Racing this weekend was very subdued. There was almost nobody about! Ah yes! I remember... The world cup! Still I did get some racing in. Saturday Three Enterprises took to the water to race in light winds and we had a good race. Yours truly stormed away with the lead in both races. 'Stormed' isn't quite the right word for the conditions but the lead was significant.Sunday's wind was a decent breeze, which freshened as we raced, and the race was a handicap cup race. The trophy was a new one to the club but was first raced for at the Trent sailing club in 1949 when it was raced for and won by a National 12, the first development class boat after the war, the boat was called 'Gipsy', now the name of the trophy; it hasn't been raced for in the last 25 years.
The race organisation was a shambles, nothing had been organised and there was no one to organise or run the race. As a fleet captain I stepped up to the plate and organised a race using a a gate start (I was gate boat) and everyone had to record thier times and a simple 3 lap triangular course. After the race I collected the times and using 'sailwave' we determined the winner; A Dart 18 of course! they always win! but only just! only 11 seconds behind was a Laser 2000! and I was fourth, 1 and bit minutes behind the third boat, another Laser 2000, but then Enterprises never do well in handicap races unless the winds are light.
However it was good fun and it was good to shake off the capsize experiance of last week.
I probably need to take down the mast and wash out the mud that we picked up, I notice that we keep on getting chucks of it rattling down the mast every now and then. I also need to revarnish the deck as it has acquired some scratches and the worst damage is the two deck handles which have big cracks around thier bases after the strain of lifting a boat filled with water. I think I might remove them this winter, in the mean time I need to seal the varnish to stop water ingressing and starting to rot the wood.
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