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Hi Everyone,
I hope you all had the chance to get out sailing on those very warm days of early summer. It’s great to see so many boats on the start line. How good it is too, to enjoy old-style galley between races served from our lovely new kitchen. Thank you Alec and support team. It would be very nice to have a summer evening’s kitchen-warming party for all those involved in the project; perhaps we could serve Sangria… which leads me on to another story.
Three local sailors, Dave Holloway, Alan Tarrant and I took part in the Laser Masters European Championships in Spain at the end of April. It turned out Alan was a dark horse, having taken part in international competitions before, and Dave had been to Roses (Laser Worlds), whereas I was just there for my holidays. Our boats were taken by Sailboat Deliveries from Portsmouth, and we travelled by plane from Bournemouth to Barcelona. After a minor detour into the foothills of the Pyrenees, we arrived at Calella de Palafrugell late Sunday evening. The competition was due to start on Wednesday.
We had a lovely apartment with rooftop views of the village and sea. Julie Holloway sunbathed while we sailed (or thought about sailing). There was a web cam linked to the sailing club on the beach where Julie sunbathed so her work colleagues in Christchurch could see what she was up to! Calella was a very pretty holiday village with a steep narrow descent through cobbled streets to the quite small rock-bound sandy beaches - not particularly suited to the arrival, storage and launching of 250 Lasers.
Monday and Tuesday were spent locating our boats, getting them ready for inspection, registering and going for a practice sail. We had a mixture of very light and very strong winds for the week. We only successfully raced in light winds, as racing was otherwise cancelled or abandoned. Dave and Alan sailed Radials, I opted for the 4.7 as the International Jury allowed it as a fleet at the last minute. I found it very stressful preparing my boat for the Championships. The many stickers had to go in the right places. I attached my kicker by the wrong part to the boom during a practice sail and wondered why it wasn’t working properly. Once I got out on the water though, all the stress disappeared. Tuesday was too windy for the practice race, and racing on Wednesday was cancelled for the same reason. On Thursday we got in one race because the wind turned very light, and Friday there was no sailing because the wind was too light. Saturday we got in three races in light conditions, Sunday we managed one in towering waves and no wind, and Monday’s racing was cancelled because the sea was too wild. It was a great mixture of conditions!
My aim was to get over the start line in the required time to avoid disqualification, and to get round the course without getting lost (the distances were huge in a 4.7). There were eight categories, four fleets, one course with different fleets doing inner and outer loops and four starts. The most stress was milling about at the start trying to make sure I was with the right fleet. After a while I realised there was no excuse not to be on the start line at the start because the line was very long. You can get the real racing picture from Dave and Alan who both did very well and came 4th in their respective fleets. The 4.7s sailed with the Radials and I can only tell you about my experience from wallowing about at the back.
The first and last races stick in my mind. In the first, I had been racing for about one and a half hours and was becalmed, along with lots of others, at the last mark before the finish. We heard the abandonment signal and everyone cheered. Dehydrated and starving, I got my picnic out. After a while I thought I might as well continue to the finish boat as my personal target was to complete the course. It took me forty minutes. It wasn’t easy eating the picnic in the contorted position required to propel my boat upwind, in no wind. I even went past some people, who did not look very pleased. Later I found that I had finished, been given a result, and had beaten another 4.7!
The last race was memorable because I was at the back, on my own, in huge waves and no wind. It was very scary. Alan had shown me how to get over the towering waves upwind before the race, but I had lost the plot and couldn’t remember anything. Leslie Hotchin, a very able and experienced sailor, also in a 4.7 told me later that she’d got a good rhythm going. I had not got a rhythm going and I dropped further and further back. On the reaches and the runs, while I dipped into the troughs of the waves, I wondered if anyone would have noticed me disappearing completely. Later one sailor told me that my absence would have been noted by the evening because there would have been one empty trolley! Actually, there was a safety boat at each mark and I think they radioed to the next one to say that I was on my way (at least I hoped they were doing this). Eventually I finished the race. I was prepared to go again, but someone came after me to tell me racing was abandoned because of the increasingly wild conditions.
Now for the best bit - Sangria! A seafront hotel provided ‘lunch’ late in the afternoon for all racers. This consisted of a delicious, homemade Spanish soup and roll, and a cup of Sangria. Sangria and an empty stomach are a powerful combination. The effect was wonderful!
During the evening of the last race, the waves crashed higher and higher up the shore, as if the tide was coming in (despite there being no tide in the Mediterranean). It seemed to be a freak storm, but without any wind. The boats, on the exposed sandy beaches, were at risk of being washed away and battered to pieces on the surrounding rocks. At about midnight it seemed as if the entire village, certainly the whole sailing club, had turned out to move the Lasers to higher or sheltered ground. It was a truly remarkable experience to see the local people working together to rescue the visitor’s boats. We were very grateful. The way the sailing club of Calella worked together was inspirational.
The people of Mudeford Sailing Club work well together in challenging times, as has been proven in the past. The desire to preserve the club’s essence and uniqueness means we will continue to do so in the future.
Happy sailing Summer 2009, Kate Grandfield, Commodore
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