Race 3, Snow on the hills.

In minus temperatures and with snow on the hills we braved it out in the bay for the third race of the winter series. The race officer gave us a hut start and a course change that we only saw within the five minute pre-start period meaning that we weren't as prepared as we usually would be. We were slightly late on the start but had a good first beat that meant we were back in it.

Unfortunately we were a bit short handed and got into trouble after the gybe mark when it was clear that we wouldn't carry the kite up the next leg even though some broaches were fun. The low temperatures must have had an effect on the gear because we had some breakages which meant that we didn't have twinning lines or a starboard jib turning block after a while. We lost time up the next beat fixing gear and changing to asymmetric kite. It was all lost after the second gybe on the ayso with a wrap from which there is no way back and we overshot the gybe mark sorting it out.

A retirement was fitting in the circumstances. No serious damage but some bits to sort out......

Winter Series race 2 - a stable northerly?

A funny old wind for race 2 of the winter series at WSC, a strong northerly topping out at about 24 knots but without the real gusts and swings that you expect from that direction. FarrOut ended up with a 7th on corrected time, not a bad race, the course set was a "triangle sausage" meaning that we could use the asymmetric spinnaker on the first two spinnaker legs and the symmetric spinnaker on the deep leg. This last leg we sailed particularly well, sailing by the lee and keeping 7.5 - 8.3 knots downwind to cut the corner on some other boats only to lose some of the ground on the next beat.

The race was won by the X99 Excalibur, I wonder if they can straight bullet the series?

J'ai franchi la ligne!

Nearly There - Guadaloupe that is.

I can almost smell the Rhum blanc Agricole, and man you can smell that stuff from a distance. Been doing well recently in the Virtual Route du Rhum steering the Monococque FarrOutGBR814WeySC from a starting position of 37,000 odd to the 18,000s. Should finish this morning.

Winter Series Starts

Joel and the crew of excaliber showed us the way for the first race of the winter series at Weymouth Sailing Club. It was nice to see Richard's old boat doing so well, she always was a fast boat.

There wasn't a great deal of wind for the race and we didn't have a bad one on FarrOut, finishing sixth out of nine boats. The triangular course suited our choice of assymetric spinnaker even though it was quite deep to start off with. I thought Scoline did really well, they were off like a shot and up there with the faster boats.

Rainy and cold for the first of the winter series

Route du Rhum - Cammas Wins

There's so much going on in the Route du Rhum that it's hard to keep track. Franck Cammas has crossed in the fastest time on Groupama 3, followed in second by IDEC Francis Joyon, Thomas Coville on Sodebo is just on his way in now. In the IMOCA class my money is still on Armel Le Cleac'h.

Perhaps the most interesting is the class 40. It's worth having a read of Pete Goss' blog: http://www.petegoss.com/routedurhum/blog.php . He's really showing that he's still got it and it's great to see a Brit out there in the top flight even though by his own admission he doesn't know his boat as well as some of the other racers. Come on Pete!!!!

It's a long slog in the virtual race, I'm managing to stay ahead of Pete Jackson on Albran by taking a bit more southerly option but may run out of wind any day now!

End of Autumn Series - Race 6

FarrOut ended up tied with Scoline in fifth place for today's race. So there were more boats behind us on points than in front of us, and we beat a couple of boats over the water, we can be really happy about that! I think that we sailed a good race and were pretty fast, especially on the beat.

Good fun and all smiles. Congratulations to Joel and the crew of X99 Excalibur for the overall series win. And I think congratulations are also due to Weymouth Sailing Club where the IRC series has been well attended and given some excellent close racing. The results have shown how well IRC has worked in the mixed fleet.

Bring on the Winter Series.

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

Virtual Regatta - Route du Rhum

For some mad reason I signed up for the virtual Route du Rhum, however I haven't been paying much attention to my boat. I was abroad with work this week so didn't panic about changing course. I don't seem to be doing too badly though. I'm kind of demotivated as this is the first virtual regatta when I haven't been given the "pro" sails for free. In fact if you want sails and pilot and stuff like that you end up paying €20.
Not feeling flush I think we will just lazily steer the boat for free, it'll be a more chilled way of doing the race with no getting up in the night. Could the fact that I'm currently reading "The long way" by Bernard Moitessier be anything to do with my attitude?

At bl**dy Last!

Young Sam's bath-time sticky letters spell it out.....after so long with little success, the crew of FarrOut can celebrate a convincing win in the WSC sunday morning IRC series.

The race went well from the start with only ourselves and the Figaro 2 "Milan" seeing the pin bias on the line so that we could both bang a port tack flyer and cross in front of the fleet. Up a lumpy beat to M and we were third to the windward mark with only the Figaro and the Melges 24 in front of us. We held on and kept it safe, keeping her going the right way in big seas and deep runs.

Let's see more of it.