It has been a manic couple of months with mixture of both sailing and golfing events. Two days ago, I had my seniors captains day at Blackmoor Golf club which proved to be a big success and raised a £1000 for our Myeloma charity. Now that is over I can turn my hand back to sailing.
Unfortunately there seems to be a bit of a weed problem this year. Both Gosport and Frensham Pond are suffering. Sailing continues at Gosport but pit stops are often required to clear weed. Paul Edwards sets up courses to accommodate this. Chipstead also had similar problems at the recent open.
The major event for this month is the ranking event at Poole. The usual suspects are there, so it will prove to be a great event and yardstick for my developing performance. One venue I am looking forward to return to is West Kirby in September. I won a 470 open meeting their back in 1975 and had the pleasure to meet Dick Priest of Highlander (A Class) fame on the Sunday night. I had read his book over an over again so it was a pleasure to meet the author. Why I didn't get into model yachting then instead of Olympic campaigning I don't know. It would have saved me so much money. The West Kirby event was a bit unique in so far as all our boats were tractored out half a mile or so and dumped on the sand. There was no signs of the sea so we were a bit concerned, however within half an hour the boats were afloat as the water came racing across the sand and we were able to get on our way.
The new tension meter has proved to be a huge bonus. I set my practice rig up with the same tensions as the racing rig and was delighted with the results. The last thing I need to do now is check that the fin and the rig are all in line. I never though about this until I saw Shirley Robertsons latest video on her round Britain campaign with Dee Cafari. They checked the keel and mast alignment with lasers at night.
It seems strange that there is no work to do on the boat. Now I am back to one boat and all the rigs are up to date it is just a case of replacing ropes as they wear. Oh dear that means more time in the garden.
It was a pleasure to see John Taylors 3d printed boat at the Veterans. 3d printed with a thin layer of glass over the top. There are other projects in town in the UK and wouldn't it be nice to see a competitive design come to the fore which can be printed and produced at a decent rate. It is only a matter of time. I know there is a competitive design out there and it is proven to work in strong competition, it is just a matter of getting the right printing material.
One of the things we do in seniors golf is to have divisions based on ability or handicaps. When racing at Gosport, we can have up to 18 boats or more and the range of ability is varied. I wondered if it would be a good idea to set up divisions in the fleet so people of equal ability have something to go for.
One last thing. If your club does not have an open event perhaps now is the time to introduce one. It does require a few volunteers but they are great fun.
Thats it for now. Good luck with your Summer racing and I hope you are not plagued with weed.
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