Dear Dave

How about, forget the diet.

Place all effort into practice sails and fitness runs (thats everyday for one or the other) until a 4 days before the event.  I bet the extra practice out weighs the weight loss and I bet you'll have lost weight aswell.

ps.  The hunky sailors will be just as impressed by your gybeing

Dear Dave,

I have been a very silly girl.  Despite knowing I was a little on the large size for my chosen craft I have persisted with my pie and chips diet, as made famous by tt, and so now have a dilemma: How can I lose a stone ready for my world champs next month?

I have surveyed the lovely mags offering me a 'beach babe body' in time for summer with a critical eye; I doubt their idea of 'beach babe' ties in with what is needed to power sixteen foot of single handed trap boat round the Baltic, but even so, I do want to look my best and impress all the lovely foreign sailors I know will be there.  Plus there will be five other foreign girls all trying to get their shapely hands on the very ugly ship in a bottle that constitutes our women's world champ trophy and I do not want my extra ballast to ruin my chances.

what's a girl to do, Dave?

Very good point.

Bear in mind that if H&S people had been around then we would never have built an Empire or won 2 World Wars either.

I said it doesnt ALWAYS hurt!

The other plus point is that boats do not excrete.

Tom - capsizing a boat doesnt always hurt. Water is kind of flexible in a way that turf isn't....