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An overcast breezy Sunday afternoon greeted the 10 boats for our second days racing of the 2020 season.

Steve and Ruth in the Merlin led the handicap fleet throughout the first race, but were beaten on handicap by Joe and Dave who has a great battle in Laser Radials, with Joe taking the honours. The GPs were saw John and Jack lead from start to finish, Alan and Sue were second after Val and Ken had a spinnaker malfunction.

Paul and Stan decided to give the second race a miss and Steve and Ruth pulled out a good lead but a broken mainsheet put paid to their race. Dave and Joe had another close race until Joe went for an early bath, giving Dave the race win. John and Jack were first in the GPs, they did lose the lead to Val and Ken for a lap who finished second.

The series winners were Joe in the handicap fleet and John & Jack in the GP14s.

July WD Series results

Despite best intentions, racing didn’t quite get started on time due to the starting horn opting to remain in lockdown for the time being. However, the trusty bar bell was relocated The Bates. Meanwhile, the wind proved that it hadn’t forgotten how to swing, so the start line was reset before racing got underway.

The rules seemed to be a bit rusty for some, with plenty of shouting on the first handicap start, various collisions, a near miss, and an OCS! For some sailors, they quickly slipped back into the groove, while others, well, were a bit rusty.

The bulk of sailors were racing single handed, and most of which ended up practising their capsize technique at some stage through the afternoon, resulting in a smaller turnout for the second race.

Though Dave/Lynn secured two wins in their GP, Val/Ken did put up a better challenge in the second race to take the lead for a while. John/Jack finished the day 2nd overall.

Scumper led both races in the handicap fleet, but the adjusted results gave him a 5th and a 1st, finishing 2nd overall behind Eric Twiname lookalike (well I thought so) Zefer, who secured a 1st and a 2nd. Toggle was in the frame as well, finishing 3rd overall.

Matty was sailing well, beating Mik on the water, and taking two wins, and an overnight lead

July WD Series – latest results

In line with further easing of restrictions, members have been notified that racing will commence at 1300hrs on Sunday 19 July.

Sailing instructions for the season have been updated and can be viewed here

To manage numbers on site it will be necessary to pre-enter using WebCollect. To give more certainty to the likely weather conditions, the links will be opened on Fridays (and available from 7pm). The initial limit of 12 entries will be managed to reflect the number of single handed boats, but it is not automatic, so when the initial entry limit is reached it may be some hours until the limit is adjusted, so please revisit the link later or contact us to prompt for the limit to be updated.

NB It will be necessary to log in to your WebCollect account to complete the order.

Happy sailing!

It is with great sadness that we learn of the death earlier today of Barbara Darling.

Born in Corbridge in 1937, Barbara spent her early childhood in North Yorkshire and Northumberland and obtained a scholarship for a Stockton girls� school before going to Alnwick Teacher Training College to become a secondary school maths teacher.

Jobs in Ripon and Manchester allowed her to enjoy her love of hockey and the outdoors and she became heavily involved in outdoor education at many schools she worked at; leading walking & climbing expeditions to the local hills and Scotland.�

As part of these activities she was introduced to sailing and after returning to the North East in the late 1960�s she joined Tynemouth Sailing Club and started crewing for David in his National 12.�

Sailing formed a large part of their leisure activities after their marriage and as part of her teaching career she also became involved with the newly formed National School Sailing Association (NSSA) and became a Sailing Master (the basis for the RYA�s Dinghy Instructor qualification).� She regularly took youngsters sailing or into the hills in a 29 seater bus – which she drove!

A move to Leeds led her and David to join Ripon SC along with their young daughters, Fiona & Naomi, in the early 1980�s.� Barbara got involved with the training programme, eventually becoming Training Principal, and also set up a large amount of the structure the club still benefits from today within their Youth & Junior programme, running the club�s first RYA Young Opportunity sailing course in 1987 as well as taking young sailors from across the region to the NSSA�s national events for over twenty years.�

After their retirement back to the North East in 1996, Barbara enjoyed sailing and being actively involved at both Tynemouth SC and Derwent Reservoir Sailing Club in the family�s National 12s, RS200 and Mirrors as well as acting as Training Principal at Tynemouth SC while they established their training centre.�

Barbara helped set up the Yorkshire & Humberside School Traveller Series in the early 1980�s and, on her return to the North East in 1996, set up the North Youth Traveller Series.� The two series have now merged and form the NE Region�s Youth Traveller Series.� She also continued her long association with the NSSA acting as their Treasurer from 1995 – 2006, contributing to a consolidation and restructuring of their operations to accommodate the new look of sailing within education.

Barbara was presented with the RYA�s President�s Award in 2003 in recognition of her contribution to youth sailing development in the north.

Many of you will remember Barbara and her family as long-standing Bass Week visitors for the past 50+ years. More recently she became a member of the club along with her husband David to sail and spend time at the club with their family.

She latterly enjoyed spending time watching Naomi (Commodore) and family sail on Bassenthwaite Lake.

Following the latest government proposals to ease lockdown, reluctantly, the club council have decided it will not be possible to maintain appropriate social distancing to run our beloved Bass Week this year even if current restrictions on the use of changing facilities are lifted later in July. Therefore, sadly, Bass Week 2020 will not be held.

While you have your diaries out crossing out yet another event, please be sure to set aside 31st July – 8th August in 2021 for Bass Week 2021. It�s certain to be a cracker with so much catching up to do!

Will Thursday evenings ever be the same? There has been much activity on the esailing front, with 40 races being sailed in total. Ethan continued his mastery of the sometimes temperamental software to win ahead of Alex, and Dave Exley, in a series with 32 competitors.