December 2007 Dear Friends and Crew, Hope
you all had a good sailing season? We did at 'Sailing Ventures' being on
the water most weeks with a varied itinerary of cruising and racing. The
new mast has proved to be good and sail tuning has developed throughout
the season. This
year has included RYA practical week and weekend courses for Start
Yachting, Competent Crew, Dayskipper, Coastal Skipper and Yachtmaster
preparation training as well as ICC certification out of Lymington and
some shorebased First Aid courses nearby in Hordle. On
the racing scene, as it’s and odd year, it was the Fastnet Challenge
which kept us busy with 4 RORC cross Channel races and the Fastnet. These
were all very windy with rough seas and the largest headsail we managed to
fly was the no. 4 Jib in all races but managed to qualify very well. The
delayed Fastnet also had very rough weather and with the potentially
worsening weather situation we retired in Brixham, discretion being the
better part of valour, but crew and yacht all in one piece and ready to
race another day. Despite this we still managed 13/120 o/all in class 3
this season. We
also had a cross Channel trips to Cherbourg and Channel Isles and a
corporate day in the Solent. Martin even managed a week’s racing in
Gocek in Turkey and surrounding islands, another superb cruising ground,
as skipper on a Bavaria 49 in the ECC 2007 event. The
move of the SV team to Lymington area has been very successful and we even
managed a few Thursday evening races. We are still planning to have the
new classroom operational for end 2008 to support the practical courses
and racing which will continue through 2008 as usual. So if you are ever
in the area please give us a call and we could find a suitable hostelry
for a drink and some nautical chit-chat. This
winter we are not coming out of the water, so hope to get a few winter
sails in, although we will again be carrying out some work on ‘Flame’
with the usual domestic issues with the intent of being shipshape for full
training in March. We are now taking bookings for next year with the first
available date currently being 14th March and this year have
more training, cruising and racing, for your perusal. If you have any
interesting suggestions please let us know! The
London Boat Show at ExCel runs from January 11th to 20th
and we are planning to visit on Saturday 12th so if you are
going then, let us know and maybe we can meet up at the Guinness stand! Have
a great New Year and look forward to sailing with you or meeting you on
the water next season. Safe
sailing
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