News

Wednesday morning saw Storm Petrel back in the water after a hard earned rest on the hard for a month.  Copper coating in first class condition after just a light rub down with wet and dry, prop anti-fouled, engine serviced and ready to go.
For the November Cruise our Admiral Anne permitted us to have an all male crew so David (he is the Commodore you know) and Duncan arrived on Friday evening to inspect the boat, panting with anticipation and raring to go.

Despite the only entering four events at the opening round of the 2011/2012 ISAF World Ccp event in Melbourne, Team GBR took three podium places. Gold in the Skud18 and Silver in the Laser and RS:X.

For the 22 duos still competing in the 2011 Transat Jacques Vabre the range of weather to deal with is still wide, from those in depths of Class 40 still dealing with bigger winds and seas to the IMOCA Open 60 class where the tentacles of the Azores high pressure have snared several contenders. In the north Mike Golding and Bruno Dubois have taken a dividend to rise from seventh yesterday to fourth

The Fast cruise course in PDF format is available to download here. Pleas note that there is a short course for boats with a club handicap of 0.900 or lower and a long course for boats with a club handicap of greater than 0.900.

Last Tuesday evening Graeme Armstrong presented the Science of Sailing to members. He explained how such terms as sail area to displacement ratio, displacement to length ratio and ballast ratio are calculated and how each affects the boat's performance.

The rally this year was held at the Swallowtail Restaurant at Burnham Yacht Harbour on Saturday the 16th October. We were blessed with a late Indian Summer, courtesy of a high pressure zone sitting over Northern Europe, so sailing there seemed a good idea. Things didn't exactly work out quite as expected, but that's what sailing is about.

The October Fast Cruise was sailed in glorious sunshine and a gentle, 10 knot SE breeze. This year we are trying an experiment by using two courses, a short one for yachts that have a club handicap of 0.900 or lower and a longer course for yachts with a club handicap greater than 0.900.

It came down to the wire in the final double points race to determine the podium places of Act 8 in Almeria. Going into the final race the Swiss team of Alinghi were in a strong position to claim overall victory, only a major faux pas would have prevented what was rightfully theirs after such a strong performance over the last five days and 32 races.

ISAF World Match Racing Champion, Ian Williams, has helmed Team GAC Pindar to the top of the leaderboard at the halfway stage of Act 8 in Almeria.  This is the first time his team has ever led the overall standings in the 2011 Extreme Sailing Series global tour.