As another and more famous John Keats noted, the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness is well and truly upon us but, our autumn has begun in a very different fashion to the ones he envisaged! Consequently, I have had no longings (unlike Robert Browning) to be back in England as this time.
Although the helm and crew of 3974 have spent most of September abroad, cycling around Denmark, (more kilometres than the cyclors on Britannia, but maybe not covering the ground as fast!), we have kept a close eye on proceedings in the fleet thanks to the efforts of the third placed journalists.
There were 7 of them in September (8 if you count the joint effort of 4016), although there should have been one less if a certain boat that had already placed third in a previous race hadn’t used the racing rules to their advantage by retiring, thus avoiding having to do homework. Fear not though, a special prize for such skullduggery may be heading their way very shortly!
The weather gods have enjoyed exercising their powers over us, poor mortals, presenting those sailing with variable and challenging conditions. Clearly though, some members of our fleet are more god-like than others. Pete and Jo, for example, have continued to show the fleet a clear pair of heels on several occasions. Although, I must report that on the 14th of this month they had to accept a ‘lowly’ third place. However, this did give Pete the chance to crack the joke of the season at the expense of a very deserving member of the X boat fleet.
Before we discuss the formal results for September, there are a few individual sailors who deserve a mention. I see that our esteemed Fleet Captain and his crew, Ron notched up another first to add to their season’s tally. However, as there were only another two boats on the water to be defeated, it won’t have done their sailor of the month cause much good. Andy and Simon, in 4054, have had a bit of a purple patch in September culminating in the first bullet in a F15 club race (I promised Ann I wouldn’t mention Friday’s Poole Week race – it still hurts apparently!)- the first of many I predict.
There is quite a long list of things I cannot do. Pretty near the top of it is sailing a Flying Fifteen on my own, let alone getting it around the race track. So, Chapeaux then to Peter Biggs who managed it not once but twice, albeit the second one might have been a race too far? Phil Cotton and Martin Cowell are both praiseworthy for sailing the final beat of a race in a brisk wind without the benefit of the kicker (vang for the youngsters in the fleet!).
Yes, Kim I do know that team Linder achieved this feat in Poole Week but that wasn’t in September was it!? Helms in the fleet will be congratulating Phil on having an arm strength of which Arnold Schwarzenegger would have been proud. Whereas, we, in the crews’ union, are praising Martin for keeping the boat flat with his hiking prowess! Finally, we should applaud Mike B’s partner, Tess for her first appearance on the water. Will this be a one-off I wonder?
As usual, sailing in the fleet has been very competitive. In case you think I’m exaggerating, I refer you to Ian Zimmerman’s report of the 11th, where he describes the top four boats finishing within twenty seconds of each other after 60 minutes sailing in 25+kts of breeze. We’ve averaged 12 boats on the water during the month which is respectable, considering that conditions have been challenging at both ends of the wind spectrum. Congratulations to Richard Ledger and Alan Baker since, in 3966, they not only sailed in every race of the Saturday Summer series (the only boat to achieve this), but also sailed in all of the Wednesday races as well! Also in the Wednesday series, three other boats achieved a maximum, 4101, 3922 and 4016. In the case of 3922, it’s anybody’s guess how many of the FFF syndicate were involved!
In conclusion, here is September’s roll of honour:
Lisa Randle: Tallying in the entire fleet, enough bangles to get into a Taylor Swift concert!
Saturday Summer Series Winner: 4115 Ian/ Kim Linder
Wednesday Summer Series Winner: 4101 Crispin Read-Wilson/Steve Brown
Bob Hoare Trophy Winner: 4088 Geof Gibbons/ Mike Barton
September Sailors of the Month for Saturdays: Andy Currell/ Simon Flack
September Sailors of the Month for Wednesdays: Phil Cotton/ Martin Cowell
September Reporter of the Month: Pete Allam
Well, that’s my home thoughts from abroad and my ode to September. Let’s hope that our Oktober is a true fest – mine’s a stein if you’re asking