In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII decreed that April should be the fourth month of the year. But, for members of the UK’s premier Flying Fifteen fleet (yes, that’s us at Parkstone!), April signifies the start of our year. So, 2024 kicked off with a very lively Easter series.

Evidence that this was a closely fought affair can be found in the fact that several of our ‘big hitters’ found themselves in mid-fleet positions. The podium places were occupied by, in 3rd place, Geof Gibbons, sailing with various crews in Parkstone Penguin (is this what Geof thinks climate change means?), and but for a blip in race 3, would have pushed Bob Alexander and Phil Angrave even harder for their second place. With 3 bullets out of a possible four, first place (by one point only) was deservedly taken by Crispin and Steve Brown, and, thus this pair became the first trophy winners of the Flying Fifteen season.

In April, we’ve had three Saturday races, each of which produced a different leader. The first one of the season was won by visiting hot-shot, Ben McGrane sailing with Scott Dawson. The second race was held in the bay, in what might be called challenging conditions. When I tell you that even I could have spotted the shifts, you will be getting a fair picture of what the sailing was like! A source close to the action has informed me that the eventual winners, Chris Gorringe and Nadia Hosie were on the verge of going home when they were the beneficiaries of a massive change in wind direction which enabled them to broad reach into the first mark. As ever, sailing out and back through the harbour entrance wasn’t totally straightforward and on the return some sailors (not in our fleet thankfully) incurred the wrath of the ferry driver.

The third race of the month was also an opportunity to win the second trophy of the season, namely, our ‘Big Fleet Day’. Some (ok, me!) wondered whether this was a bit early in the season to encourage large numbers out on the water. The response of the fleet was spectacular! 26 boats made it out to the start, leaving only two boats in the yard. Covid, and being out of the country, prevented two of our regular boats from taking part. Early forecasts of a north-easterly wind caused some concern about the prospects of such a big fleet arriving at the windward mark after such a short beat. We didn’t know then that all the action would be at an off-wind mark. The subsequent rounding of Stan’s will live in the memory of several of our fleet members, none more so than Steve and Lisa, the former of whom suffered damage to an important digit and the latter to her equanimity! Thankfully, the trauma was only temporary (although Steve sadly is hors de combat for some time to come). If you ask Lisa nicely, she will show you the equipment Steve has for protecting his thumb. I guarantee it will bring a smile to your face! Crispin Read-Wilson sailing with Nick Cornish is the inaugural winner of the ‘OK Icicle’ trophy for coming first in this race. You can imagine the buzz of conversation as this fantastic day was rounded off with the consumption of a fabulous feast organised by Sara with contributions from several of our female members of the fleet. The gauntlet has been thrown down to our male cooks for the next event!

The Wednesday Series has been a much more sedate affair. We’ve had two races in what might be kindly referred to as fickle winds. However, these challenging conditions were successfully negotiated by, firstly our leader, Mervyn, sailing, of course, with Ron and secondly Roberta Hartley showed the fleet a clean pair of heals, after she had just successfully run the London Marathon. She was sailing with Simon Crowther whilst her usual crew, John Lyons is enjoying the rigours of Caribbean weather, taking part in Antigua Week in Donald MacDonald’s appropriately named boat (for those of you who know him), ‘Bonkers’!

We wrapped up April with the awards of ‘the sailors of the month.’ Saturday’s winners were Crispin ReadWilson (no surprise there then!), Steve Brown and Nick Cornish. Wednesday’s winners were Mervyn Wright and Ron Elliot. Rules of the award mean you can only win in a series once, so if you want to win more of these exclusive bottles of amber liquid, you have to enter both the Wednesday and Saturday series.

PYC International Flying Fifteen Class Only one thing remains. Your committee have decided to award the ‘Rasputin Pot’ to any sailor that behaves in a fashion that deviates from what we might expect. This will be awarded throughout the season as and when we (the committee) feel it to be appropriate. Most of you will have seen that the first (proud?) holder of the award is Dick Linford. Sadly, space and the approach of an imminent publication deadline prevent me from going into further detail!

That’s it for April. Let’s hope that the winds that shake the darling buds of May aren’t too rough!