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International
Flying Dutchman |
Valentines Day Massacre 1999Bala Sailing Club - 14 February 1999A fine start to our fifth year of FD sailing involving a frenzied week of preparing the boat, including trying to epoxy in an unheated shelter in a rainstorm, and trying to varnish while it was snowing outside - hint, use a spoon to get the varnish out and a knife to spread it - neither activity designed to produce a sense of calm well-being in the bosom of a wooden boat owner. We left home in the rain and rigged up in the rain and cold strong wind at Bala, including finishing off sorting out our new mast, before drinking coffee with Hywel, Murph and the Wiltons who appeared as shore crew, while the lower orders started racing. This year the two 18ft skiffs had been given a more realistic handicap, so we set off after the 505s and the sole B14 in reasonable peace, with the leaders, a Solo and the first GP 14 almost wrapping around the beat and loads of reaches course. As we got on with it, well overpowered and halfway down clew two, it became apparent that this was not our day, as the smaller boats were not coming back towards us at the rate they should have been, and the wind slowly eased, making it harder for the fast to catch up with the earlier starters. The joy of FDing was still there though, gosh we’re going really fast, look there’s yet another boat capsized, what can they be doing wrong? Cath also perfected the getting out on the wire with the rig raked right back bit, which has troubled us for some time. Cath is suspended from somewhere directly above the mainsheet traveller by then, and the answer is going out on her back foot and front hand, opposite to normal. Thanks to Gordon for that piece of advice which really works and provides complete justification for the British FDs crews union. The only really horrible bit was a Cherub, who may or may not have won, which overtook us upwind, so they were doing it right then. The Felinheli club heroes for the day were Chris Hogan and Tim Hall in the Hornet, who finished 8th, with Jon ‘left my brain in a party somewhere on Anglesey’ Date and Nic Lowe in Jons new RS400 not far behind. Richard Peacock and crew were also doing their stuff in the Fireball, but as they started in a different position on the grid we never saw them on the circuit while racing and I forgot to ask them back in the pits. Back in the pits, or at least in the club, there were great cauldrons of hotpot free with your entry, and the wind had dropped so it wasnt that cold knocking the boat down to go home. We were happy with 30th out of 70 entries, of which about 15 came to their senses, probably very suddenly and wetly in the extremely cold snow meltwaters of Bala lake, and retired. The winners were from a mixture of classes, with a bias to the meatballs, and a distinct lack of tarts in asymmetric skiffs, obviously the weather is a deterrent if you know youre going swimming, or are they all off snowboarding in February. We had a cracking days sailing, well worth the effort of getting up early on a Sunday, and driving home we saw a buzzard and a couple of wild mountain goats from Hotel Volkswagen as we climbed back up to the snowline over the passes. Then we went out for a lovely Valentines day meal and talked and laughed together about the race in a restaurant full of tongue-tied spotty teenagers. Thanks to Bala SC for another great days racing, and we look forward to the long distance race and regatta on July 3/4. Julian and Cathy Bridges FD IRL 4 |
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This page was last updated on 23 February 1999 - Please send contributions and comments to Richard Phillips mailto:100446.2371@compuserve.com . For more sailing links see www.sail-cd.demon.co.uk/index.htm |