Island Barn Reservoir Sailing Club

 Solo news 12 June

Sounds like it was an entertaining day for the spectators on Sunday. Eddie reports:

12.6

4418    Quentin Andrews

On duty

CJ,  Dave Lawton,  Andy Turner [ 3 ]  The remainder of the Solo fleet namely Peter and Mervyn busied themselves with make and mend and a spot of gardening. Stout fellows.

As you can see a bit thin on the water.  Blowing a strong South Westerly with breaking white topped waves streaking in long white lines. A sure sign that things are going to be a bit tricky with lots of fun thrown in.  And it was.   One Solo, a handful of Lasers and about the same number of RS 200's and RS400's.

The one Solo led the Solo fleet from start to finish,  without capsizing I must add. Not so with the rest of them.  The Lasers as usual entertained us with their sailing and swimming in equal measure.  Not to be outdone one RS 200 capsized and inverted right outside  the clubhouse but whilst trying to right it , with crew still in the water, a RS400 lost control, ploughed into the crew and boat and capsized almost on top of them. Fortunately no harm was done to boats or crew after they sorted themselves out and continued on their merry way.  A heart stopping moment for us spectators who will live to see another day.

A good day for those helms who were up for it and eager to practice their tacking and jibing as no doubt the water was warm and inviting. A special well done to Quentin.

Since I wasn’t sailing this weekend (in the US on business) I thought I’d look for some something else to write about and looked for great quotes about sailing. Not surprisingly there is a wealth of great items to choose between and of course there are web sites devoted to the subject! Here are some of my favourites...

My all time favourite remains

There is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. 

which as I suspect most people knows comes from Wind in the Willows.

On the same vein...

"For will anyone dare to tell me that business is more entertaining than fooling among boats? He must have never seen a boat, or never seen an office, who says so."

Robert Louis Stevenson

There are many other worthy runners up – many of which apply to life in general! Being just a teeniest bit competitive I like to keep in mind:

You haven't won the race, if in winning the race you have lost the respect of your competitors.

Paul Elvstrom (multiple Olympic winner)

There are many other great quotes though...

The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.

- William Arthur Ward

The goal is not to sail the boat, but rather to help the boat sail herself.- John Rousmaniere

I think that one is very true – it sums up a lot of what we concentrate on – don’t fight the boat – keep the boat flat, the sails and centreboard balanced etc. When going well the boat is largely sailing itself.

"Ships are the nearest things to dreams that hands have ever made, for somewhere deep in their oaken hearts the soul of a song is laid."

Robert N. Rose

I’ll finish with:

"Only two sailors, in my experience, never ran aground. One never left port and the other was an atrocious liar."   

Don Bamford

Get out there, get sailing, you won’t regret it! Borrowing from golf (Gary Player) The harder I try the luckier I get. Practice really does make things if not perfect at least a lot easier!

Expect to be back next Sunday when I’ll catch up the results on the web (have to do that from home PC).

Regards

Gareth