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!)

IOMs next Sunday !!