Sunday 22 December 2013

Breezy Sunday Morning. You got to be in it to win it.



It's been a while since I've made any blog posts, I guess both there hasn't been much to talk about and I'm really busy these days with two small children. But yesterday's race, the ultimate of the WSC winter series was really something quite special.

The forecast was pretty bad and it kept everyone away. In fact only three boats ventured into the bay with Paul Barford's "Sole Bay" going back in as there was no-one to race in their class. That left FarrOut and the J97 "Saskia VII", so a head to head competition with a boat that had already won the winter series with almost straight bullets - no pressure.

The RO set a windward leeward with a spreader mark at the top so that they could finish us near the harbour. Nobody was going to set a kite in that breeze so the goose-wing was a good idea.

FarrOut won the start with Saskia having trouble with their jib sheets, it was going to all be about boat handling. They got to the windward mark in front of us, being bigger and faster, but we were on their tail on the downwind. We shook out our reef for the downwind and then didn't put it back in for the beat. Funnily enough we were less overpowered with a flattened (brand new) full main that with the reef that had some belly due to the reef point positioning.

Stuart drove excellently with Steve kicking arse on the mainsheet meaning that we were working over the top of the J97 upwind in 30 odd knots - unbelievable.

With a mistake causing a jib wrap to Saskia in their "chicken gybe" manoeuvre. We overtook, having gybed in a big gust while we had speed. We held out, to beat them over the water.

I can't think of a better way of ending the season. Well done to all crew, we can win in an old, cheap small boat by not making mistakes and by the other boats losing rather than us winning. I think that brand new mainsail might have helped - well done Hyde Sails!

Tuesday 3 September 2013

Single Handed 2 - 2 mins 17 sec corrected!

A trophy at last! As the single handed 1 had been cancelled, it all rested on single handed 2.

FarrOut was blisteringly fast and the JS9000 RWH didn't really get that far away from me. The rest of the fleet were left behind. I was apprehensive to start off with, mostly about getting her back on the mooring...but it was a really good sail and I really enjoyed myself, even if I had no-one to talk to! I'll definately race her single handed again if I can.

That's everyone else behind!

Tuesday 13 August 2013

August Series - Monday 12th - Doesn't get much more fun than this.

So impressed with FarrOut and her crew at the moment. We came out for this race in 15-20 knots with a clean bottom and a very strong crew. Talking about our start issues we identified that we'd want front row committee boat, doesn't everybody? The thing is how to get it.... We knew that the Sigma 33 "Scoline" would beat in to the committee boat shutting the door on everyone above the layline. So we knew that we had to be to leeward of them to take control, there was enough wind to have speed to take control.

What ensued was an exiting match race start which commenced during the squib start 10 minutes before ours. We tried to keep below and on their quarter. It was successful and we caused enough trouble that we were clear on the start and they were out of position. In fact we were able to gybe away last minute and push up "Effusion" on the line getting us away clear.

A great race with very little error by us other than handing it to the Beneteau 31.7 "Crystal Voyager", or Crystal Meth to you and I. They haven't got an IRC cert so we don't really care. They have got brand new Sanders D4 sails though so we'll let them have the 15 seconds corrected that they beat us by on PY.

Well done to everyone for a great sail. Anybody have any ideas where we could have got that 15 seconds back? I know I do. Just great to be out on the water on a night like that and so sad to be missing Weymouth Regatta in our current form.

Friday 9 August 2013

August Series at WSC

We might have had some glorious weather in the UK for a few weeks there but the combination of high pressure and a lot of sun meant that we had evening racing with zero breeze. This started to become very frustrating for sailors though not understood by the majority population. I was very glum for a while back there!

Fortunately we seem to be having a period now of lovely moderate breezes and these have coincided with the August series which started on Monday. The first race was eventful as we were missing some key crew members meaning that people were out of their normal positions. We also did the classic of doing so well on the start and first beat that we were first at the windward mark and then started sailing to the wrong mark, a quick gybe and we were back going where we should!

Monday's breeze was very shifty out of the NW and the windward mark was a horrible place to be, this combined with poor driving by me and some other issues meant we ended up in irons the second time we got there. Very poor and ended up with a coming together with another boat. Out of this and an RS600 decided to capsize at the mark. Race over for us really.

Thursday's race looked much more promising as the 240 deg direction at 13-15 kts is perfect for stability in our bay. We were a little early for our port tack start so pulled a 360 turn and tacked over to starboard to lee bow the fleet. Stayed in clean air and what do you know...the Race Officer set a ridiculous asymmetric course. Lovely, only problem was that we'd ended up with 8 people on board which was too many and as it's all about who's got the cleanest hull at this time of year, we were too slow on the beats.

A great enjoyable evening resulting in a 4th place, we didn't manage to get in front of Scoline but it's great battling with them. It has to be said that they had 9 on board!

Here's a video of Magnum 3 from Poole pulling a gybe peel for all fans of the foredeck:




Thursday 27 June 2013

Friday 17 May 2013

Feeling the Pressure on a Thursday Night

I was feeling the pressure for thursday 1 race 3. I haven't been driving at all in the Spring Series and Steve took the boat out with a thrown together crew on monday night in 20 odd knots and stormed to a win. How was I going to live upto that?

A sunny evening with a chill about it, thursday had little wind, not light airs but less than 10 knots most of the time. We were just right at four crew; Adam (Bow), Jack (Pit), Steve (main) and me driving. There were about 50 boats on the race course which was excellent to see so early in the season. Race Officer Bob Turner set a triangular course which kept it hot in the event of the wind dying.

With a straight line, we considered our start options and elected for a starboard tack pin end start. Pre-start we tried to place ourselves in the "waiting room" to starboard of the committee boat. With a timed reach in what could possibly go wrong? As the horn went, another went for OCS though Adam on the bow was adamant (ho ho) that it wasn't us that was over the line. I put my trust in him and we got a front row start and drove left a little cracked off to gain space. We bravely found a slot at the windward mark by hitting it on port layline and taking the inside as Rocket messed around with their kite launch.

We'd chosen to reach on our AP symmetric kite as pre-start it looked a little too deep for the ayso after the gybe. Probably a wrong call and we changed to ayso on the second time round. A windward drop put the gear on the right side next time and we span up from the leeward mark. The fleet went out on port tack and then tacked for the committee boat. We tacked early and popped through the other races on starboard so that we could head right going up to the windward mark. Going back through the start line Z we crossed tacks with the Sigma 33 Scoline, them in front.

At the windward mark we rounded in front of them. They'd tacked underneath us and were probably pinching to make it. Down the first reach and they started gaining again however we kept in front and I stopped looking behind! For the finish we were still in front of Scoline and, hooray, still in front of Folio the MGC27. The leading group of RWH (JS9000), Jammy Dodger (J80), Rocket (Dehler 33) and Effusion (Elan 295) had the legs on us though which showed in the results in PY.

Congratulations to Gary Owens and team (Rich Veale on tactics methinks) for their second in only their fourth race with the boat. That's a bloomin' massive kite on them J80s! A great sail from Ricky Bruton's Effusion as well, didn't put a foot wrong from what I could see.


Wednesday 1 May 2013

The GoPro generation

So Jack in the pit has got himself a GoPro camera. This is the first footage we've taken on the boat. It was a fairly light wind race (7-10 knots). Celia's driving because she's the lightest, everybody else is trying to put their weight where it should be!

Sunday 21 April 2013

Wednesday 17 April 2013

Considering the Laser 28 Keel Shape.

You have to say that the foils on a Laser 28 are what makes her a great boat to sail. The distinct lack of keel means that she flies off the wind and will plane given enough puff. A perceived shortness in the rudder will give you a problem of it stalling out and the boat crashes, exhilirating but not fast. One boat (Leda I think) has a Mumm 30 rudder.

The key to upwind performance is keeping her flat and getting that bit of lead to dig in. Don't do it and you've got leeway and you'll never point. As you build speed then your ability to point will increase you can then "feather" up into the wind to gain height in the gusts whilst not letting the speed drop. This is the kind of thing that makes her interesting and challenging to sail but it also means you'll need 5 or more bulky mates on a breezy day and you might be asking them to stay in the bar in the light stuff.

So...rewind to the Round the Island Race last summer. There we all are with a proper race crew and we're chasing down the RF290 "Red Fox". The RF was built from the Laser 28 moulds and is to all intents and purposes a Laser 28, apart from it doesn't have a keel stub and the keel fits into a socket. This particular boat is sailed by people who know what they're doing so no surprises that they could stay in front of the likes of us; but...they did not seem to be exhibiting the heel with the lack of people they had on the rail. This started my mind whirring.

It's an old story but the only time we made gains on them (in about 25 knots of breeze) was a close reach as they had white sail, genoa and we had an old SB3 asymmetric kite up - until we blew the kite to pieces.

As we returned from the race, we short tacked along the beautiful Dorset jurassic coast whilst Red Fox were inshore gunning the hell out of their little engine heading west. They must have bailed out because she was later alongside in the cove at Weymouth. I considered having a dive to have a look underneath, but you see I'd spent a long time on that freezing, soaking rail considering it: they'd stayed in front and we'd had a lot of spinnaker time round the back of the Island. This had to mean that there wasn't a bulb under the keel, surely the drag from one of those would have meant that we'd have walked all over them (broaches aside!)? It had to be something else, was it the Mark Mills keel? Was this the same shape as could be seen on Shasa from Jersey (now Encore)when she was sold?

When we look at the difference between that and FarrOut's standard (Bruce Farr) keel
So off to the Sailing Anarchy forums and I find a photo of the Mark Mills keel Surely this is Shasa parked in the same place in a previous year?
Well it looked like a nice solution to the upwind = weight on the rail vs downwind = lots of smiles connundrum should you sail in a place where you've got some water depth (we do!). I asked Mark Mills, who replied pretty quickly giving me the email of the guy who had the keel changed on Red Fox. He was very helpful and told me that it had been produced by Iron Brothers foundry so they would have the designs, he also confirmed that the Shasa photo was the type of keel he put on Red Fox . I tried an email enquiry to Iron Brothers to work out how much they would charge for a new keel. They were good enough not to answer...really if we're looking at changing the keel on our lovely 26 year old boat perhaps we should be looking for a different boat! Maybe not just the Farr 30 rudder but the rest of the boat as well.

But it looks as if Red Fox does have a Mills keel unless it's been changed back. I'm kinda guessing it hasn't! If only I'd taken that swim...

Monday 15 April 2013

Spring Series race 1

Great to get back out on the water. Last sunday had to be spent putting the rig up so we lost our chance of getting a shakedown sail. So we went out to the startline very rusty with an unproved boat. Not only this but we had Jack and Adam unavailable for the race so were lucky to have Jon and Celia to step into the breach.

Celia was the best choice for driver so that Stephen could do the bow and Nick on mainsheet. Quite a good solution to our crew positioning problem but it did mean that Stephen and I had a foredeck / pit domestic argument - just like the old days; ho ho "shut up at the back!".

A new boat for us to play with, Mark & Rima Bugler's new Saskia VII is a J97 - the ex-"Jika-Jika" so nothing to live upto there then. Wildfire the 36.7 was out, The Commodore's Arcsine, Arcona 370 and us made up the IRC and "Fast" class. Swenn and Loo-lah were the only ones out in the slow class.

A mid line start for us, in front of and out of the way of the bigger boats. Our speed was good up the first beat as well even though we were all very rusty. A great course for us was a triangle with two 110-120 deg apparent legs which we ayso'd with nice gybes at the corner.

The problem came as we arrived at the windward mark for the second time and there was a big bang from the rig. We took the foot off the pedal and dropped the headsail, the leeward shrouds looked slack but nothing was too untoward. On checking after the race we'd lost a bit of rig tension so can only summise that the mast foot had been hanging up on the extrusion. As there was no real problem we carried on with the race but we'd lost maybe four or five minutes.

We went down the deep run under the symmetric kite and nearly caught up with Arcsine at the bottom. The wind had started to puff up a bit and 3 handed was probably a bit much for them.

We got a 3rd under IRC and a third under NHC. It was won by Wildfire IRC and Saskia VII NHC.

Roll on next week. But first of all I'm going to have to re-tune the rig, and it was all nicely taped up as well!

Too busy for photos in the pit so here's a nice one of a little issue in the yard....

Tuesday 5 March 2013

Shore bound but Itching - Here comes NHC

We last went racing on boxing day, 26th December, last year! Almost two and a half months ago and I'm feeling it. I think this year has been harder than previous years due to the amount of sailing club work I've had to do in my role of Vice Commodore, that's a lot of talking about going sailing without actually doing any.

This season has lots going for it and I'm especially looking forward to our channel crossing at the end of June. Not a particularly taxing bit of navigation (I hope!) but it will be good to stretch the legs a bit. Work and family life makes it difficult to do any passages, the only time we got out of the bay last season was to go to the Isle of Wight for the Round the Island Race. This year I won't be going as I will use my time allowance to go to Cherbourg. Also looking forward to racing the Yacht Club de Cherbourg in the Grande Rade.

Once in Cherbourg it would be great to carry on going. I'd like to go down to Jersey, but I guess we will have to return home. Perhaps we can get another weekend later in the year and go to Torquay or something.

But with the racing season coming on I'm trusting that we will keep our present, highly tuned, crew. It really does make a difference when everyone knows their job and can do it, it's something that money can't really buy and we're definately not the most monied campaign out there. Our season starts with the YCW Spring Series held on four consecutive sundays starting 14th April. I think currently we're the only entry and we've already bought our IRC certificate.

This season sees a mighty change in club racing in the UK with the sport's governing body, the RYA, abandoning Portsmouth Yardstick (PY) for yachts. The system is to be replaced by "NHC" a varying handicapping system which has had input from IRC in its concept as well from WSC's own HALS race results. It's a performance handicapping system who's number evolves as the data gets plugged into it, a bit like the Irish ECHO system. In fact the success of ECHO is one of the only things I can see that it has going for it, I dislike being penalised for being good or encouraging mediocrity. However I accept that club racing needs a fresh injection to make it more appetising. I'm sure that IRC see it as a way of getting more take up for IRC as serious racers will prefer to be rated this way. Perfect, but I think the feedback from the customer to RORC rating is that the price of an IRC certificate needs to be halved. The combination of these two moves will ensure the future of IRC. I even suggested to the boys that we didn't buy an IRC cert this year in a moment of madness, they of course would have none of it. We might not win all the time but at least we are racing and rated fairly.

The introduction of NHC at Weymouth Sailing Club also sees the continuation of all-in fast & slow class starts. This means that NHC/PY/IRC boats of a similar speed all start together, this improves the racing experience for everyone.

At the end of the day it's the wind in your hair and the spray in your face that should be drawing people to yacht racing. Do you know, sometimes you don't even have to go and look at the results? Racing is not about winning, it's just better when you can't wipe that grin off of your face...that's what keeps you struggling and competing. Handicapping can niggle at this experience, one design removes this a little but will expose you as not as good a sailor as you thought you were. IRC rating is a middle way that definately gives the correct results in our bay - more boats need certificates and I'm sad to say Mr Urwin cutting your costs/expectations and halving the costs is the only way that we can save club racing in these parts.

Tuesday 12 February 2013

Yard Work

Haven't made a lot of posts recently it seems. I guess it's just hard to get around to blogging in the winter when we've finished sailing and are frantically trying to find enough time to work on the boat. So what's happening to FarrOut:

*Having a new headsail built by Paul our local sailmaker. Pentex taffeta, so a lot more hardwearing if not faster than our current Kevlar number.
*The engine is out of the boat and is going to be rebuilt in time for launch on Good Friday.
*Her bottom is all rubbed down and ready for anti-fouling. This year we've got a new reverse, inverse Starsky stripe. Google it kids.
*The mast is down and Stephen is replacing all the wires.
*Jack has organised new Neil Pryde team jackets.
*Still haven't applied for our new IRC cert yet - need those sail dims for the headsail.
*Kind of got invited to enter a youth team event, but I think we need a TCC of 0.900 which means we'd have to revalidate with the genoa. I think they might need to choose someone else.
*Not doing the Round The Island race this year as I'm going to concentrate on WSCs centenary and get offshore a bit more.