1972 was the year I left Norwich School, the school in the Cathedral close.  I left with three A grade A-levels and a couple of S levels in Chemistry and Physics.  A summer of sailing followed around the Norfolk broads.  I also attended the Enterprise Championships at Helensburgh on the Clyde river.  I received my place at Gonville and Caius, Cambridge despite failing my French O level for the fourth time.  I started a course in Natural Sciences for three years

In 1972 the World, or was it National International Enterprise Championships were held at the sailing club in Helensburgh, Scotland.  The club is on the Clyde near to where the Nuclear Submarines are based.  The weather was definitely Scottish, wet and windy.  Peter Blasdale, my younger brother and my father, Mike Blasdale took it in turns to crew me during the Helensburgh Enterprise Championships.  This was my first Championships racing in a fleet of 200 boats.  I can’t remember where we ended up.  Definitely in the second half of the fleet.

We stayed in a hotel called Ardmay Hotel, near to the head of Loch Long. This was about a forty minute drive from the Helensburgh Enterprise Championships.  I remember the hotel owner proudly announcing he had a micro wave cooker and could produce any meal in 2 minutes.  I also remember how long we had to wait for these meals, he forgot to tell us that he could only cook one meal at a time and that there was a long queue of meals waiting to be zapped.  Now we would run a mile from a restaurant that prided itself in cooking with a microwave. 

The drive up to Scotland for the Helensburgh Enterprise Championships took us past my Uncle and Aunt (John and Joan Blasdale) who lived in Macclesfield.  My mother nicknamed the house three loos.  Mum could not believe a house could have three toilets.  On the motorway up to Scotland, there were many other Enterprise sailing boats being towed up there. The camaraderie was fantastic on the motorway with all crews waving at each other.

Some pictures from Wambrook as well.