This season the weather was reasonably cooperative with not many gales or calms, so a large number of the scheduled races were held. In fact, a greater number of races were held in 2011 than in any previous year. This made for an interesting season with some high points and some not so high points! The large number of line starts, which made for exciting and competitive racing, did need more sailors to man the Committee boat than pursuit races,.
One of the highs of the season was the first series that used the RYA average Lap racing format and was expertly and seemingly effortlessly run by Steve Kestin and Margaret Statham. All who took part enjoyed the 10 race series. Average lap racing requires quite a lot of administration and organisation and for this I thank Steve and Margaret hugely as I didn’t have to worry about anything. Steve and Margaret have very kindly agreed to run this again in 2012 and hopefully we can encourage even more sailors to take part. The beauty of the system being that we can easily fit in 2 races and it fairly handicaps all the dinghies -even the slowest dinghy can take part without worry about finishing last . Please come along and have a go in this series whatever your ability because you won’t fail to enjoy it.
Spring Sundays had a relaxed feel about them with a pursuit series that didn’t require too much organisation or manpower. For light wind days we do need to have shorter courses though, so we get round a few more marks in the allocated 90 mins. I know Adam is looking into this for 2012. The Spring Series was scheduled to end with the Susanna May Cup but unfortunately the weather was atrocious and it was rescheduled in August when luckily, the May family were down on holiday. The May family turned out to race for their cup in abundance and I’m very pleased to say Hugh Gordon in his Pico won the Cup – all had a wonderful day’s sailing and convivial evening in the club.
The weather was faultless for the dinghy regatta and the RYA On Board Feva event. The turnout was good but fewer Fevas came than last year. The day was enormously enjoyable but getting correct handicaps for entrants who didn’t fill in forms or who turned up at the last minute made it very difficult for the organisers to work out fair and accurate results. For this reason I have decided that next year no entries will be accepted without a valid entry form received no later than 1800 the night before.
Cup races suffered highs and lows. The Wayfarer cup was very poorly attended despite scheduling it at a peak time, so we have decided to run it on a Tuesday night in 2012 in a bid to encourage those sailors who maintain the Wayfarers and use them the most to have the chance to race for it. The Nairn cup was blown out with little chance of rescheduling as the season was coming to an end. Next year we have adopted Adam’s suggestion that the Nairn Cup be awarded to the winner of 6 races chosen by him over the season.The races to count are marked on the calendar. On the other hand the Laser Plate was a very popular event closely fought over by old rivals Roger and Phil, with Adam nearly capsizing which is very rare!
The season culminated in a very lively wash-up meeting. One of the main themes being how to encourage more dinghy sailors to come out racing. New ideas to promote this have been incorporated into the 2012 season’s schedule. In particular, we are introducing a novice class, with a separate start 5 minutes before the main fleet. There will be separate prizes for this fleet in all series. This class is particularly to encourage our growing number of junior sailors. Please come to the Pre Season briefing in March to find out all about this.
Making the Dinghy season happen requires a huge group effort and I would like to thank everyone from the dinghy fleet who helped me throughout the season. Thanks go to Mark and Heather from Henry Cowels for sponsoring our Summer Series. All the dinghy sailors know that without the safety boat volunteers we wouldn’t be out there at all so a big thank you goes to them and of course to Jeff Meadows for keeping the web site so up to date with all our results.
Making the dinghy season fun is down to you though, so please come along and join us in 2012.
