GSC Forum

The weather looks a bit kinder this weekend! Westerlyish Force 3, Cloud and perhaps a bit of sunshine, 7-9 degrees C.

Sailing can start on Saturday at 1315 hours - HW 1421 - 9.3 metres

Sailing can start on Sunday at 1345 hours - HW 1458 - 8.7 metres

Nick is hoping to race on Sunday.

Saturday starting at 2000 hours is the ANNUAL POOL TOURNAMENT! The pool table has been moved into the main clubroom and Mick and Lyn have prepared the knockout chart and got everything ready for tomorrow night. More Social dates at the end of the message.

I’ve been up t’ Club today to sort out the racing mark outside the OOD Box. Recently mark ‘T’ had broken loose and unfortunately, it has disappeared. (I’m hoping it’s upstream somewhere). Last weekend Peter Johnson and friends found the chain and railway wagon wheel and put two 25 litre drums on it to stop it disappearing in The mud. Some time ago, last autumn, Mark ‘F’ at the entrance to Lades Creek broke away. We’ve probably lost its railway wagon wheel for good but Peter and ADrian Johnson recovered the buoy. Today I’ve fitted buoy ‘F’ on to the anchorage outside the OOD Box.

We think the buoys broke loose because of defective shackles – cadmium or zinc plated industrial shackles, probably not meant to be used in salt water under stressful conditions.

When the tide came in Mick Clough and Dave Crowther helped me load the marker buoy ‘J’ on to the Rescue Boat and Dave drove me across the estuary and we’ve dropped it and its ground tackle somewhere between Curlew’s mooring and Chablis’ mooring towards the dock. I didn’t think to take a photograph! I need to go out tomorrow morning before the tide comes in to sort out the anchors, I expect they’ll all be in a jumble at the moment.

Earlier, I took a picture of the new ‘F’ before the tide came in. You can just see the wheel.


The training wall across from the Club has washed into view again. It’s quite a while since I saw it and some of you may not have seen it.


About two thirds from the left you can see No. 18. The training wall starts at the right hand side of the picture (it may go further upstream but I’ve never seen it). The top of the training wall is the thin line under the No. 18.


A close up view of the wall.


The wall goes right past Basil Point and curves round towards Sunderland village.


The wall disappears under the water to the left of Basil Point buoy. Beyond the wall is our lost railway wagon wheel. I’ll offer a reward to anyone who can find the wheel and put a buoy on the riser.

If the wall carried through out of the picture perhaps the channel would revert back to its correct path. The wall between No. 18 and Basil Point was repaired and raised by the Harbour Authorities with the help of a government job creation scheme many years ago.


The training wall is clearly marked on the local chart - heavy chain-dot line

RACING TOMORROW is planned to start at 1315 hours and at 1345 hours on SUNDAY.

The following SOCIAL EVENTS have been planned, perhaps you could pencil them in on your programmes:

March 21st

Once again, it’s our TALENT NIGHT starting around 2030 hours. If you are going to perform please tell Mick and Lyn – Mick is the new Social Secretary if you hadn’t worked that out. commodoremike@hotmail.com

April 18th

It’s QUIZ NIGHT and hopefully preceded by a talk on FIRST AID

May 16th

REPRO – a guitar based duo who will be playing Rock, Pop & Blues. Starts 2100 – 2130 hours.

Saturday

I was up with the lark and arrived at the Club at around 0915 hours just as it started to rain gently. Not to be deterred I rigged the Topper and borrowed a spade from the garage to double up as a paddle. I reasoned that with the wind behind I'd be able to sail across without the dagger board. The bottom of the slip extention extention has eroded badly





so it was a bit precarious getting the dinghy into the water. I was unable to make progress, must have been quite a spectacle, and I noticed that the water was very shallow so I slid off the Topper and started to walk. I walked across with the water never getting above my knees and the river bed firm all the way!

The rain had stopped and it turned out quite pleasant but very gloomy.

I sorted out the anchors of the new racing mark ('J') and dug them in. I checked some of the moorings, a bit short of time, and racing marks 'G' and 'H'. I walked back across the river towing the Topper. The deepest part was just off the slip where the water came up to my crutch. I struggled to get the boat back on the slip and more or less collapsed at the bottom, well I sat down exhausted and watched the bore arrive. I'd returned just in time.

Martin Eccles helped me pull the dinghy to the top of the slip where I washed it and all the gear and left it ready to sail later.

Ivan was around and he got his Laser ready. We both had lunch. David Booth arrived and prepared the the GP14. Derek launched his kayak and paddled off towards the lighthouse.

Mick Bull was getting Aurora ready, he planned to sail up to Lancaster for the night. John Hound Dog and David helped Mick to launch.

We were all in the water well before an hour and a half before high water. The tide was running strong but on the other side of the river, on the Club side the flow was towards the sea - fresh river water? The wind was around force 2, south south easterly, steady and the sea was smooth. Even though it was a gloomy cold day the conditions were perfect for sailing, ideal for beginnners, let's hope we get days like this when it gets warmer and we can get Michael, Paul, Amy and Kate into boats.

We had one long race sailing roundall the remaining racing marks.
'F' to starboard; 'A's; 'B's; 'C'p; 'E's; 'G's; 'H's; 'J'p; 'M's and back throug the line.

We passed Derek returning from the lighthouse as we battled to mark 'E'.

The boats finished in handicap order, Laser - GP14 - Topper.

I left as the club was filling up with the pool competitors.

Hi again. Sunday was a more relaxing start, well for me anyway; I expect the Committee members were full of trepidation as to what the day will bring. I did hear that approximately 33 members had not renewed. Some of them will renew because they've got boats on the parks but it is quite normal for sailing clubs to have a turnover of around 20% each year and that number only represents about 15% so we're doing quite well so early in the season. It's been cold enough to put eveybody off sailing this year!

I didn't report that yesterday, Saturday, Martin Lord was the Rescue Boat driver. When the racing was over we received a phone call in the Club from a resident of Sunderland village saying that one of our racing marks was over there. Martin collected Ivan and they went over and towed it back together with a hugh piece of old steel gantry! They said it is very heavy, as we were handed the line to pull it ashore, not realising that they had brought half of Sundaerland Point back with them!

I'm delighted to be able to tell you it was mark 'T' - the Hippo buoy, which had gone astray a fortnight ago. Great! Thanks very much Martin, Ivan and the residents of Sunderland village.

It was a bit brighter with the wind mainly from the west, a bit fickle varying from very little to about Force 2-3.

I was tired from my two previous days exertions so I volunteerd to be OOD. Ivan had prepared the Rescue Boat so it was ready if needed.

I set the first course: As; Bs; As; Bs; 18s; Ts(F at the moment), four laps for Nick and Ian & Barbara to do as many as they could in the time it took Nick to do four.

The wind died away to almost nothing as they set off to the second mark


Nick racing into the lead at the start of the first race; moments later he was at a standstill.

The wind picked up slightly but Ian & Barbara just missed 18 on the first lap and it took them ages to eventually round it, which set them at an irretrievable disadvantage.


Ian & Barbara in their GP14



First Race (7th in the series) Result:

1st - Nick Miller - Blaze - 2765 seconds elapsed time - 2641 seconds corrected time - 5 points
2nd - Ian & Barbara Sharples - GP14 - 5511 seconds elapsed time - 4832 seconds corrected time - 2 points.

We designed a fresh course for the second race: As; Gs; Hs; Fs - 4 laps fro Nick, 3 for Ian & Barbara.

(The Blaze is a lot faster than the GP14. The Gp14's time is corrected for 4 laps i.e. divided by 3 and multiplied by 4)


Nick rounding the last mark to win the second race

Second Race (8th in the series) Result:

1st - Nick Miller - Blaze - 1670 seconds elapsed time - 1595 seconds corrected time - 5 points
2nd - Ian & Barbara Sharples - GP14 - 2367 seconds elapsed time - 2053 seconds corrected time - 2 points.

Nick - Blaze - has now shot into the lead in the North West Icicle Series with 14 points; leading David Booth - GP14 - 10 points; with John & Sonny Rushton - Fireball - in third with 9 points.

John, now the proud owner of Hound Dog, launching Little Hog to give the new owners some pointers on to how to sail her.


Motoring off to the hoist the sails in the estuary.


Silver River setting out on her homeward journey (I can't get the system to show the full photo?)


Aurora returning from a night near the pylons. Mick had been up to Lancaster and after a look round between the Carlisle Bridge and the Millennium Bridge he decided to heed the advice that he'd been given - if he archored up their he would be pelted with beer bottles and similar missiles, sailed back towards the Club and decided to anchor near the pylons.


Motoring on to his trailer, took him a few attempts. David is driving the JCB