Err Info needed.Are dinghy sailors completely nuts or just bit. :)

[oldgit]

Err Info needed.Are dinghy sailors completely nuts or just a bit.

My motorboat club is providing a few boats for a dry-em-out and get them going service on the the Hoo Freezer.
My lady wife who will be in charge of the hot drinks and sausage buns dept, keeps looking at the weekend weather forecast.

Question . Just how bad will it have to get before they call it off ?
In past years you can actually sometimes see the combatants behind the showers of sleet/snow.

 

[Cantata]

That event always had a reputation for going ahead come what may. They'd probably run it in a F6 but perhaps not in a 7...
I raced dinghies for 50 years and yes we are all a bit nuts. Huge fun and a great sport.

 

[Neil_Y]

It's when the ropes are solid with ice and you have to drop them in sea water to get them to bend that you know it's cold, I'm hoping to race a Laser on Sunday in Plymouth but Saturday looks too windy for a dinghy so it will have to be the windsurfer.

The Hoo freezers a bit far for me but hope to do the Starcross steamer (also always cold and windy)

 

[oldgit]

H,mm.

 

[EBoat126]

Hoping to be racing a 420 at New Quay, West Wales on Sunday with my daughter (13). We've raced in the snow before, forecast didn't look too bad but big sea might still be running. My thanks always goes to volunteers willing to sit in safety / committee boats freezing their bits off on days like this while we keep reasonably warm and active on the dinghies.

 

[Seajet]

' Big sea might still be running ' ! Good luck !

 

[TimBennet]

It's when the ropes are solid with ice and you have to drop them in sea water to get them to bend that you know it's cold . . .

It's the big problem with the Windermere Winter Series is that there's no seawater into which to dip your ropes! You have to take table salt out with you and make sure the decks are well 'salted' otherwise the spray freezes as you sail. All very wugged.

 

[Vara]

Aaah those were the days, sledging a bosun across a 20m fringe of ice to go sailing in February on the Havel, let the jib fly going about to crack the sheets.

Nowadays I spend a lot of time supervising the Mikuni to keep temp above 22°.

 

[oldgit]

" My thanks always goes to volunteers willing to sit in safety / committee boats freezing their bits off on days like this while we keep reasonably warm and active on the dinghies."

Our problem will be of course keeping the Chablis chilled and the canapies warm in the same rather overheated cabin.
Race control has decided to come out with us and remain on aboard rather than charging about in some rib , purely due to the better visibility from a our flybridge.

 

[Neil_Y]

I like the launch technique, proper winter sailing slide down the snow into the ice...crazy Norwegians
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpGif2efTzk

 

[DanTribe]

Our daughter sailed dinghies throughout the winter and we thought she was mad.
Now her daughters do the same and she thinks they are mad.

 

[oldgit]

Cancelled.

Some old tosh about the weather or some such nonsense.
IOSSC website is only predicting 60mph. Hurrumph.
Can see the course from here (actually its pitch black and its blowing like billyo), water is being forced under first floor patio doors facing river.