Enterprise Nationals '04, Abersoch - A Rambling Review

So, finally I get to sit down and bash my keyboard to give you a run down of this years Nationals, sorry its a bit late, but hey life is such...

So, me and James took the burgandy petrol guzzling bus up to Abersoch in scorching hot weather across the country to Abersoch...eventually got there (what happened to the ye old Toll blokey?) parked up at the golf course end of Abersoch beach, wandered down to a packed stretch of sand, only to find that our boat had been kindly deposited by Youngy at the yacht club end... hey ho, a nice walk down the beach in the sun..sand between the toes, dodging gromits, sandcastles and other peoples boats...

Sunday arrived with BREEEZE, not howling but enough wind and more importantly waves to make the race officer think twice, in fact he thought, three and four times (at least) before canning the day early afternoon...the rain was coming through so although it was warm it wasnt a day for beach-bumming! So we (me, James and Katie-D) went on the search of a golf course... none open, so we went into "town" looked through the surfy shops and I bought a new rash vest... Commodores reception was the usual affair with some free wine and a damn good laugh..night night...

Monday came with lighter breezes, small waves and sunshine (if I remember right), we went sailing, cool, and me and James ended up with a bit of a storming first race, Estaugh won, we were 2nd for a fair while and just lost it to Martin Honnor by about an inch, still 3rd was kool....and then we didnt do any more racing, breeze died seriously and that was that..so ovenight on the 2nd day we were 3rd overall! So more social partying, or did we have a BBQ, cant remember... it was a good one anyway.... although I think I drove home :-(

Tuesday, 2 races I think, again light to moderate (?) breeze, plenty of shifts to think about etc, Estaugh had another good day with a 1st and 2nd, and we had an 11th..damn..that means we're pathfinder.. so after our best ever nats result we then did another 1st, pathfinder at the gatestart, that waz quite surreal, sailing along onj port, with everyone ducking yer arse... the guard boats did an excellent job (all week), and we even contemplated taking a photo as we were going along..but we didn't (next time maybe)..so we scored 5th in that one, happy enough... actually I think we had the BBQ this noight..just me 'J' and Katie-D, but it was cool, beers, a selection of dodgy meets and some tunes down by the 'C'...

Wednesday... not as good a day for us 17th and 22nd, hey ho... cant remember much else..damn the BBQ, Sun, beer and G&T's must have got to my head!

Thursday, just the one race, lots to play for things still quite tight, especially in the bit of the fleet we were in (top 10)... had a good race, got upto 2nd at one point, but there was bugger all distance between myself, Nick Jackson and Anne.... in the end in some particularly lumoy crappy breeze stuff up the last breeze our boat speed buggered off and we ended up 8th - we were bummed, but it meant 9th overall, inside the top 10 which was our aim, so that was cool...

So the results overall were as follows:

1st Richard Estaugh / Pete Rowly
2nd Mike Birch / Charles Bower
3rd Alan Johnson / Matt Johnson
4th Martin Honnor / Simon Haighton
5th Nick Jackson / Alex Halliwell
6th Jon Lye / Karl Lye
7th Jeremy Stephens / Lee Nankervis
8th Ann Jackson / Alan Skeens
9th Ant / James
10th Jane Scutt / Nick Scutt

So, thats that..other random things to say about the week, in no order are as follows:

1. Races were long...no shorten course flag?!?
2. The beach's "Smoothie Bar" was bloody good - shout out to Katie our team slushie-girl
3. Famous people support the Ent Nationals!
4. Race track was lumpy...god thats hard to sail in when yer from inland :-(
5. Jim Saltonstalls advice did work..and I understood it!
6. Ginggers are still allive (my finger still hurts)
7. Youngy won the overal Gingger award for his "hospital visit"
8. Jonny Woodward, deserves a special mention for basically giving up his Nats to be with Paul in hospital for 2 days...respect is due
9. The water came through the lounge ceiling at the accomodation while Katie was showering!
10. I slept with the commodore (well in a bunk-bed in the same room)
11. Most people drank toooooo much....
12. Me and James saw Sammy the Seal (we really did) when we were coming in after the last race...how cool was that, proper nature!
13. Always tie yer pagoda down..we didnt tie the soulsailor pagoda down at the BBQ, and it went for a walk...
14. Table surfing down stairs can be dangerous..even when watching
15. Wasps seem to live at the Yacht Club....
16. The Q&A session with the race hot-shots was bloody funny...

So, thats about all I can think of at the moment, if I've missed anything important let me know and I'll do another round-up...

So, basically a good event, we got some good racing done, in taxing conditions, we all enjoyed ourselves, organisation seemed fine and the sun shone for a fair bit of the event..can't grumble...

If you werent there, then thats what you missed, don't miss out at Tenby 2005.. cu there dudes.