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Ullswater Meet (DaveS)
This year we again enjoyed the excellent facilities at the Ullswater Yacht Club. The camping field is well sheltered (it needed to be), and the clubhouse offers a bar with a comfortable lounge and a cafe serving piping hot food and coffee all day. This proved a popular place from which to watch the few hardy souls who ventured out on Saturday. A good forecast, from a couple of days before, turned into a cold overcast sky, with wind gusting force 6. Several boats went out under reduced sail, beam reaching to the opposite shore and back. Tyrone showed what could be done, sailing at breathtaking speed in his JC (a trainer for an IC 10) with 55 sq ft of sail and a sliding seat.
My wife, however, assured me that the most worthwhile pastime on Saturday afternoon was a trip to the local craft fair, organised by the OCSG (Open Canoe Shopping Group). Saturday evening saw over fifty members gather for a group meal in the clubhouse. This informal social proved very popular until the entertainment provided by the yacht club made conversation impossible. A man played ABBA hits very loudly on an electric organ, and most people retired to the veranda to escape, only to be plagued by midges.
Sunday morning brought light breezes and the promise of good racing. However, at the first race briefing the wind came back. Wind strength meters were paraded up and down the beach, measuring a wide range of wind speeds from force 3 to force 6. Several members claimed it was too strong to race, others thought it was okay. After a 15-minute postponement, the race went ahead but only 14 out of 30 boats took part. Shortly after the start, the wind moderated, making for a pleasant race, with the first four boats in close contention, Tyrone overtaking Keith on the final beat to the line, to take the Solway Dory Trophy.
In the afternoon, the wind again rose, and deterred most people from sailing. The second race was over a shorter course, the idea being to race for 45 minutes, the winner being the boat to complete the most laps. After 45 minutes, boats were timed to complete the lap they were on, so that in difficult conditions the back markers did not have to sail as far as the leaders. This again was closely contested with the first five boats finishing within just over one minute, and again Tyrone overtook Keith just before the line to win by only 8 seconds.
Five Have An Adventure (SueB) (and Timmy came too!)
We poured over maps, battled with tide tables, puzzled over charts, and now we were about to start our planned 72 mile round trip. Four open boats and a sea kayak were duly carried onto the shore at Ardrishaig and loaded. It took absolutely ages, and Geoff, the patient sea kayaker, began to realise that he was in for a lot of waiting around! However, we did finally set sail, in time to catch the tide (fairly insignificant) and the wind (light and in our direction), after a final cup of tea from what was to become variously the OCSG tea shop, soup kitchen, alfresco restaurant or midge-free club house, as occasion demanded.
It wasn't long before the differences in our boat speeds showed. Two of the group practised heaving to, or sailing in circles, which became more necessary and more difficult as the wind speed, and of course waves, increased. We experimented with a tow, which worked surprisingly well, until the wind got up to a good force three, when the towed boat began diving into waves and shipping water. At this point we dropped the tow and ran for the shore. It was now a bit wild. The wind speed gauge said Force 3 up to 4, the waves were breaking and it was definitely lunchtime.
A leisurely lunch allowed the wind to drop a bit and we set off again. Progress was slow, we were behind schedule and found ourselves heading for Tarbert Bay along with 100 or more racing yachts. The reactions we got were varied; we were ignored by some, glowered at by others, but waved to cheerily by a good few boat crews. We were just wondering if we would be able to get anywhere near the slip where we had planned to land when the wind swung round in a sudden squall and we were suddenly racing downwind, surfing and sliding, straight for all those boats! We had to fight our way head to wind, get the sails down and then run in, trying to keep the boats pointing downwind.
We landed at the first possible point, the ferry slip, in a less than dignified manner. It was worse for Eddie, who hurt his back, and had to retire from the proceedings for the next 24 hours. The OCSG tea shop had by now arrived; we loaded most of the boats onto their trolleys and we were enjoying cream cakes and tea when someone noticed the ferry arriving. There was still one boat on the slipway! 'Scramble' was the best word to describe the next few minutes, but we made it.
We now had a long portage across the Mull to West Loch Tarbert, through all the bustle of the yachting festival. We had some interesting comments on the way, ranging from "they really are canoes" to the less polite remarks of the less than sober! We had missed the tide but managed to get the boats afloat eventually and had a peaceful paddle down a calm loch to the campsite.
Our second day was a beautiful day. The wind was just right and we made excellent progress. The
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