SAT, MAY 29 and SUN, MAY 30, 2004 Round of the BFSLYC Championships BACK TO THE LINCOLNSHIRE LYC OPENING PAGE and CONTENTS   MAP OF HOYLAKE   A POTTED HISTORY OF THE HOYLAKE AREA   IMAGES FROM PREVIOUS HOYLAKE REGATTA   HOYLAKE REGATTA and IMAGES, JUNE 2001     Report from Chris Wright Not much to report from Hoylake as it was (another) non-event. I arrived soon after midday having leaving home in bright sunshine and having driven into the forecast rain around Manchester. It carried on raining well into the afternoon. Andy Parr arrived from West Wales at about 1.00pm so I put the wet afternoon to some use and donned waterproofs and set to assembling my Class 5, which had arrived back from New Zealand at Andy's office the previous Friday and had then been delivered to me by Andy. Despite his shipping crate having been badly bashed about on its return journey from Pacrim 2004, both yachts arrived undamaged so all I had to do was try to remember which bolts went where and in what order, and soon it was a complete yacht again. By then the rain had done its worst so we rigged the mini yachts and three of us went out for a sail, soon joined by a few Class 3s and Mark "The Hobbit" Lloyd's in his Class 5. Mark has been upgraded from the nickname SoC [Son of Chris] to The Hobbit courtesy of that mad Kiwi Mike "Fish" Haddock who, with the Lord of the Rings fresh in New Zealander's minds, decided at Pacrim 2004 that Mark very much resembled on of the epic film's characters much to everyone's amusement and Mark's disgust. Friday evening passed in much the usual way, with a visit to "Wetherspoons" for some excellent value cheap food and some even more excellent pints. The place filled up with Friday night revellers and got very noisy so we moved on to "The Ship" to check out what we had been told about its real ale selection now that it is under new management. One of the beers was not available but the other 15 different hand pulled ones were! Not even DCMB's [Robert Coburn] legendary capacity could cope with a tour of all the beer pumps so we all just stuck to a few favourites. Saturday dawned sunny and somewhat windless and that's how it stayed for much of the day. Now and again there was enough breeze to get going but never for long and the sea breeze was from an opposing direction to the gradient wind so there were wild swings in direction. A Class 5 race was started and Roger Leah lead for much of it with The Hobbit in pursuit. I was a very distant third but found a better route on firm sand and eventually passed them both, only to be greeted by a yellow flag abandoning the race. Class 3 had a try later on but they too were yellow flagged on what would have been their last lap. After what had been a frustrating afternoon it was decided that there was little prospect of a sailable breeze so we headed back apart from three or four yachts that stayed out to make the most of the last of the afternoon's breeze, which then increased and continued to blow for most of the evening. Sod's law I suppose. Saturday evening saw us all congregate at "The Railway", where the beer was not up to the quality of "The Ship's", nor the food to the quality of "Wetherspoons", so we adjourned to our old favourite "The Plasterers Arms" for a nightcap or two. (Well three if I'm honest). It rained during the night but then brightened up a little but there was no wind until well into the morning, at which point we all rigged and prepared to head out to the beach. At that point Sod's Law kicked in again and more rain arrived, which killed off the wind. Racing was abandoned before it even got started, so we all headed for home. Regards Chris Wright K508 [  t o p  ]    MAP of HOYLAKE AREA   [  b a c k   t o   th e   t o p   o f   t h e   p a g e  ] POTTED HISTORY OF HOYLAKE REGION PREVIOUS HOYLAKE RACING PHOTOS BACK TO THE LINCOLNSHIRE LYC OPENING PAGE and CONTENTS