WHYW

[Silkie]

Just been looking at some of the WHYW results and am having difficulty grocking the fact that CLAPPED OUT TOY BOY completed the Oban-Tobermory race in 2 hours 7 minutes and 12 seconds.

OTTOMH my best time is about 5 hours.

[Silkie]

Marisca and Tango Too were pretty nippy and Dark Islander put in a creditable performance in Class 9.

[stevepick]

Don't wory Silkie COTB is a melges 24 - she is basically an overgrown dinghy with a very large asymetric that looks like it is made out of material the wieght of a bin liner, surfs at the drop of a hat, but has few, if any home comforts.
As to our speed, well we hit a personal best in TT of 10.2 knots on one surf up the sound of mull ( it was a reach -broad reach -run all the way up), but lost the race when we put our spinnaker up ,the wind then went from 20knots to 30 in short order, we broached and spent 10 mins faffing with the damm thing to get it down without breaking anything. We did however see the funny side by the time we were anchored in Aros Bay, when one of my crew complained the spinnaker was too F**k*n wet to set fire to the fu**er

Steve

[marisca]

Meanwhile Marisca was taking 3hr 4min with a best somewhere in the middle 9kts. Our 27 year old spinnaker blew (again!) when it collapsed then filled in one of the gusts. This time the rip was through the green tape, across the head and then all the way down the red tape to the foot, so it was up with the smaller 2nd kite which is a bu88er to trim. Cookie in the Balamory chandlery supplied sticky tape, a sewing machine and access to the boardroom of the Taigh Solais centre. Got thrown out at 10.40 pm, back in at 7.00am on Thursday morning and the thing was ready again, with a wee tuck apparent on the port edge , for the Sound of Mull triangle/sausage races. I suppose I'll have to buy a new one one day - but I still have 2 and a bit rolls of sticky tape and a full bobbin of uv resistant thread. Crew thought I was wasting good eating/drinking time but they joined in and helped enthusiastically.
Admiration to Tango Too for their 2-handed sailing, must have been knackering.

T'was a lot of fun, a bit knackering - 3 ceilidhs in the week play hell with my calf muscles. I've put on weight thanks to competitive galley antics - I claim a win with lasagne at Croabh and fruit scones on the final abortive day - and a surfeit of Tunnocks goodies. A definite must for next year. How the committee manage to do it so well year after year amazes me - so a big thank you to them.

If you want to hear what it's like try http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b00m0d4g

[Fingal]

If you want to hear what it's like try http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b00m0d4g

I thought some of the crew sounded quite sensible. Pity about the skipper though, obviously bonkers.

[stevepick]

Admiration to Tango Too for their 2-handed sailing, must have been knackering.

T'was a lot of fun, a bit knackering -

Thanks Alastair, next year I am going to have more bodies on TT ( a couple had to drop out at short notice). I thought you and your crew sailed a very consistent series and if you drop out the guys with the fancy sails from the top of class 7 then Marisca's result is seen in a realistic light.
I had a superb time , learnt a lot ( look out for course marks,how to deal with a broach, and look out for people barging!), am also amazed at how the commitee keep it going so well. The sight of 160 boats on the passage races was worth all the effort.
Glad my only breakage was one turning block pulley. Some poor chap lost his mast, I saw a broken boom and there must have been a shed load of spinnaker disasters .
Can't wait for next year. It was a very friendly set of folk, but then people maybe were just chatting to us because of our superb hats

Steve

[MrMcP]

Can't wait for next year. It was a very friendly set of folk, but then people maybe were just chatting to us because of our superb hats

Steve

Was that the rather fetching tartan deerstalkers? I think you may have been a few people ahead of me in the queue for fish & chips in Tobermory.....

Brilliant week, even our kids enjoyed the racing (13 year old daughter in not-stropping shocker) and as already mentioned the organisation was excellent. We were rather nervous heading in, not having done any proper racing before and having had all our experienced crew drop out on the Friday before. Losing the specially-purchased copy of the racing rules didn't help either - thankfully none of the recalls/black flags/etc were for us. We took the safe and long route round most days and our results reflected it, and the extra reefs we stuck in to keep the kids upright didn't help either. But most importantly it was fun and we met lots of lovely people. Roll on next year.

[puddock]

C'mon Silkie, lets get Rosally a crew together and show these lot what it's a about !!!
No spinnaker, good music & lots of laaughs..............
anyone game?

[ash]

C'mon Silkie, lets get Rosally a crew together and show these lot what it's a about !!!
No spinnaker, good music & lots of laaughs..............
anyone game?

I think that Silkie would insist on a spinnaker!!



Ash

BTW - Took me a long time to track down this photo, which, IIRC belongs to Fullcircle

[puddock]

A couple bits of 4 b' 2 lashed between us and we could be a Cat!!!
Sorry - Norway 4 - Scotland nil.....and I'm stuck in bloody Norway!

[puddock]

Better still, you sail up to Tob the night before, with 20 odd mile of polyprop, drop the raya, and I'll get Kylie to winch like ---- , beat the lot of 'em!

[stevepick]

Was that the rather fetching tartan deerstalkers? I think you may have been a few people ahead of me in the queue for fish & chips in Tobermory.....

Yes that was us, well everyone else had the t-shirts ...

Love the idea of the "not-strop shocker" , I like the fact that with WHYW you can kind of pick the racing you fancy ( slightly more serious with spinny, or slightly more relaxed with white sail).
The conditions on the passage races led to really pleasant sailing (mostly - the saturday race to croabh was erm cr*p at the end in 30 knts down the sound of luing on the nose).

Just have to decide what hat to get for next year now.

Steve

[marisca]

The conditions on the passage races led to really pleasant sailing (mostly - the saturday race to croabh was erm cr*p at the end in 30 knts down the sound of luing on the nose).

I actually enjoyed that bit mainly 'cos we were sailing away from much bigger boats. Consider Neil and his son sailing the H Boat Hussy, hiking the whole way, no reefing available and they were catching us once they got round Ardluing - respect!

[stevepick]

I didn't realise they had no reefing on Hussy! We really struggled with that last section - over 25kts and I really have to (roller)reef the genoa and any pretence at pointing goes out the window. We got trashed by the guys in the Contessa 26 at that point ! Still it was a good night at Croabh.

Next year!!