PARKSTONE WAYFARERS
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PARKSTONE WAYFARERS |
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| 2004 NEWS |
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| NEW Items will be at the top of this page in magenta. The list below provides direct access to the article listed. To get back to the list after reading the piece just click on the 'Back to the Top' caption at the bottom of the article. Bicycle Ride in the New Forest, February 27th 2005 A dozen or so hardy Wayfarers set out from Burley in the New Forest, into the face of a North Easterly blizzard for a marathon 12 mile cycle ride along pleasant forest tracks. In fact the few snowflakes soon cleared, and by the time we had all got to the top of the first "gentle incline" nobody complained of the cold (although Angela was observed running up the hill, pushing her bike, in order to warm up her toes!). All arrived safely, and invigorated, in the Queens Head for the customary celebration of yet another race won by Tony Millet. Minutes of the 34th Annual General Meeting of the Wayfarers held at Parkstone Yacht Club on the 3rd November 2004.
1) IntroductionTony Millet (Class Captain) opened the meeting by welcoming all, both old and new faces, to the meeting. Apologies were received from Alan Murray, David and Ann Moss and Nick and Sally Lowe. 2) Minutes of the 33rd AGMMinutes of the 33rd AGM held on the 12th November 2003 were taken as read. 3) Matters ArisingThere were no matters arising. 4) Class Captains ReportA full programme of winter social events was held, co-ordinated by Lynaire. A new event called geocaching, a walk with a difference, was held. A great cycle ride to the Bankes Arms at Studland, Skittles at Cobham’s, curry night and a walk in the wind and rain from Yarmouth to Freshwater. The Dinner Dance and prize giving was held in March with two guests of honour, Liz Feibusch and Ray Scraggs from the UKWA. Overall the racing during the season was dominated by Colin May in Watery Moments, with both the Wednesday & Saturday series and numerous cup races being won by him. However Barrie French in Expeditious, Bruce Gridley in Devon Pickle and Dave Veal in Moonshadow gave him a run for his money at times, and with Barrie winning the Monday series. Only the Jennie Allen cup race was not sailed, however both the Swanage & Studland races had to be run on the reserve dates in September. A successful Poole week was also run with 19/20 entries and thanks to Bruce for acting as PRO in the new committee boat Ron Cox. A successful informal training session was also held over 3 summer Sundays- thanks to Barrie for organising, The number of boats coming to the start line is down very slightly on last year. However it is disappointing to see that a dozen boats still pay their race entry fees but have no intention of racing! No change there. Thanks to Bruce Gridley for his sterling work as HSS, Richard Gurney for all his support & help over the past two years, Lynaire for co-ordinating & organising all the ‘off the water events’ and to Keith Cameron for balancing the books. To all Wayfarer owners and others who acted as PRO’s, ARO’s and rescue boat helms & crews a big thank you , without you all there would be no racing. Finally, last but not least, to breast stroke Bell, my long suffering crew, who I failed to allow him to practice his swimming skills this season, and to Clare my daughter who entertained some of you when we did a wet test – she’s still waiting for the photos. 5) Treasurers ReportKeith Cameron presented the class accounts and noted that expenditure had exceeded income by £178.06. He expects to do the same next year. No surprises on the balance sheet and sundries include items such as postage and teas for the Wareham race. These accounts were put to the floor for acceptance and the motion was proposed by Bruce Gridley and seconded by John O’Keefe. 6) UKWA NewsRichard Readings presented a report on the planned activities of the UKWA for 2005. The AGM will be on March 5th at Alexandra Palace at 4pm. There are 2 new rules regarding the rebuilding and refurbishment of wooden boats, the gist of which is to contact the UKWA if planning to do any major work. Programme on the web site. 30th April – 2nd May. Race training here at Parkstone led by Mike Jeffries. It is intended for those in the middle to back of fleet.4th – 5th June Southerns at Shoreham. 25 - 6th Oxford, 8th – 10th July Nationals to be held at Hayling Island hopefully at sea. 24 -25th September Westerns here at Parkstone. Having problem with a host for the Easterns. There is also Falmouth week 7th-13th August with a wayfarer start about 11.30, Poole week and an open at Roadford Lake. 7) Hon. Sailing Secretary’s ReportBruce Gridley has resigned from this post. The class wished for their thanks to be recorded for all the hard work he has done during his time in office. Tom Locke as representative of the General committee reported as neither acting Sailing Sec could be present. Easter is early (25th March) next year. Summer racing not start until Saturday 16th April but those who enter the Easter series will be allowed to keep their boats in the yard providing there is space. Space will be allocated on first come, first serve basis. Club concern that racing turnouts are diminishing. Wednesdays are more popular than Saturdays for racing. Club interested why this is the case. Our averages - Saturday 8 Wednesday 8 but last year 8 & 10.5 so not the case in our class. Need to encourage racers especially the back enders and this is a responsibility of all. Colin May said this problem is not just within our club. Warsash have the same problem and are proposing to race 2 nights during the week instead of racing at the weekend. 21st-26th August is Poole Week. The question why two different costs for summer storage have been sent out was due to a typing error and the higher price will apply. 8) Measurers ReportColin May reported that there has been little measuring done except his sails which Richard Readings did .He did asked all sailors to keep up their buoyancy whether racers or cruisers as lives can depend on it. He suggested that we all read Alex Crooks article on measurement and buoyancy. One boat has been measured, one half done and Alex’s passed. 9) Election of OfficersCaptain; Richard Gurney Proposed; T. Millett Seconded: Barry French Vice Captain: Lynaire Rea Proposed: R. Readings Seconded: Barry French Social Sec: Angeline Crook Proposed: R. Gurney Seconded: L. Rea These were voted in on mass. Keith Cameron was prepared to continue as Treasurer, Richard Readings as UKWA rep and Martin Thomas as press officer and these were also confirmed. Tom Lock expressed the classes’ gratitude to the outgoing captain and thanked Mary for all her support. 10) Sailing ProgrammeThe pertinent dates for next season are March 12th – annual dinner dance; 16th April start of Saturday series; 20th start of Wednesday series and 25th April the Monday racing begins. The captain went on to encourage everyone to participate in the training weekend either on or off the water. There is a cap of 24 boats and the training will focus on rig setting, starts and beats. There is hope that videoing will take place out on the water. Dates have been set for racing outside the harbour but not for individual trophies. Keith Cameron raised the question of whether this is legal and thought that at least a weeks notice needed to be given. The hope is that the new sailing secretary will tie this down. Richard Gurney agreed to speak to Mike Jeans to find out the dynamics of it. The class disapproved of this lack of knowing. Problem arose due some classes wanting more racing outside which it was felt was fine as long as we have the option of racing inside or outside the harbour. Richard Readings will be taking over the web site from January. Other dates- 21st-26th Poole week; 5th September last Monday race; 7th September last Wednesday race and the last Saturday will be 17th September as the following weekend will be the Westerns. Winter series runs from October2nd – December 18th. The Class Captain wants both the racers and cruisers to see themselves as one class and would like to get them all out participating in both the socials and racing support. The Westerns are to be held in the top triangle. It was suggested that duties be swapped with another class so that as many boats as possible can be on the water. It was proposed that class funds should be used to subsidise race entry but it was felt that it would be better to use funds to add value to the weekend. We need to visit other open events to encourage others to come to ours. 11) Social ProgrammeLynaire Rea reported that the social events had been in general well attended this year. The new social programme will be out shortly but includes a geocache, skittles, curry evening, dinner dance and hopefully a balloon trip followed by lunch. The picnic will be in July and 12th June and 11th September are to be fun races organised with help from Alex Crook. She thanked Angeline for taking on the job as social secretary and encouraged everyone to attend the New Years Eve social at the club. 12) Resolution of any proposalsa) To revert to average points for safety boat/ PRO/ARO duties. This is a neutral position and as there appears not to be the need for incentives to do duties it would be a fairer situation. Proposed: R. Readings Seconded: C. May. This motion was passed – 14 for, 2 against. b) To reintroduce the Wareham race into class points. Proposed: R. Readings Seconded: T. Millet. This was passed – 13 for, 1 against. It was felt that there was a need to honour the trophy but there needed to be the choice to shorten the course if necessary due to conditions. Next year we shall start before the Dolphins. It was suggested that a donation be made to charity for the use of Redcliffe and that we must ensure that a letter of thanks is sent to the club. 13) A.O.B.i) Condolences were express to Tom Lock for his loss of Jeanette. It is proposed that a new Wednesday trophy race should be established in memory of her. It shall be raced as near to the 2nd September as possible and the class will purchase the trophy. ii) There are still safety crews needed for this Sunday and 5th December. Matthew Thomas volunteered to do this week but still need someone for the other date. iii) Problems with the Slipway – the accident that Barrie French had in September could have been far worse and it was suggested that maybe blocks were needed like at Hayling Island. Tom Lock stated that cleaning schedules were now being vigorously followed and that hosing down had to be done at low tide. He agreed to pass on the idea of blocks, especially for use during the week by cruisers when there is little assistance, to the Vice Commodore as he is in charge of the yard. iv) Safety Boat Courses – these are organised when there are enough people and instructors who give their time voluntarily. The meeting closed at 9.20. The next AGM will be on Wednesday 2nd November 2005. The 34th AGM of the Parkstone Wayfarers took place on 3rd November 2004. The minutes of the meeting will appear on the website in due course. The election of officers produced a new Class Captain in the name of Richard Gurney and a new Vice Captain with Lynaire Rea taking the roll. The Social Secretary has been taken over by Angeline Crook (with Alex acting as her secretary!). The two proposals placed before the meeting were both carried unanimously. This means that next year Average Points will be awarded for Safety Boat duties and the Wareham Race will be restored to class points. The Winter Series continues apace with 6 boats competing. Here is a report provided by Richard Readings to sum the event up so far! The Winter Series has provided some excellent racing in October, with good breezes and mild weather. Colin May in "Warts and Movements" was defeated in the first race by "Shooting Stars", with the welcome assistance of the channel ferry "Barfleur". The second race took place with winds gusting to more than 30 knots. Only two boats finished that race with Colin May making use of his slight weight advantage and proving that "might is right". Bruce Gridley and Judy Rosen in "Devon Gurkin" took second place. "Shooting Stars" returned to challenge Colin in the following two races, but failed to grab line honours despite drafting in "super-helm" Barrie French as crew in one race! The Racing and Social programme for 2005 is now available on the website. Click on the relevant button at the top of the page to access them. Glynne Marples is available to crew on Sundays in the Winter Series - please call him on 01202 683717 or email him on glynnemarples@hotmail.com Saturday 24th September saw the last race in the Summer racing series. We had a good turnout for the third attempt at racing to Studland, the previous two dates scheduled having been blown off. The late summer series was up for grabs with both Colin May and Barrie French having 7 points and all to play for. Unfortunately Barrie was involved in quite a nasty accident on the slipway whilst launching. The ramp was very slippery at low water springs and Barrie slipped and fell and then was run over by his boat! Thankfully, after an overnight visit to the hospital, he now seems to be on the mend - we wish you well Barrie. Suffice to say everyone else took it very carefully whilst launching and we hope that the Club have now cleaned the slipway - we will see this Sunday at the start of the Winter series. The race went very well in good wind conditions, even if it did rain a little. Colin took the honours and with it the late series. Richard Readings was in second place and Bruce took third. Sunday 25th saw the crews race take place with two boats competing. W6330 took the event, helmed by Rob the Tooth Dobson and W8535, helmed by David Bishton's son, James, giving chase for second place. We now move on to the Winter Series with six boats entered so far and the first race on Sunday 3rd October. We have a number of safety duties to perform and would like to use the same plan as last year for crewing them. The way it works is that those not competing in the series are requested to provide the crew cover. Saturday 18th September saw the competition for the 'Up to Three' trophy, a trophy for those that have raced 8 times over Wednesday and Saturday series racing and have not achieved a top three position in any race. The race takes place within a normal Saturday points race. Five boats were eligible - W1019, W6330, W9399, W9447,and W9592. Only David Thompson (W1019) and Richard Gurney (W9399) took to the water to contest the trophy. David took the lead for the first half of the race when Richard managed to take over the trophy lead which he held to the end of the race. Sunday 19th September saw three boats go afloat for the Single-Handed Trophy. With conditions at F3-4 Tony Millett (W8803) took an early lead from Richard Gurney (W9399) with Glynne (W4745) completing the field. The thrill of the chase proved too much for Richard on the first beat and, having won the up-2-three the previous day, capsized not once but three times - admittedly the second and third flips were with a boat full of water! Tony took the honours with Glynne finishing second. With deep regret we announce that Janette Lock, wife of Tom and mother to Mindy Andy and Kerry, passed away in the early hours of Thursday morning (02 Sep 2004). There will be a service of Thanksgiving at 2.30 p.m.on Friday 10th September at Christ Church, Northmead, Creekmoor preceded by a private cremation. Janette specifically requested that people attending do not wear black and donations, please, to Cancer Research either at the service or to Nicholas O'Hara Funeral Directors, Wimborne. Poole Week 2004 started yesterday, August 23rd, with
an entry of 19 Wayfarers drawn from our own fleet at Parkstone and visitors
from Kent, Datchet, Isle of Wight and Shoreham.
Day 3 dawned with forecasts of 40kts!! After a delay of an hour was announced, by Bruce Gridley (PRO), racing was abandoned before any of the Wayfarers took to the water. Some Laser and RS400 sailors went afloat for a blast in the strong breeze but the Wayfarer fleet took to the bar instead! A superb Class Dinner was held in the evening, organised by Lynaire Rea. Tony Millett toasted the visitors with Alan Chaplin responding in his own inimitable way. Jimmy Pith provided the entertainment. The remainder of the week continued to be F4-6 with Colin May and Sarah Wallis relishing the conditions. Thursday (race 5) was a great sail around the back of Brownsea with advantages to be taken of wind shifts around the Castle. Friday was the quietest day of all , even with a very poor forecast. The day dawned fairly windy but it seems as if the weather finally gave in to Parkstone Y. C. wishes and calmed throughout the day. By the time the evening party got underway the harbour was bathed in late sunshine and calm conditions. The firework display finished off another Poole Week - heres to the next one!! Many thanks to all who helped throughout the week and to Bruce Gridley, the PRO, who gave up his Wayfarer sailing for the week to run the event on the water. Our annual race to Redclyffe Y.C. took place on Saturday with 8 Wayfarers taking part. The race was held in good conditions with a westerly F4. Close quarters sailing took place up the Wareham River with positions changing amongst the Wayfarers and some traffic jams occurring with the Dolphins. Five boats made it up to the finish line with Bruce Gridley (W6288) taking the honours, hotly pursued by Barrie French (W9768) and then Richard Readings (W8088) in third. Last in was Lynaire Rea who was on her first Wareham Race as helm. Having tried valiantly to get passed the Dolphins in the river she resorted to a rest in the reeds with Richard Gurney! Once the jam cleared (and the crew had taken refreshment!) she continued to cross the line On the Sunday three boats set out for Arne for the annual picnic. Once again we were given fine conditions with the sun appearing once we had reached the beach. After lunch we all relaxed in the sunshine before returning to P.Y.C. via Round Island.
Last Saturday saw a depleted number of Wayfarers at the club due to the Round the Island Race. The Jennie Allen was not raced due to the prevailing weather conditions and a decision will be made soon on whether to run it another day. Congratulations to Glynne Marples for achieving buoyancy on 'Horus'. Glynne has put in a huge effort on this task and must now be the class expert on sealing up all those little leaks - an effort that we hope will give encouragement to those who have trouble with buoyancy or do not have it at all!! The final training session of this series will take place on Sunday 4th July. Barrie French has put in a lot of effort for us all on this series and I would encourage you all to try to make the event on Sunday. I (Richard Gurney) believe that we have all learnt from his efforts - even if I did nearly tip Heather and I in the briny on the last one!. The briefing takes place at 14.15 with all boats prepared to take to the water straight afterwards. Thank you Barrie. Report on last night's racing (30th June2004) Parkstone Wayfarers dusted off their boat covers again
this Wednesday, after disappearing en masse last weekend to the Wayfarer
Southern Championships at Lymington, where Colin May finished second, and the
Round the Island race. Many thanks to Barrie French for leading an excellent training session this afternoon (6 Jun 2004). The weather was superb for this first session which attracted four boats. The session was also supported by Richard Readings in a second safety boat. The feedback from those taking part was very positive and suggested a very worthwhile event with the opportunity to hone skills in a non-racing environment whilst still providing a competitive edge during some of the exercises. All involved were enthusiastic about the day and looking forward to the next one - on 20th June 2004. To those who were unable to join us for today's sailing all we can do is encourage you to have a look at your diaries and come along to the next two sessions which are 20th June and 4th July 2004. We meet in the afternoon ready to take to the water straight after the briefing which is at 2.15 p.m. The Arripay race has been rescheduled for 31st July. Studland Bay is next on the 7th August and Swanage on the 14th August. The Swanage NOR is available by clicking here. The class have planned to run a series of training sessions starting 6th June 2004 and running each fortnight for a total of three weeks. The details are available on the website and also on the notice board in the sailing office at the club. The three series (Saturday, Monday and Wednesday) are now well under way with three different leaders in the tables. Monday's series has Keith Cameron (W9447) taking an early lead. Wednesday sees Bruce Gridley (W6288) at the top of the leader board and the Saturday early series is led by Colin May (W9068). We have only lost one race so far to weather with Saturday 8th May providing strong winds. However, we did lose the Arripay race on that day and this is now to be re-scheduled to August - date to follow as soon as possible. The previous week (1st May) saw the postponement of the Studland Bay race due to very light winds and last Saturday (15th May) saw the postponement of the Swanage Race for the same reason. On both of these days racing took place in the harbour instead. The Monday series has started off with only four boats competing so far and we look forward to seeing more Wayfarers taking to the water for that event. Off the water Colin May and Richard Readings have been assisting two our new members in the measurement of their boats and a group of our illustrious Wayfarers are in Greece on the Club Flotilla holiday - a good chance for the rest of us to gather some results whilst they are away! Thanks to all who have completed Safety boat duties so far this season - it makes life easier for Tony Millet and Richard Gurney when so many of you have volunteered early on. Please have a look in your diaries to see were you can help us out as we progress through the season -the Safety boat list of duties is on the website and we are heading towards a few gaps on the roster. Easter Series at Parkstone Yacht Club Eight Wayfarers entered the Easter Series at Parkstone, including Tony Cooper from Datchet Water Sailing Club, and Pete Tetstall from the West Midlands. We were treated to mild weather and light winds, which must be a first for the Easter Series. Pete Tetstall was a newcomer to racing, and so was his local crew, Colin Baggott, but he took it all in his stride. His boat was thoroughly inspected and the rig somewhat transformed by the time he left! In the first race on Saturday Tony Cooper surprised the locals by arriving first at the first mark and leading for most of the race. A combined attempt to unseat him was mounted by two local boats, Richard Readings and Sue Ris in “Shooting Stars” and Barry French and Mark Fisher in “Expeditious”. We also enlisted the help of one of the Parkstone Enterprise fleet, who eventually managed to convince Tony that he wasn’t going to pass to windward. Despite this Tony was still in the lead at the last mark, but “Shooting Stars” took advantage of the tide, which “pond” sailors are unfamiliar with, to arrive at the finish line with Tony huffing and puffing a short distance behind. On Sunday Colin May came out of retirement to join the fleet, sailing “Watery Moments” with Paul Frey. Although “Shooting Stars” arrived first at the first mark, Colin showed good downwind speed to gain the lead at the end of the first reach, which he retained to the finish. “Shooting Stars” was closely challenged for second place by “Expeditious” and “Moonshadow”, but held them off to finish in that order. Monday’s race started in a pleasant F3, and once again the crew of “Shooting Stars” were astonished to find themselves first at the first mark. They held that position until the wind died half way up the first reach. From that point on Captain Veal and Master Keeping in “Moonshadow” showed their mastery of the extremely fickle winds to take the lead, although closely challenged to the finish by “Watery Moments”. “Expeditious” took third place with “Shooting Stars” in fourth. With one discard both “Watery Moments” and “Shooting Stars” held a first and second place, so the last race became the tie break to give Colin May overall first place, although he had only sailed two races. Richard Readings and Sue Ris were second, with Captain Veal and Master Keeping in third place overall. Richard Readings, W8088 “Shooting Stars”. Overall Results
A good turnout for the cycle ride to the Bankes Arms. We gathered at P.Y.C at 10.30 am and set off around the edge of Poole Harbour to Sandbanks towards the Chain Ferry. The weather was kind to us with a following wind to help us on our way - no wind shifts though so we had a headwind on the way back! After crossing the harbour entrance on the Chain ferry we continued across the back of Studland Bay and up the hill towards the Bankes Arms. Lunch was a pleasure with the choice of food being excellent and the service superb. Afterwards we took a walk down on to the beach and then mounted our steeds for the return run to the club. Cream teas had been organised by Lynaire and Richard with thanks to Jan, in the catering dept., for providing the drinks.
The new safety boat programme is now on the website. PLEASE feel free to start volunteering your services for the coming season. We discussed, at our AGM, the idea of the Class Captain and Vice Captain allocating duties to the members of the class the way that other fleets do. The main reason for this was that the Club now require owners of all boats stored in the yard, whether racing or cruising, to do their fair share of racing duties. Richard Gurney feels that some more thought and discussion may be required before that avenue is explored further. The main reason is that the allocation of duties does not fit comfortably with the award of a '1st' for doing safety boat duties - specifically the level of fairness in allocating the duties. Feedback on this subject during the season would help!! The cycle ride to the Bankes Arms will leave P.Y.C at 10.30 am. Queries to Lynaire as Richard is away until Friday! 28 Jan '04 Thanks to Richard Readings for this report More than thirty Wayfarer sailors, family
and friends turned up for a Skittles evening at Cobhams' Social Club, near
Poole, last Friday, 23rd January. This unruly gathering were divided into two
very random teams, led by class captain Tony Millet and his wife, Mary,
respectively. They fought out a very close contest and after two rounds the
result was a dead heat. Each team then chose their most dubious player for a
play off. Tony Millet's choice, Paul Fray took the prize with 8 skittles down,
as against the equally dubious Colin May, with just 6 down.
Could we encourage you to look at the sheet titled 'Are you interested - Give us a clue' which we put in the recent package containing the Minutes? The Curry evening is on 7th February and the menu appears on a link from the Social Diary tab at the top of the website. The 2004 winter social programme started
with a meeting of 21 Wayfarers and family meeting up at the Lambs Green pub in
Corfe Mullen for a walk centred around 'GeoCaching' organised by Mark Fisher.
GeoCaching is a new concept to our intrepid Wayfarers and is a sort of
treasurer hunt using GPS. The idea is to find a number of 'caches' using only
their GPS co-ordinates as clues. These caches are have been provided by other
'Geocachers' and information concerning their approximate location is found
from a geocaching website,
www.geocaching.com. Mark provided us with the details of three of these locations
and we split into three groups. Having entered the co-ordinates of each
cache in our GPSs we then set off, first by car and then on foot, to locate the
target! Having eventually found the cache, a tupperware box or, in one of our
cases, a plastic mole, you then investigate the contents, sign the visitors
book, swap something from the contents with your own supply of goodies and head
off for the next location. Needless to say the walk ended in the pub! Drusillas
at Horton were very hospitable to us and a very pleasant lunch was had by all.
Thanks Mark for a very enjoyable morning.
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| The Racing calendar for 2004 is available now in the 'Club Racing' section of the website. The Draft Social programme is also available on the new caption 'Social Calendar'. |
