Survival of the Fittest

The final Sunday of Bass Week 2008 dawned wet and still windy. By this point of the week only the keenest made it on to the water for the last race so it was left to Denis and Jo, and to Gail to fly the flag for Yeadon through to the bitter end, while the rest of us tried to pack up between the rain showers.
The final weekend stared so well with a dry and sunny evening on Friday and there was an excellent live band in the club that kept a few of us up ‘till late. However Saturday morning we were awaken with wind blowing through the trees and the rigging and rain beating down on the tents. We hoped for a postponement as very few people were keen but the Race Office decided we would race on time ! A number of boats were getting ready to sail and after a lot of consideration Neil decided to give it go, Yvonne was less keen but went for the dry suit anyway !
Conditions on the water were lively to say the least, but it made for some interesting flat out planning reaches for the sailors and good spectating for the crowds who remained on shore. Neil and Yvonne were leading the medium handicap fleet when they decided to play submarines and nose dived whilst running at speed ! When they righted the boat they found the jib had become loose because the force of the nose dive had caused a jib halyard block to pull out. With that their race, and regatta, was over leaving them to limb home to pack the boat up.
In the afternoon, in slightly less severe conditions, but still pretty windy, Denis and Jo ventured out to play and Neil teamed up with Mark Blackman, ex of Yeadon, to race Mark’s RS200 (see photo below). After two further tiring, but exhilarating sails for all it was definitely shower time for the boys while Jo showed she was fitter than the rest of us and went for a swim in the lake first !

Thanks to Bassenthwaite Sailing Club for a very interesting week - I’m sure Yeadon will be back in force again next year !

Some Club members are heading for Ullswater for their Regatta Week this week, and I’m in no doubt they will have as much of a varied week as we have had this week !

Two faces of Bass

Over the last couple of days we seen some different sides of Bassenthwaite :
On Monday we had a beautiful pink mountain as the sun set,


Whereas today we had drizzle, followed by rain, followed by more drizzle
And the puddles grew !

Wet & windless at Bass - The tide is rising !

Thursday has dawned windless, and it is now wet as well so the clubhouse is full of sailors wanting the weather to change !

The last couple of days the wind has been fairly light, which has made for some interesting racing as the different fleets merged together. Yeadon made it into the prizes with Neil and Yvonne getting a 4^th on Monday and then Neil with Katie, a 3rd on Tuesday in the medium handicap fleet. Tim, in the same fleet, has been getting to grips with his Vario and its spinnaker and beat the other Varios on Wednesday. The conditions, however, haven’t been right for the other Yeadon sailors who have not achieved the places they would have liked.

On the social side most of the grown ups ( minus Tim, who was having a nap ) made it out to the 18^th century Pheasant Inn on Tuesday evening for a drink, much to the amusement of a couple from Leeds who were having a quiet wedding anniversary drink until we filled the place up. They had heard of the ‘Yeadon Yacht Club’ ( ! ) so they might come over next year with their boys to see the Club.

The ground around the tents and Club is now getting very squidgy with all the rain and some cars have had to be towed out of the back field, high ground and umbrellas now seem quite important !

The forecast is looking better for Friday and the weekend, so let’s hope we finish on a high !

Update from Bass

A number of sailors, families and friends old and new have made their annual trip to Bassenthwaite for the annual regatta week.

Showers welcomed us on Friday as we set up camp, but the bar was welcoming, too welcoming for some, but that’s another story !

Saturday was windy which woke everybody up as they found their way round the lake (apart from mark 6 which had no wind at all), whereas Sunday was lighter but sunny and rather nice.

Sunday was also Quiz night and “we was robbed !” Despite bringing in help from the Blackpool seaside Streaker sailors, Stuart and Alan, Yeadon couldn’t repeat their form of previous years. With a specialist round of ‘Harry Potter’ we knew it was going to be difficult and so it proved ! Luckily for us the final results weren’t published.

Monday we had the traditional ‘Round the Lake’ race, which was good fun, especially when, the Laser, Medium Handicap and Enterprise fleets all combined at mark 14 ! Conflicting cries of “No Water” and “Water for Ten” were often heard.

Despite trying very hard ( Clive’s words ) Yeadon haven’t made it into the prizes yet, but there are still quite a few races to go !