“MEMBERS” Trophy – After the disappointment of arriving at the lake and finding no West Bank launching platform last Wednesday for the WoW! event, we came prepared with chains, nuts, bolts and washers and related equipment to try and make sure that it didn’t get cut loose again epoxied in place. Martin arrived with an enormous Danforth anchor, which we attached to the other end of the chain and took it a little way out in the boat and dropped it in the water. We then attached chains to either side of the steps, which are fixed with stainless steel bolts through the wooden string into the nearest available link to provide an infinitely variable support. This worked well and didn’t take too long to assemble. A photograph is attached.
There was a good wind, but it was in a south-west direction when we arrived and so were on the west bank. It became more west south-west later as forecast and we should have moved to the south bank controlled area to get a more steady breeze. We had a good turnout of 7 boats, 6 Marbleheads and Charles’ DF 95, for which we set a shorter handicap course, so that we could all race together from the same start. Seeing that the wind strength forecast was good, Rob Vice came over and raced his borrowed NIOUTRAM and as you can see from the results he won the event on merit. At the end of the event Alan and I guessed who was the winner as it was close between Rob and Martin, but we got it wrong and presented the handicap trophy to Martin. Sorry Rob! From the attached results you can see that Rob won both on merit and handicap, which was a very good performance. You will have to come over and collect it at our next club event for the Arcadia on 6 July. We were delighted to welcome Phil Elford to sail his newly acquired UPROAR in its first race using the C rig off UP. Unfortunately, there was a range problem to do with a broken aerial and so I had several ships in the dinghy to the other side of the lake rescuing and then helping to put the gear back together in order that he could sail. Anyway he enjoyed racing his boat when we got it going and also racing my UP, when I was fiddling with his radio gear etc.
The wind was particularly awkward, with strong gusts blasting down the lake and making the boats fly downwind in clouds of spray, only to drop off the plane and fall into a hole in the wind and slow right down. Anyway this made it fun at times, but frustrating trying to search out the best wind angle and strength to beat or reach back to the finish. However all enjoyed it and in particular Peter Dunne saw his STARKERS was going very well both ways.
The NEXT EVENT is the WoW! 6 event on Wednesday 19th of June followed by the WoW! event 7 on Wednesday, 3 July. The latter will be attracting several of my friends from the construction industry, the builders of the All England Lawn Tennis Club at Wimbledon who came last year and really enjoyed it. Good club support for this particular event would be very welcome.”
Cheers, Roger
