foxy-tales-2019
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The Rise, Fall and Rise Again of Bassenthwaite’s Mirror<br />
Fleet<br />
In my role of Press & PR officer at Bass I have been collecting the Newsletters from years<br />
gone by. We started out producing an annual publication in 1995 and gave it the title of<br />
Foxy Tales. This came from the Club’s fox emblem which, in turn, stemmed from the Club<br />
being in the close vicinity of the birthplace of the legendary fox hunter John Peel.<br />
Anyway, the aim is to get all the annual editions on line on the Bassenthwaite Sailing Club<br />
website. There will then be a permanent ongoing record of who did what at the Club both<br />
on, and off the water.<br />
Virtually every edition contained an article on each of the Club’s dedicated fleets which, for<br />
many years have included the Mirrors. So, using these articles, and the data in the Club<br />
Handbook, it was possible to trace the fortunes of the Fleet.<br />
In the mid to late nineties the Mirror Fleet consisted of over twenty boats. One even won<br />
the Nationals, Phil & Tim Smith taking the title at Hartlepool in 1999. We never reached<br />
such dizzying heights again although we had an active Fleet of up to fourteen boats during<br />
the ten years from 2000 to 2009. By the later date there had been a progressive switch<br />
from family manned, and crewed boats to single handers.<br />
The Club then invested in three good Trident GRP boats for training and to encourage<br />
families to race in the Mirror Fleet. But interest was declining in favour of the myriad RS<br />
variants. By 2013 we only had seven boats in the fleet in addition to the ones owned by<br />
the Club and, as few were racing at the same time, it was decided to merge the Mirror and<br />
Topper Fleets the following year. This left a variety of slower boats such as the Picos plus<br />
a Hartley, and a Splash following far behind the other Handicap Fleet boats. So a new<br />
Slow Handicap Fleet emerged in 2016 consisting of all boats with a PY of 1250 or greater.<br />
This new Fleet is still with us but, by the end of the 2017 season it included seventeen<br />
Mirrors! The turnaround is due to more, and more, parents deciding to use the Mirror to<br />
teach their youngsters to sail and race. And these aren’t any old Mirrors! Many are<br />
Winder GRPs with sail numbers well above 70000.<br />
And we, again, have national champions in the Fleet with Sandy & Douglas Simpson<br />
having joined Bass last year. Even they are finding the Club competition extremely<br />
challenging!
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