Author: Neil Ferguson Title: Papercourt SC, Safety Boat Duty... Windy... Definitions: PRO - Principle Race Officer ARO - Assistant Race Officer SB/SBO- Safety Boat / Safety Boat Officer OOD - Officer of the Day We arrived and were told that there was no PRO due to an unfortunate illness. Unfortunate for us. The ARO seemed to be a bit of an, er, idiot so I asked if she was going to be OK... Result, I end up setting the courses for this day's Ice Box Series - a good turnout. Quite handy really as nobody else except the sailors seemed to know what we were doing. So I went out and for the first time *I* got to tell people where *I* wanted the buoys! What a change! After we had rigged the two SBs we rigged the Committee boat. Problem 1: The ARO doesn't know how to do anything but start the races so I end up being Committee boat pilot as well. So I sorted out the radios, handed them out and then went out to set the start line for the race. I tried to position the line as straight as possible but the anchor didn't seem to grip the bottom terribly well, and we ended up slipping about 10 feet making the line fairly biased - it was the best I was going to get... Next we go out in the safety boats, checked the radios, and finally I conducted the daily safety traffic on the handheld UHFs - giving weather predications including "It looks like it might rain soon, "maybe its a good time to go in and get a cup of Soup...". Half an hour into the first race and we hear, "Rescue 2 this is Rescue 1, I think I might go in for a pee, over". So we then take over - lucky there were only one or two people that went over - they recovered themselves without any problems and we weren't terribly busy. By the way its about a Force 5/6 at this stage. By 15:00 it had increased to a Force 8 and since it was the afternoon race I thought maybe I should change the course. In doing this I had to re-position the start, and so we motored up to the intended position, only to find the anchor slipped. No problem I thought! - I'll lengthen the warp a bit and try again and we'll have no problems! We motored back up to the right position again only to find the anchor slipped again. The ARO sitting next to me sounded the 5 minute bell half way through the third attempt much to my surprise - I don't think she knew which was the "Race Postponed" flag... On the fourth attempt I chucked out the kedge I discovered in the bottom of the boat AS WELL as the previous anchor and... transits... wait... HOLDING! YES! Despite this the CB slipped about 12 feet downwind during the course of the race (about 1hr 15 mins). Now the exciting bit - during this second race we had a bit of rescuing to do. One of my friends was out having a go despite my thoughts that the F8 was too much for my weight, let alone his... I must admit that I admire the confidence - I don't ever remember going out in that sort of weather when *I* was learning! He (like everybody else) capsized and so he was taken back in by the other SB. Once the boat had drifted (capsized) down to the far end of the lake with boom and sail flailing, I guided my Dad through the shallows which I had discovered whilst sailing previously ("what's that down there, BANG...") and leapt out. I didn't really expect many more capsizes in the slight lull we seemed to be experiencing and so I pulled the boat up on the bank, took the boom off, wrapped up the sail etc... I looked up to see two capsizes and Dad roaring off into the distance. Hmph. I decided I wouldn't wait for this return, I would leg it back round the lake to the clubhouse with the boom.... Probably due to my unfit nature, I reached the clubhouse with little breath left and staggered in, indicating the return of the boom... I looked outside and came to the conclusion that I was missing too much fun out on the water to stay there and watch - I walked into the room containing the radios, picked up another, turned it on and called Dad. Perhaps my descision to name myself as station "Teabar" made the call "Rescue 2, this is TeaBar, over" was a little confusing at first but we soon resolved the problems and he came to pick me up... In addition to that we had a mast come down, along with another towed boat, several retirements and an evermore shifting line! One capsize caused a Solo shroud to get caught under a Laser I think it was - Dad had to sort that out on his own as I tried had just taken the Comittee boat out to the second start, and ended up running aground as the wind blew him onto the shore... One Laser went over so many times, he seemed to be getting cold but the race was nearly over so he continued right until the end... I also seem to remember the unfortunate occurrence of one Topper being caused to capsize as a result of another boat's actions which caused the day's *single* protest - something which was quite surprising after the speed I everybody was moving! What a day! I was quite surprised the OOD put me down in the log book as PRO, but his illness had prevented him from doing it and somebody really did need to go down... I did make him change one section however, Wind State: Light Wind ...to ensure it read something more realistic, like this... Wind State: Light Wind!!! Force 8 by 15:00!! To be perfectly honest, despite the fact I would have enjoyed the gusty F8, I think I'd rather have been in the SB... I think now I should talk to the people that organise the rota and see if I can get myself on the SBO list in future, I could get used to this! There is only one thing I wished I had brought that day - and that was the camera!