Well that was the summer, which was predictably rubbish. It always is. You would have thought that we might have got a bit of wind though. I spend all week looking out of the window at the fantastic sailing conditions, and when Sunday comes around NO WIND !  In the interests of science and avoiding doing any work, I have carefully logged the weather since the start of the year, and can inform you that there have been 27,250 decent sailing days in that time, of which NOT ONE has occurred on a Sunday. Pah !

Events Occurring

The Sir Charles Barratt Pursuit Race

Run in no wind at all, Pete and John hurtled through the other fleets at a highly suspicious pace and were in sixth place after about half an hour. Then their batteries went flat and they had to settle for fourth overall. Nobody else got anything more than sunburn.

The Water Board Pursuit

Jeremy demonstrated how to stuff everybody up on the start line, before zooming off to get 2^nd place to a Finn. Although painful, the start was the most interesting part of this race; the beat disappeared from an otherwise uninspiring course and the wind was notable by its absence. All this notwithstanding, three of the four Fireballs present ended up in the top ten, and the fourth can't have been far behind.

Fireball Fleet Race Training Day

Pete and John made the assembled multitude work hard at starting, beating and capsizing (or was this not the intention ?). Amusing moment of the day came in the afternoon when the entire fleet, whilst gybing on command, capsized en-masse (except for Phil). Most of us learnt something, if only that everything is easier if you sail with your usual helm/crew. Thanks to all concerned for organising this. More please.

Fleet Subs

Are overdue now, anyone who has not stumped up the £10 per boat is invited to find the treasurer (a tricky task in itself) and do so PDQ. As a last resort, give it to the fleet captain.

Boat Park

You may have noticed that most of the derelict boats have gone, and tidying up will soon follow. This means that all loose trolleys and trailers will disappear to the field if not moved, and all those masts will be taken into protective custody (my garden). If you own any of it, shift it now. Also, try to avoid allowing your boat to look derelict. Partly because it lowers the tone of the place, but mostly because people will nick things off it.

Forthcoming events

10^th September Marriott Mug Personal Handicap races 1 and 2 at 10.45am and 1.15pm respectively

16^th and 17^th September Miracle Open Meeting the Fireball fleet is running this and may need your help.

24^th September Marriott Mug Personal Handicap races 3 and 4 at 10.45am and 1.15pm respectively

21^st and 22^nd October Draycote Fireball Open Meeting potentially five races over two days, 4 races to count, first race 12.00ish Saturday, third race 10.30ish Sunday. Entry fee £18.00, or you can sail just on the Sunday for a mere £12.00.

4^th and 5^th November Fireball Inland Championships at Rutland Water

19^th November  Fleet Championship races 1 and 2

26^th November  Fleet Championship races 3 and 4

17^th December  Fireball Prizegiving and Fleet Meal  starts 6.00 pm

Marriott Mug Event - THIS STARTS NEXT WEEKEND

This is our personal handicap event, where slow boats start before fast ones and everybody theoretically finishes at the same time. There are three races to count out of the four over the two days. The 3.30pm race doesn't count towards this event. The handicaps are dependent on wind strength and may change from one race to the next.

Fleet Championship

Three races to count out of the four over the two days. Prizes are awarded for 'Masters', 'Challengers' and 'Boats under 14K', assuming a decent turnout in each.

Good Stuff

Jeremy Davy has been out and about for most of the year, starting with the World championships in Thailand in which he came 25^th, and finishing up at the National championships where he got 14^th overall, including a third place in one race. He has now teamed up with Mathew Flint (ex Ian Pinnell crew) and returned to Draycote to get some proper competition (?). Also at the Nationals were Draycote part-timers Martyn Lewis and Richard Bailey, who came 11^th overall. Miles Thomas and Steve Digby went to the recent World Qualifiers and came 13^th against some pretty hot competition.

Membership

Up again. We lost Ian Hughes, and are one boat down as a result, but we gained Nick Utley in Fireball 11400, Sean and Philip Tulley in 10502 or 11082 and Andy Barlow in 2783. Hi guys. As some of them are new to Fireballs and are sailing fixer-uppers, they will probably appreciate any constructive advice, fittings (or sails) that you may care to impart.

Still for sale are John Tenney's other 'ball, Miles Thomas' current boat, Dave Pratt's old red boat and Peter Roberts' plastic item. The latter two are SERIOUSLY CHEAP (sub £500), John and Miles' boats are newer and more shiny, hence more money.

Fireball Fleet 2000

30 boats in the fleet (not counting Martyn Lewis), of which 25 get sailed reasonably often. Not bad. We will have a bit of a reorganise of A and B fleets at the end of the year.

Winter Series

We are toying with the idea of running a national winter series event, with the aim of attracting some of the hotshots to Draycote for the cold months. In order to get this off the ground, a number of things have to happen, one of which is that we need to get some fairly spiffy prizes to give away. If any of you are in a position to acquire desirable items for not very much money (preferably legally), please let us know. Also, we need to know if you lot are interested in paying £10-£15 to compete in a 'serious' racing series. We have to get at least 10 Draycote boats to show some interest in this series to make it viable; not for the money, but because we are only here to make DWSC Fireballing more fun. We don't run events for anybody else's benefit. Obviously, the usual winter racing will continue regardless of the success or failure of this idea.

Let's have some feedback on this one….