Let Us Know Your Thoughts With over a month since Bass Week came to an end you should have had time to recover by now! We are sending out emails to most entrants that gave us their details so they can give us some feedback. If you were there could you spare 5 minutes to complete the online questionnaire so that we can take views into account when preparing for next year’s regatta. As a bit of encouragement, there will be a £25 Bass Week voucher for the 25th, 50th and 75th completed form received. However, you are welcome to submit the form anonymously if you so wish. Also, to appease those that are quick off the mark (e.g. Judith Corry), there will be a free cocktail for the first form received! Many thanks for being part of this year’s event, and we hope you enjoyed it enough to tell your friends and come back next year! If you didn’t enjoy it, then please tell us! Very best wishes for the rest of the sailing season. Complete questionnaire at www.bassenthwaite-sc.org.uk/questionnaire

Thank You To all at Bassenthwaite Sailing Club I would like to thank you on behalf of the charity, Sail 4 Cancer, for your brilliant support during Bass Week. I have returned from holiday to read that the Trident Ladies held a raffle during your regatta to launch their North East Sailing Charity Ball 2010 and that you managed to raise a wonderful £406.45. We are very grateful for your generosity. As you may be aware, these funds will be used to help to offer respite to people living with cancer and your support really does make a difference to their lives; here are comments from two of the many families we have been able to help recently: “I would just like to say a big thank you for such a great break away from the stress and strains of the past two years. I really can’t explain how much it has helped us out and given us a new positive attitude towards life. Thank you for all your hard work in helping families like ours in difficult situations.”  Craig. “We would like to say a massive thank you to all at Sail 4 Cancer, for giving us the holiday of a lifetime. It enabled me to gain my confidence back and once again try new things. And for all three of us it gave us the opportunity to laugh again, which as you can imagine has been sadly lacking in our lives. I can honestly say we really didn’t stop smiling the whole week… We are all eternally grateful as you have given us the ability to laugh again, which is a wonderful gift .”  Amanda. Thank you again for your much appreciated support Kind regards Cathy Jenkins Family Liaison Sail 4 Cancer Sailing towards freedom from cancer

What’s this pic? – a complicated bag snatch routine? No, just Ed Thomas getting bored waiting to collect more prizes so he hoisted Diane’s bag up the flagpole (Bit more exciting than the bits and pieces hoisted on Saturday night!). Don’t think she could quite reach to get it back :(Unfortunately all the fun is over for another year and you may have missed the best week in many a year. Feel free to send your comments on the week – a questionnaire is now available

• thx for a good week and ace racin cant wait for next year. cya soon 
  Ed Thomas
• I thought I would drop you a message to tell you how much I enjoyed this years Bass Week. Despite the shakey rainy start, it proved to be the most enjoyable week I have ever attended. Particular highlights for me were “The Bass Factor or Bass has got talent and possible a new jesus christ soap star superstar strictly on ice….” (Sorry, Peter Kay moment there!) and the inimitable DJ Enterprise on the decks for the discos. “What shall we do with the drunken sailor” was a stroke of genius.Aside from the social side, the racing certainly in the ent fleet was absolutely first rate! Extremely tight competition, and great courses – though I’m thinking that the GP handicap maybe a little biased given the results of the pursuit races… I would never take anything away from the Daves or Andy S though – fantastic sailors.But I wander slightly off point (nothing unusual there!). I wanted to thank you for a great week and for all your hard work. 

  Thanks again,

  Richard Critchley

• Just to say thanks for a beautiful week in a wonderful place with the best crowd. I gather you sail here as well!!! 
  Thanks 
  Colin Lippeatt.
• Dear All,

Pauline and I were so sorry to miss the final day of what can only be described as an absolutely awesome Bass Week. Thank you for all your good wishes and expressions of concern following our 7.00am dash to West Cumberland Hospital on Sunday morning and to those of you who helped take our awning down, repack the caravan for the journey home (now you know why we need a big 4×4 to tow it!) and for taking the ‘van home for us.

I’ve had an ongoing problem for a few years now that’s been getting progressively worse and by co-incidence had an appointment with a specialist for the day after Bass Week (today). Unfortunately the condition worsened significantly about 6.30 am Sunday morning (nothing to do with the excellent final bash on Saturday night!). After being fully wired up and following numerous tests, I’m reliably informed that the problem can hopefully be controlled with a selection of regular tablets.

Thanks again for all your concerns; I hope it didn’t detract from your enjoyment of the final day of Bass Week 2009. I’m proud to be part of the team that can organise and run such a successful and enjoyable event.

Best wishes

Dave Nicholson

• Quote from Jane Hall – She goes down but comes up just the same!
• Longest distance viewer we’re aware of was member Tim Smith in Freetown, Sierra Leone!

Thanks for watching the website – 2500+ visits and 6800+ page views over the 10 days!!

Local newspaper item and video

PS Next year’s is 31st July – 8 August!

Sunday 9th August

The end is nigh! Just one race to go.

An overcast but dry morning with the forecast of similar winds to yesterday mean there should be an excellent conclusion to a brilliant week.

The wind came from the south again which tempted the OD to send the fleets to the end of the lake yet again. It was a good beat up but the run/reaches back down were about as dreary as many of the sailors 🙁

The final prize giving of the week will take place later this afternoon after boats and tents etc have been packed away. Fortunately it has stayed dry – beat the forecast once more 🙂

The prize giving was fronted by vice commodore Stephen Kirkpatrick, and he was able to personally thank his team of helpers and visitors for making the event so successful.

Jethro Gebhard thanked the club for putting on such a great week’s sailing and entertainment

In addition to the weekends racing trophies, special awards went to

David Darling for gentlemanly conduct
(Having retired for missing a mark although no other competitors challenged him!)

Ethan Dawson
Endeavour Trophy

Sam Hall
HiJinxs Trophy
Best Bass Junior

Mike Moore
Miners Trophy
Best Bass F15

Jethro Gebhard
Ovington Trophy
Best fast handicap

Saturday 8th August

Yet another wonderful morning with a breeze coming from the wrong direction! With three races to be sailed today it is hoped that the forecast SW breeze will come in soon

No peace for the wicked. Although the wind came in from the SW, there was a S breeze for the southern end of the lake, so the OD sent the fleets around the lake for the first race of the series!

The wind held, the OD held his nerve, so race 2 saw the fleets sailing to the end of the lake for the second time in a day! Was he going to go for a hat-trick? No he opted to sail the final race in the bay – generally some excellent winds, although for a short time in the middle the wind eased and caused a bit of a drifter – that Sale Fell effect perhaps?!

After such a busy, tiring and long sailing day the sailors had to let their hair down (if only Roystan could!). So there was an interlude with Bass has Talent. It started off with a tale about Sweeny Todd from the Commodore – after he was caught trying to give his helm a black eye in Friday’s race perhaps there’s something more sinister about him that we all realise!! This was followed by some excellent acts, (and some not quite so talented acts if I dare say that). Roystan’s novelty act was that of balancing a full pint of beer on his head whilst sitting on Ed’s shoulders. What can we say other than more practice required!

After an hour three finalists were declared – Jess (who sang if I lay here), Clare and Tony (Salsa dancing), and Melissa (who sang Man I feel like a woman). A nail biting decision declared Clare and Tony the winners and of course they had to repeat their dance routine which had been rehearsed for all of a minute or so. Well done!

The last night disco is under way and no doubt the flagstaff will be adorned with all sorts of weird and wonderful items in the morning – well it is Bass Week

DJ Steve reckons the dances for 2009 (or 2008 as he kept saying) are Champagne and What do you do with the drunken sailor (easy really – send him out sailing!)

How many members does it take to serve you at Bass Week? How often are they as jovial as this?! When the right tune is on the rhythm gets to them – this one was Walk 500 miles…!

A few hours and several pints on, Roystan found the flat spot on his head and demonstrated the pint balancing act – shame the winner of Bass has Talent had already been declared!

Friday 7th August

Fantastic morning again. Light breeze initially, and not forecast to increase too much. Problem is it was from the wrong direction 🙁

Well the wind has died altogether now – perhaps it will start to come in from the SW as forecast – but when?!

As you can see from the crews board, there are several people in high spirits – and why not?

The ladies, junior and senior race is being held this afternoon – no doubt the sea breeze will come in and make it an exciting race!

It was a while before the wind settled, and although the racing was delayed until about 1pm really it was the sea breeze that helped settle things down as the race went on. Sailors were in for a couple of long races though with the first race taking over 1½ hours. Then the ladies/junior/senior race followed with an enthusiastic fleet of 50 boats. Apparently the commodore has vowed to stay in the back of a boat from now on having tried to give his helm a black eye in the seniors race! They did win a prize for coming 3rd though. All in all it led to a late prize giving.

There was some live entertainment in the evening but many must have been wilting after such a long day as it was relatively quiet in the clubhouse.

Thursday 6th August

A glorious morning to start the day and the forecast of some wind too! Perhaps the sun cream will be out again – many people seemed to glowing after being caught out with yesterday’s sunny weather

Two more races today – fleet in the morning, and RNLI pursuit this afternoon.

The wind freshened from the SW and held all day to enable the sailors to have more great racing. The 100 min pursuit was won by another GP sailor from Bass

BBQs, and singing round camp fires (or is that too poetic?!!) was followed by a leisurely night watching films. There were some birthday revellers trying to see how far they could propel a plastic bottle with a bike pump. Toddy not impressed at their achievements and could be making trip to plumber’s merchant to get the right tools to propel one across the lake! The challenge has been set….

Wednesday 5th August

A bright start this morning with wind forecast to come back from the SSW so Sale Fell will have its effect on sailing conditions.

The resail of the Nairn Pursuit means racing will start an hour early, with the scheduled Nat West Cup two race series following on. At the end of racing the second prize giving of the week will take place, followed by a disco. All in all a busy day ahead.

The day has got off to a flying start, with the wind freshening for the Nairn Pursuit – an exciting course led to an excellent race, albeit with many capsizes, to start the day off before the two race series gets underway after lunch

Nearly 300 web visitors yesterday, but well over 800 page views. There must be something keeping your interest!

Tuesday 4th August

Another wet night for campers, and it could be a showery day ahead, but the main thing is that there are some more excellent sailing conditions to be enjoyed as the wind continues to blow from the south.

After racing there will be one of Claire’s renowned car treasure hunts. Will her niece make it back before nightfall this year?!

The southerly breeze was enough for the OD to send the fleets around the lake for the second race in a row! There were some whinges, but they were far outweighed by those that enjoyed the race. The afternoon race was the Nairn Pursuit in which the slowest fleets start first and the faster fleets chase them with staggered start times. The largest start was that of the Enterprises and GPs, and for the first time known there was too many boats over the line early to identify the culprits. The OD opted to notify them with a general recall signal, and although many returned to restart (within the continuing staggered start sequence) some boats didn’t. The wind eased for a while, later swung to the south west and came back with a vengeance. The beat had been lost but there were some good reaching conditions. Again, many enjoyed the race – shame it was thrown out at protest! 🙁 to be resailed on Wednesday morning.

The treasure hunt was as challenging as ever, but all the competitors returned before nightfall this time! The winner is yet to be determined

More than 300 visits to the website yesterday – can you beat that?

Monday 3rd August

Another showery start but the wind is in a good direction for this afternoon’s race which will, no doubt, take the fleet around the lake, with a likelihood of the wind freshening it should be an excellent sail.

For the time being, the wind has eased – perhaps it is being good while the race training is going on, or it could be the calm before the storm!!

The wind stayed steady along the southern end of the lake, and the strength led to large waves (well for a lake!) for the fleet to battle through, but it also meant that the first handicap boat, a Musto Skiff sailed by Jethro Gebhard was able to complete the circuit of the lake in just over 40mins!

Tonight there is some live music by local act Hulio Georgio!

Sunday 2nd August

The rain should have passed through overnight and campers are waking to a dry though overcast morning. The sun is forecast to follow through, and the wind is due to increase again, though hopefully not quite as blustery as yesterday. As the wind due to come from the WSW the effects of Sale Fell and various downdraughts should be reduced.

An excellent days sailing in conditions that were not quite as forecast, but there was enough wind, which had some reasonable gusts at times, and lulls in a couple of places. Certainly testing and challenging, but good racing conditions.

Competitors will be testing their brain cells tonight with the annual quiz. The result was closer than expected with four teams all having scored 47 points, playing the tie breaker question – how many flying saucer sweets was in the jar that would be the prize?!! Fortunately the Bass Teds flew the flag for the club even though they didn’t win the tie-break 🙁

Thank you for reading these pages – over 200 visits and 700 page views yesterday. Can you beat that?!

Saturday 1st August

Overnight rain resulted in the wettest morning of the month – Well it is 1st August! It seems to have passed through for the time being though

There is a good breeze everywhere other than in our micro climate, but there will no doubt be something to keep the sailors moving and the rescue crews busy. Of course, we were not wrong!!

It could well have been a practice day – practising capsizing, swimming, avoiding major collisions that is! There were some exciting legs beefed up by squalls. The capsizes were were too numerous to mention, the main casualty of the day was the loss of a mast. The hero of the day must go to young Philip Steavenson from Tynemouth who was out sailing for the first time – not only was he in a N12 with his dad, but with another 100 boats to weave in and out of, and the gusty conditions it was a baptism of fire somewhat!

The evening entertainment will start with the Commodore’s reception, followed by the first disco of the week. No doubt many people will recharge their batteries with some food and then burn up even more calories on the dance floor.

Friday 31st July

It’s here! The week will get off to a lively start with the celebration of Mike Moore’s 60th birthday today. Will it be a case of never again the morning after the night before???

Check out the competition!

The wet weather may have dampened the vice-commodore’s spirits over the last couple of days but he and his team have worked hard to ensure it will be sailing as usual next week. As for camping, the high water levels have caused him some headaches. Don’t worry though, he has put contingency plans into action and secured additional camping very close to the site to ensure that everyone will have somewhere to stay. In the first instance please check in at the reception hut as usual and you will be given instructions as to where to go.

Don’t forget to bring your wellies – just in case! As you can see the front camping field has been turned into a water feature, and space in the back field is slightly restricted, but filling up fast!