Weymouth
Sailing
Club

The star of the Weymouth Seafest, the 'Marité' was built in Fecamp in 1922, the last of the schooners employed in fishing for cod off Newfoundland. Abandoned in the Faroes after WW2, she was restored in the 1980s and cruised in the Baltic and the North Sea, finally making her return to Fécamp in 1992.

You may remember her being extensively rebuilt in the dry dock at Cherbourg in 2006, where I first saw her; now owned by an association of French companies, she remains an important feature of the world of Tall Ships, and it is an honour to have her here in Weymouth.

A gentle westerly breeze filled in across the bay just in time for the start of the Squib race to Ringstead on Sunday, giving a very pleasant spinnaker leg all the way there, with the lead taken from the start by She and Vernon Taylor in 'Hussy', leading around a dozen Squibs and cruisers across the bay to anchor off the beach for lunch. Mark Bugler was race officer as usual, and Adrian Patterson provided support in the RIB to get ashore when we arrived at Ringstead.

For members who enjoyed the hospitality of YCC at St Martin's Bay in June, or for anyone who fancies a great weekend's sailing, their famous Alderney rally (80 boats last year!) will take place on the weekend of the 13th/14th September, and we are cordially invited to share in this event.

Barts Bash Auction
Saturday night an Auction was held at Weymouth Sailing Club to raise funds for Barts Bash. With 80 tickets pre-booked we knew we were in for a good night. The evening kicked off with a fantastic BBQ full of meat, salad and all things yummy. There was a whole table of cakes which were supplied by various club members for those attending to delve into!

With all the nice weather we've been having, it took me considerably longer to get back from St. Nazaire to Cherbourg than it took 'Raging Bee' to get to Madeira, where she finished with a superb second place behind Jean-Pierre Kelbert – Mr JPK himself, who wasn't going to let anyone finish ahead of him, even in one of his boats! The 'McDo' team finished a respectable twelfth out of 58 finishers. Congratulations to YCC, and very well done Loulou and Titi from 'Raging Bee' fans at WSC.

This year's summer cruise was based on being able to get to St. Nazaire in time for the start of the Transquadra 2014 first to Madeira, as Cherbourg friends Louis-Marie Dussere and Thierry Lacour are sailing 'Raging Bee' in the race; to qualify you have to be amateur and over forty, though the competition is nevertheless very strong, with a large number of JPKs and Sun Fast 3200s among the 61 starters, making a race within a race for both the Cherbourg boats.

Most of you will be aware of the mounting excitement of forthcoming Barts bash fundraisers, parties and of course the event itself.

On Friday the Wildfire crew started to assemble on the boat over on Shepard's Wharf in Cowes. The last crew member joined the boat slightly late on in the evening but was welcomed onboard none the less.
The crew welcomed Saturday morning with the kind of fresh enthusiasm and vigour that most sailing crews have at the start of a regatta - that enthusiasm would be tested in the following hours.

Megan Pascoe struck gold as she competed in the e 2.4mR Europeans on Snekermeer in Friesland, Netherlands. Home to Sneek Week where 1000 boats from 43 classes turn up on a small piece of water so 54 2.4mR's seemed easy.

Nervous sailors worry about losing sight of land, but how did people navigate before even the compass? Iron Age trade between the Continent and England made South Coast ports like Radipole, Hamworthy and Hengistbury important destinations, but how could sailors make reliable landfall with their cargoes? This series of pictures gives a simple clue, showing the coasts of both England and France - in the sky.