SB3 - Serene Affair

Whilst I know my skipper will be busying himself looking up weather predictions and pouring over surface pressure charts during the lead up to the Round the Island Race this coming Saturday  (27th June).  He's also been overlooking the whereabouts of my new sail, from the suppliers to the art workshop and somehow back to me.

Amongst all of this he and his crew, will be preparing Dagmar House and the food for the 7 guests that are about to descend for the weekend.

If there's was to be any time to sit down and take stock, then this has been used to promote the sale of his other pride and joy Serene Affair - the SB3 that used to be on the hard at Shepards for a while till he moved it to an indoor secure unit, closer to where he used to live.

My skipper had brought it down from the largest reservoir in southern England, where he used to potter about in it many years ago, in an attempt to undertake a sail for Charity.  Nothing trivial as you'd expect from my skipper, no, he was going to attempt Cowes to Cherbourg in the 6.1m dinghy !  He'd arrange a land crew to bring it back from French soil and free passage from Brittany Ferries.  He'd arranged for friends to be on board a ghost yacht that would also cross the channel and pick up  radio messages and relay them back to the coast guard to report hourly positions, as well as being first call if a problem was encountered.

So the SB3 was brought down to Warshash, in the Hamble and he signed up for three of the Spring series races, just to learn how to sail the dinghy once more, one of those was becalmed.  After that he sailed it over to Cowes, when the following year it was entered in to the Round the Island Race and crewed only by my crew, there was no third person.  That year the 80th event, the wind was far too strong for such boats so having woken early, returned home.

Now Serene Affair, is to be sold to a Danish Charity sailing school, similar to UKSA here where I'm moored close to.  My skipper has been running around unrolling sails to take pictures, up to the boat to take some more and make sure that everything is together.  I wish her well in her new home and hope she brings many years of joy to the young.

                                                  SB3 - Serene affair

Last year I too didn't make it round, not due to too much wind but due to the lack of it.  Becalmed at St Catherine's point and opting to abandon the race to get back at a reasonable time.  That year I had trouble with my fan belt, this, there should be no issues I know of.

Preparations will no doubt heat up as the day closes in. I'll be in Black group and have a start time of 0740. My skipper has been told not to put the sponsors logo on my hull, as he's still got a small patch of the old glue to remove from last time !  Hopefully my new sail will arrive, due Thursday pm now slipped till Friday morning !  I'm not aware of any last minute works he's intending to do, but that doesn't mean to say there isn't.

You can keep an eye on my progress by looking at http://ngtrack2.ngresults.co.uk/raceplayer/ find the tab for boat name and enter Norse King.

I'll let you now how my crew did after the race.