Club Racing – May

Hi All,

Happy days, we are up & flying.

I managed to get a couple of hours off this afternoon to get the old 400 up & running. Paddy & Andrew were in the yard waiting for the delivery of the new PSC lawn mower that actually turned out to be a mini tractor, so were on hand to help get the mast up on the old girl.

Jeremy & Suzanne took to the rib & set a cracking triangular course which had delightful & welcome spinnaker legs from the beach marks to Black Head & Black Head towards Carlyon Bay. That left, in true Porthpean style, as you can imagine, a shifty beat back to the Beach Marks.

Ken & I were late to the start & only managed to catch the one minute gun as we arrived in the start area. Apparently the start was on the dot of 19:00. Unfortunately none of the sailors had anticipated this & no one was even close to the line. Suzanne has the embarrassing evidence in several great clips of this evenings action which we will endeavour to upload for all to see. Fortuitously we decided to tack to keep out of way of the 49er on our arrival to the start area & that left us facing the correct way & heading towards the line for the gun & we eventually got across about 5 seconds late. Looking around wondering where everyone was we set off in clear air & the whole playground empty Infront of us.

It was very quickly evident that the Barn’s duo would be the threat, sporting their kite on both off wind legs & banging out a consistent pace around the race track in with the main gaggle of Chris Isles, Mike Voyzey & Keith in the Blaze.

Great weather & a lengthening day meant the OOD ( Paddy ) could give us a longer race than last week & we all thoroughly enjoyed a bit longer on the water. Nowadays it seems to be a given in most sports, it’s all about the start & tonight was no different. The healthy advantage we had on the start line was almost identical to the lead we finished with. Perhaps one day our boats will be fitted with launch control systems & we will manage an orderly symmetrical take off. With a greatly reduced fleet size for the start of the season due to the extended winter flu season there was plenty of water for us to play in & keep clear of our fellow protagonists so little serious action was noteworthy. We are all desperately awaiting the return of our friends to the water so we can let off a little steam with a little start line Argy Bargy, Bar tittle tattle & hopefully the return of famous PSC Bacon Butties.

Clive’s Grand Daughter has decided to have bash at sailing & the duo spend the evening in one of the Club Pico’s keeping an eye on the fleet whilst practicing the vagaries of our passion. I am sure that her youthful exuberance will soon lead to a hot seat in the competitive tasar fleet & lots of shouting about lead in the boat.

Those blasted & unwelcome restrictions lead to social distanced outdoor drink to wind down the evening on the cold of the decking.

So looking forward the warmth of indoors & the companionship of our friends.

See you on the water sooooooon!

Nigel D.

Similar Posts