Rudyard Finally!

PC sorted, no virus just thingz a bit messed up..I may be a techie but technology is a pain in the arse sometimes, anyway were back in gear again!

So Rudyard, jeeze a week away times flying past.. this is gonnabe a bit sketchy..a) we did crap b) its ages away..sorry (again).

So drove up north east of my home to the North West Midland Areas, part of this years 2006 National Circuit.. never been to Rudyard, but heard it was beautiful and beautifully shifty..yep..

So arrived and peered through the tree lined road at the very light breeze and the grey skies...bummer..this wasn't gonna be good...

So James was there already and most others too, the usual crowd, but good to see them all.. the club looked great, very new, very "shiny" great facilities..

So got the boat rigged, grabbed the customary coffee and bacon sarnie, got changed (not warm enuff Bewl was nice this was too cold) and went out yachting.. so the breeze was fairly lack-lustre, the lake is long and thin, trees everywhere and a steam engine that runs down one edge of the lake and randonly goes "toot-toot" which ws kinda bizzare..so start line was a fixed job across the width of the lake, wind coming down the lake and we had an ok start... and well basically we ended up 7th the shifts were (to me) random, viscious and gunning for me.. at times we were looking good but never managed to keep the good karma.....ok but not damned good enuff.... back in for a cup of tea etc etc and then off for the next.. breeze was similarly random, still couldn't get myself into some kind of pattern or into the zone.. boat speed was fine, in fact I would almopst say very good, but thats no use to you if your sailing the wrong way on a crap shift..which we seemed to be doing a lot.. think we ended up 11th in that one... feeling dispondant now... No 3rd race today... 3 races tomorrow (Sunday) yikes...

So the social was good, barbeque, beer and 50's music.. they'll be a video of this, and some of the "tranquil sailing" up in the the V. near future.. pics are already up on Flikr... BTW you may have come across some pics of boats (Larks) filled with m,ud and flowers on a roundabout... yep they're real; near my home, near Draycote Water theres 3 boats donated that sit there looking pretty..its cool..

So lots of drinking, bar-man was great and was camping so he didn't leave until 1:30am if I remmeber rightly... before that we did drinking singing, some did dancing, lots of chatting about sailing, books, beer, life etc etc it was cool and we were all happy with our lot..so at some silly hour we all calmly dispersed to our beds...floor of the sailing club, back of a car, tent wherever...

Morning All! I awaoke to little breeze a very dry mouth and a slight hangover... dragged myself out the car.. breathed in the fresh air (that was beautiful) and went for breakfast.. orange juice (lots), coffee and staffordshire oatcakes filled with cheese (I think) and bacon sarnies... god that was heavy but I need some strength building...

So more racing was then had.. 3rd race we had a shocker 12 out of 30.. at this point I was ready to pack it in.. we werent gonna recover from this.. two races left in fairly bum winds that wouldnt stay still long enuff for me to understand what they were doing (BTW Pete and Dennis were winning by this point, Jon was in the running, Anne Jackson was also doing well).. we had more tea/coffee and a chat..decision made we'd try the next one and bail if we were too depressed.. ARSE.. we did well got a 5th or 6th I think, got into the groove and actually enjoyed it...oh well back in for lunch, no early bath lets see what we can do with the last one... bang again, back in the groove, got in the lead once...found the sailing hard-going but managed to hold things together to get another decent result.....

So boat away, had some Enterprise 50th Birthday cake, some speaches from the old timers and the prizegiving and then off we went, our seperate ways after a good, well run day... but a shocker of a result for Ant and James...... oj yeh forgot to say the OD was a nutter, had no damned idea at time of what he was doing.. we were all (in between races) sat drinking tea in the clubhouse, thinking it was about time to get sorted for the next race when someone shouts that the bloody 4 min gun had just gone.. Arrggh 4 mins to finish tea, pull up sailing kit, pull up sail, launch, calm down, and get a good start... the git of an OD did it twice..apart form that the whole thing was actually run well.. fingers crossed that the powers that be do the same kinda good job for the Inland Champs next month...