The objective was to interest local people in our radio sailing at Abbey Meads, planting a seed for further involvement in the future activities of our club, as we are so short of members taking part in our racing. We organised the day around Footys, BOTTLE boats and DF 65s, all small boats under £200. A fortnight or so ago we sent the attached invite to 19 local clubs to gain support, five sailing clubs, the local Scout group, eight schools as well as to Eagle radio, BBC Surrey and the Surrey advertiser, the addresses of which John Townsend had kindly researched. All had been asked to contact myself more details and it was very disappointing not to have a single response from any of these groups.
However Alan, John and myself went ahead and with the help of our friends, Graham Whitehead and Keith Parrott from Frensham and a FEW attendee, Peter Kirby from Woking, gathered together lots of information, Footys etc in case there was some unannounced interest. Unfortunately there wasn’t.
However, we had some good sailing during the morning, firstly sailing five BOTTLE boats and when Graham’s had a problem, we continued racing with four DF 65s and two BOTTLE boats, with an offshore wind and an America’s Cup style reach to the windward mark and then a sausage and back to the start as the finish. This was challenging in the light and very variable breeze and was enjoyed so much that after lunch we continued to race in the pouring rain!
Both designs were a pleasure to sail, light, manoeuvrable and responsive with plenty of stability. I particularly enjoyed sailing the DF 65 that Peter Dunne had kindly loaned for the event and even beat both BOTTLE boats in one race!
It was an enjoyable days sailing even if we didn’t achieve the objective.
