The wheels of bureaucracy may turn slowly, but we get there in the end! Our RIB (newest rescue boat) has been adorned with a formal name plate ‘Gerald’ in memory of former Commodore Gerald Powell, father of Emma Smith , who passed away a couple of years ago.

The day started off bright but with a light north westerly, and numerous calm patches of water. Racing did get underway on time, and the wind filled in a bit more for a while, but faded before the end as it started to swing to a westerly. It was Mr and Mrs Bean in their RS200 that broke well away to win the morning race from Jim Christie in a Supernova and Joe Watkins sailing well in a laser. Mike Moore and Kayla continue to dominate the Blencathra Trophy for FFs, as do Mike Fairlamb and Eric in the GPs, each securing another win. Andy Smith, crewed by Katia, took the honours from Alan Waugh in the Mirrors.

The afternoon race was a pennant in aid of the Calvert Trust, and as ever took the fleet down the lake. With winds being lighter, the OD took pity and only sent them as far as mark 11 at Bassenthwaite church. The wind having swung back towards the north again resulted in the wind being steadier than expected, but also meant that the fleets were relatively close together at the leeward mark. Neil Garrison in his Dart led to the leeward mark, closely followed by Roy Blackburn in his Vareo then Mike Moore. The beat back slowed down the Dart leaving Mike first and Roy second, even after the personal handicaps were calculated.

The Youth Squad have been out again this weekend. Luke Howarth won Saturday’s racing, while Cristina Tully and Ethan shared the honours with a race each in the Sunday series

Sunny Saturday

Sun though with a cool westerly breeze was the order of the day. Racing started with a Celebrity Glass pursuit, and although leading, Mike Fairlamb with Eric Smith, misread the course and the lead passed over to Tim Chittenden with Ian Macpherson crewing.

The second race was some of the championship long series. Toggle again suffered some rig failure and had to retire. Sam Hall in a laser won from Tim Chittenden and William Carruthers with Elaine Hunt in the RS400

The webcam has been struggling in any half decent weather so we’ve treated it to some sun shades! 🙂 Just need to position them properly if they work ok

As ever, the high pressure has brought the sun but meant that the wind has been light.

However, the weather has tempted out Andy and Emma Smith – is he going back to his roots in a Mirror?!!

Sam Hall competed in the� first North West�traveller event of the season at Hollingworth Lake near Rochdale last week. He was first in all three races in the youth section (under 19) and was presented with a dry bag

Clerk of works in yellow coat and an applicant for the post of commodore in 2045 checks out the job with�their legal advisor.

Widening �the slip�to get the Dart �catamaran down to the water�

The “Navvies “take a break to help Mike Turner get his boat ready for the first race

Toggle bows to his leader (his other leader, as Joanie wasn’t at Bass)�

Andy T� boring the holes for the new tie downs whilst Stephen the vice commodore mixes the concrete to pour in the holes.

Hi all � When I collected my boat on 1 March for much needed painting etc, I had set off back home only to find between Junction 40 & 39 on the M6 that I had left my boat cover behind. So � back I went. The attached pic was taken when I arrived at the club earlier in the day for the first time.

When I returned, I thought I�d just stretch my legs a bit and walked round the corner of the club house to see an otter gambolling in the water just beyond the grassy point in the attached pic. Needless to say I did not have camera or phone this time � So � it�s like the proverbial story about �The One that got way?? !!! �.� Honest � I really did see an otter, and it made me feel quite privileged. There had been some guys working on the Race Hut in the morning, but they�d gone by the time I returned about 2pm-ish

I gather no sightings of the otters have been reported since the floods.

All the best

Simon Thelwall� Member No 145 � Wayfarer �Misful�

Those Members who have visited the club recently will have noticed a number of activities underway and more are planned for the near future, for example:

Following the flood damage in November the boat house and oar store doors have been replaced (that�s �the room below the race office) and the window in the oar store has been replaced.

A temporary repair to the main cold water feed pipe to the clubhouse is still in place in the back field. The underground pipe in the back field has become brittle and a number of leaks were identified following the recent freeze. As part of a major refurbishment of the hot water storage system in the clubhouse (including solar panels on the clubhouse roof (subject to planning approval)) we will be replacing the cold water feed pipe from the road through Dubwath to the clubhouse in its entirety.

You may have noticed that the flagpole has been taken down for repairs. Now that the structure has dried out and been assessed it�s obvious that it will need complete replacement. We�re looking to replace the existing structure with an alternative one and possibly in a different position.� However, in the mean time, the existing structure will undergo a repair and will be re-erected temporarily.

The Bates is being fitted with dual batteries and a split charging system in the hope that the engine will start reliably this year. If the bilge pump works overtime again (and let�s hope we don�t have another wet summer!) it will hopefully only flatten one of the batteries.

We�re in the process of assessing suitable replacement grass cutting machinery for the new season that will hopefully be more robust than the previous machines (although to date no fully submersible equipment has been found!).

During last years floods many of the remaining boat tie-downs were damaged as a result of boats floating above them and pulling them out. It is hoped that we will replace all the tie-downs progressively throughout the coming season with those of a standard design so that grass cutting around them is easier.

Following the very generous donation by one of our Members to start our training boat fund the fund has grown in leaps and bounds and has reached over �9400.00 so far. To date we�ve purchased three GRP Mirrors and a race rigged Topper to boost the Club boat fleet. My sincere thanks go to those Members who started and to those who have subsequently added +to the fund and to EON plc and North West Projects Ltd for their generous donations.

We�re hoping to give the family room and bar area a coat of paint in the next few weeks.

If any of you are willing to give up a few hours of your time to help with the above projects please contact Nick Orton (House), Mark Somerville (Grounds) or myself and we�ll point you in the direction of the relevant tools etc. (please don�t leave it to the same few volunteers).

Our floating jetty has also suffered as a result of the frozen conditions and one of the floatation blocks is damaged. Unfortunately the company that made the original floats no longer exists so an alternative will have to be sourced. It will be necessary to lift the front section of the jetty out of the water to remove the remnants of the existing float and fit a new one� – just another task to add to the list.

What I said at the annual dinner about the demise of our trusty David Brown tractor has proved to be unfounded and thanks to the sterling efforts of Ken and his team the tractor is running again despite being fully submerged in the floods and subjected to temperatures of -15 Degrees C shortly afterwards. It will, we hope, be on site again shortly.

And finally, the 2010 handbook and the latest bumper edition of Foxy Tales are at the printers and will be with you shortly. Many thanks to those of you who have contributed to the publications.

Best wishes for an enjoyable and successful sailing season in 2010

Dave Nicholson

A really big burst pipe in the roadway under the back field but United Utilities stop tap wont shut off so the water meter has been going berserk and has been running for a while. Toggle and a few others tried to find the leak but had to get a digger. We have had to cut the pipe and double it over as a temporary measure as you can see but this means there is no water to the club house at all so there is NO WATER TO FLUSH TOILETS etc.

We are trying to get a temporary supply sorted but United Utilities said it wasn’t an emergency so it would take 12 weeks to repair their stop tap!