Club Racing, Sunday, June 25
Recent events have demonstrated that extremes of weather are becoming increasingly common - hurricanes, floods - everything except the plague of locusts. It may seem trivial in the face of flooded homes, but a sailing club is particularly aware of these climate changes - too much wind too often and too little wind too often. Despite sparse wind with a very uncertain outlook for the afternoon, 12 boats turned out, including Lasers, Solos, Graduates, Toppers, Wayfarers, Bytes and Ospreys - an impressive collection. They managed one race before the wind died and the second race was abandoned. The wind may have been negligible, but an uneventful race it was not. Trevor Smith/Sarah Boorman, fancied runners and always worth a flutter in light winds, started on port tack in a Graduate, which brought them to a close encounter with Nick and Govan Berridge (Osprey), for which they made the obligatory two 360 degree turns and which did nothing to improve their prospects. At a critical moment of the race finish, a fishing boat returning to harbour managed to snag one of the fishing lines off the harbour wall, carried it round the starter's box, wrapped it round our equipment on the wall and round the race officer. Just another exciting moment in the life of an unsuspecting Commodore, compounded by a voluble and irate fishing line owner pursuing the unravelling line and distracting the time-keeping and hooter-blowing in a somewhat unusual manner. So much for 'No Fishing' notices. With so much excitement around the finishing line, the race officials were resolute in sticking to their tasks and noticing that the winners, separated by seconds only on corrected time, were Nick/Govan Berridge (Osprey), Paul Griffiths (Laser) and Leighton Price (RS300).
Club Racing, Sunday, July 8
After the horrendous weather experienced in recent days, it was a pleasant surprise to find a reasonable patch of sailing weather, and 14 sailors suffering from withdrawal symptoms took to the water. Julia Griffiths did not appear, so 'The Girls' were reduced to one 'Girl' - Tonia Griffiths in a Topper! The leaders managed three laps in approximately 42 minutes, so there must have been a decent wind for once, enjoyed by the usual suspects: 1. Leighton Price (RS300); 2. Paul Griffiths (Laser); 3. Nick/Govan Berridge (Osprey). For race two, the wind had shifted, requiring a Pendine-Amroth-Harbour course, which always causes some bother for some when rounding the Harbour mark. Alistair Davies (Laser), Alan Lambert (Solo) and Malcolm/Andrew Williams (RS400) all tested the water temperature, so it was not all plain sailing out there. There were several reports of damage - Trevor Smith/Sarah Boorman (torn jib), Malcolm/Andrew Williams (spinnaker problems) and for one reason or another the 14 starters became nine finishers, led again by the usual suspects, in the same order as for race one. But for all that, difficult sailing is far better than no sailing at all.
Ancient Mariner