The Dorset writer, Rosemary Manning, is best known for her groundbreaking novel, “The Chinese Garden” a racy story of illicit love in a girl’s boarding school! Groundbreaking it may have been but, this writer is more concerned with her children’s story, “Arripay”, which charted the adventures of one Harry Paye. Perhaps, because he was British, he is referred to as a ‘privateer’. The Spanish and French know him for what he was: a pirate! Since his actions caused these two nations to carry out a retaliatory attack on Poole in 1405 in which the town was looted and almost completely destroyed, I am not too sure why Parkstone holds an annual event in his memory! However, this is where we start our sailing story for June.
Crispin Read-Wilson had the honour of writing the report for this pursuit race, a challenging endeavour since the race covered most of the harbour with our fleet fairly well spread across it! When I say it was an exciting race, you don’t need to take my word for it, just read (re-read!) Crispin’s report which he finishes with the opinion that it was…. “by some way, the best ‘Arripay’ I’ve sailed in.”
Saturday racing has been somewhat disjointed, since the next event was the Southern Area Championships. These were preceded by a very energetic training day organised by Geof Gibbons, and fantastically delivered by Adam Bowers. If you know why I thought it was a good idea for me to take part in both of these events please let me know! My body was very clear on this subject – Monday saw very little physical activity on my part! Richard Whitworth and Eddie Scroggie flew the flag for our fleet, finishing in a very creditable second place. There were plenty of other troops from Parkstone who sailed the event supported by a veritable army of volunteers, ably led by Christina who put in the sort of shift we normally associate with our hard-pressed National Health workers.
On the training day, one thing we were asked to think about, and you might like to as well, is the visualisation of a race as a timeline. Obviously, the winner has the shortest timeline. What we were asked to consider is where we were losing time against the leaders. Of the numerous things this could have been, the group focussed on starting and rounding marks, the leeward one in particular. Our trainer was adamant that we should get on the beat without delay and showed us many examples of where boats lost valuable time against the leader by slackness in this manoeuvre. Good as this advice was, I still can’t help thinking that boat speed is king!
The final Saturday race of June followed a similar pattern of trying to understand the vagaries of the wind. On this occasion, we also had to gamble on the best path to Bell (its proximity to the dreaded NC2 makes the journey to it a problematic one!). Much to Rishi Sunak’s delight (and ours!), it paid to go right. Chris and Nadia’s report of the race perfectly describes the traps and pitfalls awaiting the unwary sailor, especially their description of the passage around Latham’s. Steve and Lisa have a very firm opinion on this subject as do Mervyn and Ron, admittedly from totally opposite perspectives!
Fleet racing on Wednesday afternoons has been less interrupted by external events but, that doesn’t mean conditions were any more consistent – just ask Roberta and Alan about the first Wednesday race of June. Fifty metres from the 1^st mark of the course saw them with what looked to be an unassailable lead. It’s testament to the trickiness of the wind that they ended up rounding much nearer to the back than the front! The fact that they ended up writing the report for that race is evidence for outstanding tactical awareness (awarded to her crew in Roberta’s report) or proof that the wind continued to play its tricks for the rest of the race, which is our excuse for coming DFL!
Reading the reports of Wednesday’s racing, it becomes clear that the winds were very variable in direction and strength and the tides have played a significant role in defining a boat’s success or failure. I guess it was ever thus, sailing in Poole Harbour, but I can’t remember a time when we’ve had so much from the north. For how much longer can we accurately claim that our prevailing wind comes from the south-west?
The last Wednesday sail of June was similarly complicated although, on this occasion, the problem was caused by a wind from the south-west doing battle with one from the south-east. Navigating the way through Poole Harbour’s equivalent of the Doldrums played a large part in a boat’s final position. Some teams would argue that Pelican also had a significant effect!
More consistent has been our turnout which has averaged out at 13 boats – not too bad when you consider that conditions have been very far from Champagne, more like Liebfraumilch in fact!
In total this month, we’ve had seven fleet races (also the ‘Southerns’), with one Saturday race blown off. This has produced six different winners and six separate report writers; it’s clear that for the glory of winning, and the honour(?) of report writing competition is very healthy!
Away from the club, some of our top sailors have been plying their trade abroad. In May, Richard Whitworth and Trefor Jones sailed in the European championships at Morgat Crozon, achieving a creditable 5^th place overall with a best race result in their series of 2^nd place. Over on the ‘Emerald Isle’, the two deities of our fleet, Jo and Pete Allam took part in the Flying Fifteen Nationals. You may think that their first day’s results (essentially down the pan!), would tarnish their reputation. In that case, I refer you to the old sporting adage that, ‘form is temporary but class is permanent’. For the rest of the regatta they started to own Strangford Lough, and with best race finish of fourth, they ended up 8^th overall out of 41 boats. Adrian Tattersall also represented the club in this competition finishing 29^th. The fleet can be fully satisfied that to others in the world of sailing, we are being shown in our best light
Finally, we can announce the Sailors of the month for May. Crispin and Steve took the prize in the Wednesday series. Ian and Kim Linder took home their bespoke bottles for the Saturday series: an impressive feat for Kim who won the prize whilst keeping her feet dry all month! Ian doesn’t normally hog the limelight, but he was in the frame for another of our sought-after trophies (journalistic licence here I fear!). He is now the current proud holder of the Rasputin Pot for causing the abrupt departure of his crew towards the end of one of the races in the Southern Area Championships  (video evidence on Whats App). His superb seamanship afterwards, in picking up Michael, means that the committee have decided to overlook his final misdemeanour of hitting the outer-distance mark of the finish line!
Well, that’s it for June. Let’s hope that in the coming month which celebrates a famous Roman Emperor, ‘veni, vidi,vici applies to us all!