I had last been to Tummel Week in 1983, and was persuaded into going
this year, as my eldest daughter needed some real sailing practise, so
she could do better in sailing her Topper at the Local Club, so… Topper
on the roof, 3223 on the trailer behind, car wedged full of camping gear
(wife, and 2 youngest children banished to their own car), off we headed
for the short drive to Tummel Sailing Club.
If you’ve never been to Loch Tummel, you should go, it is a fantastic
setting for a Sailing club, and definitely one of the most friendly
clubs I have ever been to. The club has excellent facilities and lays on
a week packed with sailing and off-water activities to keep the family
occupied. The Club’s ground is an excellent safe location for
non-sailing kids to play and mine certainly enjoyed themselves building
gang-hut’s in the forest and playing on the shore.
The format for the week was 2 races per day, one mid-morning and another
late afternoon, with Wednesday only having a morning race, allowing you
the day off to go sightseeing (or just recover and do any required
boat-repairs).
There were 3 other National-12s there making 4 of us in total, all of us
in the handicap, (and severely handicapped by), sailing off the current
N12 handicap!
Mark (Simpson) and Angus (Beyts), both having tons more experience in
N12’s (and it has to be said newer, faster boats!) were miles in front
of us, Mike (Barron) when he took out his 12 – was again, in front of
us, but, over the week, our starts improved, but we just needed more
practice to compete against anyone who had been sailing any type of boat
(20 year lay-off in dinghy-racing for me!). I managed to take out my
middle daughter on Thursday, and she really enjoyed herself and wants to
come out with me more (which is good because she’s smaller and lighter
and together we are a better weight). Mark sailed the week with a varied
crew ranging from his son (who cant be more than 6), his daughter (even
younger!!) as well as a couple of other people (including his wife) – I
remember one day thinking we were doing quite well on the first beat and
getting to about 100yds from the windward mark, and seeing Mark sailing
past already on the next leg - with his daughter sitting at the
lee-shroud giggling away while dragging her hand in the water – quite a
demoralising sight!!
At our best, we could hang onto Angus and Mark for the first beat, until
our lack of experience and time in the boat, started to work against us
and we slipped down the fleet – It took me till Tuesday to realize not
to get involved in any tacking battles as we would loose every time,
better to keep out of trouble and concentrate on sailing the boat,
analyzing what was working and what wasn’t in an effort to improve our
tacking – by Friday we had almost cracked this and the sequence we need
to follow has been found – now for more practice!!
Up to arriving at the event I had been telling eldest daughter (no1
crew), that we would, some lunchtime, go out an purposely capsize the
boat so we could go through what would happen and what to do and what
not to do, but Events on Tuesday overruled this! The wind had got up for
this race and we made a decent start although mid-pack, and having a lot
of weight in the boat, we were going upwind like a train. Unfortunately,
again, every tack was going wrong and loosing us position – especially
the one to make the windward mark, which went totally pear-shaped and
lost us about 10 places. Rounding the mark we set off in pursuit,
everything settled, boat up on the plane……. SPLOSH, in we went to
windward. Being on the low-side, I swam round the boat and grabbed the
board, and shouted to daughter to grab as high up the boat as she could
reach and she’d be scooped in as I pulled the boat up. Pulling the boat
up quickly (advantages of being heavy), we both got in the boat - to
find 3223 floats with the side-decks about 3 inches underwater.
Unfortunately one of the Transom-flaps had fallen off and so we had to
retire as there was no way to empty the boat – the wind having
mysteriously disappeared – The next time we capsized, we again got the
boat up, but there was just not enough wind to sail the boat to empty
her.
Tummel SC lay on a couple of evening events throughout the week, there
being a couple of meals, and a BBQ as well as a quiz-night (where, we
came a close 2nd!!), and the final evening’s Prizegiving and Meal.
We chose to camp, even with my intense dislike of all things involving
tents, and the area set aside for us was roomy, quiet and had all the
facilities of the clubhouse next-door. Next year, with a little more
planning, we hope to hire a house somewhere nearby, but if camping is
your thing – then you will be more than happy with it.
I had a very enjoyable week sailing 3223, and my Family all enjoyed
themselves too, and we will be back next year.
Alex showing his true colours
