Light Airs

Light Airs on the Thames Match 2012; pic by Dave Brooks

Well, we had our race yesterday in the Thames match and we duly beat the suggested “main rival”, SB Thalatta, to a class win but you can see from the attached Dave Brooks photo that it was not a very exciting event. It took place in very light airs and was eventually abandoned due to lack of wind. You can see from the picture, the sails hanging slack from the rigging and the almost millpond smooth sea which give the picture the look almost of a model boat on a park pond. I was joking with Dave that we had brailed up the bottom edge of the mains’l so that the Skipper could see for’d and  avoid any high speed collisions. Dave thinks it was done in case “they woke up suddenly and found something exciting happening”. Ah well, that’s barge racing, I guess. We do have a couple of pictures where the merest suggestion of a breeze gave some movement and Cambria can be seen ‘ahead’ of Thalatta, so we won the class and picked up a shed load of trophies at the celebration afterwards in the excellent Three Daws pub in Gravesend. I will ask one of those who attended and/or raced, to provide some kind of report when they have recovered from all that muscle-wrenching battling with the elements and save the old girl from dire peril broaching or getting swamped…..