Race Report 1 April 2018, the Easter Egg Race

Sunday followed several days of rain and a predicted high tide, and the Met Office told us the wind would be as near as possible to non-existent.  Not ideal conditions for a race, but three Enterprises turned out nevertheless.  James Armitage was crewed by David Kolobov; Rob Collingwood was crewed by Lev Kolobov; and Dave Berger was crewed by Sheila in the Brown’s Enterprise.

Chris Jones assisted by Henry Brown, set a short A-course with a start line at Zoffany House.  There was so much rain water coming down the river that the flood tide flow was noticeably less than normal but started high up the foreshore:  all three boats launched straight into the water from the ramp.  All managed to drift and manoeuvre close to the start line for the signal and set off together but unusually for a downstream / against the tide start, the boats furthest from the bank fared best.  The Bergers found wind from somewhere and, relatively speaking, romped away.  James tried everything, but Porpoise refused to make progress.  The Bergers made the downstream mark, well above the draw dock, and drifted back up to the Bell and Crown upstream mark comfortably ahead of Rob.  But despite all efforts they continued to drift towards Kew Bridge as Rob rounded the mark and continued his stately progress back to the start line.  James meanwhile was still struggling to get to the downstream mark.

The strength of the tide was by now increasing and still had an hour to go.  It had topped the footpath and the OOD and his assistant were ankle deep.  Rob passed the start line after 26 minutes and Dave crossed it five minutes later.  The prospect of another half-hour, at least, of this was more than the OOD team could bear and they declared the race finished.  No loud protests were heard from the sailors.  So the Easter Egg was won by the Rob / Lev Enterprise.

The OOD team waded back to the arch just as the water reached the top of their wellies; the three Ents sailed/paddled/drifted straight into the yard, followed by Dave Jones in the safety boat, who backed practically up to the arch door to offload the engine  and bits; and all present were then marooned  until the tide turned, more of less on schedule, at 1630.  They were sustained by cups of tea, Rum and Blackcurrant, Easter Egg and some tasty seasonal concoctions from Michael Sommerville and Alice.

Next week it’s a 1500 D-course.  Lets hope for just a bit more wind.

Greeting Sailors and non-Sailors!

We are happy to invite you to reserve your tickets below for SGSC Dance and Dinner Party. We are looking forward seeing you all.

Delicious 3 course dinner and cash bar.
Highland dancing with the Craigievar Scottish Dance Band.
Raffle later in the evening.

Dress code:
Black Tie/ Scottish Dress. Footwear – come prepared for lively dancing!
Where:
Royal Mid-Surrey Golf Club | Old Deer Park, Twickenham Road, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 2SB | T: 020 8940 1894
When:
Saturday, March 03, 2018, Start time is 7.30pm.
 
Please let Marian know immediately if there are any dietary requirements.
 

Last Race of the season, 5 November  2017

It was a bright and breezy afternoon with a full F3, plus added gust, blowing down the A-course from Kew Bridge.  A magnificent 9 boats took to the water, but even before the start three of them came to the conclusion that an immersion was highly likely and returned to the ramp – all Enterprises: the Browns, Rob Collingwood, and Chris and Laura Greenwood.  The others were made of sterner stuff.

Dave and Sheila Berger, rare visitors to our waters, sailing James Armitage’s Enterprise, led almost from the start.  He was closely followed by Nick Floyer at the start of the second lap (14 seconds behind) with Alex Pape and Ian Nethersell also less than a minute behind.   Alas, that was it for Nick.  He was overpowered on the run downstream, capsized, and despite valiant attempts to right his Lightning, it refused to behave.  After several attempts he had to concede and retire from the race – wet and cold.

So that left five contenders, and the Bergers kept ahead, but not by much at first.  At lap two all four were within two minutes of each other.  At three laps Alex and the Bergers were a mere 20 seconds apart with Lev and Ian about three minutes behind them.  Alex was still number two on the next lap with Ian just ahead of Lev, but by the next lap both had overtaken Alex.  The Bergers were drawing further ahead by this stage and went on to lap all the others.  They completed seven hectic laps in the allotted hour, three minutes ahead of Ian’s six laps with Alex and then Lev crossing the line after a further two and three minutes.  Sam Shemtob, with two crew in his Wayfarer and two reefs in his main fought for three laps and the fifth place but was forced to take assistance from the safety boat and retired.

So ended a very exciting race, as well as the 2017 sailing season.  The handicap system gave the race to the Bergers, followed by Lev, then Alex, and finally Ian.  Many thanks to Enoch Rodriguez for supervising the event, and to David Jones and Steve Newell for manning the safety boat.

As usual the race was followed by Beer and Bangers.  The beer was brewed by Steve, Mary Short slaved over the barbeque, soup and cake were provided by Margaret Berger, and other food was provided by several willing members.  It was especially good to see three of our most senior members at the feast: Kurt and Margaret Berger and Paul Williamson.