It was our host Club’s 50th Anniversary celebrations this weekend!! Good to feel part of it with them. They combined a few onshore celebrations with the 2026 Club Championships out on the water. Racing was greeted by a misty 5mph breeze, but looked pretty intense !!

Onshore there was meant to be a charity walk around the Reservoir (about 3 miles) but amazingly permission was withdrawn by the landlord – pity! Still we had the ladies run a Hospice shop – great jigsaws on sale!

The upstairs had been properly decorated and was looking great for the Championship prize giving not to mention the Bake Off Competition!

As it happens, five key members of Datchet Radio Sailing were competing away from home, leaving us somewhat depleted. The cool misty day would not have helped either – it wasn’t all that alluring!!

To make up for it, Graham brought a couple of stunning boats from his personal collection – with Howard and Richard there to give a hand, plus Phil consulting on the phone!. By the way, Richard 30 years a member and Howard even more than that !

The first was this amazing radio gaff rig cutter – quite a size actually. Superb craftsmanship as you’d expect – one of four built to the 15 metre rule for a group at Frensham. Technically very interesting to sail as there were three radio channels – main and jib sheets being on separate channels of the left joystick. (RJ thinking about some areas where the radio can help out – the joystick for jib sheet goes in different directions on starboard and port!)

Was this the first time a gaff rig had been seen at Datchet ?? Maybe!

The second boat was a converted Vane Ten Rater built to the old rule. That’s the one that stole my heart today – a gorgeous complete rebuild and running on radio now. Stunning and a whopping size. Stupidly I didn’t get photos of that as I had my IOM on the water on “rescue” duty in case we lost the gaff cutter … which happened a few times on saturday!! A small matter if the mainsheet not staying on the winch drum as intended!!