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Santa Irene Club de Vela Newsletter - 27th March 2007
I’ve just had a call from my pals, Pat & John – usually in Benidorm (good sailing club there) but visiting Birmingham. His first words were “What the hell am I doing here?!” It was cold, wet and snowing, so count your blessings! I’ve had a couple of busy weeks, last Sunday the 18th, I was on the water along with Sue and Alan on the Drascombe. Tiller girl Sue is doing very well – there was quite a lot of wind about and at times she had both hands holding on to the Tiller. Also on the water were Jim and his mini cruiser, Trevor and the Tideway. Paul and Lynne on the Laser 4000, Nick on the Phantom, Layo and Rogelio our Spanish sailors in the Pastinaca – it’s good to have Layo back with us. He and Rogelio are looking for a dinghy to buy. The lads found a couple of buoys to race round, we were “Hove-to” watching the proceedings near the finishing line. I put the kettle on while the Drascombe sat quietly. To “Heave-to” you ease the mainsail, back the jib, put the tiller down to leeward and in the Drascombe reef the mizzen or let it fly. The boat will make some way to leeward but be comfortable – in normal conditions. There were 14 of us on the water out of Garrucha, plus 8 on the Hobie Cats off the Playa del Cantal, am I happy the club is growing? – You bet I am! Layo and Rogelio are looking to buy a 470. I still have the classic Kittiwake to get on the water, she is gaff rigged, we also have a Mico Cruiser. Oh, and don’t forget the 4 Oppies!
Last week 5 of us, all members were working together to salvage a couple of boats from the Playa at Aguamarga. One is a beautiful “Osprey”, a 17’6” high performance dinghy, it’s an Ian Proctor design – the prototype won “The Round the Island Race” against 190starters in 1953, I remember it well. The other boat is a “Cadet” for the 8-17 year olds, designed by Jack Holt in 1947, it’s still going strong – there is a fleet at Club de Mar in Almeria.
I was talking to the youngsters down there on Saturday the 10th. It’s their training day, they were rigging the Cadets and Optimists, and then they race on Sundays. My aim is to take some of our boats down there one Saturday. We have boats they have never seen, like the Phantom, Laser 4000, Solo, Topper, Mirror and the classics –Tideway and Kittiwake. They obviously know the Hobie 16 but there are none there. The classes they do race are – Oppies, Cadets, 420, Snipe and Lasers. Now if I was going to buy another boat and I may when I sell the Kittiwake, it would be a Snipe – Ideal for us more mature souls, designed in 1931 by W.Crosby (U.S.A) at one time the worlds largest racing class. With just 2 sails, main and jib, a high boom, you don’t have to duck under it when it comes over and the class is still going strong in Spain. I see there are plenty of new boats at Club de Mar. I’m still hoping Vic and Frank will buy a Laser SB3 sports boat and let me join them – you can sail it 3 up! By the time you read this, the Cruiser Race out of Garrucha will have happened; it’s this week Saturday 24th. We will be part of it thanks to Frank and Lindy – I think we should have been out practising with the new Spinnaker. It’s good that we integrate more with the Club de Vela, Garrucha, if we want a Clubhouse it could be a combined effort but who knows the future.
Oh, if you were in “Google” on the net and you type in John Talliss – what will you get? Try it!
See you on the slipway in Garrucha, 11am, or talk to the lads and lassies on Playa del Cantal.
Take care
John Talliss
Tel : 950 475 157
Movil: 658 548 790
E-mail John@Sailrway.com
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