Ally pally treasure awaits…

We start this week’s blog by making no apologies for borrowing someone else words…
There are just three more days until the start of the RYA Suzuki Dinghy Show 2014, when Alexandra Palace, London becomes the centre of all things dinghy sailing.

And it comes as no surprise that P&B will be there joining in this festival of all things dinghy sailing after all the dinghy show is the only show dedicated to all things dinghy in the world.

However before we move onto this we would like to send our congratulations to P&B”s race team member Mike Sims.

Congratulations on winning both the SOLO class in the sailjuice series but also the overall title for 2014. An excellent win with over 700 entries over the course of the series
Mike Sims sailing with the P&B sail:- Sailjuice 2014 Series Winner.

Both the P&B offices, North and South will be in force across the dinghy show. As always there will be the full retail contingent on stand A10 and straight across from the retail side on stand B42 will be the Sail loft P&B gurus.

The sail loft encompasses not only, as the name suggests sails across the full range of dinghies (including repair’s) but also covers in the weathermax material and because we at P&B make everything here in house rather than outsourcing to others we have the ability to tailor and make specific pieces at your request. Be it specialist mast bags, toe-straps or anything else the boat heart desires.

On the sails stand will be Alan Bax P&B founder/ Dave Wade the manager of the sail loft alongside chief designer Steve Graham who between them must have over 70 years’ experience in this area.

This is all complemented by the hugely experienced staff at P&B with the likes of Tom Stewart Ian Pinnell and Ben Mcgrane in evidence across the weekend (possibly the same amount of experience between these three…one would hazard a guess!)

Overall the staff that will be at the show truly have a depth of experience in the classes they represent as well as across the board and we at P&B pride ourselves on being able to offer specialist advice.

Across the 12,000sq meters of the dinghy show there are many classes that are showcasing the sail making and boat fit out talents of Pinnell and Bax, testemant to the good work fast sailing and sail development that helped us claim over 25 titles, last season alone.

These range from the bespoke open design classes like the Cherub, International Canoe,International 14 and the National12, through to the P&B Race team boats, that have, in collaboration with the class manufacturers’ been fitted out by P&B. This is a superb chance to see these P&B race team boats. Boats that have been fitted out to the encompass all the latest ideas and tweaks so possibly a chance to go along and pick up a few fit or layout ideas.

This includes the 2013 world championship winning Fireball, Ian Pinnell’s (previous 505 world champion) 505, sitting alongside the hugely succesful dead cat bounce N12 , Steve Grahams Enterprise the brand new Merlin Rocket and the groundbreaking I14 nicely named Poppet… POW winner and week POW week winner 2012 and Pow 2013 winner.

and just announced is the latest addition to the show the national championship winning P&B Scorpion, 2030 this will be on the Scorpion class association stand.

These are just some of the classes that will be displaying P&B sails and/or fit out. Although highlighted last week it is worth showing again. This includes the new JP/P&B SOLO that will be on the SOLO class stand a new addition to the hugely fast selling Solo class. With some superb results already in the bag it is a chance to see it at the show. Feel free to pop by and talk to Ian or Oli about this hull and P&B fit out.

Finally and the big news for this weeks blog is that P&B will be having its inaugural treasure hunt.. however entry itself is not that straightforward, first you have to present yourself to the person below….now one could assume that they would be a P&B employee but as we know in this world nothing is certain.

This person will then furnish you with the necessary sheets that have all the questions on that will send you on your way to all four corners of the 2014 Alexandra Palace boat show, picking up clues along the way that lead to the treasure.

See you all there folks!