Coming soon: the Wednesday Evening Series!
Sailing Report – John Smalley, Vice-Commodore
After the wind chill, cold and snow curtailed their training weekend, our Fireball visitors enjoyed a fairly gentle Northerly breeze for their open meeting. The race team managed to complete the scheduled 7 race series over two days. With the shifting wind, the race wins were shared between 5 different boats, so consistency was the key. Tom Gillard with crew Geoff Edwards from Sheffield Viking triumphed, being able to discard an 8th place finish, and still be 6 points clear of the second placed D.J. Edwards and Vyv Townend from Bough Beech. Ian Dobson and Richard Wagstaff finished in third place. Chew’s own Derian and Andy Scott and Mark and Helen Dinwoodie had mixed fortunes struggling to break into the top 10 of what was a high quality fleet. It was good to see the familiar faces of some long-time Fireballers formerly from Chew, including Dave Hall, Russell Thorne and his son Chris and relative local boys Chris and Jon Gill from Portishead. Whilst it was good to be asked by the fleet to host this meeting, it is sad to reflect that our early season Fireball events in the past used to attract double the number of boats.
Sunday 25th also saw the climax of our Frostbite series. Almost 20 Chew boats waited with us on Sunday morning before the wind decided to arrive at 11.30. Because they sailed the morning race with the Fireballs, their two false starts delayed things even more! In the afternoon, the club boats started from the Race Hut line and used the northern half of the lake, leaving the rest to the Fireballs. Our visitors took top spots in the Handicap fleet – Joe Joyner and Will Brooks in an RS800 in the morning and Graham Cranford-Smith and Steve Penfold in a Merlin Rocket in the afternoon.
Ian Cadwallader won both am and pm series in the Flying Fifteens and our Club Secretary, Cathy Bartram did the double in the Lasers. Both Ian and Chris Goldhawk in the Solos only had to count race wins in both the am and pm series – impressive.
Last Sunday’s Fleet Day was deemed a success with the combination of a morning of training and the option of some racing in the afternoon. Ian Cadwallader tried his best with the Flying Fifteens, and Chris Goldhawk attempted to explain to the Solo fleet how he wins races. Nick Martindale kept 5 RS200s working and learning all day and Helen took charge of the smaller Laser group. A slightly fresher breeze would have helped Race Officer Brian Kitching, but he and his team squeezed in three races after lunch. I know the fleet captains involved felt that the effort was justified; race training for our regular club racers does not happen often and I hope this day is duplicated again next spring. Well done and many thanks to all involved.
Ladies Showers – Since the interruption to the gas supply, (when the gas ran out), the ladies showers have been running cold. Rest assured that frantic efforts are being made to rectify this such that the need to take up the men’s offer of using theirs should not be necessary….. !