Whitefriars?

I'm biased, but I like the Whitefriars Junior group the best - good level of tuition, I hope, but not driven by racing. Starting in Oppis, but moving on fairly quickly to Teras, then Toppers, Q'bas and Fevas. South Cerney have an active Cadet fleet, concentrating more on racing, I think (I'm sure an SCSC members can help more with the details there) but not sure about Cotswold Juniors.

Adult wise, South Cerney possibly has a better strength in depth than Whitefriars, which is all based on handicap racing. Cruising is allowed at all times at WSC, though you do need a buddy in the winter, and generally they don't get shouted at by the racers, except possibly in moments of panic! We are working towards getting the older juniors better intergrated into the racing scene, currently.

Hope that helps a little. We are back open mid Jan, so you are welcome to pop over one Sunday to take a look. SCSC and Cotswold are within a couple of miles, so easy to do all the clubs in one day, though you might not get an accurate impression of them all at this time of year!

That would be fairly pointless, from a learning about sailing perspective, that's my birthday weekend and this year it's a bit of a major trauma birthday that will need extreme (alcohol) therapy to overcome. I'm planning a final rear up, I might not even survive it if I'm at all lucky.. Death by dancing will be the coroners report.

So is Whitefriars a fairly big stretch of water then? You know like more than ten yards before you have to tack?

I don't do to bad with the EPS on the sea, I've won a couple outright and come close to doing it actually over the water when it's very light. I think it is actually quite well matched to a Phantom, providing there's room enough for it to stretch it's legs, yet at the FOM I didn't even get close to Maxi Buddah and I doubt I would on this lake if my pal Barry showed up in his Phantom, that's where the high volume of the Phantom really pays and the Laser is impacted by the fresh water.

I think it'll make an otherwise pleasant but PY compromised boat a little more competitive to sail on the sort of water we last met on.

And if that doesn't do it, then the next thing to change is the foil shape of the daggerboard, they are the only things that can be causing the lack of get up and go out of the turns..

Thanks Rupert, yes I'm chatting via the EPS groupie thing on Yahoo and they're speaking of an annual event there, it was April last year, may be May this, although now I'm fully winterised I'd kind of like to do it a bit earlier than that. I'm getting constantly pummelled down here on my little lake by Louts in Lasers and it's time for payback, but, I want to see if I can encourage others to see the way the truth and the light of having a soft sail rather than the fully battened one, a bit like the Blaze lot did with theirs.