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April 27th What an incredible day today turned out to be. We arrived at the Club this morning with spitting rain & no wind. By the time we were ready for launching the rain had stopped but the breeze was still refusing to play ball. Nevertheless we launched and moved very slowly to the starting area. Progress was so slow that you couldn’t hear the boat moving through the water. However 10 minutes into the race and the first glimmer of a new breeze started to show. Ken & I rounded the first mark in the pack, even managing to drift onto the mark, resulting in a 360 for us. By the time we had finished our pirouetting, the majority of the fleet were heading up the 2nd leg which had by now turned into a beat. 2 or 3 lucky windshifts later we had mysteriously ended up at the head of the fleet & managed to pull well ahead on the subsequent reaches. All in all a job well done, by the time we had finished, the clouds had broken and we were bathed in hot sunshine with a nice offshore breeze. It was so hot sitting around at lunch time that I decided to dispense with the long john and instead I donned the yellow shorts for the first time this year, and we are still in April!! Paul Beacon, safety boat driver for the day, reset a very good course for the afternoon & a larger fleet turned out for what I thought were absolutely ideal sailing conditions, hot sunshine, force 2-3 offshore breeze that was shifting around all the time, and a very blue calm sea. There were some good personal battles going on throughout the fleet, the 2 Kestrels of Craig Varley crewed by Kay up against Pete & Jan Barnes, with Craig coming out on top, and the Tasars of Russell & Colin up against John & Tony, John & Tony always having the edge, though at one time Russell closed them down quite considerably. The Laser of Steve Coello was up against that of Simon Pryce, before a breakage put paid to Steve’s challenge. We enjoyed a very close battle against the 505 with the new pairing of Justin Phyall & Kelvin Kirkham trying to get to grips with their machine. We had quite a ding dong for 2 laps before we managed to shake them off on one of the shifty beats. Yes a perfect day for sailing.

April 23rd We had a very pleasant surprise tonight as we arrived at the Club & that was to see that the local council had been cleaning up the beach of all the weed that was left over from last weeks south easterlies (see picture below). Clearing it away was not before time as the remnants of weed still around were starting to give off a very unpleasant aroma. Sailing tonight was better attended with 12 boats coming to the very starboard biased start line, with the inevitable crunching and shouting. Rather than get involved in the melee, we elected to start further down the line, going as fast as we could, which helped as we managed to keep enough speed to round the windward mark just behind the 2 Contenders of Stacey & Nick, who finished 1st & 2nd, Stacey in particular winning by a big margin. The course itself was rather small, which inevitably meant some lapping by the faster boats of some of the slower boats. We actually had 7 different classes out tonight with the first appearance of the season of Nigel Dowrick in his RS400, with Kelvin siting in as crew. The breeze was a good force 2 with some stronger gusts, which also gave some subtle shifts on the beats, subsequently meaning that no one side of the course was any better suited than another, but the challenge of the wind shifts did allow some big gains for some.

April 20th Again the weather men let us down. The promise of strong north easterly winds didn't materialise, so we were able to sail after all, but we are suffering from the legacy of the long spell of south easterlies. The beach was covered in sea weed, & piled up quite high in places. We had to clear weed from the slipway in order to get the safety boat onto the beach before launching, through the waves. Normally I won't launch in waves, as it can be very tricky when it comes to landing & to me a Tasar can be a bit frail when sailing through the surf. I would rather have an intact boat to sail another day than needing to repair or replace a broken mast but today was a little different as the tide was dropping, leaving a flat area bereft of wind, the waves were smaller and further out so took the chance to sail through them.

April 20th However several others turned up to race but declined to sail, once they saw the surf and weed. As the tide dropped it became apparent that launching would be easier than first thought so several of us decided to go for it. Once again we only had a small turn out, but we still had a fascinating race in the light north easterly conditions, which gave a beat across the bay from right to left and then a very nice swell to surf down the waves towards the beach marks. Unfortunately the wind slowly swung round and then died, so we all finished in a drifter which was worse for the slower boats. The tide had turned at lunch time & we were left with little wind and a dumping surf, so prudently we abandoned racing for the day.

April 16th Take a look left and then you will realise why we had to cancel for the first time this year due to a typical very fresh south easterly. I would estimate that the wind was blowing a good 25+ knots and being a south easterly also felt very cold. The beach had fallen by at least 6 inches at the bottom of the ramp, though this may be a part blessing as the beach had been very soft near the top, which made it very difficult to recover our boats after sailing. So it was an evening for opening the bar early and talking sailing rather than actually sailing. The forecast is for this weather to last for a few more days yet before turning northerly so even the forthcoming weekend sailing is doubtful at this stage. A big round of applause & congratulation is extended to Simon Pryce who has just completed the London Marathon in a time of 3hrs and 32 minutes and in doing so raised a lot of money for the RNLI.

April 13th Despite a dire weather forecast of rain and strong winds, we actually had a very npleasant day. We started off with hardly a breeze, but fortunately it filled in quite reasonably from the west and our small 8 boat fleet had a very good sail. Just after the first beat an ominous black cloud appeared & with it much stronger winds, which kept us all on our toes. The 2 Contenders of Stacey & Nick pulled away into what appeared to be an unassailable lead, but Stacey retired as he had some business to attend to & on the penultimate beat we managed to wriggle past Nick on a very useful wind shift, which gave us the win. The fresh breeze was too much for some who decided that one race like that was enough for the day. The wind had backed more northerly for the afternoon and we had the beat from Blackhead direction into the beach marks for the first time this season. We were joined for this race by Anna & Liz, sailing their Bahia for the first time in a race, where they took a third, to put some noses out of joint, with mutterings of a bandit handicap, so it will be interesting to see over the season how well the boat sails in different conditions. Back on shore the sea looked so peaceful & flat but those of us who had sailed knew how strong the wind really was.

April 9th We had a lovely day today with very little wind but by late afternoon a light westerly breeze had filled in and gave us a very nice start to the 18.45 race. Actually it was quite fresh at the beginning and the force 2 wind had some quite strong gusts sweeping out from the shore, but as usual as the evening progressed the breeze started to fade away. This caused quite a few problems for some, as the last lap took much longer for those sailing 5 laps than for those who only sailed 4 laps as it added extra time onto their results. Paul Beacon gained well from this, pulling through to 2nd overall. By the time Ken & I finished we were getting quite cold as there was not enough strength in the wind to make us work enough to generate body heat. So far this year it has been a very cold start to the season. We are still down on numbers with quite a few regulars missing at the moment, so I am hoping that they will all come back & join us soon.

April 6th Today saw the 2nd Sunday cancellation so far this season & unexpectedly, this time for snow. Yes even in Cornwall we couldn't escape the predicted forecast for snow, though ours wasn't as bad as for Stacey who was sailing at Oxford. There they had 6 inches to contend with. We also had some very strong blustery cold winds to put up with which when taken into account was enough to deter even the most heardened of our Club sailors. I didn't mind too much as I was scheduled for Safety Boat duty & I knew that would have been a very cold experience, so the abandonment was well received by me. The quality lunches continue, today saw Maria, Katie & Amy in the galley & they turned up with home made vegetable soup, which together with fresh, crusty rolls went down very well. The poor weather continued after lunch, with a succession of blustery showers bringing hail & snow flurries so the remaining members had a game of rounders on the deserted beach, before we closed the Clubhouse for the day.

April 2nd I left work at 4 o clock this afternoon, from Treviscoe, in heavy mist & strong winds, so I fully expected that racing, the first of the Wednesday night series, would be out of the question. The mist was rolling in from the north coast, pushing way in land. By the time I reached St. Austell the mist had disappeared, yes it was still cloudy & the breeze was still quite fresh, but I was starting to feel more optimistic. By the time I reached the Club I could see that although there were quite a few gusts racing out into the bay, it was looking possible to race. Experience tells me that when we do get an offshore breeze it invariably starts to drop off in the evenings & tonight was no exception. Unfortunately only 8 boats turned out, but those that didn’t make it missed a very good, force 3 sail, which was disappointingly a little on the short side but that was necessary due to the early onset of dusk. After all the clocks only went forward last Sunday, but by the end of April we will have plenty of daylight left for longer races. However the best part of the evening awaited us as we pulled the boats up into the yard and that was the waft of bacon being grilled, coming out of the clubhouse galley, meaning that Jenny's bacon butties were back on the menu. A most welcome “apres sail”, enjoyed by all.

March 30th Firstly here is another picture sent to me by Tina Thomas, showing what I believe is a Redwing in the yard, probably taken about 1952. The boat is called Cherokee. Note the building in the background, that ran the whole length of the yard and occupied the space where the Lasers are kept today. Part of the original wall is still with us & seperates the 2 paths in the dinghy park. Here is a good link to some exciting footage of an RS400 sailing at Bala over the Easter weekend found on Youtube Wait for the gybe!! Despite the poor forecast earlier in the week, we actually had a first class sailing day. Sunny skies with a light south westerly breeze gave us good sailing conditions in the morning, with a beat from left to right across the bay with the gybe mark off the beach marks. The wind swung round to the south in the afternoon and raised a notch; making it lively enough to give a few capsizes for the unwary, but also some fantastic planning reaches. Today saw the inaugural race with us of Richard & James King in their Merlin Rocket, Craig Varley & Adrian Rapson in their new Kestrel, Anna Weld in the Club Laser and Sabine who crewed for Pete Barnes in tje morning & John Mark in the afternoon. We also witnessed the first sail of Alex Nel’s latest acquisition, an International 14. Within 5 minutes after leaving the beach, he managed to have his first capsize and breakage. Yes, this is a beast of a boat to sail & it will take quite a few outings to get the hang of it. The afternoon race was the most exciting, mainly due to the fresher breeze which was very changeable both in direction and strength near towards the end of the beat. More than once we had to react very quickly to the changeable conditions. It was a very hard sail for one so early in the season & most of us were aching by the end of the 2nd race. Getting back on shore was hard work too as there were a few waves, breaking on the beach & over us too, plus the sand on the beach was quite soft, so it was difficult getting the boats back on the trolleys and then hauling them out of the water. Still we all made it back ok, rather battered, bruised and tired, but judging by the smiles on everyone’s faces it had been a very enjoyable day's racing. This Wednesday coming sees the start of the Wednesday night spring series. We will be starting at 18.45 as the evenings haven't pulled out too far yet & it is still rather cool. Yes the clocks have gone forward and summer is on its way.

March 23rd The Easter Cup this year turned out to be a non event. The galeforce northerly winds forecast for Easter materialised on Thursday night & blew all weekend. The bay on Saturday was seething with white horses, wild enough to deter anyone who thought that we would sail. Reluctantly the abandonment flag was flown and we all went home for the day. Sunday dawned not much better, but the wind had moderated a little, but by the time we assembled at the Club, the wind was ominously rising again as strong gusts started sweeping out over the bay. The pool table suddenly came into its own, but by 11.00 hours it was obvious that we wouldn’t be sailing the morning race so again the abandonment was flown. However not all was lost, Simon & Sarah were down for galley duty & instead of the usual fare of a pasties & toasted sandwiches menu we had Simon, prepared trays of Lasagne, both meat & vegetarian options, to be followed by an Easter cake that had been baked by Sarah. So at 12.00 we all sat down to eat the exquisite feast. I can still taste the garlic bread!! No one was surprised that by 13.00 it was still obvious that we wouldn’t sail so reluctantly the Easter Cup 2008 was officially abandoned. Not a very good start for the season, especially for me after my capsize the week before, but at least it will give Ken another week to recover from his flu. I just hope that the temperature will have risen somewhat for next week & the winds will have moderated, so that we can start the season in a proper manner. Now a quick word about boat maintenance. I know that one or two have been looking at their boats over the winter, and time taken then to examine all the potential week points could be well rewarded later in the year. This is the time to make sure that all cleats are moving freely, take some time to ensure that all pulleys run smoothly, salt can and will build up around the moving parts and prevent them running properly. On a Tasar it is well worth giving the jib furlers special attention as they should furl and unfurl without any undue pressure. Again on a Tasar it is important to check the carpet restrictors on the dagger board to ensure it will stay where put and not slip down the plate case when you don’t want it too. Toe straps are common to most boats and they all wear at some time or other. This can be a good time to check the anchor points and also the state of the shock cord that can keep them in an accessible position. How about your rudder? Is it firm in the stock? Does it sit on the pintles easily? Does the down haul rope work properly and keep the blade down at speed? How about the universal between tiller and extension? I use a rubber joint that allows the extension to move in any position, but check for cracks in the joint, as failure here will ruin any race, and could also cause an involuntary capsize. Check your stays where any swaging takes place. This is an area that can fail at any time, so look for any wires that may have broken and if found change the stays immediately. I say stays because if you change one than you may as well change the other, because unlikely as it may seem they will stretch, so this way should ensure that they will stretch at the same rate. There’s lots more to mention, but that will do for the moment.

March 17th Yesterday I capsized, the first capsize for 18 months, which was very annoying so I have spent some time analysing what went wrong. Well for a start the conditions were rather challenging. The wind was gusty, blowing a good force 4 around the Charlestown gap, and I was sailing with a new light weight young crew. We attempted to tack from port to starboard when it all went horribly wrong. There was a series of errors, mainly on my side. The jib was released and the helm put about; so far so good. However I don’t think the crew moved across quickly enough but more importantly I’m sure I messed up the swapping over of tiller and new traveller sheet and don’t think I got onto the new windward side deck quickly enough. The jib was sheeted home in the new position and whilst I was fumbling the gusty wind just blew us over. Normally the Tasar always inverts but I can usually get onto the plate to start the recovery process. Yesterday was different; I couldn’t reach the plate from the water. I think the main reason for this was the fact that my buoyancy aid, which I always wear under my spray top, had ridden up too high and consequently I wasn’t floating high enough to be able to stretch for the dagger board. (This was the first time I had capsized wearing this buoyancy aid) Therefore an important lesson here is to make sure that the buoyancy aid is much tighter to try & prevent it riding up. Eventually I did manage to reach the dagger board and get my weight onto it, but I still had difficulty righting the boat. I'm sure the reason for that was that both jib & main were still cleated, therefore creating a water break to the righting moment. Well eventually I did manage to haul the boat upright & because the sails were still cleated she immediately blew over on the opposite side, which meant starting the whole righting process again. Therefore another important lesson to be learned is, ensure that the sails are uncleated before attempting a recovery. To really compound the problems was the fact that the water was very cold and both Adam’s & my strength was rapidly fading, fortunately we did have the assistance of the safety boats. So at the end of the day we were both safe, the boat wasn’t damaged & more importantly lessons have been learned.

March 16th Well despite a poor weather forecast, the actual weather was quite nice for the first sail of 2008, sunny with a force 3-4 north eaterly blowing, & 11 boats made it to the start line. Ken had a dose of flu, so I took Adam out as crew, for what turned out to be a traumatic time. Now I can vouch for how cold the water is, because just as we tacked for the windward mark, we dropped the Tasar in. One unfortunate trait of a capsized, turtled Tasar, is that it is very difficult to get to reach the dagger board. Anyway I eventually managed it & after quite a struggle I did manage to pull it up only for it to fall over on top of me. The jib was still cleated!! By this time we were both tiring, mainly due to my lack of fitness & the cold of the water. Fortunately the 2 safety boats came over & between us we managed to uncleat the jib & right the boat. We clambered on board and set sail back to the beach. Firts port of call was to the showers to try & warm up. Meanwhile the fleet sailed on, though the 2 Lasers & a Supenova took several dunkings. Fortunately all who remained sailing finished & returned to the beach. What is really infuriating is that it looked so serene from the beach, which belies the gusty winds that were present out at sea. Congratulations to Ray, who has offered to learn to use the safety boat. He certainly saw first hand what sort of emergencies the safety boat may be called to deal with So there we are, the ice breaker is over with, the season has started, all we need now is another 11 boats out & we will really be in business.

March 6th Last night we had an OOD course as part of a learning curve. Gary outlined to his audience how to run a race from the race box. He suggested that the OOD should be at the Club up to an hour & a half before the scheduled race time, in order to prepare everything before we went afloat. This involves checking the weather forecast, deciding on the course, number of rounds etc, preparing the race recording sheets, signing on forms & lunch forms if the race day was a Sunday. He explained what the various flags meant & when to use them. All in all a very good review of what needs to be done each week before we race. Now don’t worry too much if you missed the talk because there is a booklet available in the race box where all these tasks etc are listed. So if you haven’t had to do OOD duty for a while then make sure you are familiar with all the necessary steps before your duty day arises. Now I notice that the countdown clock is under 10 days, so the 2008 season is literally now only a matter of days away. The yard is still full of boats left from last season. How fibreglass boats have changed our sailing habits. 30 years ago almost every boat was made from wood & they all went home each winter for a lick of paint & varnish. Now with fibreglass it’s often just a case of a good hose off, cover off and launch off the beach. The ladies, Liz & Anna, who are going to start a sailing school at Porthpean were also down last night & they intend racing with us on Sundays, so I hope that they will enjoy their racing & I am sure that over the course of the season they will experience some fabulous sailing conditions. Also joining us more for racing will be Graham Pomeroy who has bought a Comet. The Club has also bought a new sail for the Club Laser, so I can see an eager queue building of people wanting to try it.

March 3rd What another superb day weatherwise it was this morning. It looked absolutely brilliant out in the bay for a first sail of the year. The wind was north westerly, blowing about force 2 with some easily spotted, light gusts coming through. The sea looked very flat & inviting. A repeat of this in a fortnight will be very much appreciated. Last Wednesday we had a showing of the early days of sailing at Porthpean video. The video is almost 2 hours long & covers the very early years of the Club up to the Scorpion Area Championships in 1964. So much to see so cannot give full details, but things that were really noticeable were lack of sailing clothes as we know them, certainly no wet suits and very few buoyancy aides. The boats themselves looked ancient with cloth sails & heavy equipment. There was quite a menagerie of boats until 1960 when the Scorpion became the preferred fleet boat of the Club. But these Scorpions were nothing like the Scorpion of today. The boat being wooden was suitable for home construction and indeed several at Porthpean were home built. These early ones certainly up to 1964 didn’t have spinnakers or much in the line of adjusters for the rig etc. Even sailing techniques were different than today with very few people hiking , in general merely leaning out of their boats. There were some good scenes of an early regatta showing some Ospreys probably from Newquay where they had a small fleet, sailing 3 up. The ragatta looked far better attended than those of today. The yard itself looked far different than that of today. Heavy walls surrounded the park & the entrance was via a narrow entrance where our wider gate is today. There were some scenes showing a hut being erected in the yard which served as changing rooms. Most noticeably the people did look happy so they obviously derived a lot of pleasure from their sailing. A very old Merlin Rocket looked very elegant skimming along in the bay. The beach in general looked terrible, far more stones & rougher than it is today. They were also prone to strong south easterlies which did prevent the aforementioned Scorpion SW areas sailed on one day, with a shot showing the strong seas and the competitors sitting around. Back then the races were started from ashore by a “starter”, who fired a shotgun, I can’t see that being allowed today! No doubt the video will be shown again sometime soon & if you know about it then take the opportunity and go and see it. Knowing how much different our boats are today makes me wonder what boats in 50 years time will look like, especially when you think we are now entering the phase of "foiling boats". Seeing a boat whizzing along, completely out of the water is almost unbelievable, and no doubt other classes or new designs will come along that will exploit that form of sailing. The majority of modern boats today are built from fibre glass & if you are interested then follow this link to see a Tasar being built. This Tasar went on to win the World Championships last year in Phuket. I met Simon Pryce in Truro this week & he told me that he will be missing the first few weeks of sailing as he is in training for the London Marathon, which takes place in April, so we wish him all the best for that.

February 16th Last Sunday 10th February I had my first sail of 2008. I went to Chew Valley in Somerset to have a sail in an NS14. What’s an NS14 you may ask? Well the Tasar hull was derived from an NS14 in 1976, but the NS14 is a development boat and has a few basic rules which allow for much development in hull shapes & sail plan and as you can imagine has changed a lot over the last 30 years. There are a few thousand of them in Australia but none over here. I have been reading over the last few months about an NS14 on the Y&Y forum. A chap called Toby Peacock bought one, the only one in this country from an agent in Germany. He has produced a web page about the boat which is NS14 web page the photographs show it as a very pretty boat and it sails about the same speed as a Fireball. I was intrigued enough to contact him to see what the boat was all about, so I ended up travelling up to have a trial sail. Well as luck would have it the day was almost completely windless, so the sailing was very frustrating, but I did get on the water. The boat sailed very nicely but I am not convinced it is set up as well as it could be yet as we were definitely slower than Lasers & a Scorpion upwind in what was a very , very light breeze, so light that you couldn’t hear boats cutting through the water. The NS14 of today is very different than the Tasar. It’s slightly lighter, has less sail area, no thwart & a much more pronounced, very stiff wing mast. The main sheet comes straight off the boom, which feels quite different. The boat has a false floor, which provides plenty of buoyancy, so the deck to boom height isn’t as much as you would think; consequently I spent quite a bit of time whilst crewing on my knees. The helm felt very light. The boat is designed to perform best in wind strengths over 10 knots, apparently it is very quick to plane & that is where it derives most of its speed. Meanwhile our season at Porthpean is almost here, with only 4 weeks to go to what I am sure will be quite cold few weeks & will test out quality of wet suits & dry suits until the warmer weather eventually reaches us.

January 28th A beautiful weekend brought quite a few more people down to the Club for a spot of maintenance or a look around, which gave me a good chance to catch up with some gossip for the coming season. So what have I learnt so far? Well, Beacky intends sailing his Enterprise again, Adam has grown a bit over the last season & Beacky thinks they will be heavy enough to be able to drive the Ent better. Jeremy Hawkins has bought a B14 & intends joining us again this year, and will most likely sail on Wednesday evenings. Ken Higman is intending to do some sailing with his grand daughter Emily crewing. Kelvin thinks his Contender needs quite a bit of work doing to the hull & to keep him sailing fancies crewing in a trapeze boat if possible. I also hear that Alex Nel has bought an old I14 & is teaming up with Tristran White, so be prepared to witness quite a few capsizes until they master the art of keeping it upright. Simon Pryce has taken a membership form for a friend who wants to join us, but at this time I don’t know what sort of boat he may be sailing. Duncan & Debbie Spencer-Smith rejoined late last year so we are hoping to see them down more often this season, racing their Enterprise. Craig Varley is still looking for a newer Kestrel to better compete against Janet & Pete, he had too many breakages last year so needs a more reliable boat. Steve Mitchell is sailing the first few months of this year at Plymouth where they have a very competitive Laser racing series. Unfortunately there is a rumour that we might be losing Nick Eggett this year. He’s moved to Mt. Hawke to live, which is a fair distance from Porthpean & may decide to sail his Osprey at Mounts Bay. So all in all quite a few changes for 2008, but whatever happens let's hope it turns out to be a very enjoyable season, The new decking had the glass panels fitted last week and is now ready to be used. Roll on the summer.

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