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Monday 11 August 2008

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 !

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