On All Hallow’s Eve, as I write this, mildly irritated that our cousins across the pond have misappropriated this time of year (trick or treat indeed!), I am soothed by Radio 4’s ‘Thought for the Day’ informing me that in the All Saints and All Souls Days to come, we are reminded to live our lives to the full. In that light, I am delighted to report that we, FFs, have done exactly that as our sailing season begins to draw to a close. An average of 16 boats on the water throughout the month of October is truly making the most of our opportunities. We’ve had some surprising results in the last few weeks, and if you’ll be kind enough to carry on reading, you’ll discover them for yourself.
Pride of place in this report has to go to David Pipe. You probably know already that when the Union flag is flown upside down it is a signal of distress. I’m not sure, but when David decided to hoist his spinnaker in a similar fashion, I imagine there was a certain degree of anguish on his boat! Every cloud has a silver lining, and David is now the current owner (temporary I’m convinced he wishes) of the Rasputin Trophy. You’ll have to take my word for the artistic nature of his deviance, sadly we have no images of his offence, but I can provide you with a picture of his acceptance of the cup.
If you haven’t had the good fortune to have been presented with this prestigious award, fear not; the committee have more informers than the Stasi had in the days of East Germany, and you are being watched! Take a glance at Phil Cotton’s (very perceptive!) report of Wednesday 30th’s race, you will see that we have a new candidate!
Fi and her team have done a fantastic job of providing us with exciting racing this month. Generally speaking we’ve had mild weather, and the winds, with one or two notable exceptions, have been fair. That’s probably why we’ve had such good turn outs, reaching a best score of eighteen boats on Saturday 19th and Wednesday 30th. 3966 has continued to make an appearance on the water on every available occasion - total respect from me!
We’ve had five races in the Autumn series so far with four different winners: testament to the strength of the fleet. One of them was Peter Biggs and his crew in 3901, a victory which came on the back of several good results. Roberta and John L are leading the way. With four races to count their nett score is nine! John was quite keen to tell me that in their 5th race they nearly managed to equal that score in one race! (they came 8th). You may remember that at the top of this report I mentioned that there were a couple of surprising winners. Well, one of those was team Keates, due in no small measure to Ann’s starting ability. More surprising is that this has placed us 2nd in the table. I thought I needed a lie down after Wednesday’s victory, now I’ve seen the where that puts us, I’ll be a nervous wreck! Actually, a more considered examination of the results shows me that Steve and Crispin are counting a DNC; they are lurking and I’m sure I can hear the music from “Jaws” getting louder in my ears! In fact, only 7 points separate 7th from 2nd place. Andrew Clarke and Peter Verver are also clearly in the hunt for honours.
Once again, Saturday racing has attracted the whim of the venti (Anemoi, if Greek is your preference), and so far, we’ve only managed three races in the Autumn series. However, each of those races has had a different winner. It’s also close with just nine points separating 7th from 1st place. Team Linder are in that seventh spot, and it would take a brave person to rule out their chance of winning the Saturday Autumn races, which would give them a clean sweep of the Saturday Series in 2024 – something to strive for Kim (no pressure from Ian I’m sure!).
My last reporting job is to announce the winners of October’s ‘Sailor of the Month’ and the ‘Reporter of the Month’ awards. But, before I do that I need to apologise to Phil Cotton/Martin Cowell and Andy Currell/Simon Flack who won in September, but are yet to receive their bespoke bottles of amber nectar. That’s because they have disappeared from the trophy boxes where they had been stored for safety (sic!). If you know anything about this strange disappearance, both Mervyn and I would love to hear from you. Anyway, back to October. Saturdays’ worthy winners are Patrick Keats and Aly Baxter. Thanks to the rules applied by the Fleet Captain, Wednesdays’ winners are Ann and John Keates, and when my boys come home they had better not drink my prize; I’m keeping it forever!
Chris Gorringe wrote three of this month’s reports, which must be some kind of record! The standard of report writing is very high but there can still only be one winner each time (unless it’s a joint effort, John and Roberta!). This month’s winner is Ian Zimmerman.
In conclusion, in case you missed this piece of literary wizardry from Kim Linder, which first appeared on the Whats App group, I include it here in the newsletter (without Kim’s permission - sorry).
Your Fleet Captain wonders if anyone would like to take up the challenge of doing something similar, but using all the boat names in the fleet! Good luck with that!
Well, that’s it for October. I’m looking forward to explosive sailing in November but not the sort of fireworks planned by Robert Catesby and his friend, Guy Fawkes!