2010 events

[Rupert]

Now I'm fixtures sec again, here goes the bargaining for the prime spots in the cvrda calendar!
We need meetings in:
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October

I would like to see 5 traveller open meetings plus the Nationals. I believe the 1st of these is at Baltic Wharf in November, or would we prefer to start afresh in the spring with the traveller series, and have shearwater and BWSC as non traveller?

Places which people have expressed an interest:
Bristol Avon
Whitefriars
Clywedog
Roadford
Bough Beech
Thames
Nottingham
Somewhare in Scotland
Shearwater?

And possibly many I have missed.

I would love to have this all done and dusted by Christmas, please!

[roger]

Rupert,

I believe the travellers series now starts straight after the nationals so Shearwater will be the first event.

Rog

[Rupert]

Fine by me Roger! It is down in the lists as an "other" event, so I assumed it had been taken off the traveller series for the year. Glad that it is counting.

[Pat]

Baltic Wharf may need confirming now we don't have Peter V there and Shearwater would probably be happy to give way to or take turns with Bristol Avon if necessary.
Another venue suggested was Hunts S.C. (St Ives) which is Nessa's home club. They hold a one day (Sat) vintage Merlin event each year in early May which has a low turnout and it would be good to piggy-back onto this. The vintage Merlin lot should be fine about this as we share with them enough and we could do two starts if there's enough boats!
Shustoke (between Coventryand Birmingham) and Banbury (MR1066 Tim & Pat's home club) also hold vintage Merlin events.

Also Corus please, as it was great sailing and easy travelling, being next to the M4.

[jon711]

So the furthest east out of all the listed events is London??? Please donn't forget Oulton Week where we are arranging NOW to give you three races a day, every day of the week..

Sorry, could have phrased that better - I'm not at my best with a week of night shifts!!

Jon

[Rupert]

Well, Kent...
but we can only go where people invite us. If a club wants to put on a classics event, great! But what we have found in the past is that it is only clubs with strong connections to old boats who want to play that make good events. Trying the other way round - ie "please can we use your club" both fails in terms of numbers and of organization.
Oulton week sounds like a great event, and if we can get people coming to it via this website, then our work is being done.
Is it possible to run a weekend specific event within the week? Most people can't find the time to travel to do a whole week, but more could be tempted by a weekend jolly out east?

By the way, talking of east, is Brightlingsea fancying classics again this year?

[JB9]

Bough Beech will be happy to host again and around the same time as this year will fit in well. I understand the nice vintage merlin people are keen to come too.

I like the idea of an Oulton Week event but agree that a whole week may be difficult for some. Perhaps there could be a weekend prize and a week prize?

[Ed]

There was also the talk of another event in the South West....

Both Helford and lower Tamar - Saltash were mentioned with the possibility of asking Tamar River Sailing Club.

I had an email from Phil Marshall (sailing white merlin, also with Kathleen and Isabelle and the little Wren or whatever it is) who is a member there who said he could help drive this forwards.

I would love to see another event down here, so it would get my full support.

Of course, I would love to see a return to racing out of Mayflower.....but I guess that isn't a goer.

But racing on the Tamar is River sailing at it's best.....but just 'big' river sailing.

Phil, can you fill in some of the details?

cheers

eib

[Ancient Geek]

Go East Young (and not so young!) man (and woman!).
CVRDA FIXTURES.

It is good to see a putative Scottish event it would be even better to see it well attended!

Apart from Wroxham there is nothing yet in the rest of the East,
East Anglia is in danger of being forgotten.

Not only was I conceived, brought up, learned to sail, educated and lost my virginity there I love the big skies and its history.
The source of much of England’s wealth, (Until very recently Norwich was bigger than London.) its religious heritage, its sailing base is long and of the highest. The early days of the International 14 as a proper class were there, Stewart Morris of course, Peter Scott, John Winter, Keith Shackleton, Gerald Sambrook Sturgess (the Writer of the modern Sailing Rules.). The Two Crossbows of Tim Colman, Olympic Medals galore, World Champions, Gold Cup Winners, general excellence etc., etc. The former ISAF General Secretary top class boat-builders and sailmakers (past and present.)
It is your true heritage.
So I make an impassioned appeal to all to try to attend Oulton Broad Week if
only for a long weekend at the beginning.
It is proper gentle-persons sailing, as high a standard as you’ll get, lots of variations and opportunity.
So friendly so welcoming.
The old tale oft said by my mother who was really a Londoner that it was cut off on two sides by the Wash and the North Sea and the other two sides by the fens and road and rail network is really out of date. North to South, East to West the A14. A11 and A12 Roads are to Motorway standard there is even a rail-link either via Ipswich or Norwich. (Birds Eye Pea lorrys excepted!).

[Rupert]

So, who is actually a member at Oulton Broad who can approach the committee and say to them that there are lots of local classic dinghies and some from further away who would like a start at Oulton? What I am trying to get here are events for CVRDA members to sail at, rather than poetry, however poetic, extolling the virtues of a venue. If there are many Eastern dinghies who will attend, it could even be part of the cvrda calendar, rather than an event advertized on the cvrda site. I cannot see enough travellers from the South West making it to manage the sort of turn out not to have a damp squib (do they qualify?) without a lot of local support. If there are lots of local boats, it will encourage ones from further afield to go.

[jon711]

So, who is actually a member at Oulton Broad who can approach the committee and say to them that there are lots of local classic dinghies and some from further away who would like a start at Oulton? What I am trying to get here are events for CVRDA members to sail at, rather than poetry, however poetic, extolling the virtues of a venue. If there are many Eastern dinghies who will attend, it could even be part of the cvrda calendar, rather than an event advertized on the cvrda site. I cannot see enough travellers from the South West making it to manage the sort of turn out not to have a damp squib (do they qualify?) without a lot of local support. If there are lots of local boats, it will encourage ones from further afield to go.

And if there are boats from further afield it will encourage even more local classic boats out. I think the initial interest shown when I first broached the subject of Oulton Week shows that there is some interest.
The Norfolk Broads possibly has the greatest proliferation of classic dinghies in a single area in this country...
1) Norfolk Dinghy (Forerunner of the I14) 86 boats built, about 50 still racing, 30 racing regularly all winter at Norwich Frostbites
2) Norfolk Punt, 101 boats built ranging fron the very traditional to the ultra modern,
3)Bittern Dinghy, 51 boats built, many racing regularly at Hickling Broad,
4) A mixed assortment of old dinghies, such as Enterprise No 10, (Until recently at WOBYC, and still winning races!), Silver Streaks at Beccles, Oulton Raters, Twinkle 12's, classic Merlins, Classic 12's, and quite a few that even the owners donn't know what they are except that they were a class boat....
I am a member at Oulton and I would assume by making this post that I have approached the committee..

[jonathan]

The Vintage 14's Merlins and 12's have a meeting at Wroxham and I am sure they would not mind if a few non straight stem boats joined in even if they look a bit odd. It is meant to be a classic dinghy event so why not get in touch with Jamie Campbell.

Brightlingsea I am sure could accommodate but you will need to turn up to take part!

[Rupert]

Hi Jon - sorry, I meant the Oulton committee!
I quite agree that the Norfolk Broads are an ideal playground for classic boats. What we have found, though, is that established classic classes have very little need for the cvrda at a racing level, and that we seem to thrive in areas where there is a hodgepodge of different classes. The best approach would seem to me to get enough of the local boats interested to get a classic handicap start put on, at least for a long weekend, then to say on here, "we have a start, come play", and then to go back to more of the local fleet and say "we have boats coming from further away, it will be great, come play", and hopefully build momentum that way.
What I can make sure of straight away is that we don't have a clashing event, either that weekend or the one after. What are the actual dates, please?

[chris]

I've put a post on the Oulton Week topic. So I won't double up here.
Three things though...
1, Oulton week seems to be the week immediately before the August Bank Holiday which has so far been the CVRDA Nationals time. Too close for two big events.
2 Once the Nationals are fixed then we can think about this one. (is it a possible venue and time to have the Nationals at Oulton even?) It does seem as if it is really a larger boat event though.
3 The CVRDA has it's 'premier' events which are traveller's series and on our calender etc. Then there are events which clubs may wish to put on for classics etc. The CVRDA is very happy to promote these but these are not 'our' events. I'm not quite sure what is being suggested here.

[Rupert]

I was seeing this as a cvrda supported event, not a cvrda premier event, but one which would get a good deal of publicity and support, and an ensured lack of clash. What I didn't know was the date, which could make things difficult.
Edit - somehow I had completely missed the other Oulton thread since coming home...