Video from Northampton SC….!!

A pretty nice video from the team at Northampton!!

Click here

FF’s Fight It Out at Cowes…. Princess Anne Looks On !!

Filibuster and Ffriction fighting it out under spinnaker at Cowes – nice shot actually !! I see that the game of “Names with F’s in” had already started!!!

Race Report, Cowes Week…… 1963 !!!!

Yes – you guessed it – Northampton FF’s did very well that year !!!  I see “Phantom” is mentioned here – we published some photos of Phantom on the Blog in early 2011 – it’s still racing !!

Mr Fox Really Liked the Pittsford Reservoir…..!!

Northampton SC….!!

I suppose I’ve long known that Northampton SC is inextricably linked with the history of the Class, but I had no idea how much!!  Chris Bowen has kindly sent in some Press Cuttings for us all to get a flavour!!  (double click photo to enlarge)

Northampton Day One Results….!!

After a couple of years of no Open Meeting, perhaps it was understandable that turnout is a bit low – 3 local teams and 2 visitors…..  Bit blowy too?!?!

Day One Results here

The Northampton Open is Back in Business….!!

Don’t forget that in one week’s time, the Northampton FF Open Meeting is back in action!! The lake is full at last and after two years of disappointment the FF fleet is back in full flight!  The Open is a week from now, June 9th and 10th.

You can find more information in the  FF blog entry on May 16th.

Northampton’s Got Water – and Back in Action ….!!

Chris Bowen at Northampton says:

Don’t forget the Northampton Sailing Club Flying Fifteen Open Meeting for the Gittens Trophy,  which will take place on the 9th/10th June 2012.  The Club had to cancel the event in 2010 due to weed, and again in 2011 due to low water level. I am glad to say that we currently have a almost full reservoir and no weed!!!  We would love to welcome as many visiting boats as possible.

The notice of race and sailing instructions can be found here.
The jubilee weekend is the weekend before the open meeting and Northampton Sailing Club are holding a celebration weekend, starting on Saturday 2nd June and ending on 5th June. Visiting Flying Fifteen sailors are welcome to attend the celebration weekend and leave their boat rigged at the club until the open meeting the following weekend. Details are still being finalised, but some information can be found here, here and here. Camping is available on site for both events.

The Onsite Chandlery – and promoting Flying Fifteens….

The new “Sailboats” chandlery catalogue came a week or two ago and I noted that it suits our need more and more each year – well done, Guys.  Phil Tinsley tells me that in fact, Sailboats and Purple Marine are the same people – and so the Chandlery at QMSC and at Datchet ultimately are in the hands of the same owners.  Alan Bax has been so good to our class and our fleet that I buy just about everything through P&B’s catalogue – and I find the service there great… but it’s good to have some competition in the market. I must admit that I find P&B is a premium service at a premium price – that’s OK with me though !!.

Phil has been proposing to the onsite Purple Marine Chandlery at Datchet that they start to stock FF specific spares, just like you would see on the FF page of the P&B catalogue. Actually if they could hold single item stock of FF specific halyards, mainsheets, jib sheets, spars, covers, bits of rudder hardware etc that would be really useful to have just yards from the slipway. I am sure we would all use the onsite service more that way. If you have any ideas on what should be stocked, ping them to Phil….

Mike Firth has always said that we have an FF Class issue in that our onsite chandlery stocks Topper products (of which we have no fleet racing at Datchet) and is not an agent for Flying Fifteens. Difficult one to crack, isn’t it?  Plus it is unlikely that Purple Marine would be an “agent” for their competitors at P&B. So why don’t we suggest that they sell and have parking lot space for any second hand Flying Fifteens that we have for sale in our Fleet – or run ads on a noticeboard, or webpage. If they park one outside with the Xenons, they’d only have to pop a new cover on it to make it look smart –   or offer access to our Loan Boat program maybe?  Or try offering an agency to Phil Evans?  I wonder what we could charm them into trying??….

Northampton Open Meeting (Un)Rained Off….!!

I see that the Northampton Open Meeting has been cancelled due to lack of water. Was it the Ogston Open that got moved to Burton earlier in the year for the same reason??  It must be said that Datchet has been very fortunate in 2011 – though the water level is falling gradually, we still have tons left.  In fact, I have a fancy that they were pumping water in from Old Father Thames during racing on Sunday… Fingers crossed….

Local folklore has it that getting Thames Water to sponsor the Schools Championships earlier in the year mysteriously kept the water levels high… then there was some kind of plumbing issue that kept levels static a good while. All good stuff – and racing has been great this year!!