Any idea on the top five Salcombe results??

Greatly Appreciated.

1st Mike Calvert & Chris Downham
2nd David Winder and Jilly Blake
3rd Pat Blake and Alex Jackson
4th Glen Truswell & Jim Lowbridge
5th John Bell & Chairman
6th Dan Alsop & Elena Bremer

You beat me to the 1st post on this one, came back from the weekend too exhausted to type last night, not that my fingers were really working anyway.  The theory in the (very subdued) bar on Saturday night was that to avoid any recurrence of bar-diving, flag-pole climbing or any such, the management had instructed the race box to make sure the fleet was well and truly k****ered on the water.  To achieve this they sent us off on 2 races back to back in a nice fresh breeze, the 1st course 1,7,1,5,1,3 complete with beat and run full of swatters in the main channel x3, then thought we would need a bit of creek hopping so went round every mark in the harbour - 1,8,6,5,4,1,3,2.  And the reach up to 8 was a solid 2-sailer both ways hiked out hard.  Fortunately the Sunday was not nearly as vigorous.  Please can I have a trophy for completing all 4 races, as I'm not going to win anything else & I thought I deserved it in those conditions!  And I provided some amusement with all the capsizes in full view of the club balcony (as ever) with the comedy moment of the homing boat.  (I failed to get back in after capsizing the moment we crossed the line, probably from sheer exhaustion, thought I'd wait for the transom to come along as i could just float in, but missed it!  The boat just sailed away, I whistled for it and it turned round and came back to pick me up)

Well done to SYC for organising a great weekend

Andrew & Ellie

Yes, it was a superb weekend, apart from the port / starboard incident in race 4 - many apologies to anyone I may have snapped at yesterday afternoon!  

Sadly it looks like the just refurbished Gilt Complex will be off the water for at least a month, and I think the look on Tim Coombes face when he saw the damage to his handiwork will haunt me for a long time :(

Dave

What happened Dave? What have you done to her?

Jeremy

A port tack boat hit us just aft of the shroud in a classic T-bone.  Unfortunately he was moving quite fast so there is a fair bit of damage, side deck split right across to the carling, top plank cracked, 3ft of nicely varnished sycamore gunwhale missing in action.  Luckily on one was hurt, but I know the other helm is just as upset.

How does Andrew remember those strings of numbers ????  I had trouble remembering my own name after Saturdays races.
Saturday was very testing - well done to anyone who got round without a capsize - mid way through one race I looked down to find a completely deflated bouyancy bag in the back of the boat - and the bung lying in the bottom of the boat.  As we were beating at the time we pondered what to do - eventually deciding to blow the bag up again before the next downwind leg - have you any idea how difficult is is to find a lull in "The Bag" when you actually want one ?  - but it was worth the effort we tipped the boat in on the next spinnaker leg.  Andrew is right - Sunday was much easier - just what Salcombe should be - 11th to 20th in 100yrds - oh well thats Salcombe!
Well done to SYC for the weekend - the format of two races a day is OK but 2hrs for the first race was too much for us old,  fat, unfit types - obviously only speaking for myself here not my wife - but I think she is writing a letter of complaint to the local LA Fitness centre complaining that those aerobics classes don't seem to have worked very well ! Looking forward to the refund cheque.
Ian

Thanks all for a fantastic weekend.  If we can have 6x Saturday in July, I for one will be a happy chappy!  Just wondering if anyone took any photographs - I would have thought it was the photographers' ideal in terms of conditions.

Sadly I could not go but I was able to catch a little of the action on the virtual salcombe web cams, I wish more sailing clubs had web cams so those at home could catch a little of the action

Sorry to hear that dave, i am sure she will come back good as new when fixed though. I could not make Salcombe which turned out to be a good thing as my jib halyard snapped on Sunday and the rig came down in the middle of the river!! I would have hated to come all the way to Salcombe for that to happen!

Photos of the 'swatters' in action, thanks to Chrissy Burgess.

Great photos - hope that I won't feature in similar poses after the weekend!!

Even more pics added - thanks Demelza!

Looking at the pictures begs one question.  I had always understood (and found in practice) that after capsizing with the spinnaker up, it is always worth taking a little extra time in the water to drop it before getting the boat upright.  What's the current thnking?

Bill,

I agree with you on that one, the only problem being what to do with the catch when it comes aboard!!

Unfortunately the happy snappers missed The Chairman being capsised off Smalls, he managed to fly the kite the whole way through the exercise - is this down to too much practice? 

Anyway, to all the competitors - deep felt thanks from the Watch House team for keeping us amused on Saturday and apologies to the Hon Keeper of the Class Records for curtailing her retail theropy!!

John

If you're quick to right the boat, I think you can leave the spinny....but every second the sail is in the water, it is wrapping itself round your spreaders etc...

The most important thing is to take the kicker off. We dropped the kite as the gusts at that point were a little big, and we didn't want to risk the rig; or going over again, as we were so close to the ferry we didn't want to cause to much entertainment for the spectators.

Thanks John, I do my best.

I felt that with the wind howling around in the way that had pitched us into the drink in the first place, the last thing I wanted once we'd got the boat up was a soggy mass of crumpled spinnaker wobbling about up there ready to knock us over again and that's partly why it took us a while to get up and running again.  If you have managed to right really quickly as Mags said, I might try it but at my skill level I prefer to get most of the water out, start feeling under control again, then hoist.

The piccies are reassuring in some ways as over half are at that point of no return moment when you are waiting for the inevitable & most of them weren't me!!

Andrew 3511

Six different (or varients) designs in the top 8, kind of interesting!  some great photos well done I'm very jellous, Barry.

Alan, you should treasure that photo - it's a real beauty

Thanks Jon, it is already my computer background. Shame you can see the look on Natts face, or hear the scream!

...or for that matter see her at all!  Presumably she's somewhere in that heap of spray Alan?

I witnessed Andrew Mill's "Homing boat"....after he capsized the boat sailed off on its own (with crew, Ellie) then executed a perfect 180, sailed back to Andrew and sat bobbing on the water waiting for him to hop in...magic!

Yes Andrew, with both feet under the rear toestraps I think she went quite deep, bobbed up about 3m away from the boat.

I hate it when that happens.....  Especially when your hat gets drenched and the wind blows on it!

Scary. Only happened to me in Wayfarer at slow speed before (toestraps snapped), but still nasty when you see the green water sloshing past your face, and go "GLUB!"

Chrissy Burgess & Demelza Mitchell - I would really like a high definition version of this pictures (Fullers) so I can print it and frame it. If poss - please e-mail me the image

Alan - whilst I would love to be able to help you, I'm afraid this is not one of my photos.

D

Back in the day when i used to be half about in the laser Fleet i remeber sailing flat out on a reach, hanging off the back of the boat thinking "this looks good and here comes first place, then my poor knot skills forced my toe staps to come undone and the safety elatic snap, and finally stop tumbling in the water (in december) to see my boat plain off up wind! 100m swim in december is a mighty task.