Sail Chat 18th May

Sunday was alternately chilly and, when the sun came out, really warm. The chilly came from a gentle breeze from the north east of about 8 to 10 mph but if the sun came out strongly there could be calm patches. In the morning there was a reasonable turn out, even as many members are celebrating Dunkirk in Little Ships.

In the morning in Comets there were David (solo), James (solo), Alex and Jade together, Elise in her Aero and Rob and Emily in their GP. At lunchtime Elise dominated in the Youth Series.

In the afternoon there were two Enterprises Jane with Sarah and me with Olivia, the GP's has two out also, John and Sue and George with Chris, who had a very close race. The Handicap class went out with David, James and Alex/Jade in Comets, no other class participated.

The races were run by Andrew and Ian and the marks were well placed, giving a decent beat down river and, at times, a lovely reach or run up it to the gybe mark. Bit of a crowd at the first gybe mark as all four boats, GP's and Ents,arrived together at the gybe mark, which to some extent was the arbiter of the Enterprise race.

Excellent Time by Sophie Penwarden and Deirdre who, really helpfully, showed who was in each boat numerically.

Chrissie Dunman, helped by Sarah, made a delicious tea, the cakes were scrumptious. The Commodore reminded us of future events and we heartily sang Happy Birthday to Deirdre and Alison Phillips.

It was a lovely sail on a near perfect day for river sailing. Alex and Jade won their first race, my young crew Olivia on her third time out performed superbly and Deidre celebrated her birthday with a four legged, mini Churchillian!

See you next week Phill

Last updated 8:20pm on 29 May 2025