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Well, for Dinghy/Keelboat and Radio Sailing Club Racing and local Club Members it looks as if we could be back in business!!
Probably too restrictive for Open Meetings, Championships etc (to be evaluated and confirmed) it looks like we could be back to club sailing. When viewed from the Clubhouse end, the water level looks dire. However, it’s a big lake – about the size of 300 football pitches. Three miles around the edge, remember. Radio sailing needs only half a football pitch and a metre of depth!!
So last Wednesday, our Commodore and Sailing Sec leapt in the car to examine the view from the “far end”. Amazingly, 1.4 miles from the Clubhouse they found flat-ish concrete slabs almost unadorned by Thames Water Silt !!! Look at the acreage of water when viewed from there!
In next to no time, they had a digger down that end, clearing a wide path for dinghy, keelboat and radio sailing launching. There are even ancient mooring blocks over there to which we can moor a short temporary launching platform. Amazing! A fabulous job, especially in that heatwave.
“Depth?” did I hear you ask?? Well, we could get Marbleheads in at the end of that little “ten cube long” pontoon – off the end… each side was more hazardous. A few more deck-cubes of length, which the Keelboat fleet might like, would make all the difference.
The K1 keelboats’s had a team of four to evaluate the launching viability, including the Class UK Chairman plus DWSC ex-commodore Mike B …. the great news is that they are keen to “go” as well.
We think the depth out there is generally 3-7 metres. By Sunday morning, our Radio Sailing Sec and Commodore had already done an amazing job laying some radio sailing marks. We had six Marbleheads this morning (4mph of tiny whispy breeze), and WE WENT SAILING!!
So it’s going to see us through to winter, we reckon. Obviously a fair old drive over there, no structure (gazebo maybe possible) but plenty of flat parking space. The Club Manager is talking of getting the digger in there again to clear some more. They have a huge broom system that the tractor can tow.
Just brilliant news!!
Thames Water are being very supportive – just so long as the dinghy/.keelboat fleet obey an exclusion zone around the pumping pier. No problem for radio sailing. Cars are being temporarily permitted, but not portaloos. So plan ahead !! Eat and drink lots at the Clubhouse to support our Galley team. (lunch was great today!)
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.
Datchet Radio Sailing - Making It All Much Easier !! 