It’s entirely appropriate that the opening of our F15 sailing season began this month since, as I’m sure you know, April’s name stems from the Latin verb ‘aperire’, to open. For a couple of us, it was our first foray of the year on the water, but whatever misfortunes were suffered, they pale into insignificance compared to those of the Titanic which set sail on its maiden voyage on April 14th!

This year, somewhat unusually, we had a full week’s sailing before the Easter regatta, although, sadly, as it turned out the first race of the Wednesday series was blown off. That said, the preceding race, the first Saturday one, saw fifteen boats take to the water.

The first winners of the new season were Ian Zimmerman and Mike Barton. Many of you will have heard Mike opine that it never pays to go right on the way to Bell race mark. It must have been an interesting discussion on their boat when the decision to go that way was made. Some might argue, it was forced upon them by the fact that they had had to return to legally cross the start line, and every one else had gone left! Either way I wonder what Mike’s facial expression was when they rounded first! Such was the condition of the wind on the following Wednesday that most of us found a new procrastination station much closer to the bar.

This brings us to the Easter regatta, which began with a very blowy Saturday. 19 boats had entered but the helm of one of them had had a Scottie Schefeller style incident (golfers will know that he’d cut his hand on a broken wine glass): this one involved a knife and thumb! Bob and Huw (remember them?) sailed imperiously on day one taking two bullets. After racing, the wine glass I wrote of was not the only thing broken. Most of the fleet had one bodily complaint or another. For myself, if you’d asked the question, I couldn’t have named anything that didn’t hurt! The regatta looked like Bob and Huw’s for the taking, but the weather Gods, a tiny shortened course flag and Team Linder had other ideas.

Sunday dawned with lighter winds which led to very competitive racing. The Linders took line honours in both races; the consequence of this was that Bob and Huw’s result in race two was crucial. This gave rise to interesting bar discussions because they hadn’t realised we were finishing (remember the small shortened course flag) and had no idea what was their final result. It turns out their second place was enough to break the tie with the Linders – a very deserved victory, if you ask me. Ian Zimmerman and Mike Barton deserve a mention for their consistent series. They managed to gain three podium finishes out of the four races, finishing with a total score that was just two points behind the other two boats.

The final sail of April took place with Poole Harbour at its very best in terms of setting: glorious blue sky and sunshine. The nature of the sailing conditions was more problematic, as you will be able to tell when you read Chris and Nadia’s report. 21 boats took part, and a highlight for me was when my helm allowed me a backwards glance at the majority of the fleet spread out across the harbour with spinnakers flying full. It was a sight for sore eyes, and luckily for me looking back didn’t turn me into a pillar of salt! Graham and Homfray were the beneficiaries of a navigational error on the part of the leader, but you’ve got to be up there to take advantage of it, and indeed, they were breathing down their necks at the time. By the way, you may not have realised from their understated report, that Chris and Nadia have already probably won the award for the best recovery of the season. I can’t see it being beaten.

The subject of errors brings me on to the next topic: the award of the Rasputin Cup! You may be surprised to learn that, in this short month, we already have four winners, although one of them has been absent on parade lately so still has to be presented. Our Fleet Captain has put the relevant pictures on the fleet’s web-site, which is as it should be since he was one of the first recipients for parking his boat above the start line and parallel to it (on port), only being saved by that start being a ‘general recall’! Phil Cotton and Martin, his crew will appear later in this report, but they also won this award for their failure to understand correctly what course had been set last Wednesday. It was my (un) eviable task to present the last award of April to none other than my wife, much to the amusement of the assembled crowd! We are still speaking to each other, in case you’re worried!

Lastly, I need to report to you the winners of the sailors of the month competition, but we ‘pinko’ teachers think that everybody who takes part is a winner, so I’ve included some others who’ve done well.
 

Top Ten Sailors of the Month: April Saturdays 2025
Pos.	No.	Team	Boats beaten
1	3922	Ian Zimmerman & Mike Barton	14
2	4025	Chris Gorringe & Nadia Hosie	15
3	4054	Simon Flack & Andrew Currell	12
4	4115	Ian Linder & Kim Linder	11
5	3537	Bob Alexander & Huw Willetts	10
6	3974	Ann & John Keates	9
7	4058	Phil Cotton & Martin Cowell	8
8	3934	Graham Davies & Homfray Vines	7
9	3936	Andrew Clarke & Peter Verver	6
10	4111	Mervyn Wright & Ron Elliot	5

 

Top Ten Sailors of the Month: April Wednesdays 2025
Pos.	No.	Team	Boats beaten
1	4058	Phil Cotton & Martin Cowell	35
2	3934	Graham Davies & Homfray Vines	33
3	3974	Ann & John Keates	30
4	4025	Chris Gorringe & Nadia Hosie	29
5	4016	Roberta Hartley & John Lyons	29
6	4019	Steve & Lisa Randle	23
7	3758	Graham Latham & Sara Briscoe	21
8	4088	Geof Gibbons & Jo Allam	19
9	4111	Mervyn Wright & Ron Elliot	19
10	4101	Crispin Read-Wilson & Steve Brown	18

 
Thus, Ian and Mike, Phil and Martin are the first winners of Sailors of the month for 2025 - well done. Well, that’s it for April. If you didn’t see the Lyrids meteor shower (like me), you’ve missed it, but you’ve got the ‘Arripaye’ to look forward to in May.  JK
 

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