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Well that was Summer then. Whoosh, gone. Back in March we had the AGM, where Helen kindly
volunteered to do another year at the helm and the usual few scruffy types pitched in to help. Then came the UKFA training weekend, which immediately elevated all those who attended to a
higher standard of sailing than mine, although luckily they forgot most of it about 6 weeks later.
Next was the Firebowl personal handicap event, won by Paul Anthony and Quentin Hayes by a mere
one point from Cap'n Helen and Paul Roe. Then off to fight them on the beaches at the Nationals, where Martyn Lewis and Richard Byne picked up 8th place overall which is pretty good for an eighteen year old boat with a couple of part-timers in it. Being thus beaten and roundly humiliated was the cause of some distress amongst the hotshots, but they'll just have to get used to it like the rest of us have.
Back at the club, the Marriott Bucket event ended with 1 point covering the first 3 places. Top
of the heap this time were Bob Morris & Paul Butler with 11 points, followed by John & Jim 2nd with 12 points and James & Peter Wood 3rd, also with 12 points. James took this defeat particularly badly and went off to become a student in Manchester the very next week, which just goes to show what can happen if you take these things too seriously. Well done to the winners, who have been trying for about the last 8 years to win this and worked incredibly hard to make it happen. And in the interests of even-handedness, commiserations to the rest, you were very unlucky, it was a total fluke that Bob won, he has no talent at all (delete as applicable).
Somewhere along the way the fleet picked up three new boats, so a big Firebally welcome to Dave
& Helen, Frank & Debra and Richard & Bea. These additions more than outweigh our loss of Rob Farey (courtesy of the Mongolian Rally), and a slightly dented Iain (courtesy of a
Welsh tree).
At the time of writing Peter Wood and Mike Pratt are winning the fleet championships by the
smallest of margins from Martyn and Richard. The winter Super Series starts on the 16th November and will apparently attract some hotshots keen to practice for the Nationals at Weymouth in March 2009. Also don't forget the final day of the Fleet championships on the 23rd November and the Christmas meal / prizegiving on the 13th December. This starts at 7:30, tickets from the office or Helen, more info on the website.
And for all you non-Fireballers, if by some chance you were thinking that not much happened this
summer and now it's nearly time to pack it in for the winter, then you are clearly sailing the wrong sort of boat. Decent Fireballs start at under £500, what are you waiting for ?
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