Monday 14 February 2011

14 Feb 2011

OK, it was a little too windy for some of the fireball posse, but that didn't stop all assembled turning out and giving it a bash, it just meant that some of them did a bit of swimming occasionally. Coming off the start line in both races we had all 10 or so boats all steaming along together (mostly unable to tack) and all going at pretty much exactly the same speed - so if you managed to end up 10 minutes behind the rest of the fleet, it clearly wasn't your boatspeed to blame. The beats were quite hard work, but the reaches were fabulous (if a little tight for my liking). Just bung the kite up at 'B' and ride the gusts like one long rollercoaster; mainsheet, mainsail and kicker all entirely optional and largely surplus to requirements. You could spot the gusts coming just by looking out for the boat ahead bearing away madly and taking off in a sheet of spray.

Particular highlights of the day were:

  • My new D12 spinnaker halyard working a treat after being literally thrown onto the boat in 20 minutes before the first race.
  • Being first round the windward mark in both races
  • Not capsizing
  • Those 3-sail reaches




Elsewhere, Pete Slack gave us a masterclass in how to get round the course in a F5 with a small lightweight Serena on the wire without capsizing and still going pretty quick. Gordon demonstrated how you could injure your crew without damaging his drysuit, then did a bit of crewing for Paul in the afternoon as a penance. Badders practised capsizing (he doesn't do that very often) and Helen and Paul did a bit of impromptu dredging with the kite. Bob apparently never made it round 'B' without stopping for a quick dip, and even the mighty Tim Rush did a bit of time in the water, although it didn't slow him down enough for my liking. Colin and Karen put in a couple of solid (capsize-free?) performances, and Martyn and Richard zoomed off depressingly quickly as usual. JT was out there too somewhere, but I have no idea what he got up to.


More please 

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