There cannot be many Sailing Clubs in the UK that run a September evening series. The idea of Weymouth Sailing Club Squib Class Captain, Alan McDine, was first tried last year and has proved to be a great success. The event is self-organised by the Squib Fleet and uses a gate start. The only Club resource required is the safety boat which lays any additional marks that may be required, acts as guard boat for the gate Squib and finishes the fleet at the windward mark after about an hour and 15 minutes of racing. The start time is 17.30 and the course and countdown is announced to the fleet with great clarity by the safety boat driver Euan McNair.
The series of five races that finished on Thursday 4th October attracted 23 boats; many crewed by husband and wife. A variety of courses were used: triangle sausage and windward leeward with a leeward gate. To keep the racing close, the legs were relatively short with a beat of around 0.5 miles and near to the shore so there were plenty of wind shifts to give the opportunity to gain or lose quite a few places: rather like the Olympic medal races. Four different Squibs were race winners including Ernie Lee in Jubilation, sail number 86. Ernie, who is older than his sail number, can still show the rest of us a thing or two when it comes to reading the wind shifts. The youngest helm was Megan Pascoe in Squibble fresh from her success with third place in the 2.4m World Championship. Megan kept us right on the rules in close boat on boat encounters and gave her crew Adrian Temple some firm instruction on the alertness and effort required to be a member of the Paralympic Sailing Squad.
The series went down to the last race for the Posh Totty Trophy and this was won by Simon and Jill Vines in Quantum by half a point over Jim and Ann Chalmers in Longshot. The racing could not have been better with a variety of winds and sunny autumn evenings finished off in the Clubhouse with the competitors sitting around one large table enjoying a lot of banter, a few drinks and some comforting food laid on by Ali and Peter, the Club Caterers.
Jim Chalmers
Submitted on 12th October 2012