FFs at the Next Dinghy Show - and the Mk IX again....

The Flying Fifteen will again have a good stand at the Alexandra Palace Show in March. In 2011 there will again be two boats on display - a brand new Ovington Mk X and also an example of the FF bargain of all time, a 15 year old Mk IX Smoothie. As we have written before in Datchet Man, these boats offer just terrific value and our fleet seems to be focussing on them these days. The example on display will be World Championship winner 3521 dating to 1995. This was Steve's Goacher's boat in which he started his World Championship hat-trick. I had 3644 put together by Phil Evans as a replica of it, and I must say I thought it was super boat to race in. I still have the write-up of the boat itself from Y&Y which inspired me to get myself up to Windermere in 1998. The show is on March 5th-6th.

P&B 20% sail discount ends tomorrow

Just seen on twitter that the P&B discount on sails(20%) and covers (15%) ends tomorrow, 24th.

Why Reduce the FF's Weight?

Why do some wish to reduce the minimum weight? Isn't a heavier boat less sensitive to the variations in crew weight? Would a weight reduction mean a change in handicaps? I know we are looking for a solution rather than more questions, but I don't understand the logic....

FF2948

Christmas Holiday Racing Program

Just a reminder that the Datchet Club has racing over Christmas. There is a bottle race on Sunday 26th, and the Pink Elephant Race on Saturday January 1st. Then our Flying Fifteen 2011 Winter Series starts full-on with two races, normal times, on Sunday January 2nd. Full details on www.dwsc.co.uk - See you there....

The Lighter Flying Fifteen......

An item came up at the Fleet AGM about the minimum weight of the FF being reduced - maybe by as much as 20kg, maybe less. Do we really want this?? The FF is never going to become a light boat just by knocking 20kg off it. So why bother? It may well be that for 50 boats on the circuit, or indeed any boat built in the last 15 years with maximum correctors, that this is not an issue. What about the FF owners with Classics and Silvers - what do they think? Indeed what is the opinion of Clubs whose fleets are majorly built on Classics and Silvers - what do they think? At Datchet, a weight reduction might just wash past us as the bulk of our fleet is probably carrying a lot of correctors, but there may be fleets where that is not true. Do we want to create a fourth category of FF when we already have three?? Effectively that's what we might get - a fourth category that sits in between silvers and new boats. We know that people from other fleets read this blog - let us know what you are thinking about this in your Club. Email us at datchetman@flyingfifteen.com

The BIFFA Christmas Newsletter

Was delighted to get the BIFFA Online Newsletter to members this morning. If you haven't received it, just let me know at datchetman@flyingfifteen.com and I'll forward you a copy. It contains a good summary of the major events in 2010 and has a special focus section on Club Racing. In the Club racing section there is some dialogue about increasing turnouts that you should read - and the importance of active Fleet Officers, sharing the workload and so on. BIFFA is going to feature Dovestone in a future item and the way they share the load there.

I agree very much with the sentiment that it's better to have lots of people involved and sharing the work - at Datchet around 6 of us are actively involved in the running of the fleet. If you have any ideas you should let the FC know, and why not drop a line to BIFFA as well.

On the circuit front, there was an interesting snippet - 32 Clubs had competitors in the Championship series in 2010. Pretty good...

There are good reports on the new experimental FF rig and also the importance of Communications ( "Datchet Man" mentioned - hurrah !!) which we would wholeheartedly agree with.

Let me know if you need a copy...

Update on Jonathan's Classic, FF1803

I have had a note from Jonathan to say that he and John have collected 1803, and John is currently updating the cockpit. The spinnaker system also needs a spot of re-engineering. They hope to have 1803 afloat in March.

Race Wins - Extra Analysis

The Race Report below has been edited and extended slightly to include commentary on "race wins" in the autumn series. It's a fascinatingly close picture......

Race Report - Sunday 19th

The race report for today is .... "Snow - No Sailing!!" So that brings our Autumn Series 2010 to the end. We had fourteen boats entered in the series, of which nine qualified - a great result in itself. There was a substantial score difference between the top three boats, but interestingly all three had the same number of race wins.
Fine winners for the series are Dominic and David Hume. Their Ovington Mk IX boat, 3559, is in great shape. It must be around 1996 in vintage and was fitted out by David himself - quite a few clever ideas,... go and sneak a look. They use 5 year old McNamara sails and are rigged for a chute, not bags. Dominic is a great sailor, a previous Club Championship winner, and as I recall, David was a big wheel in the National GP14 fleet in years gone by - so no shortage of talent aboard there! Dominic and David were discarding 5ths. They had five wins this series.
In second we have Mark Firth and Tony Mumford, our current Club Champions. They've had boat problems this series and had to count one DNS in their final score. They had five wins this series. As we all know, they really sail very well in their Dingwall 3860 (sneak a look at their jib sheeting arrangement...) have it rigged for spinnaker bags, fly away pole, and use mainly Goacher sails - you may just occasionally see them wearing Batts too. I often think fly-away poles are for girls, but Tony seems to manage it pretty well.
In third were Richard Jones and Howard Shawyer. Family and work commitments kept them off the water too much for a good series and they had to count DNS three times in their score. They had five race wins this series. They race a two year old Ovington, 3934, and for this series have mainly used Goacher sails - at least for the wins! They are rigged with spinnaker bags and a standard end-to-end pole. They had an inconsistent series, marked by poor results at the beginning and good at the end of the series.
Fourth placed were Mike Firth, the senior branch of the Firth family, crewed mainly by Vice Commodore Phil Tinsley, but actually with a whole number of crews aboard this series. We have three generations of the Firth family racing at the Club now - amazing! Mike had a good run of results actually, but had to count a couple of DNS which brought them down. Mike's Team had four race wins.  Mike sails a Mk X Ovington, 3888, with Bax sails aboard. It is rigged for bags. Mike did very well in the 2010 Silver Southern Travellers Series, cleaning up there in Phil Tinsley's Silver boat 3385.
A special mention too for Roger Abbey-Taylor who finished in fifth in 2948, 'Midnight Cocktail'. I am sure that Roger would modestly say, "Turnouts Count!" - but he is still learning a lot and keeping at it tenaciously. Well done, Roger! Roger and Katherine Barrett take the Silver/Classic award this series.

Hayling Worlds 2011

For the hotshots in the Fleet, the NOR and Entry Form for the 2011 Worlds at Hayling has just been posted on the HISC Website.