The weekend was a great success, many thanks to all that attended and the kind reviews. We had the wind, no rain and some sun, what more could you ask for.
I always take great pleasure in the sight of a fleet of swallow Boats on the water. and also when all beached in a line showing off there traditional looking hulls and rigging, strange how we had all the green hulls at one end of the beach and all the blues at the other, this without any plan at all; the grey hull of llafurio provided the start marker.
The Saturday morning pre sailing stroll along the jetty provided some room for thought as strong winds funnelling down the creek and the accompanying waves which make the getting of the jetty interesting. “Full tanks” “one reef, perhaps two” many muttered, “if we get her to the hammer head push the bow out we might just get a quick tack in before we get to the other side of the creek. Other clever clogs found they could launch off the leeward side of the jetty and make things easy for themselves. I noticed two swallow boats getting a little intimate with each other and embracing parts of their rigging on the hammer head of the jetty, that’s a little too friendly I think.
Free sailing on the Saturday morning to accommodate everyone getting their boats ready, one casualty with Gladys losing a cotter pin on the jib halyard block at the top of the mast (beware the split ring bogey). Gladys recovered and even with her main sail cringle ripped out at the foot of the sail and “jury rigged” on the Sunday race she still stormed home ahead of my boat “Joybells” 2nd and Psalter 3rd well done Mathew.
A number of individual “duels” I think took place on Saturday afternoon, Jonathon, Andy and Olly aboard Psalter for one tried to chase me down , some excellent pictures posted in the Gallery on the forum and a couple of videos are either posted now or will be soon on YouTube. The lunch break with the boats beached in front of the main café provided a chance to look over the boats and discuss the merits of personal modifications to the boats and various bits of kit which had been installed. The Sunday exit from the beach (lee shore) provided some good examples of boat handling, we had traditional backward rowing, front facing rowing, shove off and the roar of the torqeedo, and my more sedate shove off and Minn Kota (I thought I had forgot to put one of the rowlocks on board otherwise I would have rowed (honestly). At this point I would like to say that my excellent crew Jonathon’s better half Nicki and young daughter Poppy managed the centreboard and rudder perfectly and were both instrumental in my racing position of 2nd with no whinges when I pushed her hard and occasionally “dipped the gunnels”.
With 23 sat around one long table for the evening meal, all I think a little “oiled” with pre- dinner drinks the chatter and banter was quite evident from the other side of the restaurant, only the arrival of the starters took the level down a few dB’s. It was really good to see so many people with the common interest of sailing enjoying themselves so much. I was a little worried that the menu was a little “fancy” and may not quench the hunger of people that had been out on the water all day but all the comments were positive and I for one was struggling with the last few mouthfuls of the “sticky toffee pudding”. As usual we had the “tail end Charlie’s” at the bar until they closed it (me for one) Andy took his jumper off over his head and his shirt went up with it, someone shouted “there she blows, harpoon him Ned” Andy didn’t look pleased but it raised a few titters.
So one again, many thanks for coming along and making the get together so enjoyable, I will try and get to some other rallies this year to meet some of you again.
Peter Cockerton
