THE
MAINSHEET
Summer 2013
Contents
Easter Egg Trophy
Sunday 31st March was the start of the 2013 racing season and by chance Easter Sunday as well. The day opened with bright sunshine and although it did not last all day it lasted long enough to make everyone feel better; it was bitterly cold.
Having reminded his OOD partners of the clocks going forward Richard forgot and as a result arrived later than would otherwise have been the case. Conditions were good and although there was one knot of current the easterly wind direction balanced the equation making sailing possible.
With preparations under way Richard then realised that he had left his Psion PDA at home; as it would be needed to evaluate the race results he went home to remedy the oversight. With things running about 15 minutes late four brave matalots launched into the Easter Egg Trophy; as there was a late start the morning racing was changed from two sprint to one 45 minute race.
The first race with four boats went without too much drama except Bryan failed to see a wind gust through his hoody top and the result was his graduate filled with water. Luckily he managed to back away in horror from the terrible threat of engulfment and although he only got his feet wet it finished his race.
As always the ladies came to the fore with Diana and Brenda serving a warming soup with the lunch burgers while Pete warmed us with hot coffee from the bar. As she was in New Zealand Pat Irving had delegated the BBQ task.
The the last two races of the day were back to back; three boats started the 2 o’clock race. Conditions were good although the temperature had dropped a little and the first race was trouble free. The last race started well and managed two laps without incident but on the third circuit John Panting encountered Bryan’s gust and repeated the aquatic uptake once again only suffering wet feet like Bryan.
Notwithstanding some close attention from the Patrol Boat he bravely sailed on managing to drain away enough water to allow him to finish the race.
Liz Archer, who in the Assistant OOD role had managed to keep Richard from forgetting too much, had spent some time in her kitchen producing three varieties of cake for afternoon tea. Good one Liz!
With all the maths now checked and rechecked it became clear the Charles Dennis had won the biggest Easter egg and John Panting had won the smaller one. John was not too disheartened because due to a “Purchasing Malfunction” both eggs were the same size and as Charles is a vegetarian he could not eat his egg anyway.
All in all a pleasant opening to the 2013 sailing season that attracted four boats and sailors for the event and fourteen for the afternoon tea. Situation normal!