mustoskiff.com

First Open Meeting of the season.

This will be an assymmetric shootout with the 700s.

Notice of Race here.... http://www.chewvalleysailing.org.uk/files/RS%20%20NOR%20-%20%20March%202011.doc

James McIntosh, Alex Cooper and I are definites from Stokes Bay.

Mike Palfreman is a maybe.

Dan Ward (last year's winner is in Singapore so won't be able to defend his title)

Who else is going?

All enquiries e-mail ... john.smalley2@btopenworld.com

Dan, you can "may be" me in too

2 from kernow coming up!

i will be ther if the boats are back

Having spoken with Ian Martin and Andy Peak at the weekend, we are all planning to go.

I did this event last year. Great little club, easy launching and good fun racing the 7s

Hi from Chew - we are looking forward to your visit next weekend.

There looks like there will be 4 or 5 of us from Chew.

Everything you should need to know is on the club website - http://www.chewvalleysailing.org.uk/home

The only things I can think to point out are:

The food's really good.
The showers are hot.
There is no longer a chandlers on site (we used to have a serve your self but apparently too many people were helping themselves so it shut).
Make sure you pay attention at the briefing when they talk about the shallow bits. Or alternatively just follow me.

if you have any questions please drop me a line.

The guys at the club have asked me to point out that due to the Killer Shrimp (see notice from the club site below) you need to wash your boat down in the washing area when you get here even if you have come from a sea venue - it is on the corner of the main bit of the car park, you can't miss it. It is probably worth allowing an extra few minutes Saturday morning for this.

Killer Shrimp Update! - The biosecurity instructions issued by Bristol Water recently regarding Killer Shrimp have been updated as follows: "Following on from reports of "Killer Shrimp" in two waterways in Wales the full restrictions regarding washing boats has been re-imposed with immediate effect. This covers ALL boats that have been or are used away from Chew, including any that have been in the sea". As more information is made available further guidance will be issued.

Cheers

Paul - 310

If anyone is sitting at work unsure as to whether to hook their boat up tomorrow morning and make the trip, both XCWeather and Metcheck are forecasting force 3 from the South Saturday and Sunday - straight up the length of the lake which will make for great racing and should make it a little less shifty.

Fingers crossed its right (not all the sites agree for Sunday!) - Southerlies make Chew a great place to sail and gives us a cross shore at the launching spot - it should make a great season opener.

See you there.

Paul

Great event - run by the efficient team at Chew.

No 700s showed - apparently they are not keen to share events with us at all.

Sailing was challenging in the gusty and shifty conditions, but some adapted better than others.

Jamie Hilton sailed very consistently and came third with the honour of writing the real report, but filling out the glamour spots on the podium were Mike Palfreman (2nd) and in Miss World order... the winner was James McIntosh.

By the time of the next open meeting (Rutland) the container will be back from Melbourne, we will see what effect that has on the leader board.

DanV193 wrote:No 700s showed - apparently they are not keen to share events with us at all.

Dan I think there are very few active now looking at their events. I guess they don't show as they don't want to "make up the numbers" at the back of the fleet.

Hmmm,

You might be right Rick. In many ways and certainly from the club's perspective a few more boats would have been good news, whether they were 700s or not.

I think Chew were a little underwhelmed by the turnout (800s had about 20, Mustos - 13), I get the feeling that they would prefer to have around 40 - 50 boats for an Open Meeting that precludes club racing for members.

Although Chew were advertising the event as an 800/ Musto/ 700 open, the event was not publicised on the 700 website or included in their fixture list and circuit and I believe the class have actually communicated that they don't want to share any fixtures with us. It is a shame as the boats are so similar that they can certainly share a course.

I discussed doing the event again next year and Chew seem keen enough, but we will have to get a better turnout.

Our numbers were of course hit by the fact that 28 boats are still in containers; plus it's still very early in the year.

It's a shame the 700s "boycotted" the event; there are some local Chew 700 owners if you look at their website so I guess the link between the club & the 700 class broke down or the 700 class didn't want to know.

As you say a shame as the boats can race sensibly off scratch; worth knowing that is the classes opinion for future events.

Any clue as to why they wouldn't want to race together?

Hi

Thanks to all those that made the trip. I had a great time despite my overall result - I think it's shown the Skiffers at Chew where we need to put a bit of work in!

I understand the 700s basically just didn't want to play with us, although they were quite welcome - there are a number 700s in the boat park at Chew but none of them are very active at the moment (I don't think I've seen one in a race this winter) so that wouldn't have helped.

The numbers of Skiffs at the event has been growing each year hopefully helped by good word being spread about a well run event. I've pointed out the worlds boats issue so the club should understand.

Hope to see all of you - and more - next year.

Cheers

Paul

Rick Wrote
It's a shame the 700s "boycotted" the event;


I had a great time at chew, it was a great event and well run with lots of help to get afloat.
For me it was the first Musto event that i felt that I had the time to get my head up out of the boat so that I could play the shifting winds, the start line had very little to do with the position you would end up, the downwind part of the course was just great to see how much you could make up or drop places, more than the beat.

I missed last year’s event at Chew but spent lots of time reading all the forums for feedback, some of the 700s said that they get killed by the MPS on the start line and that they cannot hold their lane so fall into the dead wind of the MPS ahead, some 700s said it was a great event and could not agree with some of the other posts, for me this year at chew sailing my MPS I could not hold my lane on the start line and ended up in the bad air of the Mps in front, so that speaks for itself , its me not the boat?

I think the 700 fleet did not boycott the Chew event but the fact that Carsington has changed from Billy No Mates event to an k6 RS700 open in March 19/20, this and the fact that some 700s will now not go to the Chew event because of the lane problem? This would mean a poor turnout on the results on the 700 site and you would also have the same problem as the MPS as they only do one event per month, it would be the sailors that would have to make a choice between Carsington or Chew, as we have fleet of 700s at Carsington that would make Carsington the better, for myself, both should have been on the 700 open list with the price of fuel and the 700s in the south west, If the rest of the 700 sailor are like me, reading a lot, then they know that some 700 will not come to mixed events after the posts from last year, so they would be on their own as not on the events list as well, so stayed at home, worked out well for me as I could sail the MPS without letting down the 700 lads.

If you read the forum you will see some 700s that feel that mixed events would be great, we will have to wait and see what happens at the next event, we are the same sailors and should stick together at all costs.

Thanks Chew for a good weekend
Chris Musto 385

chriswrightlaser wrote: I think the 700 fleet did not boycott the Chew event ...

I don't want to get distracted from the main event here, this is the Musto Skiff forum, but the fact remains that ZERO 700s attended (not even the Chew 700s) and the RS class assocation didn't list/promote the event.

This will have been a dissapointment for the host club.

chriswrightlaser wrote:If you read the forum you will see some 700s that feel that mixed events would be great, we will have to wait and see what happens at the next event, we are the same sailors and should stick together at all costs.

Chris, if you still also still have a 700 and are an assocaition member you should tell them to promote the joint events then ...