Weymouth
Sailing
Club

Weymouth boats are setting sail on the challenging 605 mile Rolex Fastnet Race leaving from Cowes midday on Sunday.

Draig O'r Mor with Kay and Kevin Stibbs with their complete crew of Weymouth sailors are to enter the race for the first time.  Draig O'r Mor has done well in the run up qualifying races, coming fifth in the Eddystone Roack race and is hoping to get a good position in The Fastnet.

Also racing will be WSC members Kathy Claydon and Alan Glover in the 37ft Arcona 'Arcsine'.  Kathy is a regular competitor in the Junior Offshore Group (JOG) group and has sailed the Fastnet on previous years - winning her class in the two-handed class in a Contessa 32 in 2003.   This year she is racing in Class 2 IRC.

Very good luck to the Weymouth boats. Watch their progress live on www.fastnet.rorc.org

Despite growing up on the Hamble I had never done the Round The Island Race before so when folks in Weymouth were asking me what boat I was intending to sail round in my answer of “a Melges 24” was met with inevitable comments on the lack of facilities and general comfort.  On leaving the house at 06.00 with grey sky, little breeze and drizzle, I have to say that the selection did seem a little foolhardy.  However, as we motored out of the Hamble, joining a steady and growing stream of traffic, the skies brightened and some wind began to fill in. The Round The Island is an experience; with an entry list of 1,779 boats, it can’t fail to be. Where else can you be in a holding area waiting for your start and be immediately alongside Leopard the supermaxi and a gaff rigged classic yacht (with along with several hundred of your new best friends). The Melges were in the second start at 07.50 with the other sports boats and day boats.  We started right at the pin about a mile away from other Melges which had chosen the Gurnard shore against the few hours of the last foul tide.  Tacking our way through the very large boats there was a close call with an ex-BT Global Challenge yacht, now resplendent in bright orange and renamed Big Spirit, who explained that it was actually the orange colour that made their boat look bigger than ours.  Initially the middle seemed to be the place to be but between Yarmouth and Lymington the wind appeared to fill in from either side to give a healthy breeze from the south west as we bore away past the Needles and straight into the westerly tide.

The Squib Nationals finished with an exciting but tiring final day.  Two races back to back in a stiff breeze made up for a frustrating day of black flags and flukey conditions the previous day; the lift-out of the fleet in Portland Marina went flawlessly and the competitors finished the day at the final prizegiving party at the Riviera Hotel.  The Nationals took months of planning and involved over 100 volunteers from the Club during the week. Congratulations to all who took part, either sailing in the event or helping in the support teams.

Full reports of the racing can be read in Yachts and Yachting.

Overall Results Squib Nationals 2009

Photos: Squibs at rest on pontoon specially constructed for the event.  Royal Vic team spell out what it's all about.

On Sunday afternoon 14 June, in wonderful sunshine, guests joined members for the Commodore's Summer Drinks Party.  Commodore Melita Biggs told the guests in her welcome speech that it was a change in tradition to have the party during the summer months and she hoped that they had enjoyed coming to WSC in daylight.   Local authority representatives, marine agencies, Commodore's of affiliated Clubs and businesses who have helped the Club during the year, were treated to Pimms with sandwiches and strawberry scones.

During the party Melita made a presentation of a cheque from Weymouth Sailing Club for £1,000 to the RNLI.  TThe cheque was received by Secretary of RNLI Weymouth Station John Harvey.

On Monday 25th May Draig O’r Mor took line honours for her class to finish the Myth of Malham, Fastnet qualifying, race. A grueling 61 hour 230 mile battle of wits against no wind, to Eddystone rock & back, tested team spirit and determination to the extreme. It was a race of triumph and disappointment, hope and exasperation. Time after time Draig led the way only to fall into a windless tidal gate which enabled the back markers to catch up and the race started all over again.  Sailing on Draig were Kay & Kevin Stibbs, Andy Young, Dave Sadler, Kevin Francis and first timer John Robertson (not forgetting delivery boy Mickey Carter)

SQUIB NATIONAL ENTRIES HAVE BEEN CLOSED AT 108 BOATS (27 June - 3 July) 

This is the highest number of boats that has been achieved in a National Squib Championships and is a sure sign of the popularity of Weymouth as a sailing venue.

Well done to Peter Hopford and team the  who have been working hard to put the show together and to the sponsors for supporting the event.

The Squib despite being a boat of some vintage continues to attract top sailors and regularly achieves high turnouts for Club racing - 20 boats were on the start line on Thursday evening.  Good luck to the Weymouth fleet in the Championships.

In wonderful sunshine, club member Dr Geoffrey Bath gave a demonstration into how gravitational fields are formed in cataclysmic variable or CV stars, which consist of a primary white dwarf and a secondary mass transferring star.

Doctor Bath has lectured in physics at Merton and Wolfson Colleges, Oxford University, and worked as a research fellow with Nasa at Princeton University in America.

His complex experiment, using vessels containing water, elastic and a siphon, attempts to simulate and explain gravitational anomalies found in certain types of stars.

Dr Bath admitted that his work has no practical applications and isn't going to make him into a millionaire.  Commodore Melita Biggs thanked him very much for a very interesting and informative talk. 

The weekend of the 9th and 10th May saw Weymouth Sailing Club YOBs (youth on boats) sailing a bigger boat than normal when they were invited to act as crew on the Tall Ship resident in Weymouth Harbour - TS Pelican for their day excursions in the bay.

Five young Club members were put through their paces as they were sent up the mast to sort the sails etc.   All 5 left the ship ready for an early night after a two hard days work but full of enthusiasm asking when they can do it again, and the ones that didn't get to go are waiting the next opportunity.

One took a photo of them having break from climbing the rigging, luckily they all had a good head for heights. All of the youngsters recommend this as the best day out ever and if you see it advertised you should try it for yourselves.

Draig O’r Mor - Fastnet Qualifier to Le Havre

Last Saturday, after months of preparation, Draig O’r Mor finally crossed the start line at the Royal Yacht Squadron, Cowes in the first of her RORC Fastnet qualifying races. With light airs forecast the Race Officer opted for the shorter of three possible courses leaving the Needles Fairway buoy to Port and A5 Western cardinal mark ( 20 miles north of Le Havre ) to starboard and finishing just outside the harbour entrance (111 miles). Kay & Kevin Stibbs led a shortened team of Andy Young, Kevin Francis & Dave Sadler as Ed Sadler had broken his arm snowboarding  just a few days before the race ( I ask you!). Delivery boy Mickey Carter helped sail to the Solent and drove the crew bus back from Hamble Point. After a good, but safe start, (to avoid being swept over the line in the light airs and strong tide) we beat down the Solent happily sparring with boats in our class. In the approaches to Hurst we were pleased that the wind increased but not that the class behind had started to catch us up. We managed to hold our own against most save the big boys & we were treated to a spectacular view of TP52’s and the like short tacking down through the needles passage. Not too far behind them at the Needles Fairway buoy we unleashed our new, never been out the bag, silver & purple spinnaker and reached off into the Channel. After a few minutes of uninspiring sailing in light airs in a bit of a procession we formulated ‘a plan so cunning you could pin a tail on it and call it a fox’. By sailing impossibly high we squeezed the apparent breeze and created enough lift for Draigy to pick up her skirts. We were off! Thrilling stuff as we left boat after boat to leeward. Pressure on the navigator indeed diverging from the fleet but the doubting Thomases had to admit we were bang on target at A5 in front and to windward of a Corby 45. We were undertaken by it, then we overtook it again as they had to drop their spinnaker & white sail it to the finish. We carried our spinnaker all the way, albeit with a peel to the assymetric & then back again to full spinnaker. We finished at 0127 hrs alongside a British Steel Challenger boat. Sitting in the marina we watch countless boats arrive after us & were treated to a spectacle of the Army Sigma 38 sailing perfectly into a finger berth in the middle of the marina in what can only be described as a suicidal manoeuvre at 6 knots plus and managing to stop dead after they had dropped their sails – hats off to them – how did they do it? The next day we were delighted to see we were 10^th out of 29 in our class and 33^rd out of 109 overall. Not bad for a first race. Can’t wait to take delivery of our new main & jib to see what the boat can really do – watch this space, next qualifier the Myth of Malham 23^rd May               http://www.rorc.org/raceresults/2009/ms03os.html