What a difference a day makes. The sun shone all day, the wind blew enough most of the time, and there were shifts that made all the difference (if you were on the right side of them!).

First of all an apology to Toggle – there may have been a one sided tale told about his efforts in the Lord Birkett, and the bit about the training was a joke – there aren’t actually any places available until next year, but Tog doesn’t really need to attend. Apparently, he was caught out in the massive squall that brought the fleet back from the islands, fell, or was washed out of the back, and broke his tiller necessitating his tow back by the gin palace.

In the GPs Hugh and Rhonwen had two wins, but they had to work hard for it as Mike Fairlamb with Sam Hall kept taking the lead, though in the 2nd race Mike retired after rounding a mark incorrectly. Ginge and Bridget were making hay while the sun shone, and then cooled off with a capsize. Ken Bell clearly wasn’t making hay, came for a sail and finished second with Val.

Tim Smith beat off competition from twin brother Rob, and secured another couple of wins.

In the handicap fleet, there were ups and downs. William, with second crew of the weekend Sally, was several minutes late for the start, but had some good luck with the winds to pull back on Roy and Kirstie to such an extent that he had to avoid Roy when he capsized just in front of him on a gybe mark. Apparently, a 50 degree wind shift on the start line prevented Shunty and Neil from being able to cross the line. Confusion over the course (which may well have changed after it was first displayed) meant Shunty lost out several hundred metres by heading to 9 instead of 0. Although Neil and Judith won on the water, the wind suited the RS200s best of all, and honours went to Andy and Emma.

Roy was left behind for the start of the second race (apparently retying his battens), leaving William, Neil and Shunty to have some good racing. Although William mastered the beats (or was it make the most of some incredible shifts?) to take the lead a couple of times, he lost out off wind to Neil and Shunty. The wind faded somewhat towards the end of the race allowing the RS200s to catch up. Robbie D and Ethan would have easily won had they not got their gennaker stuck, so it was to be Andy and Emma that again won on handicap.

The Mirror Northerns are to be held at the club next weekend

…Old habits that is! Roy was glad to be back at the helm again with Kirsty crewing. It’s a shame he wasn’t au fait with the start times of the pursuit race as he, and several other RS400s, seemed to be oblivious to the fact that they should be starting, which made William and Jonathan very nervous as to whether they had in fact started too early! Over the course of the 70 min pursuit, it was the final 5 mins where several places changed – must have been some good handicapping!

As for the second race, Roy was again someway behind the rest of the fleet at the start and he topped it off with a capsize on the gybe mark, and finally tried to run Kirsty over when coming ashore (she’d managed to keep her hair dry until then!)
Of course the main sailing of the weekend is the Martin 16 National Championships, being sailed at Bass for the first time. Commodore Steve Hunt, as OD for the weekend, managed to get in the first 4 races of the 8 race championship. Clearly there is some close competition between the leading boats. The morning races were held in very windy conditions, and one hardy sole raised their spinnaker, but quickly dropped it again. Fortunately the design of the boat is such that the risk of capsize is minimal (I think!)Sunday morning started with what seemed like a nice southerly, but it never quite had the oomphh(?) that the sailors would have appreciated. The Martins continued to have some very close racing, and with just one discard tensions were high leading to a protest!

The delay caused by the Martin 16’s protest proved to be quite fortuitous as there was not a lot of wind, so after the prize giving the boats took to the water for the Jimmy Lancaster Memorial pennant as the breeze seemed to have filled in from the SW. By the time the race started the wind had faded, and a course set for marks 12 and 13 proved too much for William (though Cristina thought she’d missed the opportunity of a trip around the lake!) and he headed straight for shore. Most of the others persevered, but it was to be another 25 mins before the breeze came back, but this time from the South. With a bit of forward thinking, Shunty had included 10 in the course, and that was to be where he shortened the course after 45 mins.

When the fleet handicaps were calculated, it was Hugh and Rhonwen that proved to be the overall winners.

…Old habits that is! Roy was glad to be back at the helm again with Kirsty crewing. It’s a shame he wasn’t au fait with the start times of the pursuit race as he, and several other RS400s, seemed to be oblivious to the fact that they should be starting, which made William and Jonathan very nervous as to whether they had in fact started too early! Over the course of the 70 min pursuit, it was the final 5 mins where several positions changed – must have been some good handicapping!

As for the second race, Roy was again someway behind the rest of the fleet at the start and he topped it off with a capsize on the gybe mark, and finally tried to run Kirsty over when coming ashore (she’d managed to keep her hair dry until then!)

Of course the main sailing of the weekend is the Martin 16 National Championships, being sailed at Bass for the first time. Commodore Steve Hunt, as OD for the weekend, managed to get in the first 4 races of the 8 race championship. Clearly there is some close competition between the leading boats. The morning races were held in very windy conditions, and one hardy sole raised their spinnaker, but quickly dropped it again. Fortunately the design of the boat is such that the risk of capsize is minimal (I think!)

….or so it would seem as there seemed to be so many people whinging after the morning race. First there was the OD arriving early to see a lake with very little wind and wanting to abandon at 11am, but he was assured by William that the wind would have filled in by 11.30, and it did! As Hugh must have had a late night, and was not at the club at the due time, Rhonwen offered to be OD for the morning allowing Stu and Debbie Spence to free themselves of the worries of course setting and go racing. When Hugh did turn up, he was seconded into driving the Bates.  Roy Blackburn, not having had his crew snatched from under him for a second time, was out in plenty of time for his first race in a month only to be late for the start! Shunty had secured the lead and managed to go around the leeward mark the wrong way only to be told part way up the beat. However, he had a very peculiar way of unwinding to correct his mistake, and no-one’s really sure if he managed it, but Steve was too dizzy to remember! Mike Moore was keeping up with the leading RS400s well until the final run when the wind managed to evade him and took away his chances of winning. Amanda Bainbridge was a bit confussled with the extra sausage in the course and was somewhat relieved when she finally heard her finish gun. To counter this, it was good for Dave Wright and son Connor to finish their first ever race. The OD was somewhat surprised at the the amounting of whooping and air punching that was going on – what will happen when they win their first race?! Lewis Tyson, always open for a challenge opted to sail with William in an RS400 rather than in his Topper, and enjoyed it so much he wanted more in the afternoon.

The afternoon breeze was slightly fresher than the morning, and even resulted in the odd capsize. In fact Sam missed his toe straps before the start and was first to go in, whether this was the cause of Dave and Connor capsizing as well we’re not sure, but they were very close together at the time. As for the start, there must have been too many people in the committee boat, as everyone was convinced they had the perfect start only to be brought back with a general recall! After another general recall, stand in OD cleared the boat, focussed on the job in hand, and got everyone away – third time lucky! Although Shunty got clear away this time, with no mishaps, and won the race, other boats had mixed fortunes, and the results were spread across the various fleets.

Lewis was enjoying the RS400 again, but found the gusting reaches challenging and realised that tugging sheets soon rip through bare hands – hopefully William won’t be held up for child abuse! At one stage Robbie D thought Scumper had put in an enthusiastic tack and almost filled up, so he was encouraging him to go a bit further over – then he realised it was William and Lewis, but he was still willing them to capsize!

Congratulations to Sam Hall in achieving 1st U14 and 3rd overall at a Junior NW Travellers open meeting held at Ullswater YC on 9th June. Joe Watkins was 3rd U14.

As for Saturday, the wait was worth it…

After an intermittent breeze at the start of the afternoon, it eventually filled in from the north to get sailing underway. William, with Kirsty Somerville, was a little premature(?!) and returned through the line trying miserably to avoid the oncoming fleet! No major collisions, but he did a couple of turns for good measure. Perhaps it was payback for pinching Roy’s crew who had to stand in and man the Bates.

William did get on the tail of Neil and Judith by the windward mark, but Neil was to disappear off wind never to be caught, leaving William to tussle with Paul Burnell.

Although a dark cloud appeared (it probably brought the wind!) the sun shone all afternoon and led to some glorious sailing conditions.

In the second race, Mark Somerville brought out a super light crew – Ethan! Although they could catch Neil, they pulled ahead of William who struggled to break free from Mike and Mark in the F15. Although William eventually made headway, it wasn’t enough to beat Mike on handicap. Neil leads the new series

In the GPs Hugh and Rhonwen stayed ahead of Dave and Sarah Nicholson to take an early lead in the Autumn Cup

The results for Thursday’s Night Jar have been calculated and displayed below. As ever, the results seem to cause controversy. All we can do is blame the computer, the OD and anyone other than the helms (well, so it seems!)