Thursday 1/1 - IRC series

Farr Out scored a victory last night in light and patchy breeze. We managed to beat Draig O'r Mor (Dehler 36db) and Sapphire (Dehler 33) as well as the two Sigma 33s Scoline and Snow Goose. We came third over the line and clinched it by 39 seconds corrected. We had a good start on port, tacking onto starboard into the rest of the boats. A good start to the summer racing and an example of the focus that the team are putting in now. Stuart drove, Bob trimming, Dave foredeck and I did mainsheet and guy.

YCW Spring Series - overall

Sunday's racing was brilliant. Two races were carried out in near perfect conditions with three starts for the two races, the first start for the IRC fleet getting a general recall. The racing was really competitive and I think FarrOut showed well with a 5th and a 3rd.

So we finished the series around mid table, so considering the dreadful first race we had  and then the wind dying and not being able to finish in race 3, not bad at all.

Thursday evening racing starts this week, with the Q class being carried out under IRC rating this year. I'm hoping that it will be as good as this sunday.

Sunburn and shouting

We're having some gorgeous weather here in Weymouth at the moment, everybody loves it though us sailors are a bit peeved at the lack of wind on a sunday morning. The breeze was patchy yesterday for race 3 of the Yacht Clubs of Weymouth spring series. We didn't have a right lot of speed on the boat when we arrived at the start line as the gun went....so we ended up in a lot of trouble with boat on boat incidents. Hopefully we didn't upset people too much but sometimes you're in a situation you'd rather not be in...

After the procession of a race last week, it was a welcome change to have a bit of other boat interaction.  Roll on next week.

YCW Spring series 2 - Long Race, DNF

Farr Out got recorded DNF (did not finish) yesterday. We were forced to retire when the wind totally shut off around 1430. The race had started just before 1100 when it was pretty windy.

A great shame because I think we were looking at a top three position before we run out of wind. The boat went well and the crew all did well, I don't think we made a lot of mistakes and our start was pretty good.

There's always next week....

Tough Little Laser

You may have seen reports on Sailing Anarchy etc. about the carnage in the Southern Straits race in Canada last weekend. One boat sank and her six crew rescued, and it's worth watching some of the fantastic surfing video from the boats on YouTube.

There was at least one Laser 28 out there; Voila owned by Frank Fletcher. He tells his story on the Laser 28 forum: http://www.laser28.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=379&SID=84d74f343bb141c35c14cb85db43dcf8

57 knots across the deck!

YCW Spring Series - Race 1

After all the rain we've been having, the first race of the season on easter sunday was comparitively warm with mid teens wind gusting to early twenties.

What can I say? There were 5 boats in the IRC class and we were fifth! In hindsight our port start put us on the right in clear wind (all the other boats were faster than us), but maybe we should have stayed with the fleet.

Our first gybe of the season saw the first broach. All a bit rusty and I suppose there was a fair amount of wind. Good times though. Need those new sails, No. 3 seems to be disintegrating!