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Datchet’s Craig and Nigel make the treck to Woodspring for the weekend – and did extremely well down there. It’ll have been blowing just as hard as it was for us at the Club, I imagine. Nigel got a couple of brilliant wins in the Viss and was right up there, but Craig sailed in a league of his own.
It was a brilliant bright day that greeted us. Clear, very clear, light and the lake appeared to be boiling….white horses all over the place. There was a large open meeting on for Flying Fifteens, wayfarers and wanderers so our South course venue at the main pontoon was impractical. HM did a super job with a compromised north course – with a new aluminium launching platform!!
The ‘big boys’ were away at Woodspring. So the hard core were ready to race at home!
It was meant to be five of us, then Phil was on family commitments – it being Mothers Day I guess. Then there were four.
It was quite obviously a C Rig kind of day (15-20 gusting 35 plus) , and out we went for a half hour blast through the waves(big). That was enough to sort RJ’s little used C rig – and the jib tack was sawed through by something. Very lucky not to dismast!! Then there were three.
The boats just flew. Race one was really fast – GH really superbly quick downwind – but the breeze continued to build. The guys came ashore for C2 discussions and quick rig resets. Then I notice JLR tightened up his main leech and definitely changed gear … improved pointing …… while GH seemed to go EVEN quicker. There were two spectacular ” an inch in it” kind of reaching finishes. Just brilliant to watch !!
Then the wind blew up even more (a lot more) and HM declared racing cancelled in favour of bacon rolls and tea. Job done – good day!
As at 28th February we had 48 entries showing for the Nationals. There’ll be a few more to come.
At four dozen, it doesn’t seem too soon to see how the entry population looks as far as designs are concerned. What is happening at the sharp end of the UK Fleet?
Not at all surprising that the most popular design in the fleet will be the fabulous Britpop – making up a third of the Fleet.
Quite surprising is the number of Venti now …. almost 20% of the fleet and you get a feeling that popularity is really growing. Momentum behind Venti is starting to build now.
Big surprise is the Proteus – after only a year (is it less?? I forget…) of home builds, already 10% of the Championship Fleet. With more and more coming off the home printing lines, it’s already exceeding the Alioth and Viss. Interesting. Just wait until the K7 glassfibre boats hit the market, eh?
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