Adventures with an old wooden racing dinghy Part 2: going to the races
Sailing clubs run Open Meetings where they welcome all comers to compete, generally in a specific class of dinghy. This gives them the opportunity to raise funds, promote their club and test their own members’ skills against the best in the fleet. These beautiful on the water photos of Scorpions are all courtesy and copyright ©David Eberlin. Thank you David.
Getting prepared
With the boat ready to race we needed to drag that old bag of sailing clothes out of storage and find something to keep us comfortable whilst jousting with the bright young things of the Scorpion fleet. A good wetsuit seemed essential as no doubt the brain making appointments the older body couldn’t quite keep would result in some aquatic activity, hopefully limited.
Neoprene shrinkage
Whilst well aware of the dangers of shrinking cloths washed at the wrong temperature no one had ever warned of the dangers of old neoprene shrinking with age. Our faithful O’Neill ong John wetsuit – a wonderfully soft pull on design with no nasty zips – acquired at a Californian Worlds by my old Racing Sailboats colleague Colin Merritt – and transported home in a 505 – had inexplicably shrunk and no longer fitted me. Surveying the sailing Long John market the front zips…
