FOSSC: back under the blue

In change from the usual Wednesday evening hotdogs, the last couple of weeks have been a bit of a trip down memory lane. It feels like a lifetime ago now, but it was only at the end of 2019 that Amanda sold the Enterprise we'd been racing together at Frampton-on-Severn Sailing Club and we bought the Albacore and moved the focus of our dinghy sailing over to South Cerney.

Prior to that, I'd spent the ten years previous racing Enterprises at Frampton, first with my friend Hels, and then later with Amanda.

Much as I love the Albacore and enjoy South Cerney, I have a lasting affection for Enterprises and their lovely blue sails, and a particular fondness for the club at Frampton. The lake holds so many happy memories; sailing with Dad, sitting on the patio in the summer's warm evening sun with Mum and a glass of red wine, the boys learning to sail, the dogs swimming in the lake. We had some superb racing over the years, and made so many good friends.

So when one of those old friends, Geoff, asked if anybody was available to crew for him in his Enterprise at Frampton the Wednesday before last, I couldn't resist.

It was a good evening's racing, repeated again this Wednesday just gone as Geoff's normal crew, Sue, was still elsewhere disposed. It was great to see Geoff again, and very nice catching up with (and in a few regrettable instances, being overtaken by) lots of other friends that I've not seen in quite a while.

The lake is exactly how I remember leaving it. Which is to say, sadly blighted by weed, even this early in the season. The water is too shallow, too rich with nutrient, and the club's hands too tied by bureaucracy, with limited options currently available to them to do anything about it. 

The main problem is the lake's SSSI status as designated by Natural England; it's a "Site of Special Scientific Interest", as I anecdotally understand it, because of a rare type of weed which grows there. Which, ironically, is being pushed out by the invasive elodea (Canadian pond weed) that now chokes the lake across the spring, summer and autumnal months.

I really enjoyed my visits back to Frampton, it's been too long since I've crewed a dinghy or raced an Enterprise. But I am looking forward to getting back to the deep, clear, weed-free waters of South Cerney this weekend and racing the Albacore with Amanda on Sunday. SCSC has become as much a home to me as Frampton was in it's time.

But if FOSSC ever did manage to sort out their weed problem, and from talk at the club, it does actually seem a possibility that some day they might, I'm pretty certain I'd re-join like a shot. I reckon there's room in my life for two clubs.