Crew Available for Tomorrow's Blast Around the Lake!!....

Sebastian Camisul has a friend who wants to crew an FF. Wise Chap !!  He is coming along tomorrow - so if anyone is needing a crew he is available TOMORROW!!!

If you are interested contact the VC on 07885 333949  or email at measurer@flyingfifteen.co.uk

Sunday 16th Racing - Breeze Forecast....

Sunday should be terrific - a mild 12 degrees, light cloud and the top end of force 4 - with occasional gusts on top. Sounds fantastic!! Super breeze for Fifteening!!! See you there....

The Water is Up......!!!

Good news - the water is up! The level is over the second knuckle. I'd say maybe 15 feet of concrete is under water since last Sunday. This photo was taken midday Friday. The jetty will need adjusting before launching.

Long Term Success Metrics for our Fleet....

Of course, when we want to wonder how healthy our fleet is, we count the boats in the parking, count the starters on the line, and count the net new teams in the year. Good - but rather tactical measures, don't you think??

As many of you know, I recently had five summers off for bad behaviour - I raced five seasons with the Dragon Fleet at Medway Yacht Club. It was a really fabulous experience and I learned a whole lot there. They have around twenty boats in the fleet and every Saturday about 19.5 of them turn out for Fleet Racing. The Fleet Captain there, an old friend of mine, Hilary Gallo was very keen on "Management Metrics" for the Fleet. I was reminded of this last week when we discovered that the average age of our FF sailors is 45. That was one of Hilary's three success metrics. He tracked two other things as well.... (i) the average age of the boats in the fleet inventory (ii) how much money was invested in the fleet each year in way of new, secondhand and replacement boats. I think this is not a bad stab at metrics which tell you much more about the health of a fleet. Got any other ideas?

I wonder what the average age of our boats was last year and this???.......

Google Can Be So Funny......

Through the website statistics, if someone finds this website via a Google Search I can tell what they keyed into the Google Search Bar... Two days ago, someone found us by keying in... "Admirals Barge".... ha ha ha ha !! There you go, Mike and Phil - you're famous!!

Just while I'm typing, if you use the new website (with the white background, at www.flyingfifteen.org) have you recently checked out the section called "Interesting Links" about half way down the right hand side of this webpage?? There's a lot more links listed now, based on ideas from several fleet members. I draw your attention also to the entry labelled "DWSC Weather - at QMSC..." They are only a couple of miles from us and have a really nice webcam and weather beacon !! Take a look!!!

If you are reading this on the old website (black background), click the link on the right to go to the new "Datchet Man"....

Hayling Worlds now set at 120 boats....

I may have missed this the first time around - I'm not 100% sure, but I think this is new news.... On the BIFFA Newsfeed yesterday they posted an item to say that the NOR for the Hayling Worlds was republished. When I looked at it, it made reference to a change in the limit of the number of boats. When I checked that out, (NOR section 3.2 if you're interested) it said "120 boats maximum".

Didn't this used to be set so that we had World Championship numbers in the 50's???? If it can be doubled, I suggest that it'll be really excellent for the public profile of the Class and really get the FFs on the "Big Map". Well done to the BIFFA Officers, I reckon.....

Weight Correctors.... and Where to Put Them....

I was having a word with Dave Rickard, who races with Charles, at the weekend.  They'd just come back from the Grafham Grand Prix where Dave says the FF turnout was not too strong. (He and Charles were DQ'd though I think .... the air will be thick with Barrister words...) He says the new boat is coming along really well - it went back to Composite Craft for an Upgrade just recently and has come out looking superb. The one thing that caught my attention was that the lead correctors in the boat were now buried in floor recesses as low as they could get it - Dave said you could feel a difference. In even a new Ovington, your lead is under the console quite a bit higher up.  Actually, it is a lot of lead so perhaps you can indeed feel it - even if you're not Charles(!). It reminds me that when I saw Steve Goacher recently in Windermere, we talked about his storing of water bottles under the console as close to the Centre of Gravity as you can get. Howard stores our kit-kats in the spinnaker bag - must have a word....

The Water Level....

Did you hear the item on the Today Program this morning that 9cms of snow equals 1cm of rain? Despite what we might think, December 2010 had half the precipitation of the historical average. It seems that the authorities are much more concerned by dry winters, than they are by dry summers. It might explain why our lake hasn't come up. Thames Water never tell the Club Office anything about the water level, but I find the best thing is to ask the VC. His Executive Offices are right beside the river at Pangbourne and indeed, he tells me that the flow has been very slow for weeks, and it is only now building up. I'm going over there Friday and will take a look for myself. H and I took the Westerly side to the beats quite a few times in yesterday's racing and noticed that there was a lot of turbulence in the water just off the pier. A different water colour too, so I'm hoping that was pumping in and not out! If anyone knows if the pier is where they pump in or out, please can you let me know on the DM email?

The word in the Bar was that the changing room refurbishment is delayed till later in the year. Probably a good thing with the Winter Warm Up starting soon. At least the hand-dryer is working!!....

Race Report - Sunday January 9th....

A sparkling, cloudless light greeted us this morning, good SW breeze too around 10-12knots. Temperature about 6 degrees... by the end (!). Ten boats entered - an excellent turnout for so early in the year, and that was with a number of our stalwarts lying on beaches/ski-slopes (delete as appropriate), or nursery decorating. We should have been fourteen on my count.
Race one got away all too briskly. In our keen-ness to get going, there was a bit of playful argy-bargy at the committee boat end, but quick away were Firth and Tinsley (3888), leading the pack up the beat. The PRO has a sense of humour though and called 3888 back after a few minutes of glory had passed by. I should talk - 3934 was out of the gate in tenth. The beats were great actually - long arcs of breeze, just enough hanging out considering Christmas was not far behind us - and bright, bright sunshine. The fleet scooted up the first beat, with the left hand side looking a bit favoured - unusual in a South Westerly at Datchet. The Admiral and the VC were out of it of course, so instead it was 3851 (Ian Linder) that made the pace, with Firth/Mumford (the next layer of the family Dynasty, in 3860) in very close attendance and Clark/Melnikova sailing their socks off in third place. Behind them, the Stensons in their shiny new boat (3632) were sailing very well in company with the Humes in 3559. Jones/Shawyer in 3934 were crawling their way up to the middle fleet, from their useless start. At the top the battle became tighter and closer - and eventually, Firth/Mumford managed to winkle their way past 3851 to win, with Clark/Melnikova in third. Jones/Shawyer climbed to 4th, with Dominic and David Hume in 5th.
For race two, things were a shade more orderly. Firth and Tinsley retired - bit concerned, but I've spoken to the VC this evening and he's had an infection this last week and thought one race would be enough. He's OK. Actually, before launching he mentioned he was having "trouble with his chest", which I imagine is the kind of thing that Jordan might say to me on a cold morning.... Back to the racing - other casualties had been Andy and Andy in the Loan Boat - a broken main halyard, I think. Andy Murphy's proper brand new boat is in the Doctor's again. You may remember his jammed spinnaker halyard in his last Datchet race - well, it happened again at the Grafham Grand Prix, so the riggers at P&B are taking another look. Race two was away a little more tidily this time, and we all fair scorched up the beat. This time, Ian Linder (3851) put his stamp on it all very early - just romped off. The fleet split into two, and the top three, Linder, Firth/Mumford, Jones/Shawyer moved well away from the rest - . The next pack was having a whale of a time though - with the Humes, the Millars, the Stensons and Clark/Melnikova really slugging it out very closely. On the last wing mark, Jones/Shawyer tried hard to close Firth/Mumford but it was not to be. They finished Linder, Firth, Jones. Then there was something of a large gap before the Family Regatta arrived at the finish - and the order there was Humes, Millars, Clarke/Melnikova, Stensons, Bell/Scullion.
Click on the Results and Series tabs on the right hand side of "Datchet Man" for details.....