Two weeks for the price of one! Sorry I wasn't able to pass on the results last week - I discovered that the Blackberry won't let me paste all the email addresses in like Outlook will.
Eddie writes...
19.7
3604 Dave Strachan
4173 Dave Lawton
3649 Robin Pryke
3861 Dave Clark
2701 Andy Ford [ sailing club boat ]
Retired Turnout 5. Wind gusty to strong. Race entertaining with 5 capsizes, Dave 2,Dave 2 and Robin 1. Sensible Dave put up his B rig as usual in these conditions to complete the course in comfort with no mishaps.Andy suffered gear failure when his centrecase parted company with mainsheet thwart. Another job for our repair team. The rest of the Solo fleet who were in attendance were gainfully employed about the premises, so I'm told.
26.7
3457 Mervyn Cinnamond
3142 Malcolm Barnes
4073 Peter Cottrell
3649 Robin Pryke
3861 Dave Clark
2713 [ club boat ] Luke Phillips
Turnout 6. Another good sailing day for the hairy-chested, Southwesterly force 3 to 4 sometimes 5. In fact a sharp eyed spectator would have spotted 3 Solo's with sails up, belonging to the three wise men, still tied to the pontoon shortly before the start. Rumour had it that they were having trouble untying their painters. However courage prevailed and off they went in a flurry of spray. And what a good race was had by all. "B" rig Dave had his usual casual sail under complete control. .Arthur entertained us spectators in his moth with spectacular fly pasts several feet up in the air . It looked totally unstable and probably was. Well done all of you. We're still working out the overall positions for the series! I was away in Cornwall on holiday, but still managed some racing boats of very different size and shape. - Pram dinghy races and bath tub races! Actually I let the kids do the bath tubs these days (yes they really are baths with a couple of barrels on the side for extra buoyancy and very short paddles). The Pram dinghy races though are short rowing races out round one mark and back. Boat handling, mark rounding and avoiding collisions come to the front (much like sailing!) Instead of worrying about clear wind you have to worry about clear water because when two boats get close and clash oars they end up locked together. One final plea - if anyone else can make it on Tuesday (tomorrow) we will be showing our Solos to the Tuesday sailors who are interested and letting those who are thinking about a Solo to try them. Malcolm, Dave C and I for sure - if anyone else can make it that would be great. Depending on the weather we'll show the boats, sail with them, or let them loose. I figure I'll sail with them pretty much whatever it's doing and let them loose in my boat on their own if the weather is decent but I don't expect anyone to go out or lend a boat if they aren't comfortable with the weather. I'd like to recruit a few new Solo members and show them that ‘our' boats are significantly nicer than the club boats. It hardly seems we've had any summer, but the evenings are starting to draw in and there are only a few Tues and Wed evenings to go even though the schools have only just broken up. I never quite understand that - I think we should have double summer time and make the summer evenings last longer!
See you soon
Gareth