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Santa Irene Club de Vela Newsletter - 25th February 2009
The good News is Terry, the other half of “Dos Amigos” is back, so you should see twice as much of the Drascombe on the water, look for the Tan colour sails. If you sail with Terry he serves tea, coffee and biscuits.
Now, lets send Congratulations to our Vendee Globe Sailors, although they didn´t make the Podium, they finished: 4th, 5th, 6th and 8th out of 30 Open 60´s that crossed the Start line on the 9th of November 2008. Who are they? Samantha Davies, Brian Thompson, Dee Caffari and Steve White.
I´ll remind you again, this is Single Handed – around the World – Non-stop. Samantha finish in 95 days 4 hours. Sam and Dee were the only 2 ladies in the Race. It´s a double for Dee Caffari: she is the only women to have sailed single handed around the world in the opposite direction.
We will stay with the “Big Boys” and the Volvo Ocean Race. The Open 70´s , with a full crew of 10, are now on Leg 5: Qingdao, China to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. They are down in the Southern Ocean, heading towards Cape Horn. Then, North to Rio de Janeiro. You can expect them to arrive some time near the 21th of March, Good Look to our favourite “Green Dragon”.
Rio de Janeiro, a City of 10 million people, exotic carnivals, beautiful women, Copacabana beach, throbbing Latin American music, sunshine, mountains, coves, the azure blue sea. We have booked to fly to Birmingham on Friday the 13th of March, we may change the destination !!!
Don´t worry, we will be back in April to welcome you to Garrucha slipway on Sunday mornings. Last Sunday, the 22nd of February, 16 of us were on the water with 7 boats, enjoying the warm Sun and light winds. At the end of a enjoyable day, we retired to our local coffee bar.
Now that we have an official Dinghy Park on the opposite side of the road to the slipway, we feel we have Arrived!
Let me tell you about the Yorkshire Dales Sailing Club; the members have some thing to Smile about. When they moved to Grimwith Reservoir 13 years ago, they were expecting to have a Club House within a short time. They have been using temporary buildings and portacabins, I am happy to say work is now in progress to build a Club House, pontoons etc...The 650.000 pound project is being funded by a grant of 224.000 pound from “Sport England”, the Sports Council, their own Building Fund etc... So after 13 years, the Yorkshire Dales Sailing Club, which used to be the Leeds Sailing Club, is now back on Track and Smiling.
I leave you with that happy story, if you know were we could get some funding, Tell me and I´ll be Happy. See you Sunday morning at Garrucha slipway.
Take care
John Talliss
Tel : 950 475 157
Movil: 658 548 790
E-mail johntalliss@gmail.com
Sailing News Sol Times - 25th February 2009
If you are on your way to the U.K this week, you will be in time to visit the Royal Yachting Ass. Dinghy Show at the Alexandra Palace, London the 7th and 8th of March. Its the only show in the World solely dedicated to dinghy sailing and well worth a visit.
Here on Sunday the 15th it was cold, cloudy, forecast F5 and rain. So 14 of us had a social meeting in the local Coffee Bar and an early Bath. The 22nd was a good day, 17 of us was were out on the water, a warm light wind kept us all on the move. On “Dos Amigos”, Even without our out-board engine ( we have a problem after the Service!!) we were able to sail out of Garrucha and back to the pontoon OK, in good time for Coffee and chat.
In the hope that one day we have the use of the Cuevas Canal to get the kids on the water, I,ve be looking at other boats apart from the “Optimists”. It was designed in 1947 and built using plywood, now they build them in GRP or home built using marine ply. I built two on my patio in 2001.
The latest kids boat comes from the Laser Company, it was launched at the 2008 London Boat Show. Known as “ the Bug” length 2.8m (8 ft 7in) beam 1.3m (4ft 3in) an incredibly stable small boat. A dinghy which I would call ( teach your self sailing ) boat, ideal for 7 year old upwards, there are two rigs available allowing the Bug to develop alongside the sailor´s ability. I´m not sure if they have been introduced into Spain yet, I will know more when I visit the U.K next month.
There is also the “Tera” the smallest dinghy in the R.S. Sailing family, length 2.87m (9ft 5in), beam 1.23m (4ft 1in), here again there is a selection of sail sizes to suit the ability of the youngsters, remember you may have a “Ben Ainslie” in the family.
Hope to see you near the slipway, Garrucha on Sunday.
Take care
John Talliss
Tel : 950 475 157
Movil: 658 548 790
E-mail johntalliss@gmail.com
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