Loads of Picos - Launching Club Boats

Launching Club
Lasers and Pico's

A lot of damage has been done to the above this season. It's mainly caused when launching them over the bank and, if care is not taken; as they drop into the river they catch their bows on the edge of the bank. This has the effect of peeling the foredeck away from the hull. The result is they start taking on water into the hull and eventually become waterlogged. This kind of damage is hell to repair.

Would everybody using a club Laser or Pico please take special care when launching and retrieving to ensure the bow does not impact on the edge of the launch area. After use please drain the hull by un-screwing the bung in the transom and allowing any water to drain out. Replace the bung when finished. Meanwhile we will investigate alternative methods of launching and retrieval of this kind of dinghy.

Mike (Over Easy) Baker

Loads of Picos

The more observant of you will have noticed that the club now has four Pico’s. Two we already had and two others were recently bought from Goring SC using money from a "grassroots grants" which are funded from central government through the Office of the Third Sector (sounds like something from 1984 to me!) and in our case was managed by the Thames Community Foundation based at the NPL. These two are white hulled and have predominately blue sails. They both needed a minor amount of work to put them into sailable order and all the Pico’s will now be used in our forthcoming youth sail training programme. Thanks to Nigel for negotiating their purchase and collecting them on Good Friday.

Mike (Over Easy) Baker