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19 June 04
This weekend sees the first two rounds of the Wirral Regatta series races. Click on the links in the EVENTS column to the left for more details. DSC will be hosting the Dinghy racing on the Dee Estuary. Start times are about 11:00 for the Saturday and 11:30 for the Sunday. The news page is brimming with stories, reports and pictures thanks to the contributions of club members. A list of links for the main articles are included below. There are several Back to Top links at points through the News page and the 'BACK' button on your browser will return you swiftly to previously veiwed sections. Many of the photographs are shown in a small format, as your cursor passes over a picture the icon will change and clicking on the window will open another window with a larger picture giving more detail, this new window can be closed using the X at the top right without losing your connection to the site. Keep the stories rolling in and send any pictures to. webmaster Lets make the second half of 2004 as colourful and exciting! webeditor@dee-sc.co.uk Ray Scrag the winner from Upper Thames SC. I can report that the 1st DSC Wayfarer Open on 5 & 6 June was a great success and over 40 boats joined in for the cruise on the Sunday. Report Link, Pictures Link 09 June 04 It is with great pleasure I can introduce Quentin Jones as the new Wayfarer fleet Captain. Quentin has worked tirelessly behind the scenes for the fleet, travelling much further than some local sailors, he attended all the monohull working parties last winter. He is also a likeable and generous person. Choosing between the Wayfarer Bash and martyrdom, he offered the loan of his boat for the benefit of visitors. This allowed us all to say we have sailed against Bill Brockbank, which is a good pose. He also likes planning and carrying out cruises in addition to occasionally racing. Like Doctor Who regenerating, Q becomes the only the second Wayfarer Fleet Captain ever at Dee, this will allow Q to change direction without worrying about tradition. The fleet is looking healthy, with a significant milestone under its collective belt. I wish Quentin the best of luck in keeping the fleet growing, active and happy as I go paper pushing as Vice Commodore. Adrian M. 06 June 04 I mentioned at the end my article that Bill was due to set
sail from St Maarten to the Azores on about May 12th; I had this message
from him today, which might be an interesting postcript to my article.
Sent 06 June 2004 00.44. It says: John Toms Commodore's Cruise, or Beetroots at Dawn... 13 Jun 04 Here's my account of the Commodore's Cruise, from the perspective
of a middle-aged teenager with a new toy (well, two actually). Doubtless
you'll have spotted the new cat in the car park, in the form of White
Tiger, a 16 foot fighting machine. This variant of the Spitfire comes
with twin trapezes, dagger boards, in/out/up/down hauls, rotation controls,
asymmetric spinnaker, and attitude. It is supposed to fit the niche in
my stable as a single seater, but has already shown that fun shared is
fun doubled. More of which anon. If you were very sharp-eyed you'll also have spotted another new addition to the Fast Cat fleet: Mark Oliver , with a Nacra 5.5. The day started with Mark O, rigging his new boat, Le Chat, freshly herded in from Bala (after Ar Cat, Animal and Dilligaf, are there any cats left in Wales?). At 19 stone, this will be an ideal starter boat for Mark, but I think he could surprise us all on those blowy days. As long as he is on the right side of Le Chat, it won't ever blow over! The previous owner had gone to town on derigging the boat, and had passed on all the spares, so we had to pick and choose from multiple trapeze lines, diamond wires, rigging, etc, before assembling what should be one boat and just one boat. When I accepted the mission of being teacher rather than taught, I had figured on having Animal as reference point, but when I last saw the beast it had been reduced to its component parts in a pile of boxes and paper bags scattered round Mark E's garden, rather like what lies behind those adverts for "1970's Suzuki GT750 semi-completed restoration project" - i.e. whoever started the project had seen a motorbike once, but not a three-cylinder two-stroke, and as a result had assembled a contorted beast before giving up, taking it apart again and filling multiple small cardboard boxes with jigsaw puzzle pieces that would make sense to someone, one day. (Just in case anyone is worried, Animal is on the path to a full recovery, with reconstructive surgery well under way, Mark E says). So back to Le Chat. We managed to work it out, and with 19 stone of ballast on the trapeze lines, the mast was up in a trice. By the time we had rigged up, my crew for the day had arrived and I think was wondering why I appeared to be rigging a Nacra 5.5 rather than the Spitfire he'd been promised... And Quentin was looking for crew for his Wayfarer. So Mark O and his son, together with my cool bag of lunch for two, went off for a sailing lesson with Q. We had neglected to supply Mike with a world atlas, expecting that on this occasion Q would be happy to stop and spend awhile at the sand bank rather than visit some other local port such as Cork, Lisbon, or who knows. It was with mixed feelings that I entrusted my lunch to Q and his crew - although I was relieved by the sight of the BBQ being loaded upon a large vessel making for the very same sand bank as ourselves. Co-pilot for the day was Jonathan Harris - regulars at the club will know he has sailed with me before, on Animal, and will wonder with incredulity at the foolhardiness required to accept a second invitation from myself. But Jonathan is made of stronger stuff and has the grit and determination to enjoy himself regardless of what I might cause to happen to him - quite an asset in a young teenager. By the time we were ready to start rigging the Spitfire I was in a rush. Hence I was greatly amused at Jonathan's endless questions about how it all works, what to do, where to go, and how could he help. I hope I wasn't too rude to him by trying to remember all these things for myself, focussing on what needed to be done right there and then. This was only the second time I had rigged it, and I'd slept since the first time. I did recall Ali having a good laugh the first time, when I was trying desperately to tie off the jib sheets to the downhaul cleats... You do have to see the amount of string on this thing to believe it. We made it to the water before it finally evapourated, and with Jonathan's relatives arriving just in time to see us depart, we headed off for the start line and off towards the islands. I had no idea of the format for the race, but could see if we hung around any longer we would be taking a walk back up beach and have to face the day with all sources of lunch sailing westwards One advantage of dagger boards is that you can find sand
banks really easily. However, it was pretty much a draw between us and
the stragglers amongst the Darts, but of course we had a little more housework
to do to recover from the situation before we could head off and find
some more. There's another large sand bank just off West Kirby, and quite
a shallow area extending some distance West from there. Some of these
Dart fellows, with their local knowledge gained from years of seeking
out the sandbanks of the Dee, proved quite useless at it yesterday, appearing
to go all the way to Wales just to allow us a small victory in the sand
bank spotter's competition. We finally found the one that mattered and
arrived in time to see that the BBQ would be in full operation even if
our hand-delivered lunch wasn't going to make it. Surprisingly Q did turn
up, and stayed for the day too. Jonathan and I had a good pootle around, with the breeze picking up a bit towards late morning. Mark O (did I mention his mass of 19 stones?) was my next passenger. To say I was expecting the Spitfire to be rooted to the spot with 31+ stones on board was an understatement, but no-one had told the cat. The breeze had probably stiffened too and we were off past Hilbre at a fair pace. I had warned Mark that this cat throws up a good deal of spray and we were not to be disappointed. However, from the boyish yelps of delight the speed was clearly making up for the midday shower. Remember, Mark had arrived aboard Q's Wayfarer, equipped with nothing more waterproof than a spray top and boots. I think they were yelps of delight anyway! Mike Hilton had also asked for a blast, so off we went,
again belting around like a couple of irresponsible youths. I especially
enjoyed the flat water right in the lee of the sandbank - I heard the
ripples in the water sputtering under the bows as we reached down the
bank at speed, which is something that hasn't happened since windsurfing
in a near gale on the flat water close to the wall in West Kirby marine
lake. While beating out past Hilbre again, Mike somehow exited stage left
leaving me to try the solo option. Prize to Mike - he is officially the
first to fall off. We managed a quick retrieval, and all was well. Shortly
afterwards we were flying the kite back to the sandbank, and not too far
from it when we were hit by another gust. I was bearing off quickly, but
not quickly enough it seems. Over we went, with Mike in the drink first,
and now the holder of the first to capsize trophy too. We took our time
recovering, since the spinni had to go away first. It was being stubborn
and I am sure I wasn't finding the best way to retrieve it. On the tramp
is one thing, whereas stood on a slippery surface that is trying to remove
you, while effectively pushing the halyard (i.e. pulling away from your
body) to retrieve something like a 19 sq m swimming pool into a 10"
diameter hoop suspended three feet in the air and at 90 degrees to the
direction of movement, is quite another. There must be a knack. I thought
it was to feed the initial few feet of the spinni into the chute by hand.
I found out later that this must have caused some bunching in the sock
(where else could such a phrase make sense?), resulting in a ruptured
chute. Later analysis showed that while little used in 2 years, this Spitfire
had been left rigged with the chute exposed to the elements, rendering
it not much stronger than a wet tea bag. Reg White informed me this morning
that they have been redesigned to be stronger, and a new one should be
in the post from the sailmakers at the end of the week. The race back at the end of the day was interesting - we
started late for some reason, and so found ourselves chasing the Darts.
We were catching them both up & downwind (without the spinni). but
I think I was sailing too shallow in the search for speed. We lost the
race I'm sure, but it was being there that worked for us. The sail back
to DSC became another game of hunt the sand bank, which we won again,
despite the Darts getting pretty close every now and then. A fantastic
opportunity to collect shell-fish with our toes awaited us while grubbed
in the mud at the end of the causeway as the tide came in. Derigging was
a ball in these these circumstances, and again, well done to my hearty
crew as he got in with it with the maturity of someone much older. Nothing
ventured, nothing gained eh? 05 & 06 June 04
The Dee Bash. Words by John Rigby. Pictures by Mike Hilton Would you like a cruise on the Dee, with your base being the friendly Dee Sailing Club? First the good news. 'Free Beer.' Now the bad news. 'Dream on!' Nevertheless, six cruisers accepted the invitation from what is indeed a very friendly club. On Saturday, in light winds, the short cruise was planned to visit Heswall. Local cruisers led us up a narrowing channel marked with a few buoys and withies, to the site of the former clubhouse, now a restaurant. After about half an hour on shore, the ebbing tide took us back to the wider part of the estuary where we tacked back and forth till the falling tide caused our return. Recovery by tractor was very acceptable. Bill Brockbank, returning to the waters where he began sailing, was the guest speaker on Saturday evening. His fascinating talk added considerably to the film of the voyage to Norway by Frank Dye and himself. What became clear was that the trip had been planned with immense attention to detail and was successful due to the character and fortitude of two expert sailors. Sunday dawned warm and sunny. Again towed down by the tractors, the boats gathered on the beach ready to make the most of the tide for a cruise of about 7 miles round Hilbrie Island. Just as the tide reached the boats, the wind freshened and changed direction to NNW meaning a long beat against the incoming tide to the island. Most boats enjoyed a pleasant run back to the club. Adrian's organization was excellent and the welcome provided by the officials of the Club should result in the Bash becoming an annual event. A Word From Our Vice Commodore. Adrian Mould. In addition to the cruising fleet there was a hard fought open racing meeting comprising of a further 8 boats. Saturday saw 3 races run in light conditions with Blue Jay giving a master class on how to gain the lead and hold it for the three races. Aside from being an excellent Speaker, Bill Brockbank is also a noted racer. He had a score to settle with the Dee Regatta committee from a good many years ago and proceeded to do so a certain Highwayman style. Suffice to say, no guest speaker has ever got our full, undivided attention quite so fast…However, our fast cat captain crewed for him and our new Mono ull Captain provided a boat, which although more suited to cruising, Bill still showed us a clean transom. Except for the Sunday when Bills 6th Worst ever crew, our own Tony Marston, neglected to get him there in time for the briefing. The Hilbrie race was a triumph of faith in the breeze, an early breakfast
breeze died and only when the boats were floating did the NNW sea breeze
kick in to give a reasonable force 3. This gave a long distance Windward
Leeward course. The seals who normally pop their heads up to watch us
past their patch must have been pottering elsewhere. But with a force
3, strong sunshine, and a 4 mile Spinnaker run home for the racers the
sailing was just about perfect, if it wasn't for all the rest of the racing
fleet in front of us. The sun shone even more strongly for the prize giving.
First place went to Ray Scragg, who in missing the Nationals to come and
sail with us really showed us how to make going fast look easy. 03 June 04
I was talking to a bloke the other day about boats, he asked me what I sailed, 'A Wayfarer' I answered, expecting the usual guffaw and comments about 'Old mans boat' etc, 'Good sea boat that' he said. - And he was right. Decision 1 - To go Decision 2 - Avoid Rhyl. (Advisable at any time. ed) Decision 3 - Go around ' The Orme ' and into Conway Bay Up until this point all sailing was either a run or a broad reach and the only fear was how to explain to my wife how I ended up in Conway. Rounding Gt. Orme got me thinking how would it be explained to the widow and orphans! Heave to, a quick reef, and things calmed down. I knew that the trick to getting into Afon Conway was to find the Fairway Buoy a course of 215 deg T - got to within 100 m of it. Made a brew whilst 'Waiting for the tide' (my kids say I was stuck on a sandbank). A Couple of Hrs of technical tacking later against wind and the ebb, I made it into Conway Marina. Bit of a softies berth but I had to leave the boat somewhere safe. Caught the 1930 train from Llandudno Junction back.
The Monohull Cruising section is planning a few day sails and an extended cruise later on in the year. The first Organised Day sail will be Sunday July 13th over to Flint Castle. Start 11.00 on the beach. So if the above hasn't put you off completely - come along. WANTED Round Hilbre Race The race around Hilbre is set for this Sunday and coincides with the Wayfarer Open. Join in the fun and support the DSC for what will be a great weekend. |
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