Greetings,

Yesterdays sailing to me, was one out of the bag. The weather was warm, the breeze was light but adequate enough for us to sail 7 longish heats……..and it was specifically excellent because those of us with ownership of boats that experience unwelcome ingress of liquid internally by means of transmission through the steerage components as these mechanisms are forcefully realigned from vertical to horizontal by excessive wind force thus allowing seepage into the sophisticated recesses of our fine craft which, in turn results in over abundant h2o accumulation which if not tended to regularly causes cessation of electrical functions………this is known in sailors terminology as ‘dnf’.

Roy was RO and was impeded somewhat by his assistant, Glen, but to be fair they set a good course, managed the racing well, boiled the urn and had lots of biscuits….what more can we ask? It was a Mark Foy start and the course was 2 laps and had long first and last beats. Of course the last beat became stressful as skippers strove not to be passed before the finish line. What memories can I bring forth? Mike Inns and Nick Richardson deserve awards for integrity. Both had heats when they did 3 penalties (not against each other). To me I don’t see this as them sailing badly, but honestly exonerating any breaches they may have caused….so many other skippers should be doing 3 penalties, but try and sweep them under the carpet. Now for the podium finishers. Top marks to Colin, Barry and Polly, by the way I would encourage J377, J242 and J303 to look at your new MF numbers, tsk, tsk. One wonders how Polly can start 2 minutes behind and still get on the podium, and one wonders if anyone actually tells him how good a sailor he is, and the fact that he can borrow a boat and still win.

The behaviour stakes are still intact, although I notice in Al’s newsletter that a member of the public complained about bad language one day. This stirs me to wax lyrical and point out that RRS Rule 2 FAIR SAILING commands us to “compete in compliance with recognised principals of sportsmanship and fair play”.

The end of the season is nigh on July 27, then the new season follows on immediately, and although the new seasons program is done you shall not set eyes on it until a couple more events are finalised. However, I shall name the next couple of new season race committees so they may prepare for such  glorious missions.