Albacore Nationals

Paul and Finlay with Jacqui as team support are off to the Nationals at Poole in Dorset. I envy them as, from my memories of 40 years ago, Parkstone Yacht Club is a truly wonderful institution.

Loch Morlich

9th and 10th is one for the travelling dinghies

 

Lochcarron / Albacore Traveller

16th and 17th is another

 

RNLI Pennant / Pursuit

Will be good for a laugh and takes place on Sunday 24th. Watch out for details.

Commodores Cup

Taking place in the Solent [darn sarf] this international team racing event in keel-boats has concluded. Team Scotland, with Donald Mackenzie on board Aurora came 6th out of 9 teams. They were beaten by France by 0.5 of a point out of 457. Ouch! And, possibly even more painful, by 9 points by Team GBR Red – on which were crewing Donald’s sons Duncan and Euan. Well done all. More news of this later.

Cruise Ireland

Our bold boys [Stuart, Chris, Phil and Tom] are back from their trip on the west coast. They have achieved their aim of going intercontinental – they hit Ireland and have returned with tales of fine harbours and the legendary black stuff. More news of that later too.

Lord Birkett Memorial Trophy

Neil Cormack and Dave Allan crewed by Terry and Vlad went all the way down to Ullswater to compete against 200 others in this classic event amongst stunning Lakeland scenery. They report variable conditions and results of 95th [Neil] and 119th Dave.

 

CBC Reg

Cromarty Boat Club’s annual keel-boat regatta attracted a fair turnout. IBC’s John Prentice on Circe took the Copeland Cup with Rhythm n’ Blue second.

 

Murray Clan

Last Sunday I was down at the Club and spied strangers. I found myself talking to Colin Murray and son Ollie. I had only known Colin previously through the pages of “A Century of Sail”. He is a legend in British yachting having won sideboards full of trophies. He is that rarest of breads – the Professional Yachtsman. I was fascinated to hear that he is part of Sir Peter Harrison’s team doing transatlantic races and helming classic 6 meter yachts. It puts what we do into perspective. Good luck with your future ventures Colin and Ollie 

A dedicated team have now brought the outside of our lovely club house up to pristine condition. Thanks to all who slaved away. But especially to Andrew Murray who was the driving [literally] force behind it.

On Thursday a group of club stalwarts assembled and tackled the painting of the outside of the club. They made tremendous progress. But it will take one or two more sessions to see the job complete.
The next painting session will be on Thursday 17th July at 6pm. Come and help out. The crack is good too. You know you want to.

Bart’s Bash is a global sailing race and fundraising event at your local sailing club on Sunday 21 September 2014. Bart’s Bash will be joining together thousands of worldwide sailors in a race to set a new Guinness World Record, raise money for charity, inspire the next generation and remember Andrew ‘Bart’ Simpson, Gold & Silver Olympic medallist and America’s Cup sailor.
Invergodon Boating Club is one of the venues where the racing will take place. The club will be organising a race on that day and the results will go into the pot with all the results from around the world and overall results will be calculated.
To enter you need to go to the Bart’s Bash website: http://www.bartsbash.co.uk/ where you can register and get details of how to help raise funds for The Andrew Simpson Sailing Foundation.
Notice of race is at the following link
http://www.bartsbash.co.uk/sites/default/files/pictures/BB_NoR.pdf
Invergordon Boating Club are determined to make a big contribution to this event so put it in your diary and register your entry.

Please could everyone give as much publicity to this event as possible? The poster is available to download in the Documents section if you wish to print it out and pin it up in as many places as possible.

The First Big Event this month – The Albacore  Weekend
Is well subscribed but there is still a chance to learn from the
Master – Mic Mac. In any case come and support the club– 17th and 18th
May

The Second Big Event – The Open Day
It is on 25th May starting at 10.30. This is an opportunity to spread the word that sailing is
an exciting sport and that the best place to start is Invergordon Boating Club.
Come along and “Meet and Greet” [no not that kind of greet], Cater, Give Taster
Sessions and generally make our guests welcome.
You can help publicise it by posting posters [see below] and telling
colleagues and friends. A new venture is for us to set up a display at Morrisons the day before [24th
between 1000 and 1600] to sell ourselves to the shoppers. We should have a Bug
dinghy there with other publicity materials. Can you turn up for a couple of hours to represent the club?  

A vast army of members turned out for the work party. This
resulted in a power of work being done. Windows were painted, boat parking was
tidied, redundant craft and trolleys decimated and toilet floors were sanded.
Thank you everyone for such an effort. A small, dedicated team have followed up
in the gents changing room and we have a floor which is bluer than blue.
Requests for the removal of some boats were heeded. We are now in a position
where gaps have opened up in the compound. Now it is up to you to go forth and
multiply – by bringing in fresh blood to the club

You will find this in your programme in May. On Saturday 17th the legendary Michael Macintyre will share his knowledge on and off the water. It really is worthwhile turning up for this one. For details contact Paul. The
Albacore Traveller meeting takes place on the Sunday. Get an Albacore and compete or come along and help.
Paul and Jacqui have kindly offered to cater for participants on Saturday evening.

Come out and support your club on Saturday 5th April @ 10.00. Bring yourselves, your
tools and your dirty clothing.
As announced previously we have decided to have a really
thorough clear up of the compound. There will be no mercy shown to old and
abandoned trailers and trolleys.
The way to avoid finding that your favourite set of wheels [or in some cases no wheels] has rolled away to trolley heaven is to identify said article. Paint you name / boat name on it or label it. To make it even easier
for you Neil Cormack has provided lots of ivorine disc labels that are ideal to
take indelible marker or a dimotape. They are lying on the club bar. Help yourself.
Identifying unidentified boats has made some progress. We still
have no clue about the blue Wanderer called Revival.
Contact me so we know who you are. And a Topper.