An unusually few number of members made the trip to Bewl this year. It competed with the Jubilee celebrations, the forecast was for the weather to become wet, and there was no camping at the club. Although those who went could not have had better sailing.
On Saturday Richard Cannon took Robert Britton and his girl friend Carly with him with ST368, Laurie Bridges took ST856 and Barry Jones took his Hawk catamaran. The weather was perfect; sunny with a steady 10knt SE wind. Unfortunately only Richard's group were feeling fit to sail. The wind was coming down the 2 mile long Bewl Straight. Sailing three up the beat up and run back took just over an hour. The Hornets were holding an Open Meeting on Saturday and Sunday which helped make the water look busier than usual. The evening was spent having an excellent dinner at the Elephants Head.
The Sunday weather was similar but even hotter. Graham Thompson arrived with his wife Eiko and his Bosun. Rodger Wheeler came with the Club Graduate. We had Honorary Aquarius members with old Hawker friends Bill Poulton and John Dovey bringing an Enterprise.
Rather than join the normal Bewl Sunday racing we had another day cruising in perfect conditions. It was the first time Eiko had sailed at Bewl and she enjoyed a long cruise with Graham exploring all parts of the reservoir. Barry's brother Bob joined him for sailing the Hawk, while Laurie and Rodger borrowed Graham's Bosun for a comfortable cruise. Richard had three trips up to the extremities of Bewl Straight with various crew; about 20 miles of very pleasant sailing. Carly suffered from the pain of sunburn.
Although the Monday was forecast to be very wet we had another perfect day for the Bewl Regatta races; a bit windier at 12 knts westerly rising to 15 knts in the afternoon; Richard became rather nervous because he wasn't wearing a wet suite. There were two starts; the first for Bewl 'Champions' and the second for the rest, Flying Fifteens to Oppies, the average lap time system similar to ours was used. We did three laps of a triangular course taking about an hour. Richard gave Robert the helming job in his Signet, and Rodger and Laurie sailed Grahams Bosun. Robert did very well and had very close racing with some Pacers that he finished ahead of in the last two races.
| Results | ||||||
| Pos | Boat | Helm | Crew | R1 | R2 | R3 |
| 8 | ST368 | Robert Britton | Richard Cannon | 15 | 9 | 7 |
| 12 | Bos1777 | Rodger Wheeler | Laurie Bridges | 18 | 12 | 10 |
| 13 | Ent19536 | Bill Poulton | J Stubbs | 12 | 13 | DNS |
| 22 | Hawk20 | Bob Jones | 21 | DNF | DNS | |
The boats ahead of Robert were a Flying Fifteen, a RS 200 and Lasers, so he had a very creditable place.
Soon after Richard arrived home he received a phone call from Rodger asking if he was missing anything; he had left his sails behind but fortunately Graham had noticed them. Unfortunately Richard found he had also left his cover behind and had to go back to Bewl on Tuesday to fetch them; it was a very wet but easy journey and the round trip took under 2 ½ hours. Bewl was looking very uninviting for the Junior Regatta; wet and no wind.