Two very agreeable messages on the Wanderer website and an email to Vicky King who masterminded the event neatly sum up a particularly pleasant weekend at South Cerney S.C. on May 15^th/16^th.  Former Wanderer National Champion Andy Whitelock – now proprietor of Dynamic Adventures – led the training.

            From Nick and Sarah Disbury……..

Andy: thank you for an excellent training session for us new Wanderer Owners. Invaluable tips and pointers and a very friendly bunch of fellow enthusiasts.  Sarah and I look forward to the next event we can fit in.

            From Hugh Price…….

Having only been a Wanderer owner for one year, I went to the training/open meeting at South Cerney this weekend.  What a friendly lot and all keen to help.  Not much wind but some very close racing in excellent company.  Six boats on spinnaker runs all finishing in half a boats length of each other.  (Yes: I was one of them – the sixth.Yuk. Class Chairman).

Thanks, Hugh, for summing up the weekend’s activities in your other note on the website on May 18^th.  We look forward to your participation in other Wanderer events during the summer.

This was the best attended Wanderer event for many years with 40 boats booked in over the whole weekend.  It demonstrated the desire for an event which covers basic sailing tips and familiarisation with all the gear and controls on your Wanderer.  Maybe next year, we have both a “basic” and an “intermediate/refresher” programme; at the same event or separate?

It was certainly warm and sunny but the lack of wind throughout the entire weekend was rather disappointing and led to the first race on the Sunday morning being cancelled despite the enthusiasm of Race Officer Bob Denholme and his committee boat crew.  He managed to get two races away during Sunday afternoon but it was impossible to set a decent start line.  David and Jill Davies and Jack Mann and Adam Wickenden were the only boats to get clear at the start of both races.  However Colin and Sally Gilbert rose to the challenge of sailing in nil wind and came home second in the first race to the Davies’ with Mike Hamilton and David Oates in third.  In the second race Jack Mann was first home followed by David Davies with Mike and Jenny Harris third. 

With a first and a second the Davies’ won the event and all credit to them for a remarkable achievement in quite unpromising conditions. 

The Wanderer Fleet Dinner at the Royal Agricultural College is now something of an institution followed as it always is  by tug boat racing  at which Jenny Harris excelled.  This event has never been won by a Wanderer male. (Training weekend for this, chaps?)

The new clubhouse at South Cerney is superbly sited and, when finished, will have all the appropriate facilities.  Our place in history is guaranteed since our event was the first to be held at the new clubhouse, but with the kitchen facility still based at the old site, Vicky King and her team had some interesting logistical manoeuvres to overcome before plying us with the usual vast array of South Cerney salads and gooey cakes.  With Chris King doing his best for the reconstruction of Iraq, it was left to Vicky to lead her South Cerney troops into repairing our appetites.

Let’s hope Chris is back for action of a different kind at Salcombe in August, Vicky bore the brunt of the organisational work involved in making the weekend such a success.  She has good cause to feel well satisfied at a job brilliantly done and for which we are deeply grateful.

Results:

1^st David & Jill Davies W318 – Island Cruising Club

2^nd Jack Mann & Adam Wickenden W1087 – British Airways S.C.

3^rd Mike & Jenny Harris W796 – Shustoke S.C.

Philip Meadowcroft W1541