Ent Inlands 2005

So.... the first major event of the year has been and gone and it was LARGE. ? About 67 of us turned up at Rutland S.C for a rollercoaster of an event with sun, lightning, racing, death, drinking and inventions... here we go...

So, I trucked cross-country to Rutland, sun shining, a half decent breeze and the stereo on and met James there with the boat, raring-ish to go... first things first:

Register, and 'cus i'm a numpty, pay the money (no early-bird bonus for me).. Fifty-bloody pounds it cost for the inlands, fifty-pounds... and that didin't even include the evening meal and there wasn't any entertainment laid on in the evening either... I have to admit (first moan of the day) that that kinda cash for a 2 day event ain't on... anyway, I winged, payed the dosh and we went onto phase 2.... where we gonna sleep... car was an option, not cold and relatively comfy.... tent was an option but the weather forecast was suggesing majot storms in the night.. last idea was a "rutland bunk"... but they'd all gone... however, Andy had blocked booked a room and had some bunks free, so handded over further cash, to our saviour Andy and that was us sorted and paid up for the weekend... time for past, coffee, briefing and get out sailing!!!

So 67 boats made their way down to the far end of rutland for a bit of a yacht on a very pleasant, warm (yep shorties were on) Saturday afternoon...

To be fair, this report was started about 2 weeks ago, and now I haven't got a clue (now that I'm finishing the post) what the hell went on..sorry, here's the results of the races and some vague details of the "fun" that was had by all...

Race 1
1st 22917 Jeff Dyer/Simon Cook
2nd 22975 Paul Hobson/Jeanette Hunt
3rd 23089 Jon Woodward/Alex Halliwell

Race 2
1st 22917 Jeff Dyer/Simon Cook
2nd 2303 Pete Lawson/Dennis Swain
3rd 23085 Chris Fry/Ali Fry


Apres-Yachting (don't mix-em)
Off to the pub... eat - eventually, pub wouldn't serve us foood for 1/2 hour could have been 'cus Johnny had his shirt done upto the top.. sorted that then we cud eat food... nice, better than shelling out £8 ontop of the £50 entry fee (rip-off ??) .. drinks, Guiness I think (G&T starter at the club)... more Guiness, back to the club, "Les" on his own serving @ the bar, no Maureen... until later, then "she" helped out a bit :-) more T&G...G&T... bottled beer... a whiskey possibly... and a lot of chat with a host of old and new friends.. god ya miss 'em don't ya!

So, thats all I can remmeber, to be fair/honest etc I didn't think itwas the best night we'd all ever had.. nothing really kicked off, nothing momentus, nothing beautifully chilled, just ok... no aggro, just ok... oh yeh an one hell of FREKIN' THUNDER STORM THAT NIGHT... THANK GOD FOR rUTLAND BUNKS!

Sunday Mornin...
A sad moment:
Well, this was bad... Sunday dawned and we founded Gez's bird dead in the bottom of his boat... she was black and who knows what circumstances had led 2 her tragic death... So, the poor ickle blackbird was laid to rest quietly on the banks of Rutland, maybe she flew into Gez's mast, maybe she was struck by lightning, maybe she got pissed and had a tragic acccident, we'll never know...

A momentus occasion:
Andy bought the early morning coffee's.... thanks Andy...

Re-engineering the Beufort-Scale
So, bugger-all wind, so we sat atop the balcony at Rutland a whole gaggle of us... then we decided to "test" the wind and dreampt up a whole new beaufort scale, properly tested as well regarding TWO plastic coffee cups - of course we had the arguments as to which way they should be placed, whetehr they should be on a "film of spilt coffee" etc, but its a pretty good scale... oh and of course you;ve got to add the visual bits like ripples on the surface... white horses or the classic "when Ant gets blown over holding the two coffee cups you shouldn't sail"

Then we had to sail.. I was upright and there was a bit of wind!

Race 3
1st 23053 Shane MacCarthy/Pete Rowley
2nd 22652 Jeremy Stephens/Sarah Appleby
3rd 22917 Jeff Dyer/Simon Cook

Race 4
1st 21793 Tony Woods/Sam Woods
2nd 23049 Brian Cumming/Claire Cumming
3rd 22911 Martin Bradley/Rachel Bradley

Race 5
1st 2303 Pete Lawson/Dennis Swain
2nd 22917 Jeff Dyer/Simon Cook
3rd 23045 Martin Honnor/Simon Haighton

Final Results:
1st 22917 Jeff Dyer/Simon Cook
2nd 22975 Paul Hobson/Jeanette Hunt
3rd 23085 Chris Fry Ali Fry
4th 2303 Pete Lawson/Dennis Swain
5th 22456 Nigel Bird/Katie Dolling
6th 23053 Shane MacCarthy/Pete Rowley

12th Ant and James, same as last bloody year, and not damn well good enuff...oh well

So...there we go, we had a little bit of everything...so to speak!