The final weekend of our season saw a bumper turnout of 12 boats, including six laser Radials on a lovely November morning with bright sunshine and light winds to contest the last two races of the Frostbite Series and provided a fitting finale to another excellent season.

Mick and Clare were in charge and set an interesting figure of eight course for the first race and after a competitive start the fleet set off towards Amroth picking their way through the various gusts and lulls with more lulls than gusts. Ben was first away followed by Simon and Paul and Julia with the rest of the fleet all converging on the first buoy. The Contender and the RS 200 pulled away, but couldn’t shake Ben off and the overall results saw Ben finishing first ahead of Paul and Julia followed by Simon and then Dave in his Solo, while the remaining bunch of Laser Radials were headed by Hywel in his shiny new boat followed by James.

The course was changed to a more conventional triangle for the second race and this was led from start to finish by Simon in his Contender, with Dave in second place for most of the race until Ben sneaked through on the last leg to take second place just ahead of Dave who was followed by Paul and Julia, again the chasing pack of Radials were led home by Hywel just ahead of Rosie.

This brought to an end one of the most competitive season’s racing we have had for some time with nine or 10 different race winners while there were also different winners of all four series with Paul and Julia in the RS 200 just holding off Simon to win the Frostbite Series which included a number of light wind races obviously to their liking, with Ben in third place overall and Hywel in an excellent fourth place.

As well as the excellent turnouts and the highly-competitive racing as referred to above, there has also been a great atmosphere and spirit throughout the season and we are already planning and looking forward to next year.

A big thank you to all of those on duty on Sunday, plus all of those who have helped both on and off the water during the whole of the season, we couldn’t have done it without you!

On Saturday, we had our annual general meeting which was well attended by some 30 or so enthusiastic club members at the sailing club. The rugby match in Cardiff was too big an attraction for others! The meeting began with a wide ranging address from our president, Mr. Rolfe John. The meeting provided an opportunity to celebrate some of the successes in 2016 and to consider the challenges that face the club in 2017. The members who are standing for office in the new committee are those who stood for office in the previous year. One of the challenges for the committee is to persuade others to come forward and take on the roles which remain vacant. Without a broader volunteer base, the club is limited in what it can provide for the members. The success of our regatta week, known as Coppet Week, has hinged on John Griffiths in recent years. As well as acting as race officer, John has put his cruiser at the club’s disposal. John is now stepping down from this role, although he will be in the background to give advice. Thank you John from all of us.

While the sailing itself has finished for now, there will still be plenty of jobs to be done over the winter and if you are able to assist in any way please let Mick (our Bosun) know and any help will be greatly appreciated.

The Rowers also continue to use the clubhouse for their winter training and they will always welcome new recruits while any additional social events will be advertised here or on the club’s website or the Facebook pages.

Dizzy Rascals