Messages

I think that we are still short one boat for an experienced helm, any DB owner that is willing to lend please let me know.

Antony

Anybody that wants access to leave a boat at Brixham YC before the 28th please send me an email and I will provide details of the contact at BYC.  The basic answer seems to be that if you turn up with a 12 in the preceding week and the caterer is there they will have a key to the compound you can put the boat in.

If you are very kean, and a student (?) with the time then one or two people might be out sailing a day or two before the event.  There will be no safety cover but the club seem to have no problem with people going out.

Antony

Emma,
You have hit on the downside of Salcombe in August, that everybody else wants to be there too!  I think that the poor weather might have opened up some self-catering flats if you are feeling rich, try Salcome Holiday Homes or Coast & Country Cottages if that interests you.

Camping:  The recommendation people seem to give most often is to stay with the Squires at a place called Higher Rew.  Website is www.higherrew.co.uk.  They are yawl sailors and very nice, but I try not to camp and so have never been there!  It is not a walk home at night, but I think is perfectly do-able on a bike.

The week is, in the end, worth the additional hassles that come with Salcombe.  We are going to be there with the boys and some grandparents!

Antony

But, in answer to the other part of the question, we are hoping for a P&B press release on the subject.  I have not seen the final price of the product, something I have a personal interest in, and suspect that this has delayed any proper PR.  Tom is now away for a week, sailing longer, heavier boats a bit like ours that have funny old-fashioned planks on the outside (but interestingly not on the inside) for a week so i guess we will see nothing more for a while yet.

Wishing i was in Salcombe next week..... but not long now until Brixham and our own trip to Salcombe.

Antony

Kean,
I am not clear what you are trying to achieve by splitting regions.  If nobody cares about their aggregate score in a regional series then all that matters is to hold events that people want to go to and make sure there are enough of them within reach of where people live but not so many they are diluted and have a small attendence.  This is basically where we are at the moment.

The Gill Series is already very carefully designed around having events in every region, although it is true that the additional event this year and the loss of Starcross made this much harder and put a Midlands bias in that was not intentional.  At least the Midlands are in the middle!  There is obviously a risk that taking the Gill events to the extremes of the country, Penzance and Scotland for example, would result in small Gilll events as the distance for the 'average' attendee to travel would become too high for a weekend.

You are right that some classes have a single national travellers series, and many more events, but so far we have tried to focus the Gill Series on not being more than once a month to give people time to do other things, including sailing at their own clubs and encouraging other people locally to give the 12 a go.

As you get more involved you will appreciate that there is already a lot of thought put into the plans, and planning for 2008 is already underway.  New ideas and thoughts are always appreciated.

Antony

John M is working on getting the survey results in to a format that they can be posted on the website in their full glory.  

In the meantime, from my memory of the results, Kean has picked up two conflicting results of the survey from two seperate questions.  It is, i think, right that people did not want to travel over 100 miles but were only really interested in the results of the Gill Series and not the regional series.  I do not think that this means that people are not interested in having local open meetings, just that they are not going to bust a gut to try to qualify for the regional series.

Hope that help, more to come,
Antony

Very sadly Jo and I are now not going to make it to Ripon, as our youngest is ill.  

If anybody wants acomodation I have just cancelled at Newton House in Knaresborough, newtonhousehotel.com or 01423 863529 which looks great on the website and seem very nice.

I am very disappointed, those that are going have a great time,
Antony

http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/5day.shtml?id=2109

If you believe weather forecasts then the Ripon event looks like it might be blessed!  With 40 boats, and some sunshine, and the organisational efforts that have gone in ot this event it is going to be great!

Antony

Rick,
Good question, the current number is about 40, but that could drop by about 2 or rise by about 5!  Either way it is disappointing that we have not managed to improve on last year.  This lower than hoped entry is  probably accounted for in the main by the couple of regulars that are doing NWNW instead, and the fact that I am only aware of 2 new boats built this year that will be there whereas I know of 5 that are in build for delivery later this year.

If those of you that are definitely coming could, at the very least, please email me or Janet to confirm then it would make our lives a bit easier.  We know some of you have accomodation booked! The prizes are being ordered on Friday!

Antony

More news!!

I think I have procured some more beer!!  This week is shaping up to involve a lot of cheap or free booze......

I am reliably informed that there is still accomdation available within a walk of the club.  I suspect that this recent wet weather is ruining the UK holiday industry, just before it clears up and gets sunny for Burton Wk.

Antony
Chairman, NTOA

To sign the company that are, with little doubt in my mind, the best builders of racing dinghies in the UK is quite a coup.  It is very hard to imagine they will produce anything less than a great product.

It is great that they are now on-board, and a great shame that they were not 6 months ago!

I want one,

Antony
N3484 (For Sale later in the year...)

James,
I think that most are shorter than that, beginning not much forward of the back of the centreboard case and only being 18 inches or so long.

I think, from memory, that mine begin pretty much at the point that the extension of the board case ends and fill half othe space from there aft towards the transom.

Never really thought about it that much..... I just knew after the Foolish that we needed them.

Antony

I guess that highlights the job that Kevin has been working on in his limited spare time!  Thank you Kevin for getting these results up, they are broadly correct and should help everybody see how they are getting on.

Encouragingly there have already been over 50 participants, and that is before the big weekend at Ripon (already 32+ entries) and then the traditionally big Grafham and the new end of season bash at Northampton.  It seems to me that there could easily be 100 boats that particpate in at least one event.

Antony

News on Sponsorship:

Fotoboat have joined our list of sponsors for the event, agreeing to sponsor the Canter Trophy (over 40s).
Aardvark are our sponsor for the Corrigan Cup, for under 21s.

Our other loyal sponsors, Gill, P&B and Alverbank/Evolution will be there too, more details from them to come.

Antony
Chairman, NTOA

James,
Sadly we are not making any progress with the car park, basically it is there if you want to use it but we cannot negotiate a group discount.

Antony