In the late 1890’s, when Joshua Slocum was sailing alone around the world, there must have been times when he wondered where his next destination was to be found. As we, in 3974, rounded EL2 in this month’s bay race, looking for Jenkins Marine mark (2.2n.m. away), I had some inkling of how he must have felt! At least, unlike John Lyons and Roberta, we weren’t in an Ilca! The bay race wasn’t the only adventure in July though, as you will find out if you read on.
The first race of July, which was also the first race of the Wednesday summer series, saw a battle royal between 4016 and 4101. As I write this, both teams (Roberta/John & Crispin/Steve) have each scored two firsts and two seconds resulting in an equal nett score of six points. The Wednesday Wizards (aka 4101) are not looking too shabby on Saturdays either. Despite not having won a Saturday Summer Series race yet, they top the table with a miserly ten points. Challengers are lurking though. The ex-Fireball/Flying Fifteen syndicate are snapping at their heels. I’d like to tell you who is helming and crewing which of the two boats that we see on the water, but I’m not sure they know until the last minute! Every time Richard Whitworth with crew, and Simon Redhead and Matt Mosely turn up on a Saturday, they win, so there’s no room for complacency on board 4101! Also, have you noticed that, now that Mervyn has learnt to stay in the boat, he and Ron are truly flying, and comfortably hold on to 3^rd place by one point! Can this last, I ask myself?
The weather gods have been much kinder to us this month, and it seems like our season has finally begun. We’ve had nine races and seven different report writers. It would have been nice to have nine different reporters but one person has spoilt the sequence. More on that later! We’ve even managed to sail in the top triangle and in the harbour mouth area, although there was at least one race where the position of our windward mark wasn’t decided until the last moment available. That’s not very remarkable I hear you say, but when you consider that the choice was between NC2 and Wych, you will begin to understand the race officer’s dilemma. I should also mention, given our past history that it was a brave decision to use the dreaded mark N! It can’t have been much fun on the box watching the fight between competing breezes and it is much to the credit of our race teams that we have had our full complement of races this month. So, have we all taken advantage of this good weather? Read on…
As usual, the Wednesday series has proven to be the more popular of the two. In two of the five races sailed, we had a turn-out of twenty boats! The other three races weren’t far behind giving an average turnout for Wednesdays of 19. The first race gave Fi some indication of future travails facing her with the North-westerly and South-westerly winds doing battle throughout the race. The following Wednesday saw even greater shenanigans when the wind decided to have a little rest before the end of the race. When it returned Tim and Edith were able to take advantage to record their maiden victory at PYC! The 3 final midweek races saw Ian Zimmerman’s star rise to its zenith (possibly?). On the 15^th, he may actually have seen stars as he decided to test the rigidity of the boom with his head. Mike Barton showed him all the sympathy you might expect; you can decide for yourself by reading Ian’s account. The penultimate race, also described by Ian, saw a masterclass from Roberta and John, but more excitingly, a very close battle for the chasing pack with 2^nd to 8^th place separated by only a handful of seconds. The final Wednesday race in July is best described as ‘pin-end gate’. Sadly, for us in 3974, we were involved, not in actually causing the pin to submerge, but in avoiding doing so, we fouled Ian and Mike. I do hope Ian that this wasn’t the reason for you having to write your third report of the month!
Saturdays’ turnout figures would impress most clubs. 16 boats was our best turnout, and the average turnout was 13 boats. We have had a mixture of fortunes for our week-end sailors. We began with a Wareham race, which gave excellent planning reaches , according to Crispin’s report. Mike Barton and Peter Verver were winners, not of the race, but of the Rasputin Cup, awarded for going aground in the Wareham Channel – I’d always wondered what those coloured buoys were for! Poor Peter who could rightly claim he had no hand in this suffered by the principle that, in the ‘fifteen’, we win and lose as a team! The following week saw the necessity for changing the course at the last opportunity (those pesky wind shifts again). This caught a number of boats out, leading to Mike Clapp’s suggestion that an ‘L’ flag could be used to indicate a late change of course. This suggestion was taken up by Fi which caused a certain degree of consternation amongst those who had not read Mike’s report! The penultimate Saturday saw the club navigating tricky waters by running an open series for the 400s and 200s alongside club racing, all starting from the box. The demands placed upon Christina by this decision were dramatically increased when the wind in the vicinity of the box decided to go a.w.o.l. 50 metres to the west a fitful south-westerly wandered about, whilst 50 metres to the south an equally relaxed south-easterly was present. When I tell you our start didn’t actually happen until 1515, you can imagine how emotions were running on the water and on the box! The final race of Saturdays in July took place in the bay. Geof noted in his report that there was an unusually high number of stand -in crews. Indeed, his own boat had a guest crew, Richard Valentine by name. Geof’s reward for this clever choice was to have the honour of describing the toughest race of the month. He rightly gave credit to David and Frances in 3971 for showing a very good turn of speed in what Geof described as boisterous conditions. My own adjective of choice to describe the combination of wind and waves is unprintable!
This account of July’s racing ends, as usual, with a roll of honour. The Rasputin exploits of members of the FFFF syndicate have been covered. However, two of their number, namely Ian Zimmerman (haven’t we heard enough of him yet!) and Mike Barton (in 3936) feature again in this report, since they are the winners of ‘Sailor of the Month’ for Wednesday in July with a total of 62 boats defeated. The winners of July Saturdays, award also appear fairly regularly. They are Crispin and Steve in 4101 defeating 39 boats in the process.
That leaves the award of reporter of the month. Again, the standard was very high, and we’ve had several excellent individual reports. Some credit for this, no doubt, goes to Richard Ledger and David MacLeman, for camera and computing expertise respectively. It was wonderful to receive reports from virgin scribes but contrary to this, the award goes to a multiple contributor- yes for quality but equally for indefatigable perseverance! You’ve guessed it already, it’s Ian Zimmerman!
Well, that’s it for July. One thing I’ve learnt this month is that 2.2 nautical miles of upwind sailing in a Flying Fifteen is painful (I can hear John and Roberta’s response as I write). One thing to look forward to in August is Poole Week. Don’t forget to book your meal for the fleet dinner.
JK