Food, Glorious Food!!

Just discovered this photo in a folder at work and had a quiet titter to myself.

This believe it or not was Jame Case's "bread and butter pudding" that he ordered at the pub (the name of which escapes me) at Hickling last year. I believe that it tasted as good as it looked...better luck next time James.

Rollesby Broad - next event!!

Hurrah!! I'm free! Well nearly - no longer Commodore after three years at Creeksea. Still on the committee to make sure we stay a Phantom friendly club though.

One of the advantages of having been Commodore, Sailing Secretary cum Website person was that I could at least get our sailing calendar to sych with the Eastern Series. Clever eh?

So next weekend has us down for a spot of race training - which basically means reminding everyone where their boats are and which bits of string to pull (and making sure the rib engine works). I wonder if Simon and Titch spotted the tape recorder the other weekend?

The next weekend 4th April is a working party and of course 5th April is the second Tempera-tech event at Rollesby Broad.

If you haven't been before this is a good one day venue with nice cakes in the club. I can't say too much about the racing as at past events I seem to have suffered from a combination of rubbish boat speed (slot gasket excuse for last year) or masses of weed on foils (won't be using the fixed rudder again....). Still there's always this year to get it right I supppose.

My tipped runners for this year are definately Marcus - remember last years race win in the final race?- and Andy Gregory (he was frighteningly fast last year and the year before).

Old Pikey should also do well on his home water but he has suddenly gone all moody (is it a baby thing?).

One last thing - remember this is an open event with other craft to consider - please display good humour when a British Moth either hails you or tacks on top of you......

Daren should be putting a post up on the class website soon to stir things up. Might get more enteries if he put it on Facebook though!!

Simon says.....

Simon has sent me his thoughts on the weekend.. Some good reminders of the key points of the weekend.

Well the season is underway with a fine start at Alton Water near Ipswich. Windy did a brilliant job organising and funding the event and the club were great hosts. Many thanks to JJ Boats and Tempera Tech the series sponsors – spend money with them at any and every opportunity!

Training memories: With the wind at the top end of the coaching range, and 2 fleets of 10 stretching the time the coach can spend on individuals, a busy session was run.

The Group 2 topics / issues were the usual ones. Not enough kicker, Incorrect boat set-up, Inability to get to control lines quickly, Mark rounding issues, Dagger grip, sheeting, preparation for the rounding. Not depowering enough, early enough, Over steering through the gybes...

Saturday evening was splendidly spent in the local hostelry. Food, beer, banter and company all excellent. Highlights being the impromptu-ish Phanmail signing by our “Yachting Cod”.

Sunday. Well that was a difficult day, with the wind coming and going. But the lessons of the day were:Don’t give up – anything can happen.

The start and first beat are still 75% of the race (normally). Best I have seen Windy sail – constantly near the front – Gold Star Plenty of the fleet having a race at the front and holding their own.

Boat preparation, hasn’t happened for the new season – we all know the halyard breaks every few months Daren, shorten it every 3 months at least.

Jez – Silver Star for the last race, why oh why did you tack off for the wrong end of the finish line instead of staying with me, after all that great sailing leading round every mark.

Some nice looking new sails, Purple, Rooster, P&B, Lonton & Gray, - just remember its no good optimising for just upwind – you have to go offwind too.

Looking forward to next time..

Eastern Series Poster.

That was good!

Well, our first event has been and gone! Training on Saturday was great and Simon and Titch did us proud with a good workout and practical Phantom sailing tips. Just to prove that they did know what they were talking about they then bagged 1st and 2nd in the Open. Very impressive chaps.

Ian did a "phantastic" job of organising things and really showed us the way - I did get form overload at one point but it did all run like clockwork thereafter.

I will try and source some photos of the event - but will of course make sure from now on that none feature me.

"Yachting Cod".

More later....

Can't wait..

Can't wait for this weekend. This usually means that I will sail like a plonker and drink too much on Saturday night...but hey ho - it's what I enjoy I guess. There is every prospect of a thirty boat turnout - especially I guess if the forecast holds good.

Windy has done a lot to make this a really good start to the Eastern Series and deserves to see a good turnout.

JT has been given the go ahead to organise an Eastern Champs at Burnham Week this year and I have said I'll assist him in getting this event off the ground. I was not keen to do so without knowing that the class assoc supported the idea (as I thought it could be said to detract from the Nationals) but JT got the nod this weekend so watch out for more news.

The event would be sailed from the Royal Corithian over Endeavour Trophy courses with committee boat starts. Two weeks before the Nationals so a great opportunity to tune up and make sure everything is working. The Osprey Class will be sailing the same course and starting before us so we should have fun. I wonder if they can pitchpole like a Javelin?

Dinghy Show News

Ally Pally 2009

For those that didn't make the dinghy show here are the edited highlights....

On "our stand" was a new Ovi Phantom for Chris Turner fitted out in what is now looking like their standard fit out with adjustable lowers, raking rig and side cleats (clamcleats) mounted on a grp moulding. Nothing much new there really but I did notice the elastic tidy away system that looked quite effective. The foredeck moulded carbon tac tic braket took all the lines and provided the turning point out to the side decks.

The sail was a Speed sail set upon the most interesting item which was a new CST mast. These are Aussie masts that several other UK classes have been using for some time. I thought there were a couple of interesting features to it. Firstly the carbon spreaders are fixed angle, therefore one less thing to play with and get wrong! The mast section is very (very) narrow and the windage must therefore be significantly reduced. If you think this means it must bend like a Mr Whippy mast you would be very surprised how stiff it was.

When banging on the kicker the movement was mainly in the tip section (well, above the hounds anyway) which makes me think this would be a good mast for those of us using the flatter Evolution type sail. Other interesting features were the use of a hook rack for the main halyard and the collar support for the gooseneck.

I took a peek at the wall thickness and it did seem thicker than say the 60mm Superspar so I assume that this is generally the case all the way up the mast.

The mast was matched to a very sexy section boom. This was also fairly minimalist in set up and was notable for its Oval (or stretched "O" shape. I bet it weighed very little but unfortunately I wasn't able to de-rig the lot and have a play....

The photos below give you an idea of what it all looked like.

I know you all love "string photos" so I took a couple of shots of the best bits....

I did of course take a look at the other classes on show. James Jarvey (JJ boats) had two beautiful boats on display with Paintcraft - a really well sorted Solo that he had just (Friday) finished for himself. This was an epoxy hull with fantastic wooden decks. Just take a look at the photo below...

The Eastern Circuit was well promoted with some good action shots and a poster designed by Windy. I've scanned this in and will post it on this site in my next post..

Fame...and prizes

Here it is then - The Eastern Series Trophy.

...and the proud winner last year JOHN WAYLING being presented with the trophy by Rod Thorpe "Rodders" of sponsors Tempera Tech.

Fame can of course go to your head and I am sure that the "stick" is going to be unending but have you seen Phanmail?? I wish someone else other than Val sent photos to George Morris!

I have taken it upon myself to ensure that you all get your own share of mugshots and glory as you will note from this post.....

"Denver" Dave Hawkins, James Jarvey and Clive Morley

The Dinghy show looms and the sooner we get that out of the way the sooner we can get on with the real action at Alton the next weekend.

Whilst on the subject of Alton - what was the race officer thinking of sending us around again? That was never going to happen and my heart sank as I nosed Mutley through the line but heard the race officer say "carry on - your not finished yet".

Doesn't he know who I am!!??!!! (humour, well almost, chaps).

Here is a shot that I should have circulated last year of the new Eastern Series Trophy and our winner with "the Eastern Circuit" team. Note how light John Wayling must be and how happy Dave looks with his new sail. Will you be in the photo this year???