SUNDAY was by any standards a glorious day for early October; the term ‘Indian Summer’ is being bandied about and one weatherman suggested its origin was from American Native Peoples who enjoyed an extended period of gathering in preparation for the winter. 

The only thing being inadvertently gathered at the club was vitamin D as the dress code was definitely summer standard.

Any club needs its youth wing and these two Sundays have seen our Mirror group under the guidance of Martin Egan enjoy a morning training session followed by joining in with the main fleets to race. 

It’s always amazing to see youngsters comfortably under ten years old muscling up on the start to get away in good order.  The pairings this week were: Matilda and Huw; Indy and Morven; Mary and Alex; Martin and Austin; Torin and Kees.  Matilda and Huw ran out winners but two were first timers, Austin and Kees.  

In their new boat and racing it for the first time were Mary and Alex.  These two unintentionally became unofficial ‘poster kids’ for Falmouth Week; even this paper featured them on its website.  This amazing enthusiasm takes a good club, a volunteer coach or two, supportive parents and then the obvious elements of the weather, the children, and some serendipity!

The main fleets enjoyed the sun, maybe more wind would have increased their enjoyment.  The club commodore came off the water, propped himself against one of the building posts, and explained that he was totally exhausted following a week away in the sun and racing in which the hard work of finding the patches of wind involved more effort than he expected; he definitely needed more wind and internal ‘puff’.

Falmouth Packet: Mary and Alex in their new boat, first time out.Mary and Alex in their new boat, first time out. (Image: Restronguet Sailing Club)

Two Firefly were out but no results as yet on line.  Guy and Becca raced as did Sophia and Alan Hulbert, watch the web.  The turbos were represented by George Cousins in his Musto Skiff, who was the winner and Peter and Rosie Underdown in their RS800.  The fast handicap was just Richie Pickersgill in his RS600; there was also an RS700 but that seemed to be in practice mode. 

The RS200 or asymmetric fleet saw Henry Hallam in his sister’s boat winning with his usual crew of Ashley Hill.  Not at all sure what Henry was suggesting but he seemed to indicate his RS200 was naturally faster than sister Rose’s boat?  Three other RS200s made up the fleet including a brief return from Kyle Brown.  The club is advertising sessions of RS200 training between now and the end of the year; details on the facebook page and the website – all welcome.

The Laser fleet was down to two boats but it was good to see Lara Odling one of our busiest under nineteen sailors back to race after the summer.  Two Europes and five RS Aero7s made up the largest fleet of the day in the medium handicap; Patrick Clarke came out on top of that race. 

Looking at the times this was all very close so maybe the commodore in his Aero made a valid point about it being hard work?  A couple of darts made it onto the water, one definitely in fun mode with a huge smiley face flag and two young children; the other appeared to have faltered in the calm seas of the day.

Next week currently looking cooler, cloudier but sadly almost equally quiet with the wind; maybe another golden Sunday for the Mirror fleet?