Saturday saw the Learn2Sale team back on a quiet morning, but warm morning. They were all eager and we had Bobbie, Harry and Clancy who stayed around to race in the afternoon. John W was race officer and thought for a while that numbers would be well down as there were only a couple of boats that looked like rigging but as race time approached more and more arrived. Dave K brought his Laser R for his first sail of the year after some health problems and Nate also raced after L2S on his Laser R. And Aidan and Callum sailed up from home, both on Laser R’s, to join Paul who was sailing his Aero 6. Then David W arrived with a 14’ Skiff which seems to be a complete boat of carbon fibre and is very, very fast with two traps and an immense kite. It rates at 84 compared to a Sabre at 127. His crew was Dom who many will remember as a trainer for our juniors a few years back. The fleet was completed by Sabres sailed by Andrew, Lucy, Tony, Ollie, Billy and your scribe giving us a total of 15 boats.

John Walter as RO set a triangle course with a short first beat to the windward mark. This meant that most sailors wanted to start on starboard and tack to port as soon as possible. This led to the undoing of Andrew who tacked early but straight into the starboard tack scribe’s path. When this was brought to his attention he crash tacked and was out of the way until he might have dropped the tiller and again ended directly in the scribe’s path who couldn’t avoid him. Your scribe took some time to recover from having run into Andrew’s new boat and was probably last to get away. Andrew recovered much quicker and was soon trading luffs with Lucy, Ollie and Tony. From the rear where Billy and the scribe were, it was fun, and hopefully rewarding, to watch the leaders conduct luffing battles. In the end Andrew was first over Lucy by 2 seconds with Tony 12 seconds behind and Ollie 15 seconds behind Tony. Your scribe managed to pip Billy on the post with Steve 2 minutes behind Ollie and Billy 7 seconds back.

The first race in Division 1 was close, if you ignore the 14’ skiff which led by about 6 minutes, with Aidan 9 seconds up on Callum who led Nate by a minute and a half. Paul was half a minute behind Nate while Dave unfortunately crashed and retired. In division 3 Harry led Bobby by 47 seconds with Clancy three minutes or so back. (They only did the one race).

For Division 2 race 2 the scribe lent his boat to Peter E so he could try it out. Peter did something that the scribe has not done and tipped before the start, which maybe shows the scribe’s conservative sailing nature which led Lucy to sail over to check the scribe and then sail away when she found it wasn’t the scribe. Ollie reasserted his normal form leading Lucy by about two and a half minutes who was ahead of Tony by about two minutes. Peter E was a further three minutes back. Billy did not start and Andrew retired with a broken bit.

Division 1 race 2 was depleted as the 14’skiff had navigational problems when it may not have noticed that John W had reversed the course by substituting his red course flag for a green starboard one. Paul also retired while Nate and Dave did not start. As a result Aidan and Callum were the last boats standing with Aidan a couple of minutes up on Callum

John Walter, who is still carrying a bung knee, was in charge assisted by Lew Wishart. Glen and Peter V were rescue boat. Molly followed the Opti’s in race one. Thanks are due to each for a chance for the rest of us to sail. Julie as normal was in the canteen cooking some fine dim sims. Anne did the control tower

Coming up:
Saturday 7 February 2026.
1400 Matthew Flinders series continues (includes Commodore Cup).
0900 Junior and Senior L2S

Saturday 14 February 2026
WRECK2REEF SWIM - ALL HELP APPRECIATED

With no sailing over the winter your scribe had a bit of spare time which he put to use by borrowing a couple of books from the Club so he could learn to navigate. Here are some of the things he learnt:
Beginners don’t look at the compass, so they don’t know what course they have steered. When will they arrive? When they get there. They don’t look at the time when they leave a known position, so they don’t know how long they have been en route. They don’t know the boat’s speed. If there is a current across their course, the boat follows a curving path, probably without the skipper even noticing. They often follow a zigzag path to keep aids to navigation in sight. They spend a lot of time looking for buoys. Most of the time they don’t have a good idea of where they are, and next week they’ll know no more than today.
If they get caught in fog or a rain squall, they’re like a short dog in high weeds. They have few clues as to where they are, since visible landmarks have vanished. They don’t know the compass course to steer. The anxiety level aboard the boat mounts. Survival of the fittest would tend to cull such people from the gene pool: fortunately, life isn’t always that harsh.
(from Boat Navigation for the Rest of Us – Captain Bill Brogdon)