Bowls and Bangers

What a week it has been – Obama elected president in America, Hamilton nosing it to world F1 champion, Calzaghe bashing his way to his 46th win and a great night of bowling and supper in the club!

A crowd of members descended upon Canaston Bowl last Saturday and secured an impressive selection of 'strikes', 'spares', frustration and elation. Mike James was overall men's champion, Jackie Riby ladies' champion and Ben Hinksman junior champion.

It seems it is quite a philosophic sport, with Geoff Hope cataloguing different bowling styles and another member reflecting on how fascinating it is that a large ball can hurtle down the bowling lane and manage to miss so many densely packed skittles at the far end!

Braving flooded roads, the intrepid bowlers returned to the club for Graham's super supper of bangers and mash and apple crumble - after that lot we ought to have all gone bowling again to work it off !

Well done to Jackie Riby whose 'Match a Bear for Pudsey' game raised £22 during the evening in aid of 'Children in Need'.

Sailing

This is getting beyond a joke! For the third successive Saturday, the weather was completely out of control and ruled out any frostbite racing. Stick at it sailors - it must come good in the end!

AGM

All members will be welcomed at 2 pm on Sunday, November 23, for the AGM. Your views and support are always useful, so do please come along and encourage your committee.

Christmas Dinner

Saturday evening, December 13, should go in your diaries as the date for this year's Christmas dinner, 7 for 7.30 pm. There will be the full works, starting with mulled wine right through to coffee and mints. Places are limited by space, so please book asap with May on 01834 813595.

Carols and

Mince Pies

December 19, 7.30 pm - good entertainment and good company guaranteed.

2009 Events

General recall with two hoots (and apologies). I was 'over the line' with my information last week regarding the date of Saundersfoot Regatta and the Round Caldey Race. This is to be changed because of a clash with National Championships at Tenby. Confirmation of the new dates and other events will follow.

More Tall Ships

Trevor has again been successful in helping another of our juniors - Mark Dwyer - sail under the Tall Ships Youth Trust Scheme. Mark had the choice of a tall ship or a round the world racing yacht and went for the latter. At 16 this was some experience - these are really amazing boats, designed and equipped for ultimate racing performance. Reducing weight is everything and his luggage allowance was derisory (methinks, lucky he wasn't a girl! Oops. That's me for the non-PC prejudice sin bin)!

Mark's own report says it all - congratulations:

I sailed on Challenger 3, one of four, 75-foot long round the world racing yachts. I was anxious at first, but found that settling in and getting to know everyone was easy. There were 10 of us, along with two volunteer watch leaders, the first mate and the skipper. Everyone was very friendly, we became quite close over the course of the week, and we all felt that we were a close-knit team, giving us an advantage when it came to the races. Unfortunately, due to a less than appealing weather forecast, we had to spend the first two days in Portsmouth, without any sailing at all.

But, on day three we got our first taste of yacht sailing. None of us had done anything like this before and there were only a couple of people other than myself who had even done dinghy sailing. I was relieved to find that I was not at all out of my depth. It was the same as dinghy sailing, just on a much bigger scale, and we soon got the hang of working together to sail the yacht properly.

It took the strength of several people to haul the mainsail up and set the sails correctly. The wind was strong out in the Solent on the way to Poole and the sea was rough, causing seasickness among most of the crew. Going below deck while at sea just made the sickness worse, because everything was tilted and it was a struggle to remain balanced. After a day of hard work, our bunks seemed more comfortable than they had the previous nights and we were looking forward to the next day.

However, once again the weather did not permit us to sail, as the wind was too strong. We still had to get up early, though, and participate in the so-called 'happy hour', an hour of cleaning and maintaining the boat. The worst job was cleaning the heads, for which rock, paper, scissors was used to decide the person unlucky enough to have to do it. We spent the rest of the day practising sail changing and doing theory work.

By day five the weather had improved and we got our last chance to practice sailing before the races the following day. The sun finally came out and sailing from Poole to Cowes was immensely enjoyable. We were confident that we had the best crew and had a good chance of winning a race.

We woke to another early start for the last day, had a quick breakfast and prepared for the races. Three races were held, as well as a competition to see who could set their mainsail the fastest. In the morning we won the mainsail competition and were in high spirits. It was by far the most exciting day of the week and it felt good to be racing properly. Our yacht finished second in two races and third in one, giving us a final position of second out of four.

It was a great week spent with some great people and I would recommend it to anyone.

Nautical Nips

'Mascaret' is the tidal bore on the Seine between Rouen and the sea - described by the French as 'formidable'!

More Bottomree has come from a reader who refers to Charles II times (presumably an older member) claiming the interest from this practice amounted to £2m - Wow! It was also suggested then that the country would be a better place if only we had a bank to lend money to traders - 350 years on we may beg to differ!

This week's query - what are the origins of Coppet Hall?

Skipper's Mate