Welcome to CMYC...dinghy Sailing club in Sussex

Looking forward to the new sailing season

The RYA Volvo Dinghy show kicks the season off on 6-7th March at Alexandra Palace. It is well worth making the trip.. One of the highlights for me will be seeing the new and much awaited RS100 single handed dinghy. This boat certainly looks the part and is the result of a lot of experience and development. Apparently RS has already sold over one hundred and thirty boats  on the strength of the just the two prototypes built so far. Maybe not the boat for the restricted waters of Hedgecourt but worth admiring. I hope to see lots of you at the show.

Another famous sailing event has just some out from the court rooms and back on the water where it really belongs. The Americas Cup is being raced in giant multi-hulls this time and at the time of writing BMW Oracle has just won the opening race to take a 1-0 lead over Swiss defending champions Alinghi in a best-of-three America's Cup match off Valencia.

 http://www.americascup.com/en/index.html

Closer to home our sailing season starts off with the one day Warm up series on 21st March. A great event for those with busy lives who find it difficult to commit to a long series. Our adult and junior courses also start the same weekend. The previous weekend Dave Monk will be leading the Mariners Spring walk around Ardingly reservoir.

A few years ago a new magazine appeared on the shelves tailored to the needs of keen dinghy racers. I was impressed at the time by the quality of the articles and signed up to receive the magazine. Unfortunately after three or four excellent editions my subscription was returned with a letter to say that the magazine had folded. I thought at the time that it was a pity but I am pleased to report that it has returned but there but in on-line form and can be accessed free of charge. Log on to http://www.sailracer.co.uk/ Definitely worth a look.

See you on the water if not at the dinghy show! Donal

...and finally a very special report from Crawley Mariner's yachting correspondent in Qingdao, Allan Webber.

The Clipper Round the World Race, leg five. http://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/index.php/Home

I flew to China about five days before we are due to start the race from Qingdao to San Francisco. The five days in advance were intended to be for refresher training and to allow the crew to prepare and provision the boat - you can not imagine the amount of stores needed for 20 for 5 to 6 weeks at sea. Unfortunately as I am on Qingdao the home port boat, much of our time has been spent showing visitors around the boat (school children and local celebrities and officials) and attending corporate hospitality events. In fact the skipper said that in the 10 days he will have been in port, he will have racked up nearly 100 official events and introductions etc. including appearing on TV several times. The penalty of being the home boat in the stopover which makes the most of the Clipper Race visits of all Cities in the world. Absolutely incredible reception here. Thousands in crowds everyday. Almost continuous events, public music and fireworks. Crew whether or not in identifiable kit get stopped in the street and asked for autographs and photos. I have done one training/refresher sail but just to be contrary it was almost windless and quite warm. (Not now though.)

All this has to be coped with by the Qingdao Crew whilst preparing for sea. Masses of sail repairs needed and a lots of bits need replacing or repairing on the boat itself. After the problems had with Cork and Finland (which lost half of its mast when passing Taiwan) the Clipper fleet is getting a thorough check out, partly on the instructions of the insurers who I suspect are getting a bit worried about all the payouts they are being landed with.

Now about about Qingdao itself...... What I have seen of it is a modern vibrant and generally very clean and delightful place. Lovely facilities all around. Mostly built for the Olympics but being added to all the time. The people are lovely and friendly and so keen to help and talk and entertain you all the time. One penalty though is it is by no means a cheap place to live (with one or two exceptions which I will come to in a moment). Most goods and accommodation etc. appears to be similar or more than in the UK. On the up side though is that the locals at least appear to be very affluent. You ought to see the size of the Gucci store - bigger than most UK Department stores. I have never seen so many Mercs, BMWs and Ferraris driving around. Which brings me to the traffic. Generally horrendous with no lane or direction sign discipline but at the same time with no shunts that we can see. How they avoid one another at times is truly amazing. 

There are one or two things which are cheap though. Taxis are about 1GBP for miles and miles. Some restaurants (not all) are cheap for food and drink. The Qingdao Crew have adopted an incredible local bar called Lennon's (as in John Lennon) run by a guy called Steve who was one of the early leggers on Qingdao. Actually most of the rest of the crew have found out about it and it has become the local meeting place. (Apparently it was also where the successful GB Olympic Sailing Fleet went.) Difficult to describe Lennon's except to say it is the last sort of place one would expect to find in a City in a Communist State. Like throw back to the hippy cum pop-star bars of the 60s and early 70s found in remote resorts in the UK, USA and Europe. Masses of signed and unsigned pop star photos and memorabilia. Live band every night, who do a brilliant act of Cream, Clapton, Stones and The Who (and occasionally The Beatles). The food is fantastic and masses of it. Nothing like UK version of Chinese. We stuffed ourselves silly for 5GBP. Drinks are unmeasured and cheap. Not that I indulged, but one crew member who is returning home soon having done his leg was drinking tumblers of good single malt whisky at 2.50GBP a go. You must visit Lennon's if ever in Qingdao.

Must go now as I can hear the fireworks starting (They are almost continuous at times) for another event I am expected to attend. I will try to give you another report after we have been at sea for a few days. Incidentally as we have some of the Cork boat crew on board, three of us have to hot bunk and guess who drew one of those!)

Look out for the next report. The hard-stuff is to come I fear. It is blowing up and very cold now.

Allan's Log