Solway Yacht Club members enjoy three great days of sailing
The cadets took part in an Easter Eggstravaganza on Good Friday followed by two days of races for club members.
Three days of sailing in wind, rain and sun made Easter 2025 a great one for all Solway Yacht Club sailors while the powerboaters joined in the Easter Day sunshine, returning on Sunday after a particularly successful fishing trip.
Good Friday hatched the Easter Eggstravaganza with 20 young cadets, supported by three youth members and a team of adults manning the safety and support boats.
First job was a refresher in rigging and preparing the boats after being laid up over the winter. Once launched the plan was to race around a short course gathering prizes and inflatables en route.
Starting in damp conditions, light winds made this tricky before the race was cut short with crews swimming to steal prizes from one another.
With heavy rain now dampening the support crews, by this time it didn't matter to the cadets, all returning to the pier to claim their prizes.
Great fun was had by all. Rather more serious sailing for the cadets continued over the weekend with two days of coaching and race training by the club's team of instructors.
Given the neap tides and late high water, the sailing committee had decided Saturday and Sunday's Easter Series would be four river races, saving time sailing out into the bay.
The unusual format included two races each day, starting just off the club pier with competition in full view of Kippford's Easter visitors on the waterfront and bars.
After a briefing by race officer, Ian Purkis, and with a gusty easterly swirling around the estuary, a reaching start had the fleet heading downstream against the tide to round the notorious G buoy.
The fickle wind had the fleet in all sorts of frustrations, one moment gusty, the next windless, then gusty in the opposite direction, conditions to challenge everyone. Nevertheless, the Flying Fifteen of Scott Train and Anne Stewart led the fleet back upstream to a turning mark just off the Black Stone.
Never far behind, Toby Iglehart (ILCA 6) was heading for the race win after handicap corrections, with Dewi Williams not far behind in another ILCA 6, demoting the Flying Fifteen to third.
Race two and another reaching start, this time in the opposite direction. A few yards short of the Black Stone mark, Steve Gaughan and Paul Bannister in the Osprey had a big moment and capsized while the rest of the fleet rounded and sailed off downstream.
The Train/Stewart Flying Fifteen again led with an increasing margin while Iglehart also had a capsize, recovering in lightening time to continue the chase, catching and passing Williams.
To avoid G buoy, the course had been shortened with a turning mark in full view of the many village visitors.
The recovering Osprey helm was confused and sailed past the mark losing more time, meanwhile the Flying Fifteen stretched her lead to win.
Easter Day and completely different conditions – warm sunshine and a very pleasant sea breeze from the south. Richard Colbeck, race officer set a similar course and race three started.
The lighter wind and neap tide had all the fleet trying to avoid the incoming flood tide, but the low water level caught most out touching the Kippford mud, several more than once.
This time it was the Finn of Scott McColm's turn to chase the Train/Stewart Flying Fifteen with the next three never far behind leading to a very close result after handicap corrections, five seconds separating third and fifth in an hour-long race.
The final race of the Easter series saw the Osprey come good, Steve Gaughan sailing with wife Lynda, taking line honours but still the Flying Fifteen won on handicap.
Further back the mud certainly won with Ian Purkis and Philippa Kos throwing away a good start and upwind leg, sailing straight into the sticky stuff, necessitating Ian to go in to push the Firefly off, not once but twice, result, last place. However, a lovely sail in beautiful conditions to round off the Easter events.
Results
Easter Series River Races – 1 Scott Train and Anne Stewart (Flying Fifteen); 2 Dewi Williams (ILCA6); 3 Scott McColm (Finn); 4 Toby Iglehart (ILCA6); 5 Steve Gaughan and Paul Bannister/Lynda Gaughan (Osprey); 6 Ian Purkis and Philippa Kos (Firefly).
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I behaved like a rugby fan at the football
Since the dawn of time, football fans have dreamt of enjoying an alcoholic beverage in view of the pitch. Must we forever suffer under draconian laws which forbid the sacred seat-pint? Cricket, tennis, rugby, the cinema, basically all other parts of public life are laughing at us. That is how it seems to anyone born from the mid-1970s onwards who is keen on football and alcohol. The ban on terraced boozing was introduced in 1985 with the Sporting Events (Control of Alcohol etc.) Act. It forbids drinking 'at any time during the period of a designated sporting event when he is in any area of a designated sports ground from which the event may be directly viewed'. Also outlawed are bringing alcohol with you into stadiums and entering while drunk, or becoming drunk while there. At a conservative guess this has made criminals of around 80 per cent of all match-going football fans at some point. 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Southampton are one of four clubs trialling permitting alcohol in seats. There were hopes that Good Friday would bring accommodating weather as Southampton faced the London City Lionesses at St Mary's, to test the theory that fans would drink more on a sunny day. The British climate had other ideas. Rain is whipping off the River Itchen outside and inside take-up for beers is muted. There are more coffee cups than plastic pint pots visible in the seats and the mood is flat after an early goal for the visitors, which Southampton never look likely to recover from. It is tough to generate much of an atmosphere with a crowd of 2,112 in a stadium that holds 32,000. Nevertheless the trial has been successful so far. 'It's going really well,' says Andy Darbyshire, head of crowd safety and security at Southampton. 'What we have seen is that people who do want to take alcohol into the bowl have been very well behaved. We haven't had any reports of anti-social behaviour, heavy intoxication. The odd spillage, but no more than you have with coffee, tea or hot chocolate. 'There was a slight concern that people would throw their drinks around when goals are scored but speaking to all of the other clubs involved none of us have seen that.' Southampton do score, and there is indeed no Boxpark historical re-enactment. Partly because it makes the score 1-3, and the Lionesses soon make that 1-4. The limit of mischief is one teenager saying 'oh s---' when it looks like the visitors are going to make it five. Otherwise the crowd is sedate. Southampton fan Jason Hodges is an enthusiastic convert. At Bristol City, another club taking part, he was on the Thatcher's Gold. 'I had three before the game, two during and two at half-time. I was on fine form that day. 'There are a lot of kids at women's games so I separate myself from them in the stand rather than being behind them shouting. I think if it stays in the women's game it'll be all right but there's talk of extending it to men's football as well. We get enough trouble as it is without that; there are a lot of idiots that go, get drunk and start kicking off. It's a different culture.' His worries are echoed by fellow fan Kate Arnold, although she has seen no issues so far. 'I see people walking around with wine glasses, but other than that it's made no difference to me as a fan,' she says. 'It's not likely to be like rugby fans walking around, beer in hand, it's a more reserved crowd. They won't even let me bring in my air horn. 'It would be harder in a bigger crowd, for an England game for example, because there are a lot of younger girls going by themselves, 16-25-year-olds. It would be difficult to police whether they are old enough to be drinking.' Shortly after half-time the concourse bar shuts, curtailing my evening of hedonism at a disappointing two pints. There is no clear evidence that the trial has changed anything this evening – the test will come with larger crowds. No arrests were reported at women's football matches during the entirety of the 2023-24 season, while there were 2,584 related to the men's game. But it still remains odd that drink-fuelled anti-social behaviour is tolerated at other sporting events. Brawls at racecourses are a social media staple every summer. What makes football so different?
