Hi All. It's that time of year again for the Wembley Silver Tiller...well actually it's not - we've moved and we're early this year.

Early indications are that we are looking at a big entry. We've got our usual popular format, free breakfast then 3 back to back from 11.30am (plenty of time to get there), with snacks on the water, then the fantastic Wembley Chilli Con Carne late lunch all in the entry fee. 

There's the overall prize, places and the Century Cup (1st helm & crew combined age over 100) all to play for. Can Jon Turner & Richard Parslow retain the Century Cup for the 3rd time in sucession? 

You can leave your boat securely overnight on Saturday - so please contact me to arrange.

MF-Ltd have generously donated some Merlin branded prizes so come along and kick off your season at Wembley!

All the details on MROA website or http://www.wembleysailingclub.co.uk/

See you there! Regards Paul

See you there - my first Merlin race in aaaaaaaaaages.

Good luck

Bump - we're all set for next Sunday. A number of people are leaving their boats overnight on Saturday. Please email me for instructions if you want to do that.

See you all Sunday
Cheers Paul

Looks a nice wind,  but ties served from 8.45 onwards

Grrrrrrr

Megan - we're not a Yacht club! No need for ties everyone! We'll be serving butties (rolls for those from the South!) from 8.45am. See you then.

Could do you some battered mars bars

Any changes to the plans given the weather?

17 knots with 26 knot gusts, says windguru (can we trust this, as it's only 2 days in the future?).

Yes, I am a wimp...

What a pessimist you are Mags! The forecast I have seen say 12-15mph from the East (Which from memory and unless they have moved the Welsh Harp is as good a direction as you can get?) its is however my man says going to be cold - lucky to get above zero for long, but hey you'll be working hard so you'll keep warm!

I have 21-30 MPH - ENE - 0 Degs. 

Souns like fun to me, if a little cold! Shame I can't make it, even to watch!

So Mags will have to work a bit harder!

All, we doubt we'll have to cancel. There is no snow here (Wembley) currently but obviously individuals will need to decide for themselves whether to travel. It may be the snow melts as quick as it arrives, a lot can change this time of year. Wind-wise, 17kts and 26kts gusts would not cause us to cancel at Wembley. We like big gusts and shifts! Can't be any more challenging than last year where we had F1 in the morning and an F6 squall by the final race!

We're hoping to see you all Sunday - the chilli is being prepared, Cols doing the bacon rolls assuming Megan doesn't eat them, the rescue crews are ready with the chocolate and water, Daniel Craig and Linda Lusardi are coming to sound the start guns, the cabaret and dancing troupe are ready for the prizegiving and the red arrows are just getting clearance for the flypast as the winner finishes race 3. See you there..........!

You forgot to mention megans obedience and intelligence display

If you could keep the clapping low noise as she gets a wee bit barky at that

Shivering under 4 inches of snow in Warwickshire and M40 down to 2.5 lanes, whats the weather like in London and as I have never been to Wembley before what are the approach roads to the club like if there is snow?
Yes I am at present still planing on comming down.

We just did a pitch inspection. We are pleased to confirm that we are definitely on for tomorrow. The club is fairly near the A406 North Circular Road, a major route in London and we expect this will be well gritted as it normally is. Birchen Grove is a residential street which likely won't be gritted, but it is fairly flat and straight so it should not be too difficult if people take it steady. The snow is currently more of a sleety/ slush - anyway its quite wet. We will lay on help with launching and recovery on our slipways tomorrow if need be. Motorwzys I am unsure of but I have already been told that one intrepid Merlin sailor will be travelling from Wales today and has set off already!
Please be safe on the roads everyone and we are buying in some soup today for added warmth for everyone coming.
Good luck everyone and we hope to see you tomorrow, we don't want to let the snow beat us!

To FBS. Just driven down from northampton on m1. All lanes open, very straight forward journey. Side roads fine.

Just driven down m40 not a bad trip and no snow in London yaya!

Not really worried about the force 4-6 currently predicted....it's the 0degC I cannot enjoy...

Haha! Wetsuit underneath drysuit is happening tomoz !

ben your crew is all ready in his gear and raring to go

I have a very good feeling about this.

Drove up to Reading this evening, no wind, snow or traffic! Still ruddy cold though but not as bad as the Steamer. Looking forward to tomorrow's sail. See you at the Harp for bacon butties!

Thanks Wembley, my first vist, very cold but what a fantastic days sailing!

Took until Bristol on the return for some movement to return to my fingers, they are still tingling now (but at least they haven't turned black and dropped off). Thanks Wembley for a great event.

Can you make sure you announce the prize giving as we were de-rigging when it all happened and didn't realise we missed it?

Missed out on the chilli con carne too, but hey ho! See everyone at Salcombe in a few weeks?

Thanks Andy. Sorry you missed out, I must admit we thought we had announced it but everyone's teeth were chattering so much that maybe it didn't happen. Hope you got some soup at least when you came on shore as we had someone outside with a camp stove dishing it out to revive people!

Anyway, results and report have been sent to Ben so it will be on the website any day. 24 brave boats went out. A few very cold swims. Ice freezing on the sails as the spray hit is a new one on me! Jon Gorringe won, Taxi 2nd, Matt Biggs 3rd. Great to see you all, we really enjoy having the Merlin fleet come to Wembley. Full results to follow.

Andy, sorry about the CCC - it was us spectators who probably gobbled it up before you got a chance. I guess we were even colder than you were!
Below is a link to some video footage that I took on Sunday. Mostly of WICKED of course (Jasper and Graham came 4th) but others feature aswell.

Well done Keith, it is great to see a little footage of what went on. Wicked certainly seems to have a good turn of speed in the right hands.

Here are the full results. Hopefully this link will work

Sorry I missed you all. Slight problem with our team:
Helm's eyes do not work below 5 degrees C. 
Crew's stomach very dodgy all day (not alcohol related!).

Report to appear on Y&Y as soon as I get the photos sent through to me.

Hi Paul, could you kindly email the results in excel or html format please. I tried copying them into excel, but can't get it to work properly. Thanks

Hi ross. Trying to get an excel copy. Didnt collate the results myself. Rgds paul

some pics of the Open at Wembley, or try www.wembleysailingclub.co.uk