Trent valley four plan open meeting

Four Plank Open Meeting at Trent Valley, Sunday 20th July 2014
 
For the second of the three meetings in the HD Sails Four Plank Mini-Series the day dawned warm and sunny, but there were two problems!
 
Firstly we were expecting five boats but unfortunately there were two late cancellations and secondly the light and variable winds were from the northwest making it extremely difficult to sail upriver past the Scout HQ – the “Doldrums” lived up to their name, with a vengeance! To make things worse the river was also running very fast after a number of heavy rainstorms in the previous few days.
 
For race one the three competitors, Susie Sallis from Ely in her bright green Warlock crewed by Daughter Hannah, Jono Clipsham and Son from Trent Valley in N2835 Tabitha Twitchitt, and Paul Turner and Kay Ash in the original Cheshire Cat were joined by a lonely Merlin helmed by James Clark with crew Rosie. It was very hard work tacking up the river with Paul keeping up with the Merlin up to the top mark and Susie and Jono doing battle some way behind. There remains some deep and profound mystery about the buoy rounding at the back of the fleet, but the Merlin did beat Paul back to the clubhouse.
 
Race officer Guy Browne wisely decided to run a mini course for race two in front of the club and even that was hard and frustrating work. Paul led the way round lap one, but Susie got the “I beat Paul Turner on his home turf” medal. The Merlin and Jono wisely gave up!
 
Tea was taken and the rest of the racing was abandoned – but we all decided we had had a jolly good time.
 
Susie and Hannah were presented with TVSC mugs as a “thank you” for travelling (with family in tow) so far to support the meeting and we all look forward to better breezes (and more boats) at Olton Mere in August!
 
The bemused race officer is still mulling over the result!