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March 8th We are now into March and as usual the first weekend in March hosts the dinghy show at Alexandra Palace. 5 Members of PSC Steve EWingrove, Chris Hazell, Clive Stepehns, Ken & myself travelled there this weekend. Once again it was a dazzling affair with so much to see and do. It is only on for a weekend and most of us could only be there for one day, but you could easily spend the entire 2 days there if you wanted to look at everything in detail and spend some time listening to some of the talks and lectures. There were some new boats to look at. The new RS100 has figured a lot in the Y&Y over the last 12 months and the production boats are now rolling of the production lines in Thailand or somewhere in the Far East, where labour is ridiculously cheap compared to UK rates. The RS 100 is a single handed boat with an asymmetrical spinnaker. It looked very nice indeed with its carbon bits and pieces and Mylar sail, and with pre sales topping 160 looks sure of success. The Devotti D1 was another new single handed dinghy, but to my eyes not as pretty as the RS100 and as it is built in Italy, comes out a lot more expensive than the RS. Another newcomer that caught my eye was the “Icon”. This is an NS14 hull with a larger rig on it. The NS14 is what the Tasar started life as back in the 70’s, but the boat has been developed quite a lot over they years and has evolved into a very sleek looking dinghy. It has a much thicker rotating mast than a Tasar, a squared off head on the main and really looks the business but whether it will sell well over here without a large manufacturer pushing it is another matter, though at about £3000 cheaper than a Tasar looks seriously good value for money. I found the Redwing stand in one of the halls. Now the Redwing dinghy was one of the first to sail at Porthpean. It was designed to sail in Cornish waters. It is clinker built, very heavy and not at all pretty when compared with today’s dinghies. Well the one at the show was built last year and was the first to be built for many years. It took the guy who built it over a year to do so, and it is for sale at the mouth watering price of £20000. I don’t think that there is any way this boat will ever fetch that amount of money. He started from scratch, made all the ribs and then planked it up, using over 1000 copper rivets to hold it all together. A real labour of love, but just not commercial anymore. The Hartley stand had newer versions of the Kestrel, Osprey and Wayfarer on it stand plus the new redesigned decked Supernova. Personally I don’t think the lines look so good now, but it is supposed to make the boat more modern and easier to right after a capsize. The Supernova also boasts a new mylar mainsail, which again is supposed to make the boat sail better. It all seems a bit unfortunate to anyone who bought a new Supernova last year as the new version really supersedes the previous version. The stand with the foiling moths on was quite fascinating. These little development boats are incredible to see. The amount of technology that has gone in to them with the controls for the foils, rudder and dagger board and the sails is staggering. They are quite expensive for what they are and constant changes and improvements mean you have to be a serious player to get involved. Quite a few of the traditional wooden hull classes have now introduced FRP versions, including the Enterprise, Mirror and Scorpion. In all cases the FRP models are much cheaper and in a lot of cases faster than their wooden counterparts but when shown alongside the wooden versions as they were at the show, looked hideous in comparison. Even the Merlin Rockets which nowadays are all Kevlar and FRP looked slightly at odds with the wooden decked version that was on display. However the latest version of the National 12 looked light years ahead of one of the original wooden planked versions that was built some 60 years previous. Both boats carry the same name but look nothing like each other. Another class that was promoting itself in wood and FRP was the GP14, which is a boat I have never liked the look of and even now consider it quite a plain looking, dumpy boat, though I know it has a keen following in the northern part of the country. A very old Firefly had been restored by replacing everything apart from the hull. Once again someone with a flair for carpentry had produced a superb looking example of boat building. The Firely is another class that is now also built in FRP, but to me this looks a nice transition. Yes there were lots to see and I am sure most Club members would have enjoyed it. I know Kay tried to get enough members to fill a mini bus, but didn’t get enough response, which was a shame. Maybe next year we should try organising something much earlier and include other local Clubs, to help get the numbers up to 30 plus or so to make it viable. Unfortunately it is a long way to go from down here and I was fortunate enough to include my trip with a family visit which helped break the journey up. Oh by the way, our sailing season starts this month. Will you be ready?

February 21st The previous night’s frost had all disappeared by this morning and it was reasonably mild for a February morning. There was a light southerly blowing and again the thoughts of sailing were upper most in everyone’s minds. Just the right conditions for a shake down sail. Ken has been preparing a dinghy park plan, which will hopefully prevent overcrowding in the dinghy park, which in turn may help boats from being damaged when too many are packed in side by side. Apparently spaces are being allocated on an attendance related basis, which more or less includes everybody who regularly sailed last season, though we do have to accommodate the 2 new Picos and the Bug that have been purchased. I expect that when completed the plan will be displayed in the Clubhouse so everyone can see where they are supposed to be. I decided that I would have a go at splicing. Earlier in the week I bought some 3 ply rope, to splice onto our shorter beach mark. Well that sounded fine in principle but when I got down to it found that it was far more complicated than it looks. Yes the theory is fine as all you have to do is follow on one ply over the next etc. Well it turned out to be a bit of a nightmare. Fortunately Steve Wingrove was at hand and ex Boy Scout leader, so knew a bit about splicing. Between the 2 of us we managed to splice the 2 ropes together and then put a soft eye on the free end of the new rope. Well the result doesn’t look very pretty but I have no doubt that it will be strong enough and will not separate, plus will have the bonus of being under water so no one will know what it really looks like. Apart from my foraging into the world of splicing there was still plenty of other work going on. Stacey turned up with a trailer full of bags of aggregate, cement and a mixer, to prepare for the big mix next weekend to finish off the base for the new water tank for boat washing. The picture above shows Allan Orton with the Tasar he bought last year. Allan is giving it a complete revamp and it has been taken away to be sprayed and will reappear with a hull colour of battleship grey. I’m going to be away for the next 2 weekends for family visits, so there won’t be any updates on the blog.

February 14th The funeral was held on Friday of Dennis Stone. The funeral service was at Carclaze Methodist Chapel and the Chapel was packed out, The Club was well represented from the Membership and Dennis's love of sailing was mentioned in his eulogy. Dennis had sailed with Russel Moore for over 20 years and had forged a very good partnership between them. Dennis also belonged to St. Blazey amateur dramatic society, so the congregation was swollen with quite a few of its Members as well as ex work colleagues. For a change it was quite mild down at the Club today & by lunch time the sun had broken through and we were treated to a very early spring day. The bay looked very peaceful, completely windless at first, before a very light offshore breeze sprung up. The thoughts of going sailing again were foremost in our minds. Maintenance is slowly making progress and hopefully we will be ready for the first day of sailing which is now only 6 weeks away. Before that we have the Club walk which was originally scheduled for March 14th. However that day is actually Mothering Sunday, so the walk has been put back a week to the 21st. I believe the walk will be centred on Leryn, but Kay will be emailing everyone before then with the rendezvous time and place. Towards the end of last season it was quite noticeable that the beach marks appeared to be moving around and we had to keep repositioning them. Each mark is held down with a weight, which usually buries into the sand. As a precaution we have for the last 2 seasons connected a bridal between the 2 sets of tackle so that if one beach mark was to lose its anchoring point then the bridal should stop us from losing all the tackle. When the beach marks were finally lifted at the end of the season we found that one of the anchor weights had parted company with its tackle. The mark drifted about because it was still secured by the bridal, but at least we still have it and all we need now is another weight before we set them out at sea again. Tony Dunn and Janet were cleaning the glass screens on the decking this morning when Jenny March came out with a very good tip. When cleaning glass, ie windows, clean one side in a vertical motion and the other side in a horizontal motion, that way you can easily tell which side may still have cleaner on it as you polish it off.

February 7th It’s winter and it is slowly passing. However the mornings and evenings are starting to noticeably pull out and spring isn't too far away now. In fact yesterday was quite warm and gave us a hint of what should be coming, but today down at the Club it was a winter’s day once again, with a cold south easterly blowing. Yes today was a far cry from 2 weeks ago when the Scorpion launching took place. That was a day of bright sunshine and unseasonably warm weather and I don’t think they would have been quite as happy launching into today’s surf driven south easterly. It wasn’t a very strong wind today but it was a very cold wind. However, we were back to the more mundane job of Club maintenance. I was away last weekend so wasn’t available to lend a hand, but today managed to get quite wet helping Tony with his pressure washer on the decking and entrance steps. Elsewhere the post box was being painted, the external notice board was discussed and plans made to renovate it. Work started on cleaning the changing room duck boards. Quite a few screws are needed to bring them back to good health. No1 safety boat had it’s engine oil drained out ready for replacement, the race box was cleaned out, and the windows and clubhouse floor were cleaned. All in all quite a bit of work done but we still need more volunteers. The picture today shows the area behind the Clubhouse where the water collection tank will be sited. Rain water from the roof will be collected in the tank and then used for washing the boats after sailing. Hopefully this will help reducing the running costs of the Club as we are on a water meter; therefore any cut in our water usage will make economic sense. There is still quite a bit of work to be done yet as the concrete has to be poured to provide a base for the water tank. This will involve a load of ready mix and a good stream of volunteers with wheel barrows to get the base finished, then the tank can be positioned. The plumbing and pump will then be fitted, hopefully it will be all up and running before the sailing season starts. The next social, only 2 weeks away will be the fish and chip supper, which is always well attended, so no doubt Kay will be in touch with you all within the next few days to take your orders. Many of you are aware that Dennis Stone died earlier in the week. Dennis had sailed with Russell Moore for many years. They started sailing together at Fowey when Russell sailed Wayfarers but transferred to Porthpean maybe 10 years ago when Russell decided to get a Tasar. They sailed together practically every week until Dennis had to give up due to illness.

January 27th This month is proving to be one of the busiest Januarys ever. So far we have had the Dinner & Prizegiving for the 2009 season, which was a very successful and well supported evening. Last weekend saw the Scorpion 50th anniversary with a full Clubhouse on Saturday evening with many Scorpion sailors from the past and present attending, coupled with the launching and racing on Sunday of our own Scorpions. Today saw the delivery of the New Laser Bug & 2 Laser Picos that the Club has bought in conjunction with the grant that we have received. Also on the delivery lorry was a new Laser for Nick Haskins. Nick has owned and sailed Lasers for almost all his sailing life. Nick joined the Club in 1974, so has owned quite a few over the years. However he did change to a Supernova a few years ago, but has decided that his heart really belongs to the Laser (& Liz of course), so a certain Supernova in red is on the market.

The pictures today show the boats being offloaded and Nick examining his new Laser, sail number 197479, before wrapping it up until some warmer weather arrives. I did suggest that we could take it for a sail tomorrow, but he politely declined the offer. The new Picos and Bug require all their ropes and sheets, threading in all the right places, but this has been left for the moment for the Cadets to do to get themselves familiar with the boats. I’m not sure when they will be launched, maybe we should have an official launch party for this. The Capsize Club will be up and running again sometime in April, so these new boats will be getting a lot of use. There were also some extra Picos and a dart 16 on the lorry to be delivered to Pentewan, plus lots of sailing clothing for Anna & Liz’s sailing school, which should be up and running in the spring. The count down clock is ticking and we are now have less than 60 days to go, with quite a few socials to come, plus maintenance of the Club premises to complete.

January 10th Here we go, looking forward to the 2010 sailing season, but before the sailing season starts there are quite a few weeks of winter to get through, with Club maintainance taking place every Sunday morning from 10.00am. There are also two important social events to look forward to this month. The first, only next Saturday will be the annual dinner and prizegiving at the Bosun’s Diner in Charlestown. Hopefully this event will not be impacted by the harsh winter weather we have had so far this month, but the forecasted thaw is still some way off, so let’s keep our fingers crossed. The resaraunt will be open at 6.45 and we will sit down to eat at 7.30 prompt. Don't forget ladies I want to take a group photograph of all ladies who sailed at the Club in 2009. The best time to take the picture will be right after the prizegiving / raffle, before we start the dancing. The second event is only a week later, when we celebrate the launching 50 years ago of the prototype Scorpion at Porthpean. There will be a party in the Clubhouse on Saturday 23rd where we are hoping that many Scorpion sailors from years gone by will come down to the Club to reminisceabout their sailing days etc and then on Sunday 24th our own 3 Scorpions will be launched to commemorate the actual launching of the prototype 50 years ago. In late 1959 the Club was looking to adopt a modern fast dinghy and the word on the street was that the Scorpion still being designed, would fit the bill. This is the boat that brought Porthpean into the modern dinghy days. Before the Scorpion arrived, the Club sailed a mixture of clinker built wooden boats, which were not in themselves very fast and a capsize was a disaster, as it was impossible to be able to right a boat and sail back into a competitive position. It was arranged with the designer to bring the prototype, ready to sail Scorpion, to Porthpean so that a test sail could be undertaken.The test proved successful and so started a new era for the Club, with the Scorpion dinghy taking a prominent role and for many years was the mainstay of Club life at Porthpean, with a fleet of over 20 at one time, before being usurped by firstly the Laser in the 70s and then the Tasar in the 80s. Snow has been the main topic on the news over the last week, with very heavy falls throughout the country and some even in Cornwall, though I think we have got off a lot lighter than many. Even at Porthpean there was a covering and I am sure in the summer we will look back at photographs like the one here and laugh about it. Today was the first Sunday of the work parties and the weather forecast obviously put most people off from coming down as there were only a few of us and what work we did was concentrated in the Club house.

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