Boxing Day Race

It was still quite breezy for the annual boxing day race at Weymouth Sailing club; the traditional post Christmas blat around the bay with a finish outside the club which involves sailing up the narrow harbour, this year it involved short tacking.

Stephen drove us to a really good finish in fifth place, despite trying to roll a cigarette with the tiller between his knees when we were sailing really deep and seconds away from a chinese gybe!

Always a good race and we only have one more race - New Year's Day and then that's it until April!

Farr Out Wins Weymouth Sailing Club 2010 Handbook Cover Competition

We may not have a lot of trophies to pick up this year but we're going to be on the cover of the club handbook!

The great photo taken by Iain Jones of our recent big broach was voted winner by the attendees of the Commodore's punch party on Saturday. One of the older club members complained that the photo displayed bad seamanship, Ho Ho.

Sunday morning saw race 6/6 in the Winter Series with only three races completed. I'm pleased to say that we were first; not enough to get the series but we were really flying in 10-15 knots of breeze and flat seas. I think we managed to keep in the stronger breeze bands in a northerly wind and to keep the boat going fast.

We plan to move back to the IRC class for the spring series, so our time out front of the fleet will be over. Let's see what we can do though........

Finally we get a race. WSC winter series 5/6

So in this series we've had race 1 and race 5, the rest being blown out. It was a pleasant if cold morning on the water; we started off slightly overpressed under No.3 and full main but had changed up to the No. 1 by the end of the race. Probably not early enough seeing though we were six up and lost it on the beat across the bay.

First across the water but it wasn't enough and we ended up in third place with Daddsie winning.

Whilst it's blowing hard here, let's enjoy watching others...

I just thought I'd post this lovely Youtube video of Figaro 1s training in some wind. Enjoy.



Sometimes that spinnaker pole just gets in the way doesn't it?

Spi bag for companion way launch.

As I couldn't find an easy way to post a picture on the Laser28 forum. Here's a photo of our spi bag arrangement.

Racing cancelled again today! Gusting 50 knots again

Virtual TJV - Finished

FarrOutGBR814WeySC finished the virtual Transat Jacques Vabre last night in 4179th position out of 93,000 odd players. It was fun, but I think I'll wait until the next Vendee Globe to do another one.

GBRToeinthe Water is still going, but I've got a beer on the bar for him.

Hopefully, looking at the forecast, we might be able to do some real sailing this sunday.

Racing Cancelled

Winter series race 2 is cancelled. Thank God. It's blowing a hooley again. We went out to Portland Bill to see the raw power of the gale.

That's Admiral Sam and I with the roughest sea behind us.

Virtual TJV

I've been clawing my way up the rankings trying to recover from the mistake of reaching off south last week. you can almost smell the coffee in Costa Rica.....

Weekend Storm

That's the view on the screen at WSC on saturday when Sam and I went to check Farr Out on her mooring. The gusts actually maxed at 72 odd soon after. She was leaning over heavily against the boat next to her but didn't seem to be in trouble not that we could have done a right lot about it in that breeze.

It's blowing again today (monday) but we did have a weather window for race 1 of the Winter Series. A second for us, we couldn't seem to shake Paul Barford who had that little boat flying. Good to get out but we needed another couple of people on the rail.

Virtual TJV - Lying in the 10,000s at the moment. I've recovered a bit from where I was but to be honest it's going to be hard to win. Having a little sub-race with another British boat "GBR Toe in the Water" which is some more fun.

So close

So close to winning the series....Did the broach on race 4 lose it for us? What would have happened if race 5 hadn't been cancelled? Should we have protested race 3? If race 5 wasn't cancelled would we have been at the club and have protested race 3?

Anyway, well done to Paul and his crew. There's the winter series starting on sunday (although there's a big blow predicted for the weekend).

After stating after the Virtual Vendee Globe that I wouldn't do another virtual yacht race, I'm steering FarrOutGBR814WeySC in the virtual Transat Jacques Vabre. Doing alright at the moment (around 2,500 / 85,000) and am hopefully going the right way.

End of Autumn Series

We did our best to win the series but it was not to be. Paul Barford and his Achilles 24 managed to win the PY autumn series at Weymouth Sailing Club. We haven't got the official results yet but I feel confident that we were second.

Yesterday's race was delayed to a 1335 start due to rememberance day and we started in a cold and brisk northerly wind, gusting to 30 knots with about 24 constant but as always on the northerlies in our bay not very stable. The on-off wind saw Darren doing a lot of work on the mainsheet but keeping us flat and fast at 6.1-6.3 knots upwind under No. 4 headsail and one reef.

The job was one of maintaining a lead so we were going downhill under white sail mostly with a spi hoist only on the last lap. I had to agree that the gusty conditions could easily spin us out and while we were still pulling out our lead and people behind weren't hoisting then that was the right thing to do. On the other hand we had 6 guys on board who all know what they're doing and 25-30 knots of breeze, to me that's a recipe for the most fun you can have in a Laser 28!

When we were all moored up, Paul Barford entertained us by sailing onto his mooring, aborting on go one and going around again only to get a reefing line caught on a pile on the second go thereby pulling his boom off and ripping his mainsail:

Race 5 cancelled.

It's blowing hard here this morning. God did this because our weddings banns are being read in church today and normally I wouldn't be in attendance 'caus I'm sailing.
Some nice gusts, about 49 knots I think. I had a look at the webcam at Overcombe beach and there's some wicked surf. All good windsurfing weather I think, but out of control on a Laser 28 and dangerous for our 1986 rig!

Broachtastic.

Whoops no helm!

On our ears

Get that thing down!

WSC PY Autumn 4. WooooHooooo!

What more can you ask for? Sunshine, flat sea in the bay and 25-30 knots of breeze; just the stuff. Top boat speed of 10.3 knots today, really enjoyable. We spectacularly wiped out on the first gybe which the commitee boat got on camera so hopefully I can post some pictures soon.

What with another issue of getting the spi halyard caught on a mainsail batten, we only managed a third. The Achilles 24 of Paul Barford and Achilles 9m of Steve Dadd both like a bit of wind and sailed to a corrected finish in front of us although we were first over the water.

Really enjoyed the sail though, Farr Out positively gurgles and lifts her bow out of the water when you've got enough wind behind her. Must remember to keep the weight to a minimum on the bow during the gybe in heavy weather - you got to do it on your own Dave!

Check back for the cool broach photos.

Autumn 3 - struggle to finish

Got a first on this sunday morning race. I think we were the only ones to finish, which we did in about 1hr 10mins but the race was taken from the first time through the finish line (about 33 mins for us) and so the other boats in class got a finish as well.
Fair I suppose, but we played the conditions of no wind at all very well searching out bits of pressure and even used the incense sticks.

Autumn 2 - They come in threes....

I was apprehensive as we left the mooring for the 2nd race of the WSC autumn series. We'd had two breakages already: a lifting point on the inflatable tender and the main halyard shackle had given up the ghost. We all know that these things come in threes, what was next?

In the twenty knot gust conditions we were flying, boat speed of 9 knots at one point. Luckily the third thing to break was the pole downhaul block shackle and Dave on the bow sorted this by keeping his foot on it while we were doing around 8 knots, he then fixed it in enough time for the gybe.

A second place to Sole Bay on corrected, but we were out front all the way round and maybe lost a bit of time on a trapped spi halyard problem, resolved by Rich Veale by hoisting on gen 2.

All in all a good sail and great to see that we still have the boat up to speed even with me driving!

Great Start

Iain Jones was race officer last sunday and took video of our start.Cheers Iain.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXBVdkllX_8

WSC Autumn Series - Race 1

I managed to prise the tiller from Stuart's hands for the first race of the autumn series, or to be more correct Stephen let me do it because by rights it should have been his turn. I really liked getting back on the helm but made sure to learn from Stuart's techniques for getting the boat going fast - I think I read somewhere about Laser 28s "first go fast then point".

Still sailing in PY class which means we're the fastest boat in class, it makes a change from being the slowest boat in the IRC class. This meant that we were first over the water by a pretty good margin and eventually coming third on handicap to boats behind. Ho hum, we had a patch of very light air that maybe they didn't get. We sailed a good race with moments of brilliance, for me the best bit was an inside overlap leeward mark rounding with a windward spinnaker drop which took out Foxed Again and Snow Goose (even though they weren't in the same class!). Great crew work from everyone.

Looking forward to next week.....

Sunshine Day

A nice bit of video as we set out across Weymouth Bay for Cowes on Friday on Rattler.

JOG Cherbourg 25th Sept 09 - Sunday series 4/4

An action packed weekend this weekend with the finale of the sunday series for Farr Out with a serious depletion in crew numbers due to Bob, Dave and myself all going offshore with Rattler for the final JOG race of the season Cowes-Cherbourg.

When I phoned Stuart on sunday evening, the boys seemed to have had a pretty good race with Paul from Stuart's work pulled in as a reinforcement for him and Steve, but only three up. A spinnaker wrap cost them the series with Manana winning the last race by 36 seconds corrected. Well done to them and I look forward to getting back into it for the autumn series starting next week.

On Rattler we had an excellent race, starting in class 5 instead of class 4 although this was changed in the results. The initial beat down the solent had us up at the front by the needles and the kite hoist that would stay up all the way to the finish. We had Whistler and Xara with us and we were pleased to see Xara's masthead tricolour change from white to green as we slid past.

There were a lot of ships to deal with in the northern shipping lane and we gybed in the middle to keep in favourable tide and scooted on down towards Cap Levy keeping east expecting the breeze to die and to ride the tide down into Cherbourg. We lost a lot of ground just outside the Grand Rade but all in all a cracking race. Crew pictured at the Jog drinks reception at the Yacht Club de Cherbourg:


I had a chat with the guys from the Laser 28 Moondog they'd done very well double handed. Let's get Farr Out doing some offshore racing next year.....

Patchy wind on sunday

I've missed the first two sunday series races. The rest of the guys got a 2nd and then a 1st. So I was keen to get back on the boat and enjoy some of these winning ways.
So for the third race of the series, I climb on the boat to sit in the middle and do "tactics".....ho,ho,ho. We drove into so many holes and went the wrong way almost every time so that we were last! Perhaps it's just an elaborate plan to get back the helm.

End of August Series - no more evening races!

As the nights draw in and we start our autumn and winter sunday mornings, we finished the series with a first. There were only three boats in class with Folio retiring leaving us and Scoline to slug it out. We kept them in touch all race and towards the end just reeled them in as they were carrying too much canvas in the 25-30 knots of breeze. And as we are starting to realise, Farr Out loves a lot of wind and you sail her like a big dinghy.

Great fun, and it's so nice to win!.......

August Series - going well

We're really enjoying the WSC August series at the moment (sailed on monday and thursday evenings). Although we've no chance of winning it, we're snapping at the heels of those that can.

Last night was gusting 30+ knots and we were the only boat in Q class to fly a kite, exhilirating! Chapeau to La Salmo in W class for doing the same. I know we keep saying it but keeping to white sails downwind on Farr Out just can't happen; for one it wrecks the upwind sails when you wrap them around the forestay and we certainly need a lot of wind to get her planing - that's when the fun is.

Due to the beer deficit on board at the moment, we finally managed to clear the Pimms pre-mix left over from the Round the Island.

Ringstead with Kids

An enjoyable day on sunday (apart from bumping the reef!) taking the girls and kids out to Ringstead for the WSC squib barbeque.

A highlight for me was seeing Richard Tolkein's "Orca" Classe 40 right behind us and gybing just on our starboard bow on the way out there:

Another thursday in a dying wind

With her shiny new bottom Farr Out was gliding along on rails last night. The result was academic as once again the faster boats could finish in more breeze and it all but shut off for us. We had some nice sail handling although the race was marred on the start by Scoline who protested us. It was the same old thing of shutting us out at the committee boat end, we had Hooligan above us and could do nothing about it apart from protest Hooligan. We tend to spin out the way when this happens, they did it to us in the Rear Admiral's Cup last year and we were in the same team!

To protest or not to protest......some might say that you need to protest to enforce the rules and overturn the disadvantage that someone has thrown at you. Me, I think it's sad on a thursday night race in the bay and I have no enthusiasm for turning up on a tuesday four weeks hence to listen to somebody whinge to a disinterested protest committe. We don't even have a protest flag on board! (although we could fashion one from an ensign quickly, if you care to bring it on).

Ho hum, I think we'll carry on just having a word when feeling aggrieved - if it doesn't win us a match race against Mathieu Richard or James Spithill then never mind!

Draig are still going for it in the fastnet - overtaking stuff past Bishop Rock I hope.

Fastnet / Figaro

Mostly spending my time watching the Figaro and the Fastnet races on the PC.

Draig O'r Mor, my friends Kev and Kay are competing in the Fastnet so I'm trying to keep tabs on their progress at the hourly scheds. Darren has also gone with them as well as Micky Carter. Good luck to all of them, I'd have loved to have gone with them.

Also watching the Open 60 class with interest - nice to see Sam doing well on Artemis 2, does this mean that the boat has the potential that it was supposed to have? What's going on with Hugo Boss, does she not like going upwind?

Talking of Figaros, last night I went out for the test sail of Rattler's new sails with Richard and Simon, Simon's Dad and John Pollard of Westaway Sails. Sparkly bits of carbon cloth which seemed to pull the boat along, a little overpowered at times in the strong breeze with the No. 1 and full main (both new).

Clean Bottom

We lifted her out this weekend and got rid of that filthy bottom which was obviously the cause of all our recent poor results (ho ho)!
Farr Out got lifted on saturday, positioned on her brand spanking new cradle and back in with a lovely new coat of VC offshore on sunday. We had excellent weather for doing it and maybe a good plan rather than a blustery march day with freezing hands.

Thursday in the rain

Last night was rain and more rain, and guess what? Practically no wind. Hardly any boats showed up from WSC: about 12 squibs and 2 from Q class including us. At least we got a second!

This weekend is lift out and anti-foul so we'll see if the new cradle fits.

Sad to see that Flying Fish sank after a start line collision, glad to see that she's been refloated but I bet that makes a mess inside plus the annoying thing of "oh, yours is Laser 28 that sank isn't it?". My thoughts go out to them.

"Guy Gone!" - Again

Thursday night racing saw us seriously depleted in numbers, just the three of us Dave, Bob and me. Just the thing when it's blowing dogs off leads. We had an excellent start in a No. 4 and 1 reef sailplan, I guess it was about 23 knots out there. We decided to go for the pole less hoist again and it all went well until we tried to climb too high without putting the pole on first and a nice big gust span us and we broached. Probably the most over we've ever been in the boat and there was nothing for it but to blow the guy completely, enevitably meaning that the crappy Gibb clip opened mid air and that's another 16m of spinnaker guy/sheet at the bottom of Weymouth Bay.

We found another bit of rope to use as a temporary guy and we were back in the game. Some exhilirating times, but I'm sure the boat is faster port tack than starboard - what's all that about!

Double Handed

Stephen and I did the first race of the double handed series on saturday in the rain. We were too busy generally to put any oilys on so got soaked. We got a second but were really hampered as the wind died and we were flying the No. 4 headsail; we'd started off with No.4 and a reef.

Spinnaker poles are sooo last year! We successfully flew the kite down the downwind legs without a pole leaving us clear to gybe willy-nilly. It's a good option when short handed maybe....

Weymouth Regatta 2009

Well just back in after finishing four days of regatta..

We put ourselves in a very competitive group in IRC2 and not suprisingly couldn't win it. That said we had a cracking time and although didn't have enough crew on thursday and friday but had some moments of brilliance. Next year I think we'll sail under PY handicap against all the MGc27s as the similar boat speeds will make it more exciting as following very well sailed Sigma 33s around makes life hard.

Many thanks to all who sailed with us for the regatta: Simon Davies (bow, thurs - fri), Dave Evans (bow, sat-sun), Stephen HB (TFSSu), Darren Aston (main SSu), Richard Lee (TFSSu), Stuart "popstar- just flown in from Spain" Riches (helm, sun). A really good team and I'm sure that we have more silverware to get in the future!

Thursday night - wind off.....wind on

After a day of no wind for the squib nationals, we kinda expected the same. We motored out to the start on a glassy Weymouth bay with the visiting brigantine "Earl of Pembroke" looking gorgeous in the evening light. I considered asking them if they wanted to swap boats, but I'm kinda hoping for more gun ports.

As we motored around the transom noticing cat's paws rolling toward us, the wind filled from the south west and before we knew it we were doing 6 knots upwind.

I was about 30 seconds late on line (the wind died away again) and had a frustrating race where the run was dead down in NO wind. Not the best point of sail for a Laser 28. The first beat was marred by Rumrunner and then Scoline tacking in our water right in front of us, Scoline nearly had a Laser 28 trailer! Annoying but I'd have probably done the same thing.

After staying in front of us with their big masthead kite downwind, we accellerated away from Rumrunner to take the line and getting a horn. Unfortunately this was erroneous and the guys were de-rigging the kite sheets as we realised that we were still racing.

A pleasant evening though. The new chef's food hasn't improved since last week, so we'll go hungry next week! If he's reading this, sorry, but have a quick flick through Larousse Gastronomique and then spend some money on the ingredients. Cheers.

Dirty Bottom

Thanks for your comment Anonymous Stibbs!

I dived the bottom on sunday morning. The rear section and rudder were really hard to scrub off with a lot of green weed growing - that anti-foul is not going to last until January.

Next goal for us is Weymouth Regatta. Four days is quite a long time but we're doing alright for crew at the moment I think which is always the problem.
http://www.weymouth-regatta.org/

Thursday 2/2

Fourth last night in fickle winds. We had a great start but were too concerned about getting covered by Hooligan and Draig that we probably sacrificied too much speed for height. Triangular course T,D,H - good hoist and clean air down the run with a nice gybe at D using the human pole and dip pole method which can tend to avoid wrap problems in the light stuff.

I need to clean her bottom again because it looks fouled up again maybe from sitting in the medina for a few days. This light stuff does make you think about how old our mainsail is.......

Days of Yore

I've got a number of old pictures of Farr Out, some that came with the boat and some that are trawled from the interweb. Perhaps my favourite is the Falmouth Regatta poster:

Round the Island 2009

The culmination of our cruise was the J P Morgan Round the Island Race. We arrived early in Cowes and had some time to chill before the big race.

Let's look at our previous performance in this race:
2008 - didn't compete. We'd only just got Farr Out and my son was just being born.
2007 - dismasted about 20 mins from the finish. Chuckles Too, GK24.
2006 - run out of wind and time after the cock-up of sending slow boats against foul tide at Hurst. We finished around 0400 on sunday with less than a pint of diesel. Chuckles again.
2005 - 126th overall in ISC division. Chuckles.
2004 - 1st in IRC2, Marionette. Well that was only me doing mast but I'll quote a first when I can!

So as you can see it's pretty good for us just to get round. We didn't really have a race crew (no main trim, no nav, not too much on the rail). Even so I'm disappointed that we made some mistakes which our previous experiences should have warned us of. That said we had a cracking run from Ventnor to Bembridge around 140 degrees apparant with a bit of puff behind and some surfs. We seemed to be creaming through the fleet.

Ho Hum...there's always next year!

Summer Cruise

Farr Out went on her first summer cruise last week. We took her to Cherbourg on monday, around to St Vaast on tuesday and then went over to Cowes wed night/thursday morning. Good fun had by all with an exhilirating channel crossing in 25+ knots and some seas on the way back.

All over so quickly though!

Crew Race - Fanfare Trophy

Darren drove for the crew race last night. I quite enjoyed sitting on the rail and dragging myself over the cabin top. Results show us as 4th but I think the wrong handicaps were used. Fifth over the water with the two Sigma 33s, a JS9000 and Sapphire ahead of us.

Getting ready for the cruise next week and the Round the Island race on saturday 20th.

RDYC midsummer regatta

Well we put on a good show in 20-25 knots of breeze today. Overall third I think posting a second in the morning and a third in the afternoon. Only seconds in it though and Farr Out was flying recording 11.7 knots on one surf!

Crew: Dave Evans (foredeck), Steve HB (mast), Darren Aston (pit), Rich Veale (main), me (helm).

A great sail for us, but a poorly attended regatta , well two races, with a lot of retirements. Sapphire held a big broach in front of us which was actually caused by the tiller extension snapping off.

We were really happy with her heavy weather performance especially upwind where we were keeping pace well.

Thursday 1 series - what a mess!

Farr Out failed to finish last night in a dying breeze after being third to the windward mark and probably first on handicap. As it was we were scored DNC (did not compete) rather than DNF (did not finish) or as it should be RTD (retired).

Anyway with a southerly direction in the breeze and a windward mark of I against the north arm of Portland Harbour our considered tactic of a port tack pin end start and taking the right side on the beat paid off. We need to remember this for similar conditions.

Afterwards I had a grump with the Cruiser class captain, much as I hate to be an embittered handicap racer - I guess it's just unavoidable but the fact remains that at least 3 of the 6 races in the series had been marred by a dying breeze and as the slowest boat in the fleet it made no sense that the larger and faster boats were generally finishing before the breeze died. As Folio (MGC27) is sailing in the class below and gives us time under WSC PY handicap it might be an idea if we sail in that class next series, but then that would probably upset some people there. Predictably people are starting to notice our handicap anyway.........

Looking forward to the RDYC regatta on saturday where we're sailing in the IRC class, so we can escape from the PY mess.

Nick Sharp's Grand Soleil

A short video of Nick's boat from saturday:

Second by 9 seconds.

Remembered the video camera for the Hugh Rose Trophy out to St Aldhelm's and back. It was a long beat short tacking up the beautiful jurassic coast. Started of with the lapper and tack changed to the genoa just before the Arish Mell buoy. Bear away set at the St Aldhelm's ledge buoy and a gybe somewhere inshore. Had a horrible wrap on the gybe (my fault) but managed to get out of it by pinging the guy clip and bringing the spi back to the deck before re-hoisting. Top boat speed about 7.8 knots I think.

Lovely weather and a good race. We sorted out that squeak on the tiller!

Thursday 5/6

Damn, forgot to take any photos again! Short handed for the race; Dave, Steve and I to start off with but we got Neil transferred from Sapphire as they had 9 - nice of them and he was really good. A nice race in light airs and lovely weather but the dying breeze got us as Sapphire and the two Sigmas finished in stronger breeze.

Port tack start and a beat up the right hand side to "O" saw us cross in front of Sapphire - brilliant! Kept getting caught up with Folio - but that's another story.

I'll try and get some photos and video footage tomorrow on the race down to St Aldhelm's head.

A pot at last!

After two years of receiving the Alacrity (!) Cup at the WSC prizegiving and nothing last year, I'm pleased to say that Farr Out won the Spring long distance race yesterday. Something to collect in January is really going to be great, you never know we might collect some others along the way.

It was just Stu, Tracy and myself with Stu driving in a very light airs race that at one time saw us in irons after failing to complete a tack. Dogged persistance worked for us though and we managed to catch the new breeze to catch up with the boats in front: the MGC27 Folio and the Dufour 34 Foxed Again. Handicap gave us the win.

I scrubbed the bottom of the boat by diving on the mooring just prior to the race in brilliant sunshine. The water wasn't very cold at all and the mullet had done a good job of cleaning the keel already.

A great sail and kinda made up for not being able to go offshore for the bank holiday weekend.

Thursday 4/6 - third but not a lot in it

No Stephen for this thursday evening race. A nice 14-17 knots from about 230. Flew the Owen Sails Medium No. 1 with full main and the all-white kite. All the crew seemed to be taking it in turns to convince Darren to store the pole on the boom, it worked..

We got spun out by Sapphire on the start which I thought was a bit much but I suppose that's the game and maybe we're more of a threat than we were. Steve Fraser was driving - we'd have been better to port tack start in a fleet of 5 boats and get clear air on the right because that was the favoured side of the beat.

Anyway 3rd WSC handicap and 3rd IRC. Still in second in the series.

A photo of Steve and Stu on the day we went to see Farr Out in Ardrossan marina.

Southerly Gale

I'd been looking forward to the YCW Shambles race all week. The race is out to the east Shambles buoy over to Arish Mell and back again, we were representing WSC in the Rear Admirals's cup series and all in all it deserved some effort.

However the God's were not kind and the race was canned due to the southerly blow that we were having on Saturday. It galls me not to continue racing because of some wind, after all yachts need wind to go fast, but I suppose it's better to sit on your backside in the club than loose the rig and put everybody in danger.

Some of the competitors took a drive to Portland Bill and evidently the seas were pretty huge. I think the gusts topped out at 40.7 knots, strong enough but the sea state is also pretty bad usually in that direction.

Steve and I took the opportunity to finish fitting the jackstays and one of the safety eyes as well as fitting the correct cleats for the kicker now that they'd arrived.

Another Drifter - Thursday 1 series race 3

Last night's race was again in no wind. A good start at the pin end with Hooligan OCS above us. Windward mark was I with no wind from about 230. We stayed left even when Snow Goose had tacked in. The zephyrs we were chasing disappeared with breeze filling in from the right (!) towards the end of the race at the windward mark after about 40 mins. Second on handicap. Happy enough with the result and really, really, love our new Raymarine analogue wind instrument.

Team Farr Out are going to name sponsor one of WSC's new optimists http://www.weysailclub.org.uk/, getting it ready for Millie and then Sam. We're gonna call her "Giggles Too" after our last boat the GK24 Chuckles Too and her comedy tender Giggles. Nice name for a kids' boat we think

Second to La Salmo

Saturday series @ WSC. A really enjoyable race round the cans and a brief moment of glory as Iduna (X332) went the wrong way and we were out in front. La Salmo deservedly got the win on handicap, but we'll take the second. I particularly enjoyed the slam-dunk on Folio (MGC27)!

http://www.weysailclub.org.uk/content/view/298/151/

Snap!

Last thursday evening's race was an adrenaline rush... flying downwind we performed a spectacular broach and snapped the carbon pole on the windward shroud. Maybe should've changed to the ally pole in close to 30 knots, but then again.......

Early Season

I moved Farr Out into the cove at Weymouth Harbour yesterday due to the forecast easterly gale which is the only direction that gives us concern about where we're moored. It was a difficult job getting off the fore and aft mooring in an already lumpy harbour.