Up at the 'crack of sparra's' Saturday, 6:24 train to London Paddington - off the the RYA Dinghy show.
British Rail, apart from new rolling stock are much the same as ever; but at least we were on time - which is the point I suppose. The tube is marginally better than my last trip to London village, I'd have to admit.
Meandered up the hill to Ally Pally for just after opening time at 10:00.
No idea where the time went. Fair play to the better half that she put up with me shuttling backwards and forwards from the Volvo Main Stage and the Coaching Area - with but a short break for lunch.
So, impressions;
My god, what a lot of dinghys - sailing porn really. Top of the pops would have to be the wooden dinghy's - beautiful, absolutely fantastic to look at. Not for me though. I'd be afraid to use them for fear of damage; it would break my heart to get one scuffed. And I still can't get to like the bouyancy bags; completely spoils the appearance - IMHO.
Impressed with Olly Rofix's presentation, pretty good for a non-professional speaker and very poignant in places. Good on him.
Not too impressed with Rob Gravett's hard sell of his training courses. I think most people were expecting more hints and tips on towing etc, but all we got was a 15 minute hard sell of his towing and driving courses, diluted at the end by a couple of questions posed by the stage host, who I suspect had caught the mood of the room.
Liked the coaching tips in the Coaching Area - could have done with a better area to present them in, only the front row really got the full benefit.
The RYA also took the route of the hard sell with the 'Rules' session on the main stage. All very dramatic ripping out most of the pages in a perfectly good book (presumably). And then gabbled through the rules - hardly a chance to catch your breath. Followed by the hard sell for the ebooks now available.
Is the RYA a sailing organisation or a selling organisation - I have the same issue with Sustrans, only they are cycling, not sailing. Same approach to shifting their merchandise.
...and then it was 5 pm and time to meander back again. Nearly got everything done I wanted to do.
Played platform hokey cokey at Bristol. On the way in it was platform two for the next train, so from platform 11 we set off, when we got there it had changed to platform 12. Still, good to have some exercise after a long day.
Home by 11 pm, cream crackered.
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