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Have you popped in to the Club in recent days? The Landlord has taken a lot of the water. The “word” is that they have permission to pump out if they want up to next Wednesday 12th August. It has gone down bit in the last 24 hours – the reservoir is very flat at the bottom of course (like a bath!) so a one metre drop tends to expose many meters of new beach.
Having been a member for 30 years, I must say that each time it gets drained (maybe seven to eight times in my tenure?) it tends to look very different. In the early years, there was hardly any silt and we had some great racing at water levels the same as now, launching off the South beach.
You just cannot tell what the silt layer of the year will look until it pumps out. Commodore Phil, just last Thursday, was very optimistic we could get good racing in. Not this morning though.
Craig was the member to do God’s Bidding today, and test the depth for IOMs. By the way, he drove his car a long way around the lake looking for a more optimistic spot, but none was obvious.
There were 13 pallets from the shore to the pontoon – 24 hours ago I’m told it was only three pallets.
Craig still had to wade the last metre or two in his wellies – silt and mud beneath.
Craig then pulled the pontoon around to be more perpendicular to the shore (70 degrees to the shore maybe) and then ta-da … enough depth!!
That’s Craig indicating how much depth was out there!!
Realistically we have to wait until the level stabilises to assess if there is a way for Club Racing to resume…. if it stayed at today’s level (unlikely?) there might be a clever and ingenious way to rig a pontoon (currently split in two sections) perpendicular to the shore – using a tractor perhaps. However, until the water level stabilises it’s not worth doing any physical work on it.
The K1 keelboat fleet were of a mind this morning that they couldn’t cope with the situation as it was today. But if they can figure a way, it would probably suit radio sailors as well.
A dynamic situation – we shall see.
Craig again – the Proteus is just hiding behind the orange rib if you look closely.
Jolly quiet all round at the Club today. Deep holiday season now.
It’ll be well known that we are in drought. Datchet is at about half height though. Plenty of water in there and according to Thames Water still about 12-15m in there. The K1 keelboat fleet was out racing. No rain in the 10 day forecasts though.
Coffee was good as was the chatter in the Clubhouse. Scampi and chips scored top marks.
Datchet Radio Sailing - Making It All Much Easier !! 