2 A float - Weir Wood Sailing Club

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Issue 2 Autumn/Winter 2009 

�e Summer Open Season 

Club Championships 

Profile of the Laser

Afloat Autumn/Winter 2009 

2 

From the Commodore’s Desk 

Tony Carter 

We’re now approaching the end of summer and autumn is in 

sight. We have had some excellent weather as well as some less 

good. 

First of all I must offer the club’s congratulations to Jon Holroyd 

and Jane Rusbatch, Rob & Katie Burridge and Amy Hulley & 

Sophie Payne, but I will explain why later. 

The sailing Open season is well underway with the Laser 2000 

Turbo in April, Laser 1 in May, RS200’s and Enterprises in July. 

All these Opens were a great success with many visiting clubs 

attending. The RS200’s and Enterprise’s sailed in quite testing 

conditions. 

The Optimists hold their Open this September, the Rooster 

8.1 Inland Nationals this coming October. Then comes Winter 

Draws On in November and the Optimist Zone Squad 

Training back again in January 2010. Weir Wood is getting back 

its name as the place to be for your inland events. 

We also had Oppy Camp at the end of July and from what I 

have been told great fun was had by all. I would like to thank 

the Oppy team for providing such a fantastic facility for our 

younger club members, especially Pete Clifton, who stepped 

forward at such short notice, to act as principal for the camp. 

I would also like to say a big “Thank You” to Chris Hopkins 

who has run the Oppy Fleet so successfully for the past few 

years. He has put a great deal of energy into the Fleet and it has 

benefited greatly as a result. And welcome to Mark Harrington 

who has volunteered to take on the role of Oppy Flotilla Leader. 

Dates at a Glance 

Sailing Events 

19th September Oppy Open 

10th October Wealden Cup provisional date. 

See website for further details 

31st Oct & 1st Nov Rooster 8.1 Inland Nationals 

8th November Winter Draws on 

Social Events 

7th October Family Social Evening: 

Curry and Quiz in the Club House 

14th November Wednesday Family Social evening. 

Visiting speaker Steve Cockerill 

12th December Christmas Dinner 

3rd February 2010 Wednesday Family Social evening 

3rd March Wednesday Family Social evening 

7th April Wednesday Family Social evening 

Write them in your diaries NOW 

Tony Carter G 

Mark is no stranger to the Oppy Fleet. He has been running the 

beginners course for several years. 

At the end of August we ran a very successful Youth week at 

Cobnor; the first after a few years break. It was great fun for 

everyone. 

We still have places for the Adult Cobnor at the end of October. 

For those of you have not been before it gives you a chance 

to experience sea sailing in Chichester Harbour with a few 

instructors on hand if you need them. It’s a great weekend at 

just £75 all inclusive. Full details on the website (just follow the 

link from the home page at www.wwsc.org.uk). 

Now back to where I started. At the end of July I entered the 

Laser 2000’s 10th Anniversary Nationals at Hayling Island SC. 

Joined by 13 other club 2000’s making a total of 14 entries by 

WWSC (this represented by far the largest club fleet at the 

nationals). Branded “Team Weir Wood” by Tim Hulley they 

did our club proud. John and Jane came second, Rob and 

Katie came third and Amy and Sophie fifth out of a fleet of 82 

boats, Alexie & Stefan Nicholas were 1st Youth boat and new 

club members Robin & Christine won the Endeavour prize. 

They had only been sailing for some 6 weeks! This was a great 

achievement as we had very testing conditions with winds 

ranging from force 3 to 7, but on average around a F5 - 6 for 

the week. We had quite a few first timers and those who spoke 

to me thoroughly enjoyed the weeklong event and are looking 

forward to next years in Sidmouth. Sadly Tim Hulley was not 

able to compete this year and had to watch Linda sailing their 

boat with Skip Atkins. Tim was nursing a few broken ribs as a 

result of a tumble windsurfing the week before. 

I am pleased to report that memberships are going really well 

at the moment with the club doing better than last year. This is 

fantastic news and very rewarding considering these troubled 

economic times. I was expecting to be doing well by just 

matching last year’s figures. This is a great testament to all the 

efforts to promote the club via this website and with our Open 

Day last May. In fact the Open day was the best we have had 

with new members joining well into double figures, topping 

last year’s numbers by 5 for those joining on the day. 

Wednesday Evening Sailing went very well this year with 

numbers well up on last year. This is all due to do our social 

committee who provided fantastic meals after sailing. At just 

£4 it is great value and the menu has been so varied you had to 

be there to believe it. You did not even have to sail to enjoy the

atmosphere and a meal. We are hoping 

to continue with this successful formula 

next year. We also have plans to have 

one or two Wednesday evening social 

gatherings over the winter months, so 

watch out for posters in the club house 

and details on the website. 

You will have noticed our development 

plans are going well. We added to the 

outside furniture on the balcony plus 

further picnic tables earlier this year. The 

new store behind the Race Hut Store is 

well under way with the refurbishment 

of the hut to follow. This will ease the 

pressure for storage and make things 

much easier for everyone. For example, 

the hire fleet has been moved to an area 

close to the Race Hut. This helps the 

OOD to point out exactly where the 

boats are for our members who wish to 

hire a boat and get help easily. I intend 

to focus next on the main club room, 

looking to enhance the facilities here. If 

you have any ideas on what you would 

like please let me know. You know how 

to contact me by now. 

I am also pleased to report that we have 

built a good relationship with Michael 

Evans, our new landlord. He is keen to 

see the sailing club grow, develop and 

integrate with his plans. He shares our 

concerns about site security and has 

given approval to add an additional gate 

to the main car park. This will give an 

additional layer of security when the club 

is closed by not allowing access to the 

car park unless you have the appropriate 

pin number. I accept that some may find 

this an inconvenience, but the benefits 

way exceed this. He is also going to erect 

additional signs saying that the reservoir 

is a private facility and not open to the 

general public and there is no 

public access. 

As you can see your committee is driving 

forward to improve and enhance the 

clubs facilities making Weir Wood the 

best inland waters to sail in the south. 

That’s it from me this time. 

Happy sailing. 

Social News 

Jean Chisnall 

Social Secretary 

The Spring started off with a very successful Easter Egg hunt with about 30 kids 

taking part. 

The Social Committee have been closely involved with Open day and Mid 

Summer Madness in providing the running BBQ’s and thanks to all who helped 

out. We have had record sales of burgers, sausages, etc. 

The Swing Band was a great success again at the Madness and thanks to Reigate 

Grammar School for their great playing. They have the same problems as we 

do when the students come to go to Uni. They have to train up a new lot! We 

received the following from Simon Rushby who is head of music at the School 

following a “Thank You” e-mail to Nick Lobb, the Band’s conductor. 

“Dear John 

Thank you for copying me on this – I know that Nick has already replied, but 

I would like to add my thanks for the donation you made to the band’s fund in 

return for their playing at your event. The money will be put to very good use – 

since the students have worked so hard this year (and since we cannot pay them!) 

we intend to use the money to treat them to an evening in the West End in the not 

too distant future. 

Kind regards 

Simon” 

They clearly enjoy coming and entertaining us. 

Wednesday evenings have been a huge success with the committee members 

providing the food. Members have enjoyed pork, lasagne, bolognaise, tagine, 

curry, sausage casserole and a BBQ. Numbers have been up to 60 including some 

who have come for just the meal. The Club House has been buzzing and we 

intend to carry on next year. Thanks to Gill, Lynn, Christine, Annabel, Emily, Ann, 

Bridget and Simon for your splendid meals. 

In fact we intend to carry on with a Wednesday evening with a Family Social 

Evening once a month through until next Spring. The first evening is the Curry 

and Quiz night in the Club House on 7th October (Note Change of Date to 

previously advised) 7.30 -10.00. There will be alternative food for those who don’t 

eat curry. We do need to know numbers so please let us know if you are coming 

before the event if you can. There is a list by the galley. So get your teams together 

in advance and book your places. There will be spectacular prizes for the winners! 

Further dates are 14th November, 3rd February, 3rd March and 7th April. 

We are planning to get a couple of speakers for these evenings and Steve Cockerill 

is already booked for 14th November to give his "Boat Whisperer" talk. 

The Christmas Dinner is on 12th December in the Club House. Again we will 

want to know numbers so watch out for ticket sales as numbers will be limited. 

Buoyancy Aids 

Members are reminded that it a Club rule that you must wear a buoyancy aid 

whenever sailing and also when on the jetty. The only exception to this are 

windsurfers who are allowed to sail without. 

THERE ARE NO EXCEPTIONS TO THIS. Support boat crews will be asked to 

escort sailors off the water if they are sailing without a buoyancy aid. 


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4 

Laser Ramblings – August 2009 

Peter Young 

Firstly, the latest Weir Wood results with just under 40 of the 

club’s sailors taking part: 

Early Summers 

1. Ian Clark 

2. Chris Fyans 

3. David Binding 

Mid Summers 

1. Chris Spencer-Smith 

2. Ian Clark 

3. Matt Giles 

Summer 

1. David Binding 

2. Peter Young 

3. Stuart Richardson 

It has been a good old summer for the travellers of the club. 

Between us all, we have attended most of Grand Prix events, 

the Masters Nationals and the Nationals. At the Masters we 

had seven sailors from WWSC in a fleet of 120, down on 

the South Coast’s Pevensey Bay. The event had just the right 

mixture of sailing, wind, waves, craic, food and beer to be 

about perfect. 

At the Nationals Jon Emmett won the Radials and Simon 

Barrington put in a sterling performance in the Standards. 

And there is more to come with Bewl Valley Grand Prix on 

27 September and two more Masters World qualifiers in 

September and October respectively. 

So what else is of note? Most worryingly is the speed of the 

young blood in the fleet. In particular Giles, Thompson 

and Davis. All of them are showing a massive increase in 

performance around the race course. This is causing a lot of 

concern amongst the old men at the bar. Chris Fyans is sure 

that it would not have happened in his day. He is right - Lasers 

had not been invented then. 

Racing Results for Winter 2008/9 

Peter Young J 

Dates Series Avg Starters First Second Third 

General Handicap 

4th Apl to 30th May Early Spring (Sat) 7.7 Ian Clark Janine Blundell John Prince & 

(Laser) (Laser) Joyce Skelton 

(Enterprise) 

6th Jun to 25th Jul Summer Cup (Sat) 10.2 Nick Jones John Prince & Simon Delves & 

(Laser) Joyce Skelton John Bailey 

(Enterprise) (Laser 2000) 

12th Apl to 31st May Kingfisher (Sun pm) 4 J. Henton A. Forbat & Dil & Lynn Sandhu 

(Laser) Andy Knowles (Laser 2000) 

(Wayfarer) 

10th Apl to 13th Apl Easter Plate 2 Dave Binding 

(Laser) 

Dick & Jo 

Lankester 

(Enterprise) 

(equal firstt) 

It was in August that we said good-bye to Ian Clark with an 

impromptu but extremely classy BBQ with yours-truly at the 

burger flipping helm. He is moving up North to work on his 

Laser skills at Draycote. Now we all know that it is miserable 

up there but Ian is confident that he will fit in fine. He has 

also promised to come south again for the 2010 WWSC Laser 

Grand Prix to show us that he has not lost his touch. Good 

luck Ian. David Binding has kindly offered to step in and make 

up for the rule infringement space that Ian will leave as long 

that it does not interfere with his rocking and pumping. Thank 

you David. 

So – to the future. Well – we all know that Laser sailing just 

gets better at the club as the year goes on. The fleets get bigger 

and we take more time to do training sessions. So – diaries out! 

David Giles will be running a Laser improvers session on 

Saturday 26th September. Names to me please: peter.young@ 

mac.com or 07799 765 216. Even if you are not in the bottom 

half of the fleet you are very welcome to turn up, share ideas 

and stretch your legs. Also, if you intend switching to a Laser 

(say for example you currently sail a GP14 and fancy a try) – 

get your name down. 

Jon Emmett will be running a session for all Laser sailors 

in December. The current plan is to do it on the day of 

the Christmas function so that we are able to continue the 

movement smoothly from the boat to the bash upstairs. More 

when I know more. 

That’s all for now. See you at the club! 

peter.young@mac.com 

07799 765 216

Handicap Racing 

John Prince 

As most members will be aware the majority of handicap races at Weir Wood are 

now entered directly on to the computer and positions/series standings are available 

very shortly after the event. 

In the past points scored have been allocated to the helm even if more than one class 

of boat were used in the series. The computing system links the helm to the boat 

sailed and if a different class is used the helm is treated as a new entrant. 

This affects very few members but in fairness a helm does gain an advantage if 

another class is sailed in extreme conditions. Helms sailing a two-man dinghy singlehanded 

and thereby losing 20 PY points, are also regarded as a new entrant. 

For consistency, series that are currently not computerised are being calculated in the 

same manner. 

Race Card Revisions 

Please Note the following revisions to the racing format: 

The Featured Fleet Series has been discontinued after the trial with the exception of 

the Laser 2000 fleet who will have a fleet race once a month. 

◗ 

Saturday afternoon racing has reverted to a 2.15 pm start i.e. first signal at 2.10 pm 

◗ Sunday morning racing times continue with a 10.30 am first start i.e. first signal 

at 10.25 am. Will Race Officers please remember to set a short first race no longer 

than about 45 minutes. If necessary; only one lap if the wind is light. That gives the 

flexibility to run a longer second race and finish the morning without proceedings 

going on way beyond 1.00 pm. 

◗ There is no formal Sunday afternoon race. If sufficient crews want one then they 

can organise informally with the OOD. Sunday Race Officer and Time Keeper are 

discharged after morning racing. 

Sailing Secretary 

We are pleased to announce that David Giles has agreed to take over this role. Many 

of you will know David and his sailing prowess and history with the Club. We will 

introduce him to newer members in the next copy of the magazine. 

Wanted 

Large Reward 

Commodore 

After serving for three years Tony Carter is stepping down 

as commodore at the coming AGM in November. We need 

someone to take his place. Most of you will know what is 

involved but if you want more detail talk to Tony. 

Secretary 

John Norris is also standing down as Club Secretary this year. 

John has served as secretary for many years. It is a job with great 

variety and interest dealing with the general administration of 

the club. Get in touch with John for more information 

Club Championships 

Sunday May17th 

2009. 

David Giles 

Weir Wood’s 2009 club championships 

got away at the second time of asking 

after the first attempt set for March 

29th was calmed off. This time round 

the opposite nearly happened with a 

strong south westerly breeze with gusts 

up to 30kts making many competitors 

think twice. 

Much effort is being put into 

improving what is the premiere 

club racing event after its prestige 

had slipped over recent years. One 

innovation is the event being run by 

a dedicated and experienced race 

team ensuring well run races with 

results ready by the time competitors 

have changed after the last race. This 

means the prize giving can take place 

soon after the boats are off the water 

with hopefully all the competitors 

attending. To encourage this many 

more “spot” prizes were awarded and 

less overall prizes. Sadly an oversight 

in the race card allowed the last race 

to be discarded which was not the 

original idea and several teams went 

home after the mornings two handicap 

races. 

The elite race team of Ernie Hatton, 

Peter Clifton, Peter Meares and 

James Meares got the racing away on 

schedule at 10.30 although eagerness 

to get going led to a general recall on 

the first start. With a squall hitting the 

32 starters soon after the start gun the 

rescue boats were quickly into action. 

Jon and Rebecca Ching led around 

the first buoy but went around it the 

wrong way and were forced to retire 

soon after. This allowed David and 

Matt Giles to take the lead but they 

were never far enough ahead of the 

slower boats, in particular the Laser 

2000’s that seem to excel in the windier 

conditions, to win race honours. The 

race was won by J. Holroyd and C. 

Stevens in a Laser 2000 with Peter 

Young in a standard rig Laser coming 

a very commendable second. Rob and 

Katie Burridge in another Laser 2000 


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6 

G 

Fireball fun 

were third. The wind claimed about 

a third of the starters with 24 boats 

finishing. 

By race two the wind had swung more 

westerly but the wind still blew with a 

will and rain squalls came and went. 

The fleet got away first time with Matt 

Larkin and Dave Mason in a Fireball 

starting on the pin end of the line and 

getting away best to lead the dwindling 

fleet of 18 away and establish a good 

lead which they extended throughout 

the race. There were many spectacular 

capsizes not least by the hardy group 

of Laser Roosters rig competitors who 

decided a standard rig for a laser was 

not big enough for a wind gusting 30 

kts and so put up their larger sails. At 

the finish Mason and Larkin had not 

established a large enough gap over 

Holroyd and Stevens who again won 

on handicap. Burridge and Burridge 

were again third. 

At the lunch break it was pointed out 

that in the race card in a series of three 

races there was to be one discard. This 

was never meant to apply to the club 

championships but with no sailing 

instructions to say otherwise it was 

accepted that this would have to apply 

to the event. This meant Holroyd and 

Stevens had won and so were able to 

leave the rest of the racers to scrap 

it out for the minor placings. Some 

decided not to do so and so a rather 

depleted fleet of 10 started the pursuit 

race. The first class away was the Laser 

2000 followed soon after by the Laser. 

The wind remained as strong as ever 

but it had swung again giving the 

course two long fetches which did not 

G 

Dave & Matt in the RS 400 

allow the spinnaker boats to fly their 

kites. The Lasers made the most of this 

and Peter Young won convincingly 

from Ollie Bush in another Laser. Giles 

and Giles in the RS 400 were third. 

Larkin and Mason showed flashes of 

great speed which was rather spoilt by 

bouts of breast stroke in between. 

And so to the prize giving. The race 

results were delivered within minutes 

of the last race finishing and were 

presented by Ailsa Giles. The full set 

of results can be seen on the web 

site. Congratulations to Holroyd and 

Stevens for an impressive victory. Their 

names will become immortal on the 

Champions of Champions board in 

due course. Peter Young came second 

with Rob and Katie Burridge 

coming third. 

The spot prizes (awarded to 

competitors outside the main prizes 

i.e. the top three) proved popular 

with Vice Commodore Chris Fyans 

getting a particular cheer for winning 

the converted endurance award (last 

A Nearly on the wire A 

placed boat having completed all three 

races). Matt Giles won the youth award 

and with dad David Giles in the same 

boat won the family (helm and crew 

from the same family) award while 

Linda Hulley won the Ladies award 

and with hubby Tim won the “Love” 

category (first husband and wife team). 

Next year a new category for a spot 

prize is to be created, the “Duckhams” 

award. This will be for the competitor 

who makes the biggest blunder during 

the day. Had we run it this time around 

without a doubt it would have been 

won by Dave Mason, crewing Matt 

Larkin in the Fireball, who managed to 

sail out to the start line for the pursuit 

race minus his trapeze harness! As 

their start gun sounded Dave was to be 

seen frantically running up the shore 

to grab it! 

Thanks to the race Team who did 

a first class job in organising and 

running the day and of course to all 

the competitors who braved such 

demanding conditions. 

The winning pair

Enterprise Open Meeting 19th July 

Dirk Lankester 

Enterprise Fleet Captain 

For as long as anyone can remember, the Enterprise 

Open meeting, which is always held in mid-July, has been 

accompanied by hot and generally windless conditions, 

resulting in sunburn but not much excitement. 

In the days leading up to this year’s event, it seemed that 

things might be a little different. As luck would have it, the jet 

stream moved conveniently south to pass right over the top of 

East Grinstead a week or so before the event, resulting in an 

extended period of unsettled weather. 

And so it came to pass that the 3 Weir Wood crews (Nick 

Bush/Harry Burry, Chris Daniels /Ray Nevard and Dick & Jo 

Lankester) and 8 visiting crews were greeted on arrival at Weir 

Wood by scudding clouds and a 20 + mph gusting SSW wind, 

in stark contrast to last year’s drifting conditions. 

Enterprise Masters winner, Nigel Bird, arrived with not one 

but two boats on his trailer. He was intending to sail with his 

lightweight, 8 years old son, Ian, and asked for a volunteer to 

sail with wife Andy in the second boat. An urgent call was put 

out to your editor (former Enterprise sailor before he lost his 

way and bought a Laser 2000) who was roused from a deep 

sleep in South Coulsdon and told to be at the club ready to go 

in 45 minutes. To his great credit, he made it. 

In spite of some misgivings about the conditions, all 11 crews 

took to the water for the first race, with self-bailers in the ‘open’ 

position. Race Officer Ernie Hatton and Assistant Peter Clifton 

set a beat up to No. 5 and the fleet got off to an orderly start. 

David and Maggie Beaney pulled away into the lead on the 

first beat, but approaching the windward mark Nigel and Ian 

Bird found a good lift up the shore to round just behind the 

Beaneys. On the reaches, the lower crew weight of 8 year 

old Ian told and the Birds planed serenely into the lead. Up 

the next beat the Beaneys regained the lead and towards the 

end of the beat, Ian decided that the wind was too strong for 

him and the Birds retired. This left the Beaneys with a big lead 

ahead of Martin Brooking/Jane Anderson in second and first 

Weir Wood crew Nick Bush/Harry Burry in third. This was 

a particularly remarkable performance, as was the first time 

that Harry had ever sailed in a dinghy! Behind the leaders, 

several crews discovered to their surprise that the water was 

surprisingly warm for the time of year. 

Race 2 was sailed back to back in similar, gusty conditions. 

The Beaneys led around the first mark followed by Bush/ 

Burry. Third pace Brooking/Anderson found a big gust on the 

run to the next mark and planed through to claim an overlap 

on the Beaneys and to lead down to the bottom mark. On the 

beat back up, David sailed through Martin’s cover to regain 

the lead which he defended to the finish. Bush/Burry were 

in a comfortable third place throughout until getting blown 

in about 1 boat length short of the finish line and were beaten 

into third by Paul and Andre Turner. Further down the fleet, 

Chris Daniels/Ray Nevard found themselves boxed in by 

the Lankesters when rounding No. 4 for the last time and, 

unable to ‘wear round’, capsized spectacularly on the gybe. The 

Lankesters survived to finish in 5th place, but their smugness 

was short-lived, as they capsized while approaching the shore. 

As forecast, the wind had increased significantly by the time 

crews ventured out of the club house after lunch for the 3rd 

race and several crews turned around and headed straight back 

to the club house, so that only 5 boats took the start. Nigel 

Bird, now sailing with his wife Andy, revelled in the conditions 

and sailed into a comfortable lead on the first beat which he 

held to the finish. The Beaneys rounded the windward mark in 

2nd place, but both the leading crews lost their way down wind 

and Brooking/Anderson, having correctly located the mark, 

sailed into 2nd place. Up the next beat the Beaneys pulled back 

to finish 2nd with Brooking/Anderson 3rd and Bush/Burry 4th. 

The Beaneys, having won the meeting, sailed to the shore 

before the start of the 4th race, Maggie deciding that she had 

had enough sailing for her 29th wedding anniversary! Dick 

and Jo Lankester threw caution to the wind and ventured out 

again for a do-or-die last effort. The Birds again led round all 

the marks, but this time had more difficulty pulling out any gap 

from Brooking/Anderson in 2nd and Bush/Burry in 3rd. The 

wind had increased back to a full gale by the end of the race, 

and Dick and Jo Lankester celebrated finishing in 4th place by 

icapsizing spectacularly while planing back to the shore. 

While those at the front of the fleet seemed to be able to 

cope quite comfortably with the very challenging conditions 

(the weather station recorded a gust of 38 mph during the 

afternoon), the also-rans admitted to being well outside their 

comfort zone for most of the day. Nevertheless, everyone 

agreed it had been a great days sailing, impeccably run by Ernie 

and Peter in the committee boat, Barbara (results) and 

Ann (cakes). 

1st David & Maggie Beaney (Castaways SC) 4 points 

2nd Martin Brooking & Jane Anderson (Bewl Valley SC) 6 points 

3rd Nick Bush & Harry Burry (Weir Wood SC) 10 points 

4th Nigel & Andy Bird (Papercourt SC) 14 points 

5th Dick & Jo Lankester (Weir Wood SC) 14 points 

6th Alan Ross & Pear Heart (Chipstead SC) 16 points 

7th Paul & Andre Turner (Chipstead SC) 19 points 

8th Adrian & Louise Howse (Bewl Valley SC) 28 points 

9th Chris Daniels & Ray Nevard (Weir Wood SC) 28 points 

10th Andy Bird & John Chisnall (Papercourt SC) 31 points 

11th John Pledger & Mark Early (Havering SC) 33 points 

A 

Nigel & Ian (aged 8) blast down the first reach 


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The Editor’s Enterprise 

Open 

The Ed 

The idea was that Jean and I would 

compete using the Club’s Enterprise. 

But it was quite clear following the 

weather forecasts for the week before 

that it was unlikely we would be taking 

part. Jean doesn’t do force 5 and I 

would have been very nervous in a 

boat type that I haven’t sailed for a few 

years. None the less I got up at 07.30 

to check the forecast and went straight 

back to bed for a lay in. Jean made a 

grunts of relief and contentment. 

I staggered out of bed at about 10 

am to make tea. The phone rang 10 

minutes later and Jean answered. She 

shouted down the stairs, 

“You are wanted to crew an Ent for a 

visiting helm. I told Dick you’d be there 

before the start.” 

“Who is the helm?” 

“Andy Bird” 

On the basis of never missing a 

chance of sailing with a top helm 

pyjamas were exchanged for a wet 

suit still damp and stinking from the 

day before. Breaking all speed limits I 

A 

Overall winners David & Maggie Beamey 

G 

Nick & Harry keep it flat 

parked amid flying gravel, ran to the 

first slip where Andy was waiting with 

the boat in the water, dived over the 

side saying “ Hello. I’m John” in mid 

air as she cast off. Only then did I take 

in the weather conditions which were 

fearsome. Too late though so I hid my 

panic and hiked out to the start. 

We were a bit late but Andy soon 

started to haul in the other boats and 

we made good progress. Then the 

inevitable capsize. Andy is fairly slight 

and it needed two of us on the board 

to get the boat up. 

“This may be a bit beyond me” she said 

but we finished the race with a few 

boats behind us. 

The second race was even windier and 

we went over at the windward mark 

and we realised that the prudent thing 

to do was to retire. 

It was great fun whilst it lasted and 

what was more to the point I was able 

to see how she managed the boat on 

the beat. The style was to keep the 

nose stuffed up into the wind with the 

jib feathered. It was amazing how high 

the boat pointed and kept going. The 

downside is that you need a very agile 

crew because if the helm over did it or 

the wind backed suddenly there was a 

chance that it would back the jib and 

over you would go. I haven’t seen any 

WWSC Ents sailing like this so give it 

a go guys and see how you get on. 

Sadly I didn’t see her technique for 

gybing as I was concentrating hard in 

case things went wrong. But they were 

very smooth and we only wore round 

once. 

Thanks for the opportunity Andy 

particularly taking me on unseen and 

having deserted the class. 

A 

Fleet Captain show them how to reach

RS 200 Open Sunday 12th 2009. 

G 

Andrew & Geraldine Peters 

For the third year running Weir wood laid on fabulous 

sailing weather for its RS 200 open meeting. A 12kt. Westerly 

breeze that rose to 20kts during the course of the day was 

complimented by unbroken sunshine and a 22 degrees Celsius 

temperature. Champagne sailing if ever there was! 

Seven home club RS200’s were joined by 11 visiting boats for 

the six short race contest, three back to back in the morning 

and three back to back in the afternoon. Race Officer’s Ernie 

Hatton and Peter Clifton set windward/leeward courses with a 

leeward gate. With the wind almost straight down the lake the 

upwind/downwind buoys could be set a long distance apart 

and two laps took the lead boat about 40 minutes to get to 

the finish. 

Race one got promptly away with Steve Janering and Lottie 

Wakeling establishing a comfortable lead over Nick and Juliet 

Charles. Janering extended his lead downwind but missed 

the windward gate out on the next upwind leg loosing several 

places correcting the error. Charles took the lead followed by 

David Giles and Fiona Clark who were passed by Rob Janering 

and Olivia James and this order remained to the finish. 

Race two saw Charles again take an early lead but he lost out 

on the right side of the lake downwind being passed by James 

Boyce and Sam Tozer as well as Giles. At the final leeward gate 

Giles rounded the left hand buoy while Boyce choose the right. 

The left prooved the better choice and Giles squeezed passed 

Tozer on the upwind leg to the finish line. 

Race three saw Andrew and Geraldine Peters establish an 

early lead from Giles and Charles. The race order was turned 

on its head when a strong gust filled in from the left hand side 

downwind leaving those on the right relatively becalmed. Steve 

Janering was best placed when the gust hit and took the lead 

which he held to the end. Charles pulled through to second 

with Boyce third. Giles witnessed life at the other end of the 

fleet limping over the finish line in 12th spot. 

David Giles 

G 

Nick & Juliet Charles 

A short lunch break was taken before battle recommenced. 

Giles got the best start in race 4 and established a narrow 

lead at the first windward buoy. Gybing straight around the 

windward buoy and heading to the left hand bank downwind 

paid handsomely as again a strong gust filled in on that side of 

the lake. Giles extended his lead considerably followed by Mike 

Chapman and Lynne Ratcliffe. These two had a big enough lead 

on the rest not to be troubled again. Charles worked his way up 

to third. 

Race five saw Peters take the early lead and was then first into 

an enormous gust downwind which took him over the horizon. 

Boyce was next into the gust and established a comfortable 

second place while the rest scrapped it out with Charles again 

managing to sneak through into third. 

And so to the last race. Charles was very much in the driving 

seat with only Giles able to overtake him by finishing ahead of 

Charles and in at least first or second place. Charles rounded 

the windward buoy first followed by Peters, Boyce, Janering 

and Giles. Downwind the wind was relatively even but Giles 

managed to squeeze through to third behind Charles and 

Peters. Although Giles passed Peters upwind Charles held a 

comfortable lead around the last windward buoy. Downwind 

Charles having gybed immediately around the windward buoy 

gybed back about mid lake while Giles carried on as far left as 

the depth would allow. Shortly after gybing the strongest gust 

of the day arrived, mostly missing Charles but engulfing Giles. 

Charles could only watch helplessly as Giles was able to sail 

faster and lower and went from 100 metres behind Charles to 

100 metres ahead in the last half of the last downwind leg. Giles 

crossed the finish first with Charles second giving Giles the 

overall victory on count back. 

And so to the prize giving. First up was the Duckhams award, 

the prize given to competitor who committed the biggest 

howler of the day. Easy winner of this was Steve Janering from 


9


10 

G 

David Giles & fiona Clark 

Wembley who decided he did not need 

to go to the briefing and so missed 

the bit about having to go through the 

start/finish line on every upwind leg. 

He therefore missed the “gate” out on 

the first race while comfortably leading 

to limp home eventually in 10th place. 

Prizes were awarded to the first five 

overall: 

David Giles and Fiona Clark 

Nick and Juliet Charles 

James Boyce and Sam Tozer 

Andrew and Geraldine Peters 

Steve Janery and Lottie Wakeling 

Spot prizes were for the first Master 

(Mike Chapman), Lady (Janine Blundell) 

and Junior (Matthew Giles). The full 

results can be seen on the web site. 

Thanks were given to race officers Ernie 

Hatton and Peter Clifton for the very 

professional way they ran the racing, to 

Barbara Hatton for doing the results and 

taking the entries and John Thompson 

who volunteered to move the marks 

around despite turning up only to watch 

and having no wet weather gear with 

him. 

G 

The first beat 

Laser Open 2009 

David Giles 

Weir Wood held its annual Laser Open 

meeting on Saturday 2nd May. As 

part of the South East traveller circuit 

it attracted a good entry of 34 which 

included 13 visitors. 

Typical Weir Wood conditions were 

served up at the start of the day with a 

patchy 2 to 10 kts. mainly north westerly 

breeze that swung between the south 

west and north. The occasional stronger 

gust blew through which caught out one 

or two of the competitors. 

Principal race officers Tim and Linda 

Hulley had their work cut out not only 

because of the wind conditions but also 

because of the demanding race schedule 

that required 8 races to be sailed during 

the day. Provided at least 7 races were 

sailed two results could be dropped. 

Race one got away first time with only 

a couple of individual recalls. The early 

showing was from David Goddard of 

Bewl Valley sailing club, the man who 

tamed Chipstead a few weeks earlier. 

He lost out to home grown David 

Giles on the approach to the windward 

mark. With the front of the fleet closely 

bunched the long downwind leg was 

always going to be fraught. Goddard 

slipped back in the centre of the course 

while on the right Gary Bullock and on 

the left Tim Crook pulled through. Giles 

hung on to the lead round the leeward 

buoy and crossed the finish line just 

ahead to take first blood of the day. 

Race two saw the wind swing to the 

north just before the start allowing the 

leading boats to fetch the windward 

buoy. Veteran campaigner Bill Stein from 

Weir Wood scorched off the pin end of 

the start line and rounded well ahead of 

David Giles and David Goddard. Giles 

and Goddard team raced each other 

backwards down the long run allowing 

Stein a comfortable victory. Local ace 

Dave Binding succumbed to a vicious 

gust shortly after the windward buoy, the 

resulting capsize scuppering his hopes of 

a good result in the race. 

Race three again saw the pin end of 

the line pay, particularly for those who 

worked their way to the right hand 

side of the course as a new breeze filled 

in from there shortly after the start. 

Martin Brooking of Bewl Valley worked 

the conditions best and led around the 

windward buoy. The ever consistent 

Goddard was close behind while local 

hero Bruce Ramshaw started to show 

form in third. The leading group were 

so far ahead of the author of this article 

that it is hard to say quite what happened 

next but these three ended up 1, 2 and 3. 

With start delays due to the fading wind 

lunch was called at this point giving 

Goddard the half time lead followed by 

A 

Perfectly flat

G 

Even the best get it wrong 

Brooking and Giles. During lunch the Weir Wood “sea breeze” 

set in with the wind shifting to the south west and increasing to 

a relatively steady 8 to 10kts. 

The fleet got away on the second attempt with the Weir 

Wood trio of Giles, Ramshaw and Paul Luttman arriving at 

the windward buoy close together. Giles kept a close cover 

on speedster Ramshaw with Luttman a little further back and 

these positions remained until the finish. 

Race five saw Bullock pull off a daring port tack “flyer” to 

establish an early lead over Giles, Giles tried to break cover 

but only succeeded in falling back leaving Bullock to win 

comfortably from Giles and David Freeman of Queen Mary 

who had had a difficult morning but was now getting to grips 

with the conditions. 

Race office Tim Hulley was getting increasingly frustrated with 

premature starters and so the dreaded black flag was brought 

into play for the start of race six. A right hand shift at the start 

handed a huge advantage to those starting near the committee 

boat end of the line leaving those on the pin end to struggle. 

Fireball supremo Dave Mason showed some of his magic 

to power his vintage Laser off the start line and then used 

his weight disadvantage to build a slender lead. Much to the 

anguish of the on lookers Mason slipped behind Harry Harding 

A 

The winners 

of Queen Mary before the finish. However, the ever popular 

Mason held off the late charge of Queen Mary’s Rupert Bedell, 

another of the visitors who was now getting to grips with the 

fickle Weir Wood wind, to gain a credible second place. 

Black flags were the order of the day now and were taking 

their toll on the over eager. Giles returned to form in the nick 

of time in race 7 to lead around the windward buoy. Never 

looking comfortable he was harassed all the way by Bedell and 

Brooking. Brooking tried a little too hard to break through and 

incurred a penalty when he tangled with Giles around the wing 

buoy. However it cost Giles also as Bedell gave the incident a 

wide birth and sailed around the outside into the lead which 

he never lost. Giles hung on to second but while Brooking was 

spinning Freeman nicked up into third place. 

And so to the last race. Giles had the lead but with two poor 

races needed a reasonable result in the last race to win the 

day if his main rivals did well. In the frame was Goddard who 

had struggled in the afternoon, Bedell who had struggled in 

the morning and Ramshaw who had punctuated solid results 

throughout the day with a couple of shockers. Giles’s hope for 

a solid final race evaporated when his sail tie down failed at the 

start. Lounging mid fleet he was glad to see pre race favourite 

Binding finally coming good and holding back the young guns, 

along with Harding, to allow him to limp across the finish line 

and take overall honours. Ramshaw completed the top 3 to 

gain a well deserved second overall while Goddard’s miserable 

afternoon continued to drop him to third. 

A super efficient race team meant the results were ready 

straight after the racing. Outside the top three, spot prises 

were awarded to Dave Binding (first over 55) up and coming 

speedster Matt Giles (first youth) and Anthony Parke (first4.7). 

Thanks were given by first visitor Dave Goddard to the race 

team and Ali the chef who produced a splendid post race curry 

for all the competitors. Many thanks must also go to class 

captain and Bough Beech champion Peter Young for organising 

the event and for keeping his smile going despite holding up the 

other 33 competitors in the final results sheet. 


11


12 

G 

Jon & Jane 

Laser 2000 Nationals 

Jon & Jane 

22234 Skippy and the Wombat 

Jon Holroyd (Winner of 

WWSC Club Championships) 

and Jane Rusbatch came 

second in the Laser 2000 

Nationals. Here’s their 

account of the racing. 

Jane and I joined Weir Wood in 

February this year after deciding to 

buy a L2K at the boat show. I grew 

up sailing single handed boats in 

Melbourne and was keen to get back 

into dinghy racing after 5 years out of 

the water. We chose WWSC for it’s 

proximity to south London, size of 

L2K fleet and the lovely surroundings 

of the club. I hoped the L2K would be 

a good starting boat to introduce Jane 

to dinghy sailing. The L2K appealed as 

it looked relatively easy for a beginner 

crew to hoist and drop the genneker 

and offered asymmetrical sailing, 

without a trapeze to complicate things. 

A few months later I admitted to 

entering us into the Nationals, which 

Jane found very amusing, until she 

realised I wasn’t joking. However, after 

some practise sessions down at WW, 

and surviving some cold weekend 

capsizes, she was slowly convinced that 

it would be, at the very least, a new 

experience for her. 

We arrived at Hayling Island on the 

Saturday, with racing due to start on 

the Monday. We were very impressed 

with the club racing we saw going on 

and the size of the facilities and boat 

yard. We’d never sailed the L2K on the 

sea before so we were keen to go out 

on Sunday for a practice. There was 

some decent wind and for the first 

time in Jane’s sailing career, waves. I 

used to love racing my laser in the big 

waves of Melbourne’s Port Phillip Bay 

so was relishing the chance to try and 

get the boat surfing down some waves. 

Jane, meanwhile, was slowly turning 

green, and a capsize during a gybe was 

not doing her confidence much good, 

so we went in pretty quickly. 

The first race was sailed outside the 

harbour in 20-25 knot conditions. Rob 

and Katie Burridge sailed very well to 

come 3rd in the breeze. Despite the 

challenging conditions, nearly 70 of 

the 83 strong fleet completed that first 

race. The weather was soon to take a 

turn for the worse however. With a 

large rain squall on the horizon, and 

6 of the 9 safety boats committed to 

boats in trouble, the abandonment flag 

went up and we all headed back to the 

harbour, in winds now gusting to 

0 knots. 

The flatter more protected waters 

saw much closer racing on Tuesday 

and Thursday. We managed a good 

day Tuesday with a 2, 1, 3 and Mike 

Hart and Sally Kirkpatrick were also 

consistently up there. The majority 

of the 83 boat fleet enjoyed the 

conditions and it was a good day for 

spectators with the top mark about 100 

yards from the club. 

Thursday was a very similar days 

racing with Mike and Sally turning on 

the jets to record three bullets. 

Friday brought sunshine and gentler 

breezes to the relief of most, and 

provided perfect conditions to race 

outside. Rob and Katie and Amy 

Hulley and Sophie Payne were on 

top form and managed to vault up 

the leader board into 3rd and 5th 

respectively, passing some of the 

heavier crews who had done well 

earlier in the week. Mike and Sally 

were consistently the best crew and 

were deserving winners. We were very 

happy, in fact I think Jane was a little 

stunned, to come 2nd overall, and it 

was great to see WWSC having 3 in 

the top 5. 

Overall it was a fantastic week on 

and off the water. WWSC was the 

best represented club with 15 boats, 

largely due to the encouragement we 

all receive from the Hulleys, Slopers, 

Dil and Lyn, Tony and Bridget, and 

everyone else at the club which has 

made the class so much fun to be a 

part off, and made us feel so welcome 

so thank you from both of us. 

Note From the Ed 

When Jon and Jane first came down 

with their brand new Laser 2000 a 

number of us offered them some 

helpful advice as they were new to the 

Class. It soon became evident that he 

had done some sailing. He is a very 

modest sailor and I had to use all my 

powers of persuasion to get him to 

own up. In 2003 he was ranked 18th 

in the World in the Laser Class by 

the ISAF and narrowly missed being 

selected for the Australian 

Olympic Team.

G 

Jean's turn 

Atlanta Yacht Club 

A Profile 

John and Jean Chsinall 

Many of you will know that Jean and I 

spend quite a bit of time each year in the 

States. We have a daughter, Claire and 

family who live in Acworth which is a 

suburb of Atlanta to the north west of 

the city. 

A few miles from where Claire lives is 

Lake Allatoona; an area of about 1110 

square miles of water that was flooded 

back in the late 1940’s for flood control, 

water supply and power generation. It 

provides all sorts of recreational activities 

including walking, camping, picnicking, 

fishing and boating. 

We have visited the lake many times and 

always bemoaned the fact that we never 

saw any sails so last year I did an Internet 

search for sailing on the lake and came 

up with Atlanta Yacht Club. Even better 

it was situated only about 20 minutes 

drive from Claire. 

I e-mailed the Commodore and received 

a very warm response saying drop in 

and say “Hello” next time you are over. 

And so last February we called in on a 

weekday to have a look. We were very 

fortunate in that we met a couple of 

members who just happened to be there 

including Craig Mclean. They couldn’t 

have been more helpful and Craig gave 

me his contact details saying get in touch 

the next time we were over. 

We visited Claire again in late May 

and were staying 6 weeks this time so 

I contacted Craig and got a reply that 

said they would have us in a boat before 

we were off the airplane! It nearly came 

true in that shortly after we arrived they 

were holding a Thistle Fleet Regatta and 

some one very kindly offered us a boat so 

that we could compete. We declined on 

the basis of jet lag and being nervous at 

sailing an unfamiliar class. 

Atlanta Yacht Club is situated on a 

scenic point of land on Lake Allatoona 

between two quiet coves. The clubhouse, 

with a wide deck overlooking the lake, 

is spacious and attractive but informal, 

a place where sailors can comfortably 

mingle in their casual clothes and wet 

shoes. They have an open fireplace, 

two bathrooms with showers, two large 

rooms for dining and parties, a bar area 

and a full kitchen. Like us they do not 

have paid staff. They serve meals and 

drinks for special events, most of which 

are “staffed” by member volunteers. 

Downstairs in the clubhouse is the Junior 

Training Room, where sailing classes are 

taught. The Club owns a small fleet of 

Sunfish and (newly acquired!) a fleet of 

Optimist Dinghies for its training classes. 

Other than these and a small number of 

utility craft for running races, all other 

boats are member-owned. 

There is generous parking for members’ 

boats, most of which are parked on 

trailers when not in use. Two boat ramps 

lead to the lake, where boats can be 

launched and temporarily tied on one 

of three Club docks. (The club offers 

no overnight docking or moorings for 

either sailboats or power boats, though 

A 

On site cabins 

G 

Oppy lunchtime 

a small number of private docks offer 

limited dockage for their owners.) By 

the water’s edge are benches and several 

covered pavilions where spectators 

get comfortable and sailors hang out 

between races. 

If you are looking for tennis courts or a 

pool, you won’t find them at AYC. They 

are all about sailing! But they do have 

a groomed, sandy swimming beach, 

an enclosed play yard for children, a 

barbecue pavilion with picnic tables 

and an open grill, and a camping area 

near the beach. The facilities, clean and 

well-maintained by the dockmaster and 

groundskeeper, are purposely kept lowkey 

so that families can get away from 

the busy lives they lead all week and find 

a fun, safe and fresh-air place to play at 

AYC. 

The site is very large and is lightly 

wooded over much of its area. In the 

tress are a large number of substantial 

cabins where members can come for 

weekends or longer throughout the 

season to enjoy the club facilities. 

The Club sails three main classes of 

dinghy; the Snipe, the Thistle and the Y 

Flyer. (We chatted about other classes 

but they were fairly conservative and 

wanted to keep their preferred fleets. 

They knew little about asymmetrics and 

there wasn’t one to be seen.) 

Sailing takes place all year round but 

mainly through the summer. The best 

winds are early summer. July and August 

are very hot and humid. “The air hangs 

like liquid lead” was how Commodore 

Buzz Bezure described it. “We wait for 

the thunderstorms to come through and 

then go and have fun whilst we can in 


13


14 

G 

The snipe 

50 mph winds!” The lake is drained late 

autumn through early spring although 

there is enough water left to sail. Dry 

suits are unheard of! 

The Snipe “Serious Sailing, 

Serious Fun” 

This motto of the Snipe Class also sums 

up the essence of the fleet at AYC. 

The Snipe is a 15-1/2 foot, 2 -person, 

one-design racing dinghy with a rich 

history dating back to 1931. Originally 

designed by William Crosby to comply 

with the emerging “trailer class” of racing 

sailboats, it has evolved into a modern, 

tactical racing dinghy with fleets around 

the world. It has a steel centre board 

and a long whisker pole that the hlem 

can operate for downwind sailing. The 

Snipe class at AYC has been in existence 

since the club was started in the early 

50’s. Today it averages around 30 to 

35 members with an average 10 to 12 

boats racing at any given time. The fleet 

at AYC has a variety of members at 

different age groups and different skill 

levels. This is the beauty of the Snipe- it 

can be very competitive or it can be a 

learning experience with every outing 

at any level! The fleet does enjoy a party 

and will generally organize at least one 

per month during the racing season. 

The Thistle “Thistlers have 

more fun” 

This is how Dale Newnham, an ex Brit 

who was kind enough to offer us his boat 

to sail in the Regatta, sold the class to us. 

“Don’t you wish someone would design 

a boat that’s spritely and challenging 

to race but also comfortable enough to 

take the family day sailing? A boat that 

can plane like crazy in a stiff breeze on 

open water but is still a pleasure to sail in 

the light-to-medium winds of Atlanta’s 

inland lakes? A boat that with a lot of 

love and only a little expense will retain 

her value no matter how old she is? Well, 

good news -- someone did! Take a look 

at the Thistle, and you will find you can 

have it all!” 

The Thistle is a 17-foot, sloop-rigged 

boat with round bilges, open decking 

and a centerboard. Only 515 pounds 

(just over 200kgs), she is easily trailered, 

rigged and launched from a ramp. She 

has generous sail area in the main and jib 

and carries a spinnaker as well, making 

her not only beautiful on the water but 

fast-moving and responsive, quick to hop 

up on a plane and absolutely fun to sail. 

The Thistle is sensitive to boat balance 

and likes to be sailed flat. Though she 

A 

The thistle 

was designed to be raced with a crew of 

three, in light air at their lake they often 

“two-man it” or, when we’re not racing, 

take as many as five or six out for a 

picnic or a swim. Such versatility makes 

her the perfect family boat. 

Designed by Sandy Douglass in 1945, 

the first Thistles, made of wood, 

are still alive, well, and being raced 

today. New boats are now made of 

fiberglass; easier to care for to be sure, 

but no less beautiful or competitive 

than the original “woodies”. Design 

changes over the years have been few 

and carefully considered, always with 

an eye for not creating obsolescence 

for the older boats. The Thistle has a 

reputation for strong, conservative 

class organization and enjoys a network 

of camaraderie and competition 

with fleets all over the United States, 

including District, Interdistrict and 

Mid-Winter Championships and a 

week-long National Championship 

that rotates annually among host clubs. 

Atlanta Yacht Club is home to Thistle 

Fleet 48, a flock of about thirty actively 

sailed Thistles, their skippers, families 

and crew. Boats are kept on trailers at 

the Club at Lake Allatoona, where we 

set sail for races with fellow Thistlers 

most Saturday and Sunday afternoons 

from late March throughout October. 

Because there are many active Thistle 

fleets at nearby lakes and on the coast, 

a Southeastern regatta circuit in the 

spring and fall allows us the fun of 

traveling to compete at other clubs 

but always just with Thistles. Fleet 48 

hosts its own regatta, the “Dixie”, on 

Memorial Day Weekend, drawing 60 or 

more boats every year. If you’ll pardon 

their bragging, they would like to say 

that the Dixie is in contention for the 

best Thistle regatta anywhere! The AYC 

Thistle crowd gets together monthly to 

“talk boats” and party, even during the 

off-sailing season. 

Y-Flyer Fleet 

Y Flyer Fleet has approximately 75 

members and when family members 

are included, this number is more than 

doubled. Family participation in fleet 

activities is very much encouraged. 

Fleet activities include approximately 

70 club races per year, The Atlanta 

Invitational Regatta, The Beers Regatta 

and several after-the-race parties as 

well as numerous out-of-town regattas, 

sponsored by other clubs. Trophies for 

Club races are awarded for the Spring 

series, the Fall series and for the Season. 

Each year the “Most Improved” skipper 

is awarded a trophy. The Y Fleet holds 

about 10 meetings during the year, 

which are mainly social and consist 

of a cocktail hour, dinner and a short 

business “meeting” when necessary. 

These dinner meetings are held to 

encourage comradeship among the fleet.

G 

The Atlanta Yacht Club is the home of 

Y-Flyer Fleet No. 1, first organized in the 

1950’s. The Y-Flyer is an 18’ sloop rigged 

sailboat that carries a main and a jib 

sail and can be raced with a one or two 

person crew or comfortably daysailed 

with up to 5 people. The Y-Flyer is a 

one-design class of sailboat popular 

throughout the south, midwest and 

Canada. Its relatively light weight, 500 

lbs (230 kg) fully rigged, which makes 

the Y-Flyer a pleasure to sail in light to 

medium breezed common to inland 

sailing. The Y-Flyer can be rigged and 

ready to sail in as little as 20 minutes and 

is one of the most active fleets both on 

and off the water at the Atlanta 

Yacht Club. 

Whilst we were visiting they were 

holding their annual youth camp. This 

is a summer camp that lasts a week and 

takes about 50 aged from 12 to 18. It is 

a week based on sailing of course but 

with a big dose of other fun activities. 

The kids stay in the cabins and eat in the 

club house. Sailing includes structured 

courses and racing. The week is run by 

A 

The Y flyer 

The Ed in his snipe 

volunteers and it turned out that Craig 

was overall in charge for the week. As 

for our Oppy camp it is a lot of work that 

relies entirely on volunteers. What struck 

us on the day that we visited was the 

number of volunteers that were there for 

the week. There seemed almost as many 

adults in the club house as kids. 

They have a training regime very similar 

to Weir Wood with a generous collection 

of instructors. The titles are different but 

they equate to our senior instructors, 

instructors and assistant instructors. 

Courses start with the very young at 3-4 

years old. 

The Club has a membership of some 

400; many of them families. Annual 

subscriptions are rather more than 

WWSC averaging about $150 -$200 

a month for family membership. (At 

current exchange rates that is equivalent 

to about £1500.00 per year; so don’t 

complain WWSC members!). There 

is also a $600 initiation fee for new 

members. Potential new members must 

be sponsored by two club members, 

interviewed by the membership 

committee and approved by the general 

membership. 

A 

Thistles downwind 

The Club is managed by a Board of 

Trustees and a committee. To become 

commodore you must have served 

several years as vice commodore, then 

3 years as commodore and then stay on 

the committee as ex-commodore for 

several years so that the club continues 

to benefit from your experience. This is 

a very onerous commitment more akin 

to the way our Golf Clubs run than most 

UK sailing clubs. 

So what was our overall impression? First 

of all we were struck by how friendly 

and helpful folk were. They couldn’t 

have made us more welcome and were 

very generous in offering us use of their 

boats. Secondly, enthusiasm. Everyone 

we spoke to was passionate about the 

Club and sailing in all its forms; racing 

cruising, training and generally having 

fun. They were very serious about 

training and youth development. Going 

to Open meetings was a revelation. They 

are held all over the country. The Thistle 

National Championships are held on the 

sea and the nearest coast is Florida; a 10 

hour drive. But to share it around they 

switch between east and west coasts and 

the west coast is days away. One guy we 

spoke to had recently competed in an 

Open meeting in Arizona! 

So if any WWSC members want to go 

and sail in a completely different location 

let us know. Perhaps we could arrange 

to freight out the asymmetric fleets and 

show them something different? 

Finally, as copies of this magazine are 

going to Atlanta, a big thanks to you all 

who made us so welcome particularly 

Craig and his wife Gayle and 

Dale Newnham. We look forward to 

seeing you again in the Fall. And if any of 

you want to come and say”Hello” to Weir 

Wood sailing Club when you are visiting 

the UK just get in touch. 


15

A�oat �� 

�� 

Oppy

Camp 

A�oat�� 

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18 

G Much better without sails H 

The Return of the Madness 

The Ed 

We celebrated the Mid Summer solstice again this year with 

a return of the Madness. It was a rather overcast but warm 

day with a nice light breeze. This year the event targeted the 

Youth who turned up in good numbers to form four teams of 

hyperactive highly experienced sailors who throughout the day 

demonstrated that they had forgotten every basic essential of 

sailing. Boats were propelled by anything but the sails; hand 

paddling and rudder wiggling seemed to the most favoured. 

And when you got fed up with that just jump off the boat with 

your mates and hang out in the water having a chat. 

Not that that deterred Simon who was masterminding the 

circus. Races had been planned and races there would be. 

This year teams used just Toppers to make the scoring easier 

(insofar as it was possible to adjudicate which team had won 

each event). So contesters had relay races, how many can you 

get on a topper, a tug of war on the water and the most difficult 

of all; climbing the mast. No one managed this (well there’s a 

surprise!) but they had great fun trying. 

Throughout the day the BBQ produced a record number of 

burgers and sausages and bar sales rocketed. 

A 

Waterslide fun 

Up the mast 

A water slide proved a huge success and was appreciated by 

the kids just as much as the crazy sailing. Another brain child 

of our intrepid MC who with a sheet of builders polythene and 

a high pressure water pump improvised a most efficient and 

exciting ride which he (clearly a kid at heart) enjoyed as much 

as everyone else. 

The traditional picnic and proms rounded off the day with 

another cracking performance by the Reigate Grammar Swing 

Band followed by a Rhythm and Blues band. 

Thanks Simon for all your efforts and everyone else who helped 

out. Ideas please for next year welcome from anyone. 

J 

Sliding Simon 

K 

They're supposed to be on the boat!

G Laying the base G The batch mixer G 

New Store 

The Ed 

The new store behind the Race Hut is just about in service. 

The facility provides storage for Training at one and for 

the Hire Fleet at the other. The hire fleet has been moved 

to the main boat park adjacent the new store for ease of 

management. 

We have been talking about this project since earlier in the 

year so why so long? 

The primary reason is that we had to get planning approval 

despite the fact that there had been a building of sorts on 

the site for many years. 

Planning approval meant drawing including plans, and 

elevations of each side plus perspective impressions 

and photos of the existing site. There was a preliminary 

visit by the planning officer followed by the formal 

submission which took about 8 weeks to pass through the 

administrative process. In the meantime we had sourced the 

Shed and were ready to start when we had the OK. 

Although some rough levels had been taken we didn’t quite 

realise how much excavation was needed. Thank goodness 

Steve Carr had a small excavator or we would be still 

digging. Then followed two days laying the concrete base 

and paths. The shed came in July and was erected in a day. 

There was a break in operations then whilst the tea boy took 

yet another holiday! 

Fitting out followed and most of the kit is now installed. This 

has freed up the Training Room so that it can be used for its 

proper purpose. 

The next phase is a covered connection from the new Store 

to the Race Hut including a “signing on” area. The final 

phase is repair an refurbishment of the Race Hut. 

Many thanks to the design and construction team who were: 

Planning, procurement and 

labourer Dick Lankester 

Ground works Steve Carr 

Structural Engineering David Ramshaw 

Marine Engineering Tim Russell 

Advanced mathematical calculations James Matthews 

Mechanical Engineering Alex Matthews 

Tea Boy John Chisnall 

K 

Tom gets really technical 

A Lunch break A Resting again A 

The first pour 

Steve shifting muck 


19


20 

Dutyman update 

Dirk Lankaester 

Duty Co-ordinator 

It is now 12 months since the club moved to the web-based Dutyman system for 

duty rosters and in that time the club has saved a significant amount of money on 

printing and postage. 

If you have joined the club this year and you provided us with an email address, 

you have been added to the Dutyman database. Please be assured that this is 

completely secure. (Members who do not provide an email address will receive 

duty rosters the old fashioned way - by post). 

I have recently uploaded the Duty Roster for October-January and if you have 

been allocated a duty during this period, you will by now have received an email 

from Dutyman with a password enabling you to access the system. 

The main benefits of Dutyman are: 

◗ 

◗ 

◗ 

◗ 

◗ 

◗ 

◗ 

The club no longer has to print and post hard copies of the rosters to every 

member 

Members are informed of their duties automatically by email 

Members receive reminders by email approximately 10 days before the date of 

their duty 

he system allows members to request duty swaps with other members by 

email, avoiding the need to make countless phone calls 

When swaps are agreed, they are immediately uploaded, so Dutyman, is always 

up to date 

Members can notify Dutyman if they change their email address 

Dutyman can be accessed from the club website 

When you receive an email from Dutyman notifying you that you have been 

allocated a duty, please put the date in your personal diary immediately (assuming 

you do not need to swap), then log on to Dutyman and tick the box opposite the 

date, thereby confirming that you are able to do the duty. I then know that you 

are aware of the duty. If you know that you will not be able to do the duty, it is 

your responsibility to arrange a swap. If you request a swap immediately, you 

should not have a problem finding someone to swap with. If you wait until you 

receive the reminder before requesting a swap, don’t be surprised if you do not 

get a very good response. And I do not find it amusing when members email or 

phone me to say that they are very sorry, but they cannot do their duty tomorrow 

because it is their mother-in-law’s birthday (it has happened, believe me!). 

If anyone has any queries about Dutyman, please contact me at duty@wwsc.org.uk 

Visitors to the Club. A Reminder. 

WWSC Committee 

Members can invite visitors to the club to sail with them or for social occasions. 

They must be signed in by the club member in the Visitors Book which is on the 

galley counter left hand end. The same visitor can come up to 4 times. After that 

they must join the club to enjoy the facilities. 

Members cannot invite sailing friends to bring their own boat and sail on the 

reservoir at any time; either in the member’s presence or on their own, even if it 

is to entice them to join the Club. There is no exception to this. This is expressly 

against the Club rules and has always been so. Members must not give the gate 

combination to anyone who is not a club member for any reason. 

G 

Down under 

Profile of the Laser 

and WWSC Laser 

Sailors 

Peter Young 

Continuing our review of the main 

classes sailed at Weir Wood Peter Young, 

the Laser Fleet Captain, extols the virtues 

of the ubiquitous Laser 

If you had a penny for every Laser 

(proper Laser – you know – the 

one with one sail) built since it was 

invented in 1971 then you would have 

enough money to go to the Club’s Vice 

Commodore and have a fair chance 

of buying his tasteless Wrangler 4x4 

from him. There have been more than 

190,000 made (Lasers not Wranglers 

– there have been only 19 of them), 

making it the largest one design class in 

the World. So, why do so many people 

sail them? 

Well, for a start they are strictly onedesign. 

What does ‘one-design’ mean? 

It means you can’t so much as think 

about changing anything on the boat 

without getting yourself the wrong side 

of the law. So – what’s so good about 

that? Well – that means that the bloke 

or lass that just finished in front of you 

has finished in front of you because they 

have just sailed a better race than you. 

Thankfully, there is an unwritten local 

rule at the WWSC bar that allows any 

Laser sailor to account for getting beaten 

by a variety of other excuses. Just stand 

at the bar and listen if you need to know 

more or cannot sleep. 

So – if you are new to sailing or Lasers 

here is a list of things that are worth 

knowing:

D 

◗ It is made from glass fibre, weighs 

59kgs, is 4m long and requires next to 

no maintenance 

◗ 

The Laser comes in 3 one-design rigs 

(different sails and masts really): 

◗ The standard rig: the one normally 

raced by men or accomplished lady 

sailors 

◗ 

◗ 

The radial rig: the one normally sailed 

by ladies or lighter men 

The 4.7 rig: the one sailed by younger 

sailors who have yet to beef up 

◗ Both the Laser Standard and Radial 

are sailed at the Olympic games by 

men and ladies respectively 

◗ Ben Ainsle and dozens of the World’s 

top sailors all cut their teeth on the 

Laser 

◗ The rules of the class were 

loosened a few years ago to allow 

easy adjustment of the outhaul, 

cunningham and kicker. You don’t 

have to be a gorilla anymore to sail 

one 

◗ If setup correctly, the boat is easy 

to handle if you are about the right 

weight 

◗ The right weight for the Laser are 

approximately: 

Standard: 80kg or so 

Radial: 55-72kg 

4.7: 50-55kg 

◗ 

An International class 

The boat teaches the sailor some 

extremely good habits because: 

All the boats are pretty much the same 

so the sailor really masters how to make 

best use of the mainsheet, outhaul, 

cunningham, kicker and tiller 

The rudder is quite small so if you really 

want the boat to go the way you want it 

to you have to lean the boat over to steer. 

“Use the ‘`Force’ Luke” rather than brute 

force 

Nothing makes you a better sailor faster 

than racing against your chums and 

you’ll have loads of chums in the 

Laser fleet 

That is the boat, but what about the 

people that sail in them? There is a 

common misconception that all Lasers 

sailors are hairy backed Neanderthals, 

who have only a basic grasp of language. 

But, if you stray away from David 

Binding and Chris Fyans at the bar after 

sailing you should find a much more 

diverse selection of people. We have 

loads of Lasers at the club, and on a good 

winter Sunday we will get 20 racing. The 

age range goes from 10 to 60 with each 

sailor putting in at least one top end 

performance per year. On the water it 

is quite competitive, but always fun, but 

here are some more reasons to consider 

getting yourself wet in a Laser: 

◗ 

It is the biggest fleet in the club 

◗ The boat has been around since flared 

trousers and is used in the Olympics 

for two classes. It is not a here-today 

gone-tomorrow class 

◗ 

◗ 

◗ 

A 

190,000 people can’t be wrong 

Laser curry nights – wind on and off 

the water 

Laser Fast & Furious days (10 short 

races in a day type days) 

Sometimes you sail them like this 

◗ 

◗ 

◗ 

◗ 

◗ 

The super friendly national Masters 

circuit (100+ boats) for the over 35s 

The hyper competitive national 

circuit 

The competitive but fun South-East 

Grand-Prix circuit 

No crew, no maintenance, no hassle, 

turn-up-and-go sailing 

Laser fleet racing all the way through 

the year 

◗ Save money on your gym 

membership as sailing a Laser is a 

great workout (for your brain and 

body) 

◗ Work out your belly a the bar 

afterwards with sugary water and 

beer 

So, for about £1,500-£2,000 you could 

be sailing one of the sexiest boats in the 

world knowing that if, for some strange 

reason, you didn’t like it you could sell 

it the next year for about the same price 

that you bought it for. They age even 

better than the WWSC Laser class 

cornerstone Tony Boulton. So – what 

are you waiting for? Get yourself out in 

one or give us a ring if you want to know 

more or want to know where you can 

buy one. 

07799 765 216 


21


22 

G The skiff H 

Westray Sailing Regatta 

Jean and John Chisnall 

We both agreed that Hayling Island didn’t have the charm 

and ambience of other Laser 2000 National venues so 

instead of getting blown to bits and rather wet we escaped to 

the most northerly island of the Orkneys where we enjoyed 

a week of hot and sunny weather. We timed our arrival to 

coincide with Westray’s sailing regatta which took part in 

the Pierowall Bay on the north east of the island. 

The first Westray regatta took place in 1925 and they raced 

the traditional Westray skiffs. This boat developed as many 

traditional boats did in response to the needs of local people 

to suit local conditions. The skiff is a clinker built double 

ended open boat which ranges in size from about 15 foot 

long with a 5 foot 7 inch beam to 20 foot long with a 6 foot 

4 inch beam. It can have a variety of rigs including gaff, 

dipping and standing lug and gunther. There are only about 

30 boats in existence today and they are much sought after. 

The fleets for the regatta include two fleets for the skiffs 

where they appeared to be grouped by size, a couple of 

mixed fleets which included Snipes, Wayfarers, various 

other unrecognised classes and a single laser. There was then 

a fleet of yachts. They sailed one race in the morning and 

one in the afternoon. 

Whist we were boarding the ferry from Kirkwall to Westray 

we were intrigued to see a large canoe being taken on board. 

It turned out that a group of native Sasquatch Indians from 

British Columbia were touring Orkney and paddling the 

canoe around just about every island. They were going to 

support the Westray regatta. And there we saw one of the 

most bizarre sights we have seen for a long while. The canoe 

was launched and the crew got on board. And then they 

were joined by four pipers and a drummer in full highland 

regalia minus shoes and stockings who stood amidships and 

piped the canoe across the bay serenading the fleets as they 

went. Lord knows what would have happened if they had 

The Westray skiff 

capsized. Presumably they would have gone down piping 

leaving Neptune wondering if it was the end of the world. 

We went to watch the prize giving. Now given the relatively 

small number of boats taking part we were amazed to see 

a huge bench covered with all manner of trophies. The 

Prizegiving took almost as long as one of the races and we 

didn’t understand a word that was said. Everyone got a prize 

except the visiting canoeists. 

J 

J 

With a hundred pipers an' all an' all 

Westray skiffs

G Sailing 

A new life for old 

boats. 

Christopher Moir 

Chris Moir,WWSC Boat Park Marshall 

and of WMG University of Warwick, 

explains how WWSC “dead” boats are 

pushing forward the boundaries of 

perception. 

Boats come to the end of their lives 

in Weir Wood boat parks. Or at least 

some do. Abandoned and lost, with 

long out of date boat park stickers, 

they await their fate at the mercy 

of the chainsaw if wooden; angle 

grinder if GRP or foam sandwich. 

Some other boats’ dispatch to tip or 

skip is delayed. Covered in brambles 

inspection of a transom boat park 

sticker is discouraged. And then when 

the brambles have been cleared away, 

often there appears an almost upto 

date boat park sticker. The club is full 

of members, including the author, 

whose intentions to take their boat 

out far exceed the number of times 

their boats hull cuts through the water. 

At the last minute other things take 

priority. Very occasionally abandoned 

boats are sold or take on a new lease 

of life as a pirate ship in a children’s 

playground. 

So far so typical of practice in many 

UK sailing clubs. However so far as I 

am aware, no parts of an abandoned 

boat at any sailing club can be said 

to have assumed the star role of 

promoting new applications of applied 

physics and novel technologies. This 

was the job assigned to an old fireball 

hull, mast and boom sections from a 

kestrel, a rudder stock and tiller from 

an abandoned Skipper. Last March 

relics from Weir Wood central boat 

park took pride of place at Science and 

Technology exhibition at Olympia. 

Funded by the Engineering and 

Physical Sciences Research Council 

“Pioneers 09” was to bring advanced 

novel ideas in science and technology 

to the notice of the press, industry and 

commerce. Among numerous high 

tech university exhibits like energy 

wave converters, advanced medical 

G 

The cocoon 

imaging and measuring carbon 

emissions in homes, Warwick and 

York Universities turned up with a 

pretend wooden sailing boat on stand 

and a device to be worn on the head 

that looked like a glorified cycle crash 

helmet made out of plastic. Neither 

could be described as embracing 

new technologies. Building a boat 

by laying planks on wooden frame I 

think is a 3,500 years old technology. 

1950s technology produced masts 

and booms made out of extruded 

aluminium. Plastic injection modelling 

is of a similar vintage 

So what was going on? The answer is 

these were all props used to convey 

an idea of creating a virtual real 

world based on placing a person in 

an immersive environment through 

stimulating physical science based 

cues, of 5 human senses. These are 

sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. 

These are not the only senses we use 

to interact with the real world, but 

they are the main ones. The novelty 

is stimulating all five senses to the 

point of perceptual reality. That is a 

person in one place believes they are 

actually present somewhere else. Even 

the most advanced applications of 3D 

computer games relay on replicating 

only two senses. (Sight and sound). 

The Warwick/York exhibit was a 

sailing simulator with some marked 

differences. It was intended to promote 

a project to develop a “virtual Cocoon” 

through which people can interact 

naturally with a world that is physically 

remote from them. In more technical 

language the virtual cocoon is the 

production of a highly realistic multisensory 

virtual environment but which 

complements but does not replace 

reality. The Daily Mails response to this 

idea of a “virtual Cocoon” is captured 

in the illustration below. 

Can the brain be fooled into believing 

it was somewhere else? Generally the 

answer is no. The subconscious minds 

of helicopter pilots, for example, using 

a training simulator to learn how to 

land in a snow or sand storm know 

what they are experiencing is not real. 

The emotional stress is not there. In 

a few minutes they can go for lunch. 

The brain can detect small blemishes 

in a commuter graphic image of a 

women’s face. The brain knows the 

image is not real. One sense can 

however trick another one. A classic 

example is exploited by a ventriloquist. 

The viewer is fooled into thinking 

that sounds are coming from the 

dummies mouth because of the way 

the dummies lips are moving. Visual 

cues dominate sound. In many other 

circumstances smell dominates taste. 

Could the exploitation of these cross 

modal effects mean that visitors to the 

Warwick/ York stand are persuaded 

that they were sailing a boat? The 

answer is yes but. Details have to 

come later. First some technical stuff 

about the boat on stand and then how 

senses were stimulated. The boat was 


23


24 

D 

The 'Boat' simulator 

fixed to a stationary steel box section 

cradle. Unlike conventional dinghy 

simulators the cradle did not have 

pitch, roll and yaw degrees of freedom. 

The hull could not move. Hull and 

deck was a rebuilt stern half, centre 

of plate case to transom, of a fireball. 

Overall mast height was 10ft, the sail 

had a 6ft luff and 3ft foot. Health 

and safety regulations at Olympia 

largely governed the dimensions of the 

standing rigging. Boom rotation was 

30 degrees port and starboard from 

a for and aft centre line and brought 

about by guys attached to the boom 

in a never ending line and through 

a reversible cog drive powered by a 

small motor. There was a single rope 

centre main sheet, from boom, to sole, 

and then hand. The rudder stock was 

attached to the transom in the usual 

fashion; as was tiller and extension to 

the stock. Whilst it was possible to 

create resistance on the main sheet, 

there was no resistance on the rudder. 

Everybody reading this article would 

conclude that sitting on the deck 

of this half boat with a sheet in one 

hand and tiller in the other had little 

or no resemblance to the experience 

of sailing a boat. They at least would 

not be tricked. The Sun took a bit of 

persuading that the boat did not float 

and they could not sail it down the 

exhibitions halls of west Kensington. 

Guest “sailors” were subject to four 

sensory cues. Their eyes saw what they 

would have seen if they had been the 

helmsman of a Flying Fifteen in force 

5 gusting to occasional 7. (Lots of 

white horses, grey skies, grey water, 

spray, a healing boat, water over the 

gunwale, an over active crew and a 

sometimes flapping mainsheet.) The 

visual display was on two small screens 

inside goggles and showed a 2 minute 

video clip taken with a helmsman’s 

head mounted camera. In their ears, 

through headphones, they heard the 

sound of the water under the hull and 

the wind in the rigging. Wind and 

spray was on their face, (albeit coming 

from the wrong direction, given the 

tack the boat was on). A small smell 

device emitted odours of the sea. Note 

they were not wearing the cycle helmet 

virtual cocoon. 

A succession of distinguished and not 

so distinguished visitors took part in 

the little pretend sailing experiment 

from roughly 9.00 in the morning to 

around 5.30 in the afternoon. Most 

saw it as a bit of fun. Sitting largely 

motionless their main reaction was a 

smile to the unexpected slight shower 

of spray landing on their face. Some 

people though did respond to seeing 

the healing boat, particularly when 

water came over the side, by leaning 

backwards and trying to spill wind. A 

few reacted in conventional fashion 

of depowering through movement 

of tiller as well as sheet. No formal 

records were taken as to whether the 

visitors had sailed or not but a straw 

poll suggested the sailors were not 

fooled. Some non sailors 

apparently were. 

A 

The system (courtesy Daily Mail) 

One obvious last question; other than 

having a bit of fun what was the real 

point of the Warwick/York exhibit? 

The short answer was to get a public 

reaction to the idea of a virtual cocoon. 

This came as bit of a surprise. The 

virtual cocoon was covered by radio, 

television and print journalists from 

most major EU countries, the US and 

Canada. Google recorded something 

like 90 press hits at the end of the 

day. It featured in three BBC radio 

programmes. Possible applications 

were seen in training surgeons, 

creating virtual rather than physical 

prototypes products, at much less 

cost, maximising safety in engineering 

design of complex and dangerous 

environments like deep water oil rigs, 

and reducing air travel. 

There are no plans at either Warwick 

or York Universities to build further 

cut down versions of abandoned boats. 

The death sentence that hangs over 

an old wooden Miracle among other 

abandoned boats in the boat parks 

is unlikely to be commuted. Normal 

club practice and procedures will be 

resumed. These procedures are that 

lapsed members with boats in the boat 

park will be chased, asked to remove 

their boat or pay for the space it 

occupies. Otherwise……

G 

Instructors & guinnea pigs 

Assistant Instructors Course 

The Ed 

In August the Training Team undertook the most risky venture 

of their tenure; to train 4 older members as A I’s. I can’t imagine 

why they would want to do it! Attempting to train one old age 

pensioner, one senior citizen, and two yet to get those badges 

but of mature years was a feat of pure courage. More than 

that between them they had approaching 150 years sailing 

experience together with all the bad habits that that brings plus 

all the myths of years of sailing that had become established 

facts in their minds. 

So Bridget, Dick Dil and me turned up on a Friday night to be 

indoctrinated in Child Protection, Communication (You don’t 

yell at them!) and how to tack. Sadly Dil in a fit of domestic 

enthusiasm had decided to clear out the loft and had “done his 

back in” and had to pull out of the course. 

Now learning how to tack the RYA way is a something of a 

mystery when you have been sailing for so long. But with some 

practice overnight we got the hang of it and turned up on the 

Saturday at an obscene hour to meet our “guinea pigs”. The way 

the course works is that a number of volunteers are rounded 

up who have little or no sailing experience and the student 

instructors teach them the Start Sailing Course plus a bit of the 

Basic Sailing Course. Topics covered include tacking, gybing 

A Off we go A Rigging 

and sailing a triangular course. 

Student Instructors are required to give a number of talks to 

cover the theory. Dick dealt with launching and recovery which 

up until then he thought was a beer in the bar after a race. 

My topic was the five essentials. I asked Bridget what they 

were. 

“Water, a boat, a bouancy aid and some wind. I can’t think of a 

fifth” she said. 

I also was landed with demonstrating 5 knots and that was 

an equal challenge as I only use two; a figure of eight and 

a bowline. A rolling hitch took all week to learn and then I 

couldn’t get it right. What’s more Dick had an amazing way of 

tying a bowline which was more like a Houdini escape trick 

than a nautical practice. 

(It also happened that the vital game in the Ashes was being 

played over this weekend and for the first time ever the said 

trainee instructor took his mobile phone afloat to keep in touch 

with the score). 

On the water was great fun and I have to say we all found 

it exhausting as well as very satisfying. The big problem is 

giving instructions about things that are second nature and 

instinctively done. If you haven’t got the tiller in your hand 

knowing whether to push it away or pull it towards you was 

rather taxing causing some confusion in my boat for a while. 

But the novices were very forgiving and we only had one near 

miss where Glynis observed that she hadn’t ever seen me move 

as fast to prevent a capsize. 

This was the first course that WWSC has run specifically 

for adults and overall it was successful. (Well, we all got a 

certificate). Certainly we all enjoyed doing it and are now part 

of the pool of A I’s that can be called on for courses. We are 

going to need more as our youthful A I’s move on to University 

and other things. So if you would like to contribute to this 

valuable part of the club’s activities get in touch with Peter or 

Glynis Hargreaves. 

Well done to Julian, Robin, Christine, Tom and Richard who all 

made the grade and for being such willing and cheerful 

“guinea pigs”. 


25


26 

G 

Oppy Oppy Oppy 

Mark Harrington 

Optimist Report 

Summer 2009 

Mark Harrington 

We’ve had a busy time at Oppy Club 

in the last few months with healthy 

fleet numbers sailing on Saturdays, 

Wednesday evenings and taking part in 

open meetings. 

The Oppy Parent Team is in place and 

as part of that team I have taken on the 

role of Flotilla Leader whilst retaining 

responsibility for the beginners and 

website updates. The other members 

of the team are John Hamilton (Racing 

Group and Open Meetings), Richard 

Haw (Oppy Bosun, Intermediate 

Group) and Richard Baker 

(Intermediate Group, Parent Rota 

and Oppy Members). Our aim is “To 

ensure that the children enjoy sailing 

their Optimists, by providing them 

with a full range of opportunities to 

develop their skills”. We all have a good 

deal of enthusiasm and experience 

and are really looking forward to 

developing the Weir Wood Optimists. 

What’s been happening on 

the water? 

Great Fun at Oppy Camp 

Now you have sorted out the tents, 

sailing gear and various odd socks, 

time to reflect on this year’s camp. 

Despite the changeable and at times 

challenging conditions, all the children 

and adults had a great time on and off 

the water. The closely run watch points 

prize, which runs during the whole 

week was won by Blue Watch with 

an excellent all-round performance. 

Georgia Baker won the Pendry Trophy 

for most improved sailor during the 

week and well done to Sophie Mamalis 

for winning the Avalanche Cup for 

the greatest number of smiles from 

the highest number of capsizes! A 

huge thanks to Pete Clifton and Chris 

Hopkins for their invaluable input, plus 

the whole team for making the week 

such a great success, we are all looking 

forward to next year. 

The Summer Series was won 

convincingly by Verity Hopkins – 

well done. It was a close run thing 

for second place with Sören Selter, 

Fiona Harrington, Jacob Hamilton and 

Emma Baker all able to take second 

place overall in the final race of the 

series. The race took place in perfect 

conditions at the end of Day 1 of Oppy 

Camp. 15 boats on a short start line 

made it a challenge for the fleet. Fiona 

and Sören made good starts with Jacob 

hard on their heels. By the windward 

mark Jacob was out in front with 

Fiona, Katie Wood and Sören close 

behind. Emma got back amongst the 

places on the downwind legs. However 

Jacob pulled it out of the bag on the 

second beat by reading the shifts 

well and establishing a commanding 

lead at the windward mark, which 

he maintained until the finish, giving 

him second overall in the series. Fiona 

sailed well to finish second, resulting 

in third in the series, holding off Katie 

in third and Emma fourth. For overall 

results see the results page on 

the website. 

Chipstead Open/South 

East Championships 

Ten WWSC boats took to the water 

in great conditions on Saturday 18 

July and although the lack of big 

fleet experience told for some of 

our sailors, there were some good 

individual performances throughout 

the day. Sören Selter getting a great 

start in Race 1, resulting in a 6th place 

and ending up 12th of 31 entries in 

the main fleet. Verity Hopkins sailed 

consistently well, ending up in the top 

10 and with 3rd place in the South 

East Area Championships. Emma 

Baker showed real determination after 

a difficult morning, earning her the 

Endeavour Award. In the Regatta Fleet 

Millie Hopkins sailed really well all day 

and was never far behind the top 2. 

Millie gained a 3rd place overall in the 

Regatta Fleet a brilliant performance 

and one to watch for the future. 

OK so what’s on for the 

rest of the season? 

On 12 September we have our 

Training Day being run by Ben 

Ainsworth RYA Optimist Coach. We 

will have 2 groups including intensive 

race training and an intermediate level. 

This is taking place a week before the 

WWSC Optimist Open and will help 

the children to get up to speed so they 

can enjoy the racing the following 

week with confidence. 

Talking of the Open Meeting, it takes 

place on Saturday 19 September and 

at the time of writing we had over 50 

boats entered from most of the clubs 

in the South East region, including a 

great turnout from the locals. This is 

also the RYA South East Zone Squad 

selection event so the competition is 

going to be hot. I’ve already checked 

out the long-term forecast and the Met 

Office assure me that it will be 15 knts, 

Westerly, Sunny and 23 degrees! This 

event requires a great deal of support 

from the whole club and a big thank 

you to everyone who has volunteered 

to be involved both on and off 

the water! 

That’s not all for September! We are 

looking to increasing the number 

of local open meetings we attend,

G John Hamilton G Richard Baker G 

particularly good for those who enjoy 

getting up at 5:30am at the weekends! 

We now have 2 trailers so if you’re 

not able to take the boat yourself then 

please ask one of us as there is space 

for 6 boats. A good number of Weir 

Wood Optimists are already entered 

for the following events: Papercourt 5 

September, Datchet 13 September and 

the SE Zone Championships again at 

Datchet 26 and 27 September. Good 

luck to all of our sailors in these events. 

Want to enter? Then go to the IOCA 

website www.optimistsailing.org.uk. 

Starting from Sunday 4 October there 

will be a separate start for Optimists. 

Start time will be 10:40 and it will be 

one race of about 60 minutes. This will 

give our sailors more experience in 

longer races and also keep their hand 

in during the winter when there is no 

Oppy Club. The feedback for this has 

been good, but of course its success 

is based on getting your boats on the 

water! We will see how it goes until 

Christmas and review. 

During Oppy Club in October we 

will be starting to use the IOCA 

curriculum as a basis for training. This 

will give everyone a more structured 

approach and ensure that those who 

don’t always go to Oppy Camp have 

the opportunity to cover all aspects 

of the programme and develop their 

abilities. If you are not an IOCA 

member or don’t have a log book it 

will be a good idea to sort this out so 

you can get the most from Oppy Club. 

Other plans include an end of season 

prize giving/get-together likely to be 

mid-November (date to be advised). 

For 2010, I would like to hand over 

running the beginners group to 

another Oppy parent. It’s a great role 

and I’m sure something which could be 

developed further. If you are interested 

in taking this on then please contact 

me. Also I am delighted to confirm 

that we have again been selected for 

the Optimist RYA Squad Zone training 

on 23rd and 24th January 2010. 

The 2010 National Championships are 

in Weymouth 24 – 30 July. There is a 

good deal of interest from our sailors 

in being there in force, not too far to 

go and great offshore experience using 

pre-Olympic facilities. More details 

to follow. However, this is likely to 

present a problem with Oppy Camp 

Oppy Camp 2009 

Richard Haw 

which is usually in the same week. 

Depending on school holidays we 

could consider re-scheduling for the 

end of August, please let me know 

what you think as we need to make a 

decision on this before the end of the 

year? 

So, there’s a lot going on with a growing 

fleet of keen children and parents 

looking forward to the rest of the season. 

You can keep up to date by going to the 

website and regular news will be sent out 

by email. 

See you on the water! 

By Jacob 

Wow what a week! On Sunday 26 July, I and 39 (or so) other )ppy sailors arrived 

to set up camp in a freshly-poohed field (thanks to the cows!). Once all the tents 

had been put up and the parents had departed we were able to get on with sailing 

- that’s what we were there for. We were in five groups – levels 1-4 and racing. It 

was great fun sailing every day. 

Off the water we were in put into one of four Watches. The Watches were 

supposed to be a mixed group of different ages although for some reason ours 

(yellow) was made up boys. Points were given out for helping, good sailing 

etc and there were prizes at the end for the Watch with the most points. We 

started off trying to earn some points, but……. we ended up losing a few points. 

Highlights of the week were Oppy club race and winning the treasure hunt…. 


27


28 

Youf 

G 

“Youf ” News 

Lexi 

WWSC Youth Summer 

The last few months the WWSC Youth Team has been very 

busy! We’ve had an awesome Oppy Camp and a very successful 

Laser 2000 nationals, and (by the time this is published) week 

long Summer Cobnor will have returned! Unfortunately I 

wasn’t at this year’s Outer Space themed Oppy Camp, but 

everyone I have spoken to has raved about it. This year the 

Avalanche Award went to Sophie Mamalis and the Pendry Cup 

to Georgia Baker. well done guys! The Laser 2000 Nationals at 

Hayling Island SC had a very strong Weir Wood turn out and, 

most importantly, included plenty of youths! All of our youths 

did exceptionally well and all had a great time while we were 

there, braving the wet, windy, wavy and FUN conditions! Now 

we are all looking forward to Summer Cobnor, especially since 

some of the older clever university type youths will be back for 

a few days. Topper racing will also be starting up again soon, 

hope to see you out there! 

A 

Hanging around 

Sailing wears you out 

F 

Alexi & Stephan 

The Youf ’s Laser 2000 National 

Champs 

Amy Hulley 

A significant number of our Youfs took part in Team Weir 

Wood at Hayling Island including Alexei and Stephan Nicholas, 

Amy Hulley and Sophie Payne, Katie Burridge, Will Sloper and 

Nick Bush . Neilsons donated the prizes and this is their 

“Thank you”. 

On behalf of the ‘youfs’ of the Laser 2000 class association I 

wish to say a very big Thank You to Neilson for so generously 

donating such brilliant prizes at the week long Nationals held 

at the end of July. 83 Laser 2000s ventured to Hayling Island 

Sailing Club to take part in a very special 10th Anniversary 

event. Over the last 10 years the class has developed to become 

very competitive attracting some of the top racers in the 

country whilst continuing to welcome and encourage new 

comers of all ages to racing and sailing. 

At the Laser 2000 Nationals last we realised that there were 

a large number of youths that were enjoying sailing the Laser 

2000, not to mention the off the water activities that were 

organised by the older youfs such as fish ‘n chips, fishing, 

twister and a variety of other beach games. Following last years 

success, Neilson kindly agreed to support us with some prizes 

for this special 10th anniversary event. 

On Monday we were sent off shore out into Hayling Bay only 

to be greeted with winds over 25knots and 2m+ waves. ‘Bring it 

on’, big smiles to all the young guns, even if a couple did get sea 

sick!! The second race had to be abandoned with a BIG squall 

developing in the distance blacking out the Solent. Our sail 

back to shore was wicked especially for those braving the kite 

by the time we landed the sun was out. The youth chilled out 

after a hectic day with fish’n chips on the beach and 

more games. 

Tuesday bought even bigger winds and waves but fortunately 

the race officer took pity on us and set the courses up inside the 

harbour. This provided 3 races with tactical courses and a few 

boats coming to grief on black flag starts.

D Katie 

The Laser 2000 being such an awesome 

fleet we got a rest day on the Wednesday 

– very epic. However youths being 

youths, rest = play!!! A few guys made the 

most of the wind and went windsurfing 

or kite surfing 

Others decided they would like a day to 

dry off so ventured to the theme park for 

more hairy thrills but all met up later and 

chilled out with a DVD and pop corn. 

Thursday was recording winds of over 

38knots out in the bay where the racing 

was meant to be located, therefore it was 

again empty of laser 2000s and we were 

back in the harbour with a mere 25knots 

blowing at the start of the first race but 

had dropped to 15knots at the end of 

the 3rd race (8 o’clock at night!!). We 

were starving….Several boats sustained 

a fair amount of damage: the waves were 

knocking the boats about and the wind 

was strong enough to cause them to 

move fast in wrong directions. Jessica 

practised her front crawl having fallen 

out in all the carnage and had a long 

swim back to her boat. 

Friday was totally different day with light 

winds and sun this saw a lot of the lighter 

youth boats come forward to in the fleet. 

Alexei and Stefan Nicholas who were 

the youngest youth boat within the fleet 

A 

Amy & Sophie 

gained a 9th place and decided it was 

time to loose the airbag from the top of 

the mast! 

Friday evening was prize-giving. 24 

youfs took part in the sailing and with 

most days averaging a force5/6 this was 

a fantastic achievement. Many thrills 

and spills were had along the way but 

this just added to the fun. Thanks to 

Neilsons generosity every youth received 

a prize for taking part, Sam Boswell aged 

12 gained youngest youth on the water 

prize, Mark Baldwin received ‘Mr Toe 

Strap snapper’ prize which involved a 

big swim after a disagreement with his 

A Nick A Will 

Road Bases and boat trailers at Weir Wood 

Christopher Moir 

Boat Park Marshall 

The trailer park next to the race hut has been closed down. A new trailer park has 

been created at the far end of the mirror boat park adjacent to Oppie bay. Nearly all 

trailers that were in the old trailer park are now in the new one. 

Here are two requests. Could members who still have a trailer in the old trailer park 

chained to a tree or one without wheels move them to the new trailer park. Secondly 

it would be much appreciated if all members could follow the lead of others and 

attach labels to their trailers showing their name and membership number. This 

request is irrespective of where in the club grounds the trailer is parked. The club 

is trying to work out which trailers still have owners and which ones have been 

abandoned and could be got rid of. 

One reason for closing down the old trailer park was it was considered an eye saw. 

Another and more important reason was it was not very secure. Trailers have been 

stolen from there. The combination of insufficient space and too few trees to act an 

anchor points meant many trailers could easily be picked up and attached to a hitch 

on the back of a car. 

The new trailer park is more secure and has more space. A long 13mm chain has 

been laid and secured between two trees almost the full length of Boat Park opposite 

row MK. Please secure trailers to this chain. It is to be hoped that trailers can be 

arranged at right angles to the chain and on both sides. 

Many thanks. 

toe straps at the first windward mark on 

the Monday, Jessica for her swim also, 

Katie Burridge aged 13 and same weight 

as a crisp bag crewed her Dad and they 

came 3rd overall, she has BIG muscles 

now!! Graham and Christina were made 

honouree students as they sail a boat 

called ‘student loan’ but that’s another 

story!! 

Thank You Neilson for donating these 

fantastic prizes, helping make our week 

at Hayling even more memorable. 

(Neilsons have been very supportive 

of WWSC with generous donations of 

various training boats for our fleet) 


29


30 

Open Dayy 

We held our annual Open Day on 9th 

May and it was a huge success. 

The weather was hot and sunny with just 

the right light breeze. Numbers attending 

were the largest we have had for many 

years and the sailing taster fleets were 

kept busy all day. The Social committee 

provided a running BBQ and sales went 

through the roof. We had about a dozen 

people sign up on the day and there 

ahs been a steady trickle of folk coming 

back and joining as a result of the event. 

Thanks to everyone who helped including 

the reception committee, those who 

organised the sailing and the BBQers. 

Farewell to Ian Clark 

After more years as a member than he 

will admit to we are saying “Goodbye” 

to Ian Clark who is moving away from 

the area. Ian has been probably our most 

regular Laser sailor for years competing 

regular as clockwork on Saturdays, 

Sundays and Wednesday evenings. 

His record is formidable always up the 

front of the fleet. 

Annual General Meeting 

The AGM will be held on 6th December 

at 2pm and formal notice of the meeting 

is enclosed with this issue of the 

magazine. Just to repeat the “Wanted” 

advert elsewhere both Tony Carter 

and John Norris are stepping down as 

Commodore and Secretary respectively. 

Do please give serious consideration 

to undertaking the roles as they are 

absolutely critical to the successful 

running of the Club. It cannot operate 

effectively without either role 

A farmer called Thomas was overseeing his herd in a remote pasture in Yorkshire 

when suddenly a brand-new BMW advanced toward him out of a cloud of dust 

The driver, a young man in a Brioni suit, Gucci shoes, RayBan sunglasses and YSL tie, 

leaned out the window and asked the farmer, “If I tell you exactly how many cows and 

calves you have in your herd, Will you give me a calf?” 

Thomas looks at the man, obviously a yuppie, then looks at his peacefully grazing herd 

and calmly answers, “Aye lad. Why not?” 

The yuppie parks his car, whips out his Dell notebook computer, connects it to his 

Cingular RAZR V3 cell phone, and surfs to a NASA page on the Internet, where 

he calls up a GPS satellite to get an exact fix on his location which he then feeds to 

another NASA satellite that scans the area in an ultra-high-resolution photo. 

The young man then opens the digital photo in Adobe Photoshop and exports it to an 

image processing facility in Hamburg, Germany. 

Within seconds, he receives an email on his Palm Pilot that the image has been 

processed and the data stored. He then accesses an MS-SQL database through an 

ODBC connected Excel spreadsheet with email on his Blackberry and, after a few 

minutes, receives a response. 

Finally, he prints out a full-color, 150-page report on his hi-tech, miniaturized HP 

LaserJet printer, turns to the farmer and says, “You have exactly 1,586 cows and calves.” 

“That’s right. Well, I guess you can take one of my calves,” says Thomas. 

He watches the young man select one of the animals and looks on with amusement as 

the young man stuffs it into the trunk of his car. 

Then the Thomas says to the young man, “Hey, if I can tell you exactly what your 

business is, will you give me back my calf?” 

The young man thinks about it for a second and then says, “Okay, why not?” 

“You’re an MP from Westminster”, says Thomas. 

“Wow! That’s correct,” says the yuppie, “but how did you guess that?” 

“No guessing required.” answered the farmer. “You showed up here even though 

nobody called you; you want to get paid for an answer I already knew, to a question I 

never asked. You used millions of pounds worth of equipment trying to show me how 

much smarter than me you are; and you don’t know a thing about how working people 

make a living -- or about cows, for that matter. This is a herd of sheep........ 

Now give me back my dog! 

Name the Wayfarer Competition 

We have two training Wayfarers with 

names and two without. The named 

boats are “Maccabee” and “Valkyrie” 

We want suggestions for the names of the 

other two. The only constraint is that they 

should match the theme of the other two. 

Entries should explain a connection 

between “Maccabee” and “Valkyrie” and 

then propose two other names that fits 

the connection. 

Entries to the Editor. They will be judged 

by the training Committee and the 

winner will get a £5.00 bar token. 

Editor 

Who was the youth on the ice with the 

Ice Yacht in the last magazine? 

In the last magazine on page 17 we asked 

you to identify the young chap in the 

woolley hat standing on the ice. 

We didn’t get a single response. It seems 

Joke! 

that no one had a clue despite me telling 

you the clue was in the last paragraph; 

“his Enterprising father” 

Any the wiser now? No? Well it was our 

Enterprise Fleet Captain and Duty Rota 

man Dick Lankester standing on the ice 

where he was brought up to sail from the 

tender age of 5 at Frensham Ponds. Dick’s 

dad was commodore there for many 

years.

Attention all Novice Laser Owners. 

Would you like to spend less time 

doing this? 

And more time doing this? 

Then sign up for the Laser Novice training day on Saturday 26th September. 

This day is specially designed for those of you who are new to Laser sailing. The intension is to 

explain the boat set up and then the fundamentals of sailing a Laser quickly. 

It is free to Weir Wood Sailing Club Members. 

For further details contact fleet captain Peter Young via email or mobile 07799765216 or Course 

instructor David Giles on 01342300969. or e-mail d.giles2@btinternet.com. 

I would like to limit the numbers to a maximum of eight on a first come first served basis. 

Creative Puns for Educated Minds 

The roundest knight at King Arthur’s round table was - Sir Cumference. He acquired 

his size from too much pi 

A rubber band pistol was confiscated from algebra class --because it was a weapon of 

math disruption. 

A dog gave birth to puppies near the road and was cited for littering. 

Two silk worms had a race. They ended up in a tie. 

A hole has been found in the nudist camp wall. The police are looking into it. 

Atheism is a non-prophet organization. 

A sign on the lawn at a drug rehab centre said, ‘Keep off the Grass.’ 

A small boy swallowed some coins and was taken to a hospital. His grandmother 

telephoned to ask how he was, a nurse said, ‘No change yet.’ 

A chicken crossing the road is poultry in motion. 

The man who survived mustard gas and pepper spray is now a seasoned veteran. 

A backward poet writes inverse. 

In democracy, it’s your vote that counts. In feudalism, it’s your count that votes. 

When cannibals ate a missionary, they got a taste of religion. 

Don’t join dangerous cults: Practice safe sects ! 

Feeling bored and fed 

up, try these harmless 

diversions: 

At lunch time, sit in your parked car with 

sunglasses on and point a hair dryer at 

passing cars. See if they slow down. 

Put decaf in the coffee maker for 3 

weeks. Once everyone has got over 

their caffeine addiction, switch to 

espresso. 

Order diet water whenever you go out to 

eat, with a serious face. 

Sing along at the opera. 

Five days in advance, tell your friends 

you can’t attend their party because you 

have a headache. 

When the money comes out of the cash 

machine scream ‘I won! I won!’ 

When leaving the zoo, start running 

towards the car park yelling ‘Run for 

your lives! They’re loose!’ 

Tell your children over dinner, ‘Due to 

the economy, we are going to have to let 

one of you go.’ 


31

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