Graham Elliott

Messaged you.

Birkenhead is £60 for an adult. £120 for a family and under 18's are £21

Free until 18, encourage them.

Remove the fin from the boat. Remove a patch and discard. That easy.

Under what grounds were you given redress John?

The only annoying feature of using an RMG winch is having a brand new boxed one in your tool box for 12yrs, just in case....

Surely preventive is better than reactive though?

I have had the same RMG winch in my dry grey BritPOP! since April 2011 and it has never missed a beat sailing in salt and fresh water. I do have a visual check of it each year and it still looks like new, I also remove at least one deck patch after sailing her to keep air flow within the hull and stop condensation. Look after your gear and your gear will be fine for many many years, the one in the picture looks like it hasn't seen air flow and therefore is now knackered.

Richard, keep looking and ask Mick and Jenny at Lincoln. In the mean time, to save you posting the same in 18 months time, put your order in with whichever builder you wish to go with. Ikon, I looked high and low for one but could not find one, great club boat, very competitive just like many other designs of that era, Widget, TS2 etc

Hi Simon, mast rake can only be measured in full racing trim so you would need to have tension on your back stay for sure.

It is a pity that these proposals have only just come to light, giving us 4/5 days to discuss and no time to discuss lakeside with MYA club members that sail IOM's. How long has the MYA exec sat on these proposals? Is GBR not the biggest IOM collective vote in the World with the largest number of registered boats but we nearly missed the deadline, how can this be? Thanks must go to Austin on getting this vote live in record time, you saved what could of been an extremely embarrassing situation for GBR IOM.

Correct Lester, all proposals are in the right spirit even if one of them needs a little adjustment at a later date. All got a 'FOR' vote from me. Saturday deadline, be quick, 5 minutes to read them.

As most, I have been thinking about this subject quite a lot over the past week or so, and like most have had a problem with the answer. Our sport should be fully inclusive but the problem with the sport is that it relies so much on vision, be it a mark rounding or close Port/Starboard crossing or even just watching the pressure in the jib to allow fast sailing. Vision is obviously improved with distance and this is why we enjoy venues that allow skippers to walk the bank as to say. This then gives us a problem of how we become more inclusive but still keep the quality sailing, basically it is impossible to have both so the only answer is, for clubs that are suitable to try and run a few events where skippers are asked to use tighter restrictions on walking. Partially sighted, again this is near impossible to cater for in our sport, unfortunately. When you want to level up our sport and go deeper into it you really do come across some interesting things like, is it correct that the skipper that stands at 5' tall should not be able to use a step to stand on for at least the startline to put them at the same height of a 6'7 inch skipper? Sometimes you just have to accept that some sports you just have to adopt a different approach as you get older, instead of sailing the fastest 10r you may have to sail the lovely slower class but I think you should still love the sport with change.

Yes, absolutely nothing except to the fashion followers in the class. Just watched 8A and first, second and third were all sailing boats designed 12years ago. BritPOP!

This was pointed out to the skipper that evening with the video, he then approached the race committee as he wanted to retire from the race but as the scores had already been done and subsequent races sailed he put his boat in the water for the next S fleet race, started then immediately retired. Great piece of sportsmanship from a boat in the top 15 at the time. Well done Chris, GBR 21

And there's me thinking it was an individual sport, only kidding Lester. The live coverage of the event is some of the best I have seen, tune in and watch.

Gareth, this is high end stuff that happens once every blue moon but could decide the outcome of a Worlds. Vane sailing can also get tetchy as happened at this years A Nationals. At the end of the day it is about enjoying your sailing, making new friendships, meeting old friends. Both disciplines of the sport have given me lifelong friends.

Many years ago I had some clown sail up my chuf on the black flag start that pushed me over. I was out the race, he did a penalty, you can guess the rest.

The best weeks sailing anyone could ever imagine and where most of the UK's top radio sailors served there apprenticeship, Stollery, Robert's, Walshy even Bantock used to be a regular at this event.

After each days sailing give everything a good hose down. When you get home after the event wash everything again, even take a patch off and give the inside of the hull a swill. Take most attention to goose neck, booms and masts. Somebody else will probably tell you to coat everything in corrosion x or similar, probably a good idea but not 100% sure. You will enjoy the sailing, good bunch with a few ex pats.

Come sail an RG65 and see how fast they move, pound for pound the fastest class. They need pretty much the same length course as an IOM believe it or not. Yes, the wind did not play ball on the video so Peter had to set the windward buoy away from the controlling bank, much like Castle Semple this year or Gosport when it comes from the creek but it was not an eyesight test, just looks like that on Terry's videos. Anyway, well done Frank.

Not ideal but I can pick it up and get it to Eastbourne when I travel down for the RG65 Nationals in the middle of May.

The flush deck ones were mainly if not all moulded by Ken Robert's (Martin's Father), they were chop strand and gel coat.

Depends on the 'older' design and more importantly if the rigs were correct, updated foils, on weight? Quite recently a Red Wine design won a ranking race with a decent helm, this boat was then 'given away' to someone else and performed excellently at last years Fleetwood Nationals. Yes, most of the top guys will sail the faster more recent designs but when you get to the top that extra couple of percent on boat speed is what is needed.

Put your name down on the waiting list and carry on sailing the Arion to it's full potential. Look at the resale value of any boat you may be able to purchase and also how often they bring out a new design that lowers the value of the older design they manufactured. Also keep your eye out for a decent 2nd hand top design, you have to move quick with these as they do get snapped up. Good luck.