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August 2004

The Newsletter of Spinnaker Club, Ringwood

www.spinnakerclub.co.uk

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The Solo fleet seems to go from strength to strength with lots of new boats and helms, including, dare we mention it to Peter May, at least one defector from the Laser fleet. On many Sundays we are the largest fleet out on the water.

The arrival of Stephen Broom in a gorgeous new Winder built Solo has certainly injected a lot of excitement into the top of the fleet and I am sure that this one of the reasons for the sudden arrival of so many shiny new Winders which seem to leave the other boats dead in the water.

This year has seen a lot of Spinnaker activity in the National Events and in the Western travellers Series. Stephen starred for the Club with an eighth place in the Inlands and an even more impressive 4th overall and 1st under 21 in the Nations cup sailed on Lake Garda in Italy under the auspices of the Dutch Solo Association.

Chris Harvey has agreed to become the Solo Fleet representative on the Sailing Committee. He can usually be found sailing 3859 Merlot. (It seems a strange name to me for a white boat!)

Recently there has been a lot of talk in the Association of the “B plan” sail. This is a sail cut to the minimum allowed dimensions in the measurement regulations. It is a lot smaller than the normal sail and is intended for lighter helms. I have not seen one on the lake yet but I am sure there will be one out there soon.

Despite the views of one of the respondents to Jo Newall-Smith’s questionnaire we are not a bunch of sad old men. Some of us may not meet the strict definition of young any more but none of us are sad and several are ladies.

It is interesting that the Commodore, most recent Past Commodore, Rear Commodore Sailing and Vice Commodore all sail Solos. Perhaps we are out to take over the world

If you want to give Solo sailing a try, the Club boat is very serviceable and easy to rent.

Hywel Morris 3692 Doo Lally
…mmm: Ed. Laser 170451, Firefly 2571, N12 3000

Solo Inlands

This year the Solo Inlands were held at Rutland Water Sailing Club on 19/20 June.

On the preceding Friday the class association held a training day which was free for members. In view of my less than star status as a Solo sailor I decided to travel up to the East Midlands and have a go.

Rutland Water may be an inland reservoir but that is where any similarities to Spinnaker end. It is huge! The sailing club is run much more as a business with several permanent staff and a big clubhouse with comfortable bunkrooms for visiting sailors.

In the morning session we were talked through what made a Solo fast and given lots of hints on rigging and tuning what appears at first sight to be such a simple rig. Gordon Barclay the chief measurer and Steve Eade one of the top Solo helms were on hand to give their advice. In the afternoon after the strong gusty winds had abated a bit we went out on the water to practice starts and to try a number of exercises to improve our boat handling skills.

After all this excitement we had to repair to a local hostelry for food and debriefing.

On Saturday I was pleased to see the arrival of 4 more Spinnaker helms. In total there were 97 entrants. Seeing the whole fleet launching and reaching at speed down to the starting area was quite a sight. At first the wind was gusty shifty and quite strong. The start area was 15 minutes sailing from the clubhouse, which gives some idea of the size of the lake.

Two races were sailed on each day, with one discard. In contrast to sailing at Spinnaker each leg of the course was very long.

The event was won overall by Andy Davis of Bartley S C with Steve Eade of Ardleigh S C second. Stephen Broom had a very good weekend eventually finishing eighth overall. The other Spinnaker placings were Paul Nixson 42, Tim Wade 49, Dave Nixson 64 and myself 79th. My ambition was not to be last in any race and I succeeded, so I was quite happy setting of back south down the A1 to Hampshire.

Perhaps next year we can persuade more Spinnaker Solo sailors to try this event. Hywel Morris