A chance to sail a Merlin in your first 'international' event perhaps?

A number of boats are going to Brittany this August to race there. Please read on...

whats the French for STARBOARD!!!!?

Priorite a Droite!

(with the appropriate grammatical accents)
It used to be the standard on the roads....

When going up the beat in any country, I daresay any word shouted out will make port tackers look around carefully!

In much of Europe and I think true of France - the tacks are the other way round, or rather named the other way round, so Starbd is when sails are on that side, not when wind on that side - so they actually shout Port at you, or just bang on the deck in a Galic way

Perhaps the crew should simply stick two fingers up at the approaching boat!

You shout 'Tribord!', the other tack being 'babord'. I intend to put together a handy phrase book for the event, which, yes, might include some suitable comments for the more stressful moments, but let's not have the tone of this thread degrade before we have any obvious takers.

My wifes Uncle sailed in Normandy in 1944 and had no trouble.  But he was in a Minesweeper

Tap your ski sticks ...

If you cash in your Tesco clubcard vouchers for Eurotunnel vouchers you get 4 times their face value. Much cheaper crossing but more driving.

Just shout "Starboard", only louder than usual.

Followed by Trafalgar and or Waterloo.

In defence of the French at least they didn't get suckered into invading Iraq

But we can still stick two fingers up at them. You know they don't like it up them, in the imortal words of Corporal Jones. Yes I know that was the Germanys, but they are only next door.

Since we are in the throws of an Election you say what you like about Harold Wilson he gave us the Open University, Concorde, kept us out of Vietnam and Europe! Agincourt Crecy when did either France or Germany win a battle - started a few though!

People sometimes ask if I ever intend to go home, meaning the UK. The truth is that I can�t; the country I left 33 years ago no longer exists. What is depressing is that the island mentality and jingoism have survived, along with border checks & the like, whilst the rest of Europe is getting on with living & working together, largely in harmony. Visitors from the UK are sometimes surprised to see that there are no border controls between your main neighbouirs,- have not been for years.

I was instrumental in checking our the French Open 2010 as a possible venue, and have encountered nothing but lively interest in the class and a great deal of help; I sincerely hope the class is up to repaying the hospitality you will find there.

To be fair I think this is just harmless fun. Having worked for some time in Holland, Italy and Hungary their humour is not so different to ours and they are just as happy to poke fun at their neighbours and engage in all the usual stereotypes - including the Brits, who they mostly consider to be quite ridiculous!! That aside, this looks like a great event and i hope the hard work in researching it pays off - i'm sure it will

Thanks DM

Of course, for you warmongerers out there, a much more apposite example would be the Battle of Quiberon Bay, which the French call the Bataille des Cardinaux. In these days of Wikepedia, I let you check it out for yourselves.

Getting back to the point ... last year we took the 200 to the RS Eurocup at Carnac, which is nearby and also on the Baie de Quiberon - and it was very enjoyable.

The class got a deal with Brittany Ferries, so we went Portsmouth - Caen (Ouistreham) on the ordinary ferry which people seemed to prefer over Portsmouth - St Malo which is Seacat. Probably the deal, but the former has more sailings so more choice. Beware of height restrictions on ferries if double trailing; an RS800 mast had a close encounter with the deckhead, fortunately on the return trip.

The autoroute between Caen and Carnac is non-toll, so might as well use it. We didn't find any special problems with towing in France but I did get some proper number plates for the trailer with the blue GB thingy.

You can find lists of things needed for the car at the usual places on the internet; 'item of the month' when we went was high-vis waistcoats for everyone in the car.

I had some trouble getting confirmation that our European breakdown cover would, if necessary, repatriate the car AND the boat and trailer. Those who love their Merlin more than their car, take note!
 
Lastly I gather most travel insurance policies do not cover medical costs and repatriation arising out of competitive sailing. Bishop Skinner has one that does.