like, it seemed unlikely that any club racing would get underway in the afternoon. The wind did fill in a little and boats were preparing for the pursuit race, but the wind faded again, and the OD cancelled racing.

Perhaps tomorrow!…