Charlie's Birthday visit.

On Saturday,my old mate Charlie Wesencraft paid me a visit,to see how my poorly toe was getting on,and to show me some 18th Century Sailing ship rules he was using-as it was his 86th birthday on the Friday,it was also a good excuse to have a good chat,and catch up with what he,and his club,were doing.
Charlie has been invited down to Basingstoke to take part in a memorial weekend for the late and much missed Don Featherstone.The "memorial" will take the form of a wargame(Gettysburg) and a dinner in Don's honour,at the Wargames Holiday Centre-a very fitting tribute to a great man,writer and wargamer.

Which one's 86??-he certainly doesn't look it-I maybe do!!
In this photo Charlie is showing me the finer points of "Fighting Sail" the SPI game,on one of his carpet tile terrain pieces-these are marked into squares,which determine where you can move,dependent on your ship type etc.-although I understood the basics of the rules,and can see what SPI are getting at,I still don't see the need for marking the tiles-the sea hasn't got squares marked on it after all!!-I prefer the good old fashioned method of measuring with our sticks,and using a protractor for turning etc. so I will attempt a rule set of my own,based on historical knowledge and past experience-in other words,I'm too thick to understand the SPI game!!!!!-so I'll simplify it so I can understand!
We used to play the sailing ship game,using HUGE model ships(fully rigged,and bought at various car-boots,secondhand shops etc.) and I'll dig them out of my loft and have a go.

I came across this photo of Dave and Brian,the so called "dream team", having a totally over the top GLOAT!!-I had forgotten all about this-so beware boys,Big Brother is watching and waiting-you never know,the first Sailing Ship game we have,you might just be the Captain and Mate of the Sailing Ship Titanic!!

By the way Dave,your new "nickname" is Rain Man!!

Roll on Thursday.