Sunday Series 3

Some great racing for us on sunday morning, a mid fleet result but I think you need to temper that with a financial touch, we are one of the cheapest teams out there of the IRC boats. Props to Scoline though who did very well on I guess a similar budget!

The start was nailed with a port tack approach, only trouble is the helm decided to vary from the agreed tactic until the rest of the crew shouted at him! Upwind is where we lose it on our boat but the tight triangle sausage played to our strengths of sail handling by a practiced crew and ayso and running kite options.

We had some argie-bargy with Effusion and got the red flag out for a bit. Rules stuff, keeping clear, overlapped boats all that stuff. Good that we're in those issues with much faster boats underneath, shows we're doing something right.

Figaro Surfs

Cool transat AG2R footage 2010, first bit is Sam and Romain on Saveol. Guess he'll be home looking after the bairn during the Vendee Globe.




BTW - can't wait for the Vendee (10th November start. I'm even considering doing the virtual race again, hope I can persuade the boss to buy some smart phones before that. Anyway my forecast is J P Dick for the win. Of course I'll be supporting Safran as usual, or the Jackal? You've got to follow Sam and Alex as well being a Brit I suppose. Anyway, it's exciting. I don't know why I couldn't care less about the Volvo or the America's cup but Open 60s, Figaros even class 40s and I'm there!

Sunday Series Race 2 - Girl Overboard!

The M to B kite leg didn't happen. The MOB did!

A short lived race this week with an enforced retirement after Alice decided to throw herself over the side.

Some idiot cancelled the IRC start so it was a busy line to negotiate with an all-in W class. This was done with a nice, fast 40 deg apparent stbd fetch into the line underneath the reaching in fleet giving us a front row start and good control. The natural gap between shall I say "Q" class boats and the rest let us flop over and take the right. Also plenty of gap to take the port lay line procession into the windward mark (I). There'd been a big shift right pre-start and we'd expected this to continue as the sea breeze established. All good.

Here comes the hoist. Ayso up and filled, jib down. Bit deeper than we'd have liked. I gave Alice the sheet for trimming. Darren calls "Ease" as she'd strapped it. Steve drives down anyway. I call "Trim" as the kite collapses and Alice braces her body to trim on. Trouble was the impatient bloke in the pit (me!) had already trimmed on so Alice pulled against nothing and went straight over the side.

She didn't bob round for very long. A pretty decent MOB recovery and you really see the value of the Laser 28's lovely boarding ladder. If you're going to go swimming in the bay in your jeans then this time of year is probably the best time to do it!

Damp Alice

Dead phone for Alice, a retirement for Farr Out but no real harm done. I think we'll take that as our discard. Thanks to the race officer for laughing when we reported our retirement and MOB recovery.

What a class this would be at WSC

I like to share enthusiasm, when I feel enthusiastic. I'd like to win some lottery money and get one of these for a laugh. In fact I'd like to see a whole fleet of them lined up on Hooker's Dock and craned in for dry sailing.



One can dream. Looks a lot more fun than an SB20.