Brian Allen, 2007/8 Commodore Autumn / Winter 2007 Class report. Our summer series could not have had a closer result with Bob and Brian each scoring the minimum 15 net points. The decider, under club rule 17, was only at the “Nth” discarded first place in favour of Bob. Congratulations to both. Well done runners up Tim (Joinson), Keith, Nick and a special cheer for Paul in his first season. Seventeen boats turned out over the 58 race series.  Solos had an enthusiastic turn out for the Wednesday pursuits and the result of the first series was a hat trick of Bob, Tim (Jobson), and Phil being first in for supper! Turning to the dark arts, this year’s handicaps were derived by giving the fastest nine helms from the 2005 and 2006 seasons yardsticks which added between one and six minutes per hour. All the others sailed off scratch. At the start of the season I thought the handicaps were really tough and at the end, – well it made surprisingly little difference! The reason; the series has so many discards it is scored for match racing rather than handicapping. Next year I will turn the screw and give scratch boats up to 10 minutes over the fastest boats of 2006/7 and I would welcome any feedback from the class on this. Well done prize winner Keith and runners up Nick and Paul.

Finally, a date for your diaries. Solo open meeting next year is pencilled in for Saturday 5^th April so no prior engagements please. If you are not competing it’s great fun to help out and greatly appreciated by the competitors. I have a growing list of contacts and hope to attract a bumper entry.             Richard.

Summer 2007 class report

The Summer Series is well under way and with 22 races sailed, 15 count and 7 are discards at present. Keith leads with 43 points nett followed by Bob (131) and Brian (172). So far there are only 8 entries and with 36 races left, everything to sail for. Your class captain would exhort more of you to join in but is embarrassed by his own failure to appear on a Sunday so far. My next task is to issue provisional handicaps based on last year’s performances so that the Handicap Series can be scored.

National Solo Class Association, Traveller Series Midland Area.  Solo Open Meeting at Barnt Green SC, Saturday 14th April 2007 attracted an entry of 19 boats. Three races were sailed in a light NE breeze and an unseasonably warm 22 degrees C.    Andy Davis 4767 (Chase) led for most of the first race but was passed on the final beat by Stuart Hydon 4644 (Shustoke).                    Stuart Hydon covers Jon Clarke

There was a very close start to the second race with Bob Suggitt 3845 (Barnt Green), Chris Brown 4727 (RYA) and Jon Clarke 4712 (Draycote) leading at the weather mark. By the third round Stuart Hydon,  Jon Clarke and Chris Brown led the fleet by a distance in a very patchy breeze with Gareth Wilkinson 4575 (Chelmarsh) and Bob Suggitt in a close duel for fourth.

 Andrew Liddington 4771, Hannah Showell and Bob Suggitt complete a round