Weymouth
Sailing
Club

This year Daf and I have reached 10 years of running the YOBs and thanks to the committee lead by Mike Jury who recommended us to the Lord Lieutenant, we received an invitation to Buckingham Palace to attend a Royal Garden Party.

Despite an uncertain forecast, some 50 Norman sailors raced across the Channel to Weymouth this weekend, in conditions which ranged from pleasantly breezy leaving Cherbourg on Friday evening to calm mid-Channel, to 30 knots within minutes around 8am – for one boat the first sign of the wind coming was a mini-tornado!

The final drawings for this project, with scale models of boats, should be on display in the Longshed and on the club website by the middle of this week for members to inspect. The latest General Committee Minutes state that the aim is to accommodate 27 boats, with access being easier in many cases than at present.

Megan Pascoe walked away with the silverware (gold actually) sailing her 2.4m in the Delta Lloyd EUROSAF Championships in Holland. Such was her dominance she did not need to compete in the last race.

Remember how much fun we all had in Cherbourg? Well, the return match is this Saturday - Steve Dadd has done a great job organising the nosh (including the world's most popular sausage, the merguez!), the weather looks more promising than it was over there, and all we need is you to help welcome around 60 YCC members to our club!

Saturday May 17th dawned bright with blue skies, with a light breeze and glorious warm sunshine.

What better conditions would you need to have an open day?

There is an amendment to the Sailing Instructions for the traditional bash round the Bill this Sunday, which brings the Spring Series to a close, but also kicks off the new Sunday trophy race series, which is aimed at 'pushing the envelope' by providing more offshore courses.

A very pleasant crossing to France for the weekend (Homer's Iliad on the way over, and a book on the fall of Cherbourg in 1940 for the return trip!) and a chance to sample the new facilities at Port Chantereyne, which I can now recommend – you will soon have the chance to try them at reduced rate when the club has been granted a regular 20% discount on mooring fees (watch this space!)

There seems to be a force manifesting itself in the club. After the recent incident of the errant Squib rudder, we now have the absconding tender. Mike Jury on Scoline spotted that his tender had broken loose and was making a run for the harbour entrance. Mike, as you might expect was unflappable; he made a phone call to Vernon Taylor who was working in the club yard. Vernon leapt into action, caught the rebellious rubber and returned it to Mike. There’s bound to be a third escaper – watch out.

The bay was like a mirror as crews prepared their boats, but a gentle if chilly W breeze filled in as if to order just in time to make Monday night an ideal first evening race, giving everyone a chance to remember where things go and get some air into spinnakers which have been packed away for long enough. The turnout was modest, but as the weather warms up we hope to see everyone on the water again..

Steve Fraser
Cruiser Class Captain