Trent Valley Sailing Club: Vintage and 4-plank eventExpanded to Admirals Cup boats. . . Saturday 20th September 2008 Report by Christine Marshall TVSC (from the front of the boat!)
With such a line up for the start there were 2 flights, with the
4-plank and AC boats going first. Our Race Officer was kind and
set a short triangular course for the first race avoiding the dreaded
“doldrums” – if you have ever sailed at TVSC you will know what I refer
to. Also it was a Saturday, known to be tricky with the River Trent being awash with narrowboats and cruisers all out on the first day of their week’s hire! Many thanks to Roger Britton for his loud and clear guidance to these novices. After a short delay waiting for the sea-breeze, we started our first race. All I can say is we had a great start!
After a fab lunch, we all went out again. Apparently there was a significant body of opinion from the fleet to see the whole of our sailing area and Keith Marshall the Race Officer tried to fulfil that yearning by extending the top mark to way past the “doldrums”. Initially there was sufficient wind, but as the second flight caught up with the first, there was much concerned conversation on the water that this might not have been a bright idea. No-one owned up to wanting to see the whole of the TVSC course! Vince Phillips played it cool with his extreme light-weight crew and somehow chose to sail his race with the first flight. The rest of us from the second flight aimed for the Scout hut, again,.... and.. again... and .... again. Yes, it really took 4 goes to work our way past. Howard Chadwick got there first, then went backwards a bit, came up the inside on the bank, got to the front ... and then went backwards again.... Several of us did the same thing, far too many times to call it fun. The community song singing did not help! There was much laughing and ribaldry; it’s a good job we are such a friendly bunch in the Vintage fleet!
Anyway, to cut a very long story short, some us eventually found the
rearranged top mark, went round it and were very grateful for the
shortened course flag. Quotes of the day:- “This is why I don’t sail here anymore” “STARBOARD, you're going backwards and I’m going forwards, does that
count, are we still starboard?” “Paul’s got his centreboard stuck in the mud to stop him going backwards” (IT WAS A LIE!)
Again, many thanks for all who turned up, it was a really great day. Next year I will try to book some wind, but looking on the bright side – the Trent was 3 feet higher a week ago and running an awful lot faster!
Overall results
The Boat Index Prize (the highest age score for helm + crew+ boat)
went to Brian Herring & Roz with Ken Goddard & Ann Briton a close
second; it was the boat and helm age that really counted! Notes:
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