Rutland Water 2014

[Peter Cockerton]

All

Weather forecasts from the met office for Oakham

Saturday, winds s/e 13 mph gusts 23 mph mainly dry.
Sunday,  winds s/w 12 mph gusts 24 mph mainly dry

Both days a balmy 14 degrees, so a little different from last year when we still had snow on the ground.

Ideas received we can incorporate into the weekend.

Beach the boats for lunch in front of the main cafe (get together and chew over our boats)
Have our own boat jumble whilst we are having lunch, so bring with you any kit you may want to sell.
Fun race around the water towers and first back to the beach for lunch (can someone bring an air horn).

When you arrive, ask at the water sports centre where they would like us to park and rig (i have asked before but they want to decide on the day) if you are there before me ( i hope to arrive around 10:30).

If you need to get hold of me for any reason my mobile is 07774 111112

[Jonathan Stuart]

I well remember last year's weather because I slept on my boat and woke up to ice in the BRe's cabin!

When packing yesterday I included my air horn for no apparent reason but it sounds like it might be useful. You can use mine for the racing if you want.

BTW, to everyone, I'm coming boat-less this year because I'm sailing with Andy Dingle to prep for Sail Caledonia. But I am bringing my family (who are competent crew) so if anyone can give them a sail then that would be most appreciated.

See you all tomorrow.

[Rob Johnstone]

Hi All,
Yes, I remember the ice, too. I'm also coming "boat-less" and "doing" Sail Caledonia so will be watching Andy and Jonathans preparations with interest!

I'll also bring an air horn but will only be around on Saturday.

Looking forward to it!

Rob J

[Peter Cockerton]

Jonathon and Rob

Well I'm "Billy no Mates" this year, so plenty of space on Joybells, so your offer of competent crew Jonathon is welcome. Rob, no problem if you want to join me as well (That's competent skipper sorted).

Peter

[Simon Reeve]

I also have spare places on Anam Cara, especially for those proficient at loading unloading trailers!
Latest forecast looking wet first thing but brightening up late morning for a blustery afternoon.
looking forward to it.

Simon

[Jonathan Stuart]

That was a fantastic weekend at Rutland so thank you to Peter for doing such a good job of organizing everything. Thank you too to Bill, Peter and Andy for taking me and my family out on your boats.

I have created an album on the web site for this event and have uploaded my photos. If anyone else has any photos can you upload them too? Here's the link to the album:

http://www.swallowyachtsassociation.org/?page_id=449&album=4&gallery=19

[Rob Johnstone]

Peter,

Thanks for organising the weekend; although we were only there for a short time, the Owners Agent and I had good day out and the evening in the pub was excellent!

Rob J

[Graham W]

Well done Peter, a great event.  We seemed to dodge the heavy rain that fell in other places in the UK.

I have uploaded some pictures and three GPS tracks to the gallery, including one of the Sunday race (also attached below).  Congratulations to Matthew and 'Gladys' for winning that one by a very comfortable margin (which is why you won't see him in any of my time lapse photos!).

[Matthew P]

Thanks Peter, you set a very high standard at Rutland for the Ullswater and Bala meetings. 

It was fun. As usual Gladys gave pain and pleasure by suddenly disrobing in the middle of the lake on Saturday and slightly redeeming herself on Sunday but only because of a hardware and software upgrade to the nut on the helm  (Andrew Peers) and the advantage of 100 Kgs of mobile  (but not agile) ballast.  Graham and Bill did not have mobile ballast this time, so the true test will be SailCaledonia.  Bill's new bespoke oars will probably give him the edge overall. 

I'll post some photos and maybe some disturbingly shaky video in the next few days. The company, dinner and sailing at Rutland were great, so I look forward to Ullswater in 2 weeks time and Bala in June.

Matthew
BR20 Gladys

[Steve Morton]

Peter,

I'll add my thanks too for a great weekend - I've enjoyed my first outing with other Bayraiders, so I look forward to next time when I hope not to be last onto and off the water as I was this time! :-)
Sadly I can't make Ullswater or Bala though.

All the best
Steve M.

[Reg Barker]

Thank you Peter,
We really enjoyed sailing at Rutland, and the meal Saturday night was excellent.
Driving to Rutland was very straight forward from Hereford as it was mainly motorway and dual carriageway. It was nice to meet up with a lot of new faces. Hope to see everybody in the future at various other events.

[Peter Cockerton]

The weekend was a great success, many thanks to all that attended and the kind reviews. We had the wind, no rain and some sun, what more could you ask for.
I always take great pleasure in the sight of a fleet of swallow Boats on the water. and also when all beached in a line showing off there traditional looking hulls and rigging, strange how we had all the green hulls at one end of the beach and all the blues at the other, this without any plan at all; the grey hull of llafurio provided the start marker.
The Saturday morning pre sailing stroll along the jetty provided some room for thought as strong winds funnelling down the creek and the accompanying waves which make the getting of the jetty interesting. "Full tanks" "one reef, perhaps two" many muttered, "if we get her to the hammer head push the bow out we might just get a quick tack in before we get to the other side of the creek. Other clever clogs found they could launch off  the leeward side of the jetty and make things easy for themselves.  I noticed two swallow boats getting a little intimate with each other and embracing parts of their rigging on the hammer head of the jetty, that's a little too friendly I think.
Free sailing on the Saturday morning to accommodate everyone getting their  boats ready, one casualty with Gladys losing a cotter pin on the jib halyard block at the top of the mast (beware the split ring bogey). Gladys recovered and even with her main sail cringle ripped out at the foot of the sail and "jury rigged" on the Sunday race she still stormed home ahead of my boat "Joybells" 2nd and Psalter 3rd well done Mathew.
A number of individual "duels" I think took place on Saturday afternoon, Jonathon, Andy and Olly aboard Psalter for one tried to chase me down , some excellent pictures posted in the Gallery on the forum and a couple of videos are either posted now or will be soon on YouTube. The lunch break with the boats beached in front of the main café provided a chance to look over the boats and discuss the merits of personal modifications to the boats and various bits of kit which had been installed. The Sunday exit from the beach (lee shore) provided some good examples of boat handling, we had traditional backward rowing, front facing rowing, shove off and the roar of the torqeedo, and my more sedate shove off and Minn Kota (I thought I had forgot to put one of the rowlocks on board otherwise I would have rowed (honestly). At this point I would like to say that my excellent crew Jonathon's better half Nicki and young daughter Poppy managed the centreboard and rudder perfectly and were both instrumental in my racing position of 2nd with no whinges when I pushed her hard and occasionally "dipped the gunnels".
With 23 sat around one long table for the evening meal, all I think a little "oiled" with pre- dinner drinks the chatter and banter was quite evident from the other side of the restaurant, only the arrival of the starters took the level down a few dB's. It was really good to see so many people with the common interest of sailing enjoying themselves so much. I was a little worried that the menu was a little "fancy" and may not quench the hunger of people that had been out on the water all day but all the comments were positive and I for one was struggling with the last few mouthfuls of the "sticky toffee pudding". As usual we had the "tail end Charlie's" at the bar until they closed it (me for one) Andy took his jumper off over his head and his shirt went up with it, someone shouted "there she blows, harpoon him Ned" Andy didn't look pleased but it raised a few titters.
So one again, many thanks for coming along and making the get together so enjoyable, I will try and get to some other rallies this year to meet some of you again.

Peter Cockerton

[Jonathan Stuart]

Here are links to the YouTube videos Peter mentioned:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yJZuMteXAM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2xyyKSoVoc

One day we'll have a proper video gallery on the web site but that's still a little way down the "To do" list.

[Matthew P]

Quickly assembled, slightly blurry video of Rutland Rally now posted at:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Br-wMzAJURs

Apologies if your boat is not included, maybe Gladys could not get near enough or maybe you were wise enough to keep your distance.

Matthew
BR20 Gladys