"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.