Autumn Newsletter 4

Bewl Water - August Bank Holiday 2000
Richard Cannon

The weather forecast wasn’t good for the August Bank Holiday and when the rain was tipping down Saturday morning there was little incentive to leave for Bewl; it rained for most of the journey. Fortunately it stopped raining just before reaching Bewl and it remained dry for most of the weekend with a 10-15Knt westerly wind most of the time giving superb sailing.
It was the best supported and one of our most enjoyable Bewl visits. As well as an Aquarius visit it was also a Signet/Fleetwind Open Meeting and other friends joined us. A total of around 40 Aquarius and Sigwind members and friends with 18 boats had a wonderful weekend, there were 17 Aquarius members with 11 boats. Fortunately we had the convenience of camping next to the Club.
Saturday is a cruising day and eight boats took to the water for excellent sailing. On previous visits Sunday has been the Bewl Autumn Regatta and Monday Pursuit racing, but this year Sunday was normal Club racing and Monday was the Regatta with Short Course racing. We joined their Slow Handicap Class club racing and an extra start was added for the Sigwinds. Sigwind prize giving was added to their regatta prize giving.

One lap of an Olympic course (a triangle and a sausage) was used for the Short Course racing. The short start line was very crowded with 36 boats from Oppies to a Flying Fifteen and a 505. Even for a Signet a race was rather short at 13 to 15 minutes. Three races were held back to back in the morning and there were two races after lunch. Robert Britton did very well helming Richard Cannon's Signet for the 3 morning races; although Richard had some anxious moments with the close proximity of many fast boats. They received a glass for 5th place in the event.