Well Toggle’s found another way of demonstrating how to use a boat single handed – trust him to be different, most of us stay in the boat! At today’s Lord Birkett 2007 Toggle needed a tow in.

With the Lord Birkett Trophy being sailed at Ullswater, numbers were slightly down at the club today. The rain held off, but the wind made up for it! The blustery gusts caught out a few including William (with a rather nervous Cristina), Lewis, Mike F, Rory & Toddy.

The first race was a pursuit, and as last week, the finish was fairly close. Shunty, sailing with Cecile, took pole position with Hugh and Rhonwen second. Mike Moore and Mark finished a disgruntled third having been ‘delayed’ by some of TT Fairlamb’s (Mike Moore’s nickname for him) antics!

Having had a few gulps of lake water, Cristina was even more cautious about trying the second race! However, she did go out, start and retired at the end of the windward leg (all in 15 mins according to the webcam). There was some good racing, but less eventful with wins going to Shunty, Hugh, and Tim Smith

As for the gossip, apparently height matters. When Shunty was coming ashore he had stepped out the boat expecting the water to be up to his knees, but it was more like waist deep. A comment that it would have been knee deep on anyone else, started the banter about him being the shortest (adult) helm – but Mike F piped up obviously vying for the trophy. I can’t remember the third person to get involved in this discussion, but fortunately the proposed line-up to verify the shorty didn’t happen.

Here’s some links for videos from last week’s training at Ripon. Starting Starting 2  Starting 3 Windward mark

Heard the story about the bus journey from Whitehaven to Cockermouth that took 3½ hours? No, it wasn’t due to an in efficient bus service, a mechanical breakdown, heavy traffic, or weather conditions. A certain (lone) passenger fell asleep, and missed her stop, and woke up somewhere near Wigton. When she realised her predicament, she admitted to rolling in the aisles laughing (her words!) and having to tell herself to stop [laughing], but these fits of laughter kept coming back as her journey continued to the terminus at Carlisle and back to where she was first heading. As demanded by her friend, she eventually sent a text to say she was safely back home. Of course, by the time she arrived at work on Monday the whole office knew about the trip – so why shouldn’t you? Thanks to our very own Cecile for sharing this with us (and the rest of the club!)

Well actually yes! Congratulations to Sam Hall for achieving 1st U14 and 4th overall at last weekend’s Bolton North West Junior Travellers event

Unfortunately those of you that enjoy voicing their opinions on the forum are stumped for the time being! The servers that we use have not been accessible for some days, and there are no clues as to when (or if) the issues will be resolved.

Congratulations to Lesley following her marriage to Andrew yesterday. Hopefully we’ll see her back at the front end of William’s boat some time during Bass Week

Mr Commodore

Writing to thank you, Elaine, the council and the rest of the club for agreeing to our wedding reception being held at the club.

We had an absolutely fantastic day, one to remember for sure! We hope that everyone who came had a great time. The weather was kind to us which meant the club provided a beautiful setting which many of our friends and family thought good enough to consider moving up here!

Many thanks also to all the club members for their lovely gifts and for sharing our day.

Hope that the event proved financially profitable; judging by the photos of the evening that we’ve seen it is a wonder if there was anything left behind the bar at the end of the night.

On the subject of the bar, thanks too to Sonja and Richard, and everyone else who helped out in keeping guests’ thirsts at bay.

Many thanks once again,

Andy & Em xx

Congratulations to Andy and Emma following their wedding earlier this afternoon. The celebrations will continue on throughout the evening

As there are only a couple of weeks until the start of the sailing season, everyone seems to be getting things ready. Working parties have been arranged to prepare the clubhouse, boats and grounds. More boats are being brought back on site.

Those that have changed their boats will be making sure all the bits are there, and checking on settings. The RS200 fleet has increased following the purchase of boats by Andy, Bean and Robbie D.

Having noted Shunty’s capsize escapade on the web, some people are taking no chances – Jim Christie has been spotted practising his swimming. His biggest struggle seemed to be blowing up some water wings!

The handbooks are ready and should be arriving through your letterbox any day now.

Ok, so we’ve had someone taking their boat down to the club, Knowlesy sailing in the South China seas, and to top that Shunty’s been practising his swimming when he went sailing at the weekend. Some things never change!