Absolutely superb Martin.
Fascinating reading.
Give yourself 25000 points.
You are indeed the Merlin of the web .

OK, can't wait to hear what excuse you are going to come up with next year to miss the Carsington Northern Championship? 8) I'll be checking with Yvonne that you have actually tied the knot :?: Sincere best wishes and have a great time in Rio!!! Tom sends his very best regards and hopes to meet up w...

Congratulations Howard Hawkes on winning the 2008 Northern Championship Not content with Thorpe Bay providing us with an excellent Nationals but now they are proving that they are excellent pond sailors Sincere congratulations.

Thanks to all those involved with organising a great Nationals at Thorpe Bay and for making all the visitors feel so welcome. Sorry Duncan for not being able to stay for the fun events I would have really enjoyed the CRAP sailing 8) Next time :lol: My first visit to TBYC and I hope not too long befo...

A massive big thanks to Keith and all at NDYC, an absolutely fantastic organised event and as Gordon has previously stated you will want to tell your sailing mates "I was there at Instow 2008". :D Just can't think why more helms don't want to sail our fabulous boat in Sprint Sport mode!!! ...

The head of Ilmostro's mainsail is around 3 meters wide and is supported by 50mm by 25mm rectangular box section carbon batten's which are made in New Zealand. The "back stay" on Volvo 70's are referred to as "runners", one each side of the boat that go from the top of the rig to...

Daetritis, the condition can become very serious and complete rest is necessary to prevent the condition moving into it's second and more devastating stage of Annual Daetritis, this is where the patient turns up for a meeting a full 52 weeks in advance. Southerners may not of heard of this afflictio...

Erling, remind me where does Frank live?

Thanks to Gordon and QMSC for staging a great fourth round of the Winter series TT. Personally thought the format of back to back races worked superbly well, benefits: two long races, best use of the wind conditions and opportunity to socialise with fellow Sprint 15 colleagues before the long drive ...

Message from Concise Shore Crew Dan Gohl (now 23) and Tom Gall (22) of Concise completed the famous TJV today Wednesday 28th November 2007 in 23rd position (25 days, 1 hour 19 minutes, 30 seconds). Both are glad to have finished and have enjoyed the overall experience. We are both tired having not s...

Message from Tom As I sit writing this at the nav station of our Class 40, Concise, I can just see the glow of Brazil to my right. The sun is setting on day 24 of the Transat Jacques Vabre, it has been our last full day racing before we cross the line at Salvador in around 18 hours time (fingers cro...

Report from Concise We have just had a very busy night! It has got a bit windier so it's taken full concentration to keep the boat upright. The first problem we had was at about 21.00 when the kite halyard snapped. So the kite ended up under the boat and it took 10 min’s to get it back on board. T...

Report from Tom 00'00.0000 29'30.8032W At 0300 GMT (24/11/07) Concise reached across equator at 29 degrees West with one reef and Solent. Sitting at a steady 9 knots the crossing was quick but we made time of course to thank Neptune and Dan asked for forgiveness for all the naughty things he's done!...

Report from Concise Overnight we managed to pick up some places into 21st and are now chasing the Pindar girls, who are just 60 miles in front. At the moment we are around 200 miles from the equator and the weather is hot! We are sailing night and day in just our shorts. We had our first heavy rain ...

Questions and Answers with Concise With more and more boats completing the race everyday now, we caught up with Dan Gohl and Tom Gall, skippers of Concise to find out how they were doing and what they’re up to. Position: 10.06.6N 24.59.3W Speed: 7.5 Estimated finish date: 29th Nov What sail combin...