Well, don’t expect the silver service you usually get from Donks and Dave this time of a sailing day! While the cats are away, the mice will play – and seven little mice turned up at the pond today for our DF65 day on the water.

We started up with a committee meeting of 7, and since there was no one to tell us what to do, we made our own decisions. Firstly, was set down as a handicap day – we reckoned we all had enough handicaps to offer so made the unilateral decision to scrap the idea and make it a scratch event. Next decision to make was where the hell were we going to set our course. We had lengthy discussions with a rather large flock of Swans – they offered to move over the other side of the jetty – so we took the opportunity to set up between the jetty and the shelter. A SSE wind was forecast and in fact was almost correct, so our decision was taken as good. But decisions didn’t stop there – our set course was just a little shorter than normal so another decision was made to make the sailing over 3 legs! Bet Donks and Dave won’t stay away at the same time again!

But, I do think it is safe to say, we had a great day on the water. Forecast winds of 11 knots seemed a bit out when we got there with a few gusts much stronger than that. So those with their thinking caps on, dutifully rigged up their A rigs. The lazy ones – Kevin M and Ian M defied the numbers and went with their A+. Halfway through the afternoon the thinking sailors found they should have been lazy too and changed over to the big rigs – too little too late for some. But even under the adversity of incorrect sails, the cream raises to the top, and Ian S and Bob W showed their hands. But hats off to Steve L, Mal P, and Rob T who had nothing to change to, but fought it out to the end.

If you think you are going to get the results for today’s sailing – stiff! Get your abacus out, a whiteboard, and a bit of imagination, and check out the attached! I’m sure our gurus will get me out of this predicament and give you some real results when they get back from their wining and dining and maybe work!