Sunday 31st March 2013

Another mornings sailing in cold weather but still a good turnout.  As well as the usual crew ( Dusty, Darius, Dave R, Christine, Keith, Jim, Sue, Graham Wright and I), we were surprised to welcome the Chairman at lakeside (now there's a rarity),  although he turned up with out a boat he did bring a clutch of Creme Eggs (Thanks Dave :) which were much appreciated.   It was also great to se Alan Luckett and Mark Murphy who also turned up.

Mark was testing his Mini Mono with not so successful results :(, was entertaining though) it appears most of us are struggling with this new class of race boats.   He did have more success with his Club 500 and it appeared to be running quickly.

Club meeting will be held on Tuesday 2nd and then the Venetian evening on Friday 5th.

Rich

Wednesday 27th March 2013

Again the snow is back, not only is there snow on the landing stage but the wind was blowing in large flakes of snow.   Still there were hardy members  sailing as we arrived.. Ian with his yacht on the water, Graham with his torpedo boat and Jim and Sue with the fireboat.  Not much to report apart from the previously improved Bunny Club 500 retest which failed again and it was back to relatively slow ... this is getting frustrating.

Sunday 17th March 2013

Chilly morning, a fair few members turned up and some two new members signed up incidentally one ,Allan, purchased Becky's old Club 500 'Pink Peril' and he plans to join in with the racing.  

Fairly uneventful morning until Barry's Club 500 decided to have an unpiloted journey accross the lake before coming to an abrupt stop against the far wall.   Short time later many of us took amusement from watching Barry pushing along his 500 with a long stick as he couldnt reach it by hand... before he left it to his good lady wife to pluck it from the water once it got within arms reach.

Rob brought a very quick boat for a test run, but was brought to an end when a little glitch caused a very brief period of interference and unintentional full speed take off.    Dave C expertly piloted his springer tug to return the Cat to the landing stage.

Another test run of Keith's Club 500, where we thought the issues of slow speed had been sorted were dispelled when it took to the lake and was disappointingly slow.    Another strip down needed this could become tiresome.

Rich

Sunday 10th March 2013

Well Club 500 is  back with a bang, what a morning.    Cracking turnout with many of the usual faces and a few new ones, new boats, used boats it was to add up to another close race.   10 racers meant 2 heats of 5 boats running round the freshly laid out course to the recommended 30m x 15m by Chris, Dave and Rob using our new (much safer) rescue boat.    The usual thrills and spills took place with Chris being the first of the year to upturn her boat, although I managed to do the same in my following race by hitting the lap marker bouy, I couldnt even blame another racer but I did appreciate the laughing and jeering honest :D.   Rob was able to make it a treble for us and upturn his boat in the final race.  

The results were close with less than half a lap covering the first few racers.. well done guys and looking forward to the 24th which hopefully will see the return of Paul, Jack and Jay.   

The usual pleasure sailing took place from the landing stage and then a few Mini Monos took to the water with our plan to have a test race... to be fair that didnt quite go to plan with a few failing boats but I guess that was the whole point of a test race.

Arrived at the park a little late with Keith to find the gates shut and other hardy members stood about chatting, Dusty, Darius, Chris, Dave C with Dave B and Rob appearingshortly after us.

As Keith and I walked down the slightly treacherous slope down to boat house we noticed what appeared to be some dodgy dealings going on between other club members.

It transpires it was just a chat about Mini Mono racing for this year with Rob showing some examples of motors and drive train.   Both Jim and Sue arrived shortly after, and joined both Keith and I for toast and coffee in the boathouse cafe.     This snow and ice is disrupting our sailing but a good chat was had none the less.

I have to include this quote from Darius' forum post as it is so apt..

'It maybe 0c degrees, it maybe snowing, the car park is closed, the path to lake is slippery and contain a few land mines (planted by man's best friend) but even on a Sunday at 10:00 club members will be at the lake ... now that's dedication for you '

See you all at the lake Wednesday, maybe this time we can actually sail a boat !

Well if it isn't weed that tries to stop our sailing it's the ice!   Not too chilly today but the lake has frozen earlier and the sun isnt getting high enough to melt it, in front of the boat house and Port St Helens are solid the only area we could launch was over by the Club 500 course and even there the ice was close.   Still I turned up around 9am to find Darius already there and sailing his tug "Wyeforce", more members started to gather but only 4 boats found it into the water.. Darius' tug, Jim's airboat and my Huntsman.

All went well, for a bit, until I let the Huntsman get nose in to the ice... no problem full deflection of rudder and a bit of power should spin it round shouldn't it?  No it didn't, she simply popped out of the water like a penguin on one of those wildlife documentries and slither a foot or two onto top of ice.

Now I quite like this picture, the reflection looks great LOL.   But how am I supposed to get my boat back, the rest of members around thought this was most amusing, no way was i venturing onto ice nor was I going for a paddle.   Dusty came to the rescue with his trusty tennis ball on a rope and set to throwing it at the Huntsman, he found it quite surprising at first that the tennis ball would bounce on ice, odd that Dusty ;).    Anyhow after a few tries by Darius, Dusty and myself, Dusty finally managed to get the ball across the bow and when I pulled the Huntsman slid back into water.

Shortly after we all retreated into the warmth of the Boat House Cafe for coffee and toast and wouldn't you know it the Hon Sec finally turned up (11am).

Rich

Sunday 25th November 2012 - Prize Giving

Not a great start to the day, very chilly and wet and that probably had an effect on the turnout at the lake.   15 hardy members assembled for the initial prize giving and following group photograph, unfortunately Tony, Becky and Martin were a little late but there is a plan to have another group photo at the next club meeting.

The prizes and winners are as follows..

Club 500
3rd Place Overall - Derek Lodge
2nd Place Overall - Paul Devlin
1st Place Overall - Richard Armstrong

3rd Place Junior - Olivia Hunt
2nd Place Junior - Christina Hunt
1st Place Junior - Jay Rayner

Outstanding Club Member  -  David Baker

Best Model on Stand (Model Boat Covention - Alan Luckett

Best Model Mayors Regatta Colwyn Bay   - Alan Luckett

Best Tug in Show Kirklees Open Day  - John Bradford

Hydro and Mini Hydro Champion Bridlington  - Rob Physick

Group Photo 2012

I would like to say thanks and well done to all members for another good year at the club, lets move on and up.

Rich