It is a almost a feat of memory to recall that until a few years ago all the evening race starts were run from the hut and associated start line.  Mostly it was spinnakers up right from the off.  For Saturday and Sunday races, members used their own boats to give a windward start.

Then, someone had the inspired idea of buying a boat to use as a committee boat and thus provide windward starts as the default situation.  So a very dilapidated Viking was purchased and made seaworthy mainly by John James personally, and a team of devotees.  To say there was a lot of work to do is a gross understatement.   All the decking, cabin, and electrics were completely renewed resulting in the present very useable vessel.  Over the first few years, there were breakdowns probably due to ageing parts such as the starter motor, starter relay, bilge pumps, winch motor corrosion, old and corroded wiring etc.  But these did not hamper the operation of the boat.  We managed to repair every fault in time for the next race.  

Improvements have been made as a result of our operating experiences. The first improvement was the electric winch, essential because we do a lot of anchoring.  But that brought its own problem because of the heavy power requirements.  We now use two 100 ampere-hour batteries for the winch alone.  We installed two bilge pumps to cope with the rain and seawater which comes aboard.  These are not power hungry but must be left on all the time since when it rains the boat acts like a giant water butt.  At the beginning we used an electric car horn for the hoot-signals.  Nowhere near powerful enough. We swopped it for a wind operated horn – in fact a two tone thing.

The automatic race starter has been developed from a bit of kit introduced by Peter Hopford and is quite a success.  It did in fact let us down once or twice. This was due to the winch taking all the power from the battery and led us to the separate battery system as at present. The engine incidentally uses a third dedicated battery for starting.  The Squib half-sail fitted to the transom acts like a mizzen sail and is a new innovation enabling Viking to feather into the wind. This reduces roll and gives a better ride.   There are other improvements in the pipeline but more of these as they come into service.  During 2009 we hope to obtain a more suitable vessel - Viking 2?   By “more suitable” we mean less roll and better accommodation and toilet etc.  We have a vessel in mind but are waiting to see if it comes on the market at the right price.   Don Cutler.