Tim Dobson's Blog

Despite the not so flattering photo of me, the late arrival of the article, considering the Race was several weeks ago and the difficult circumstances surrounding our team entry, I am really pleased that this made the paper.

A big thank you goes to Dave Brown for liaising with the Glossop Chronicle Reporters.

In this article I especially like the bit where it states that I was expecting a "Real Challenge"
I don't think even I imagined what a challenge taking part and completing the race would be.

To quickly quote how the Southport Sailing Club Race Officer explained the event:

The Glossop SC team had arrived full of enthusiasm and were eager to sail. Unfortunately the Glossop boat failed to materialise. Their disappointment was ended by the kind offer from South Windermere SC to allow them to merge with their team to form the joint team ‘South Windermere and Glossop’. This team gained a creditable 10th place out of the 28.

We took part and finished!

With a skeleton crew of four from Glossop and roughly the same number from South Windemere, we sailed their boat into the highest position that any boat from Glossop or South Windemere has ever completed the Southport 12 Hour Race!

This is a truly remarkable achievement for both clubs!

We are extremely grateful to South Windemere and know we have made some friends for life.

When I return from Russia, I have several meetings lined up with various people to discuss the reasons:

• Why "the Glossop Boat failed to materialise"
• How to regain the trust and make it up to those who had been looking forward to this prestigious event all year and had trained for the event - the highlight of the Glossop Juniors' Sailing Calender
• How to prevent this happening in future procedures to prevent this