Sailing Events
SAILING PROGRAMME for 2008
Social Events
Social Programme 2008
Bar Opening Hours:
Wednesday 19.30-23.00
Friday 18.00-21.00
Sunday 12.00-15.00
Duty Man Roster
Your News & Views
Please send your stories, opinions and photos to the webeditor
19 June 2006
Fast Cat Update
Fast Catters,
According to the sailing calendar, Spring is well behind us and Summer
has arrived. It didn't much feel like summer yesterday afternoon / early
evening on the Dee, not least because it was so lonely out there! First
day of a new series, and rather than the usual mass turnout for a new
series, everyone showed a certain eagerness to get White Tiger off to a
flying start - or was it Father's Day, the latish start, or the dismal
weather forecast that put you off? Jonathan and I went round the course
'because you have to' once you're out there, and we need the practice
for the Spitfire Europeans in mid July. But we'd rather not be gifted
the series by virtue of everyone watching France get off their cheese
eating surrender monkey butts to score a goal at last. Come on out and
give us a fight! OK, so Kate is injured, Pete is on holiday, Graham
wasn't allowed out after partying all night, Colin was crewless and had
a boat to fix, Grant was on a yacht, but apart from that... I guess it
was just bad timing, so we'll pocket the results and cash them in later
in the series when we realise we've missed a load of races due to our
own travelling and holidays.
The Spring series was won by Jonathan helming WT - we both agreed he
needs a better crew, not least as the F18s got the measure of us by the
end of the Series. Based on those last few races, the Summer Series
should be wide open. And as watchers of the Texel competition will know,
even old (very old) boats can beat the world's best out there, but you
do have to be in it to win it (or in his case, come second)!
This coming weekend sees the return of the Regatta Series to the Dee.
Saturday is our (DSC) Regatta, and Sunday is the West Kirby Regatta.
Both days' sailing will take place on the Dee, with the starts at the
West Kirby Ark (so hitting the water early is advisable). These are the
last two regattas of the series, currently being led by Mark and Kate.
They may already have done enough to secure the series, but each regatta
is scored in its own right, so there are still wins to be had (along
with prize money and momentos). The courses are somewhat interesting for
these two events, going rounds cans we rarely see, with visits to the
main channel highly likely - so make sure you have a copy of the course
card from the Regattas website, and not just the regular DSC version.
Anyway, don't get me wrong, it wasn't all bad yesterday - Jonathan and I
twin-wired under spinnaker power for the first time. This was while the
breeze was still fairly decent - it was a strange feeling trying to
balance without being thrown forward, but it felt quite quick and was
certainly fun. The theory is that within reason one should sail high to
fly a hull with two of you on the wire, until it is too windy to do
so... but of course we will need someone to pace ourselves against to
know if it worked. It wasn't all good either... when the wind dropped
off we tried too hard to fly a hull and so we were beaten to the downwind
mark by a Dart! We soon got ourselves sorted out and re-established the
correct order.
Final rallying call for the Regatta Series: Mark and Kate are leading us
by seven points across the series. Assuming there'll be another discard,
we need to finish seven places ahead of them in both regattas - so that
requires six more of you to enter on both days, and for all of you (and
us) to beat Mark and Kate. That's not too much to ask is it?
Cheers
Simon
Tell us what you think - your comments, contributions and photos are very welcome.
Back to top
