In preparation for the Worlds later this year, the GP sailors in the club were seen taking to the water on Saturday 29^th of March. The reason for this early start to the season? – Richard Estaugh visited the club to share with us some of his tuning tips and race tactics.

Richard picked a boat at random and proceeded to tell us all how to rig it properly. He told us about tensions and distances and angles and twists. We looked at the boat from the port side, the starboard side, the stern and the bow.

Unfortunately he then told us the fifteen things which the crew must do when rounding the windward mark. Half the audience sighed with the resignation that no matter what they do when they round the mark, it will never be right.

Then, with Richard’s help, we all rigged our own boats to perfection. Can’t blame the boat any more!

In the afternoon we took to the water for a number of one lap ‘sausage’ courses. Each race had a ‘3, 2, 1, go’ countdown after which Richard followed in the rescue boat shouting tips to us. ‘Too much kicker,’ (crew’s fault), ‘jib in a bit more,’ (crew’s fault) or my particular favourite ‘play the main a bit more!’ At last! It’s official! It’s not always the crew’s fault! Richard said so.

The general recall came when the wind lifted by about 20 degrees seven seconds before the start. Yes folks, you are sailing on Bass. Five boats full of enthusiastic sailors all headed for the best start they could only to discover it was the worst!

To round off the day, Richard gave some tips on gate starts. The general consensus was get two thirds of the way down what you think the line will be but no doubt the line will be different because the wind will change.

For those who did not make it, the main themes were: pay attention to detail – it’s that last half inch that makes all the difference; keep your head up when you go round a mark – don’t just follow everyone else; and remember helms, play that main up the windward leg! Everyone had a great time, learnt a lot and look out Abersoch – here comes the Bass squad!

Rhonwen Bryce

and that diary.. Sunday 29th March What a way to spend Mother’s day – no lie in ‘cos the clocks have just changed and that meant an hour’s less sleep, down to the club to be OD. Had to try and remember all those sailing terms, beat, capsize, gybing, spinnaker legs – pity I didn’t always relate the words to their true meaning (well it is only the first day of the season!). Anything that could go wrong seemed to – no beat for the first race, no recall flag either (well it would have been a perfect start a second earlier!), managed to loose one of the halyards up the mast, almost got one flag stuck up the mast, third time lucky when it came to lassooing Mark A; having started the first race half an hour late, tried to make up time by starting the 2nd race at 2pm (half an hour too early) but Phil wasn’t going to let me get away with that. Anyway, next week I’ll be out there with them – hopefully it’ll be just as sunny and I won’t get my gnatsy gants wet!

Final results

STARTERS PRIZE

PN    Boat  Helm          Class        1   2 Pts
 1   13791  P SMITH       GP           2   1   3
 2   13326  R DAWSON      GP           1   2   3
 3    3473  M MOORE       FF           3   3   6
 4  167828  I MACPHERSON  LAS          4   4   8
 5   13161  S SPENCE      GP           6   7  13
 6    2324  TBA           LARK         8   6  14
 7     172  J HALLIDAY    SPORT 16     7   8  15
 8   69960  M CHAPPEL     MS         DNS   5  17
 9    1049  S HUNT        RS400        5 RTD  17
10     103  A NICHOLSON   VARIO      RTD RTD  23
10     501  N CURRIE      RS400      RTD RTD  23

                     Points for RTD = 11  12
                     Points for DSQ = 11  12
                     Points for DNS = 12

 2 races to count

The last race of the 2002 season determined the first trophy winner for next year’s annual dinner! There seemed to be some dissent about the race management, but the OD (demob happy Miles) wasn’t in a mood to care too much!

Final results:

WINTER SERIES 2002

PN    Boat  Helm          Class        1   2   3   4   5   6 Pts
 1    3473  M MOORE       FF           1   2   4   4   2   1   6
 2   13142  R HODGKINS    GP           5 DNS   1   2   1   2   6
 3   13733  A HODGKINS    GP           2   1   3   5 DNS   3   9
 4    1140  J CHRISTIE    VORTEX       4   3   2 RTD DNS DNS  16
 5   13161  S SPENCE      GP         DNS DNS DNS DNS   3   4  33
 6    2324  TBA           LARK       DNS DNS DNS   1 RTD DNS  35
 7  122174  S ADAMS       LASER        6   4 DNS DNS DNS DNS  36
 8   13371  J RILEY       GP           3 DNS DNS DNS DNS DNS  42
 8    3265  M CHAPPELL    FF         DNS DNS DNS   3 DNS DNS  42
10   93265  M TROTTER     FF         DNS DNS DNS DNS   4 DNS  43
11   33434  S WATSON      MIR        DNS DNS DNS DNS   5 DNS  44
12     400  T KNOWLES     RS300      DNS DNS DNS DNS RTD DNS  47

                     Points for RTD =  7   5   5   7   8   5
                     Points for DSQ =  7   5   5   7   8   5
                     Points for DNS = 13

 4 races to count

Well very nearly, especially when you’re talking about the coveted Grotty Potty. As part of the Flying 15 Viking Trophy team racing event, one special prize (the Grotty Potty) is awarded by the previous year’s ‘winner’. It tends to be awarded for committing some ultimate foolhardy action during the course of the weekend. Last year’s winner, Ian Preston, seemed to be spoilt for choice this year – would it go to William Carruthers for advertising the wrong date for the event on the website? Or perhaps Steve Goacher for sailing to the wrong mark? How about John Hardisty for going off on holiday? Or Miles for making a pig’s ear of coming in to the trot at the end of racing? Or indeed, should he keep it himself and use it as an extra large bailer for that little leak in his boat? Well, it was to be Ian’s choice, but as he couldn’t make up his mind between John and Miles, he asked the audience and, by an overwhelming majority, the Potty was awarded to Miles.

Anyway, back to the real point of the weekend, in the midst of a miserable forecast, a select few turned out to compete for the trophy. Steve Goacher took no chances this year, and brought along a Windermere team. Was he toying with us all, letting the genny flap on the beat?, taking some of the fleet the wrong side up the first beat? Or is he human like the rest of us and just gets it wrong occasionally? Never mind, he proved what he is capable of to come back and win every race after helping his other team members work their way towards the front of the fleet.

There was some challenging racing with courses set by what seemed (at times) like sadistic ODs! Despite the bitterly cold weather, a great weekend’s racing was enjoyed by all.

Any need to say who won? Windermere’s Any Suggestions? Read on for the final results.

 Team Name  Boat Helm       R1  R2  R3  R4 Pts
    Any     3550 D Brockba   2   2   4   7
Suggestions?3728 N Tullett   4   4   2   2  31   1
            3721 S Goacher   1   1   1   1
____________________________________________________

            3473 M Moore     5   3   6   5
 WIMP & DC  3268 W Carruth   7   8   8   3  73   2
            3521 P Burnell   6   6   7   9
____________________________________________________

            3385 M Middlet   8   5   9   8
  Commodes  1117 K Jamison  10  10  10  10  76   3
            3593 M Ninnim    3   9   5   6
            3231 J Christi   9   7   3   4

The following pictures were taken by David Lawson

T-shirts, shorts and wind! What more could you ask for at the end of September? With just one series left in the club championships, this penultimate series was to prove interesting.

Tempers were somewhat frayed at the front end of the GP and F15 fleets, but overall the testing winds resulted in some excellent competition.

The Hodgkins boys triumphed when they won one of Saturday’s races. Mike Moore gave away a good lead to Scott Beattie by heading for the wrong mark and failing to keep an eye on the competition. Wendy Somerville was somewhat dismayed when an expected shorten course didn’t materialise, and in the following lap in difficult conditions, although some shifts could easily have won her the race, she lost a couple of places.

General recalls, boats over the line….. Not a good start to the RNLI pennant race held on Sunday. A recall was made for two flying 15s after the second start. Mike Moore/Tim Chittenden was the first to go back, but it took a visit from a rescue boat to persuade John Somerville/Scott Beattie that his premature start was not going to be allowed. It was to be about five minutes before he returned to the startline and correctly started. Paul Burnell had taken the lead in his Fifteen and was being hotly pursued by Rory Yardley in his Laser Vortex. Unusually for a round the lake race, the wind was blowing from the North East which meant sailors had to decide between taking the eastern shore and getting gusts early, or opting for the middle route that was less likely to suffer from wind shadows from the shoreline.

While William Carruthers/Alan Smith was trying to catch up with Paul Burnell, Mike had opted for the middle route and was catching up well, while John came down the eastern shore on a seemingly endless gust that the leaders were not privy to! By the time the fleet reached mark 12, Rory was starting to pull away, William was close on Paul’s tail, and Mike was fighting off John not too far behind.

The beat back up the lake started to split the fleet and John and William were having a close tussle by mark 11. This continued all the way to mark 0 by which time John had pulled clear ahead. However, on rounding the mark John and Scott assumed they had finished and headed for shore enabling William to take the advantage which he held for the final lap.

Adjusting the finishing times to suit the different boats’ handicaps, resulted in Rory taking the trophy some 20 seconds ahead from William.

The weekend brought various long series to a close, leaving just two weekend series to decide the club championships. Is everything cut and dried? We’ll just have to wait and see!

The GP fleet were away at the NW Area Championships being held at Windermere – poor ***s – on a calm day it’s 10x worse than Bass. However, it was a strong fleet of 56 boats of which Bass had 7 competitors. Well done to Dave and Lynne Lawson for finishing 7th, Phil Smith and Toggle Cowan for finishing 11th (one place behind Steve Goacher!) and taking the silver fleet trophy.

Glorious weather prevailed for the final Bank Holiday break of the summer. The wind was not so sure as to whether it should join in, and regularly swung from N to NE and back again leaving various holes for the competitors to engulfed in. A challenge for the OD, especially when he was trying to squeeze in an additional race postponed from following light winds on Sunday.

With temperatures rising, tempers seemed to reach boiling point at times in the GP fleet. Brotherly love disappeared for a while between Phil and Andy Smith following an incident at the windward mark, and resulted in a protest, but Phil gracefully retired.

In the last race, Andy’s heckles were again raised and he submitted his second protest of the day, this time against Dave Lawson. Following a hearing Dave was disqualified and which resulted in Andy winning the GP weekend series.

While most of the GP fleet were away competing in the North East Area Championships at Derwent Reservoir (see below), there was good turnouts in other fleets that made the most of the sunny, summer-like, weather.

Mike Watson made a comeback in the Flying 15 fleet and proved to be unassailable – just as well he was ordered home to do some gardening! Commodore Miles Middleton showed the way (well for a while at least) as he mastered the first beats on Sunday, only to lose out on the following legs. Ah well, there’s always next week!

Jim Christie in his laser vortex had a smashing time in a collision with Mike Chappel in his mirror – Could that be 7 years bad luck for breaking a mirror?

Great weekend for the GP14 fleet as 7 boats from Bass travelled to Derwent Resevoir for the NE Area Championship.

Saturday proved to be a great day for sun bathing, not so good for sailing. After a short delay the first race started in force 0 (or force -2!!) so was a bit fickle.� Dave and Lynn Lawson won race number 1 and the second race was won by John Telford and Andy Smith.� So Bass boats were well ahead as the travellers enjoyed the entertainment and curry.� The wind was slightly better on Sunday with race starting at 10.00am it was a good job we all went to bed early.� Sunday saw Dave and Lynn�win race 3, with Phil Smith and Mike Cowan winning the race before lunch.� After lunch the final race was won by John and Andy.

Overall the results were as follows –

1st Dave and Lynn Lawson
2nd John Telford and Andy Smith
3rd Phil Smith and Mike Cowan

So a clean sweep for Bass sailors and to continue the theme Hugh Godfrey and Rhowen Bryce won the silver fleet and Richard and Philip Hodgkins won the bronze fleet (even though they beat Hugh and Rhowen overall!).� So a great weekend had by all and a fabulous advert for the club.

Well done to all the winners and their support crews.