Boxing Day Race - Haul Out

A hectic couple of days for FarrOut post Christmas. We participated in the annual WSC boxing day race after being towed out into the bay by Rumrunner having started the engine in the sub zero temperatures, but presumably wiped out the impeller of the raw water cooling pump due to it being frozen. We also had to wash down the decks to clear them of ice but the seawater had nowhere to go, the scuppers being just solid ice plugs:

It was a good race with some Argie-bargy on the start line when all the other boats decided to mess with our planned port tack flier. Our lateness for the start meant that we hadn't had time to work on our angles and so selected the symmetric kite. We didn't do too badly and the fleet was really bunched with Rumrunner being up there as well with her brand new sails. They got past us but didn't deal with the massive shift which I must say we played perfectly dropping the kite and just trimming on the white sail as it hit us. The guys up front did brilliantly in switching to the asymmetric for the next leg and we flew up the rankings. If the race had finished at "X" we would have been right up there but the lack of wind on the beat up the harbour to the traditional finish outside the club had us scuppered. Well done to Sapphire for winning.

Fun was had by all for the last race of the season for us and the next day we hauled the old girl out of the water for a few months of pampering ready for more glory and disappointment next spring!

WSC winter series race 5

With Dave and Darren indisposed this sunday we were down to the three owners, so it was great when Steve Dadd's crew from Rumrunner / Spindrift were similarly down to three and joined us underachievers on FarrOut. Our Steve and Daddsie had carried out similar training the night (morning?) before the race and so were both match fit.

A sunny and fresh morning started off nudging the 20 knots mark but tailed away during the race and 6 largish guys and a dirty hull is definately not what we wanted by the end of the race. Paul Elson was thrown right in at the deep end with the combined pit/trimming role and he coped superbly as it's quite busy in there. I volunteered to do the honours at the pointy bit in Dave's absence and was nothing but civil to the numerous skippers I had sitting behind me. My problem with the foredeck on a Laser 28 has always been going around the front of the mast during the tacks, the triangle formed by the jib sheets is quite small and the deck slopes away making it quite precarious. I favour the laying on your back with your feet in the anchor well approach. Once I'd cleared that up I'd say it went quite well with quite a few gybes and no wraps, thanks to our new friend Neil on "human guy". We felt sorry for Scoline when their gybe didn't  go as well....

The start was good but we really could have punched a hole in the side of Excaliber who should have gone up and OCS, ho hum probably have done the same thing myself but if you're reading this Joel the next transgression will be ours.

Nice to see a new boat out there John Stevens with a J80, interesting that it didn't really get away from us upwind - we'll see what happens when they get more used to it. We were very closely thinking about buying one of those before buying the Laser.

Anyway, not a bad performance considering our many handicaps and we managed to beat a couple of other boats on rating even though we were last over the water after Scoline retired.

Winter Series - no hope

There was snow on the decks when I went to the boat to repair the broken bits from the last race. Luckily all this was gone by sunday racing, which was relatively warm for the time of year and nice sunshine.

We went well for the start of the race, but as I've said before I think that we have to treat the rest of the season as training because the state of FarrOut's hull is beyond racing spec! This showed when the wind died and we lost all the ground which we had gained and as the slowest boat in the fleet we're always going to pay when the wind dies and everyone else is so much further round the course.

The race was won by Excalibur again, they couldn't be caught by Draig in those conditions and the length of the race with the wind dying kind of gifted it to them and so the series. A deserved series win with only one blip to their otherwise straight bullets.

FarrOut will return in the new season with a painted and faired bottom and we can start again! Oh hang on, we've got a few more races yet.

Nice mini footage

Thought I'd share this footage of a mini sailing with it's spi. Not a bad tune either, quite relaxing with all this cold weather around.