Tidal Diamond 931
- Sub-Committee Elections
- Cruiser Update
- Tudor Rowing Winter Series
- QM Bloody Mary Report
- Ebb & Flow
- Useful Links
- Diary Dates
Sub-Committee Elections
The new structure for committees was approved at the AGM. This means that a Dinghy Sailing Sub-Committee and a Rowing Sub-Committee were formed, reporting into a new Captains Committee.
We will be electing members for these 2 sub-committees next week by online poll. If you are interested in standing, please let me, John Elson or Hannah Barnes know by Sunday 28th Jan.
Colin Thorpe
Commodore
commodore
Cruiser Update
VHF and Moorings Talk
On Friday 9th February, starting at 7pm, we are having a talk at the club.
Nicola Craig is going to give us a refresher talk on VHF use, including emergencies.
This will be followed by a talk on our Tudor moorings by John Dunn, our Moorings Bosun. This will cover maintenance, suppliers, requirements and Q&A. This will be of interest to existing cruiser owners, new member cruiser owners and future cruiser owners.
These talks will be interesting and should remind us all of something we have forgotten or didn’t know. Please come along and support.
This event will be on WebCollect.
Brian Kinsley
Cruiser Captain
cruisers
Social
It was great to see the clubhouse full on Saturday lunchtime for a fine curry cooked by Richard Bloxham alongside the first event of the Rowing Winter Series. Well done to our new Social Committee and to all those who took part in a chilly day on the water.
Look out for new social events coming along soon – including First Friday Friendly Family takeaway nights….
Colin Thorpe
Commodore
commodore
Tudor Rowing Winter Series
Last Saturday Tudor hosted the first of three races in the 2024 Rowing Winter Series.
Eight Bursledon gigs powered by 40 crew raced a 2 Nautical Mile course to South Salterns and back. Whilst only a short course the strong head winds on the first leg meant the race provided a good challenge for the first race of the season.
The hard fought race saw the first 4 gigs cross the line within 45 seconds of each other with only 12 seconds separating the first 3 boats, see results sheet.
In the end it was Crazy Daisy that took first place and congratulations goes to the Crazy Crew of Rich, Maggie, Linda B, Dave and Linda V. Back at the club, after the race all competitors enjoyed a chicken curry washed down with a few drinks from the bar.
Well done to everyone involved, and thank you to all those who helped with the organisation of the day, particularly to Crazy Rich who not only won the first race but also cooked the curry. The next race in the series will be held on Saturday 17th February, and all club members are invited to come along and join in the fun, either as a spectator of participant.
If you think that you would like to give gig rowing a go then why not sign up for one of the clubs intro row sessions which are held at 11am every Saturday during the winter months. These free 1hr taster sessions are organised to suit the rower’s individual ability and are great fun. If you would like to book one then simply email me at rowing.
John Elson
Rowing Captain
rowing
QM Bloody Mary Report
F is for fouls (again), N is for Numpty Yoofs!
Selden SailJuice Series Queen Mary Bloody Mary event, 6 January
Race number three for me, number five in the series, and the forecast was looking exceptionally benign, to the extent that the QM Commodore described it as “almost summer-like conditions [compared to previous events]” over the tannoy, even as I was pulling on my thermals and new Happy-Christmas-to-me Typhoon dry suit!
But windwise, yes, this was the first time I felt able to enter using the full Blaze sail as the forecast was for 6-14kts from the N, with an air temperature of 6c and a wind chill of just 3c. It would dilute my previous two Fire entries for the series standings but I am slow enough without being underpowered even more.
Clear, dry and not very breezy was the theme as I once more hitched up from the compound at 0630 and headed north up the A3, yet again arriving in second position in the QM compound at 0800…behind another Blaze sailor, Andy Wilson, the class secretary no less. The QM organisation was almost military in its efficiency. If you’ve not been to Queen Mary reservoir before, it’s near Staines, is a big reservoir with a long bund down the middle and, like Datchet, is about 100ft (55 steps!) up in the air. I used to windsurf here as a member in 2006-08 and remember it being cold, steep, concrete-y and slippery – no change is evident 16 years later. There’s only one road up to the top, so walking-talkied volunteers were directing a stop-go system to ensure no one had to back anywhere with a trailer. Each boat was assigned to a coloured area and it paid to make sure all you needed for the day was dropped off here and now, or else the Steps of Doom awaited. Just ask Andy! Space was at a premium; one volunteer said they had hosted the maximum 350 entries one year and you could have walked around the course keeping your feet dry on the various decks.
Launch times were organised by boat handicap, with the warning signal going at 1155. This was a pursuit race (course attached) where the Toppers started at midday and various boats followed at 1-minute intervals. Having seen this at Datchet, I at least had some idea what to do and knew my start time was the 36th minute. Luckily, there were 4 Blazes so I just followed their lead – for the whole day, as it happened. Again, volunteers came to our aid as we gingerly eased our trolleys down the steep concrete sides but the gentle cross-off wind made launching a doddle. If the forecast was for F5-7 southwesterlies as in previous years, I would not have bothered entering as I don’t see how the concrete would not have taken massive bites out of the vessels launching and recovering.
So here I was again, mooching up and down the start line, trying to keep clear and watching wave after wave of increasingly speedy boats launching northwards to the first mark. This time, I managed to set my watch off at minute 31 and so was on time right on the starboard end of the line, with the three other Blazes, a Hadron H2 and some Aero 9s. The first problem was the wind shadow cast by about 10 RS200s all tacking upwind a minute ahead of us but I was up there with the other 36-minuters …until my new self-designed clew strap popped a bobble. I had to stop to prevent the red one bouncing off into murky wet oblivion and then just hope that the clew would remain somewhere in the vicinity of the boom. I was understandably anxious that, at some point in the next 90 minutes, the whole caboodle would let go but luckily the knot held fast.
So the scene was set for several circuits of Queen Mary reservoir but via an interesting course, rather than just a big circle. Again, no real way to get lost but the amount of dinghies out (over 175) meant that the various marks were often lost to sight, though it was not hard to spot the crowd of boats that marked these turns. It was all pretty unremarkable as I passed some slower bods, speedsters passed me and I didn’t catch up most of the fleet, but nothing (else) broke and I didn’t fall in. In fact, the wind only gusted enough to get me up on the plane once or twice so it was quite a staid procession around the reservoir in the end.
Of note this time, as alluded to in the title, was a young Laser sailor who caused me to crash tack to avoid a collision (while I was on starboard tack, of course), who was very apologetic but obviously knew nothing about penalty turns. The top mark seemed to be full of congestion as I approached it a second time, noting that Andy had been bumped into and was in the middle of a three-dinghy sandwich going nowhere fast. This was my chance to catch him up and indeed I did get to within a few metres. I wisely carried on above the layline to avoid the carnage…only to have a yoof-driven 29er zoom in on port and cause a Phantom to tack into me (both of us on starboard, of course) and get entangled in my rack (oo-er missus!), thereby delaying me back to my previous position behind Andy and the Hadron that I was trying to catch!!! No penalty turns in evidence here either.
Eventually, the time was up and we finished at the next line, where I nabbed a place from a Devoti D-Zero and had one nicked by a Norfolk Punt – some interesting kit out there. The recovery to the shore was easy, burly volunteers helped me haul the boat and trolley up the embankment and then it was time to demast, apply the covers and get into the departure flow. Military precision was then applied in reverse, with orderly queues of vehicles waiting at the bottom for those with trailers attached to come down from the top and I was soon out and on my way to the work car park to berth the boat for a few days ahead of the next day’s trip to Shanghai. I was happy that my dry suit had done a good job in keeping me warm and I decided to test it for leaks by tripping over my trolley on the shore and going for a quick dip – the seals work just fine, it turns out!
I had a chat with Andy Horlock (third in the Blaze Nationals and 11th today – I couldn’t believe he was actually sailing the same boat as me) about how the lack of sportsmanship was putting me off the series slowly and he agreed that it was a known problem. No one seems to protest anybody and nobody seems to admit their guilt. In fact, the only penalty turns I have seen in three races was Blaze sailor Douglas Clow doing a 360 for hitting a mark here at QM – his other choice was to ram into a boat that, naturally enough, was in the wrong! I’m not sure there’s any solution to a self-policing sport where the coppers are corrupt but I’ll keep trying my best to know the rules, avoid infringements and do the spins if necessary – if only to keep Terry and Bernie happy at home events! 
Rupert Rhodes
Ebb & Flow
Three RYA links this week. First a video on fitting kids lifejackets, which might be useful when preparing for the season: https://youtu.be/VNL860PVKcY?si=OQvzauz5BgzcwGL. Next an article on staying safe on the water as night draws in, which is pertinent when the evenings are shorter. Read more at: https://www.rya.org.uk/blog/stay-safe-on-the-water-from-dawn-to-dusk. Finally, the RYA has a page collating a selection of Dinghy Trails around the country, which are great for dinghy cruising, or possibly also for kayaks. Details at: https://www.rya.org.uk/knowledge/dinghy-trails.
As ever, feel free to drop me an email at this address, it is always nice to hear from members. Any ideas of things to include in the Tidal Diamonds always most welcome.
Let’s be careful out there.
Paul Tansom
Tidal Diamond Editor
tidal_diamonds
Useful Links
- WebCollect: dinghies for more details.
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(see also the attached poster).
