140th out of 457 finishers. I'll settle for that.

This weekend was the annual J P Morgan Round the Island race where 1600 odd boats race round the Isle of Wight. Quite a good showing from Weymouth boats this year and the Lifeboat pub in East Cowes on firday night seemed to be mostly Weymouth Sailing Club and Castle Cove Sailing Club.

A nice quick delivery trip upto Cowes on friday with a sprightly breeze behind us. Unfortunately the "Touareg" assymmetric spinnaker died about half a mile out of Weymouth.

The race itself was another breezy one, with the best start we've ever had in an RTI. We short tacked down the island side to cheat the foul tide and kept a good eye on the numbers. When we got to the needles the decision had to be made and I'd already said, half meaning it, that we were going inside the Varvassi wreck this year. With an aerial photograph on deck we followed a quarter tonner through the slot between Goose Rock and the wreck to look up at the lighthouse towering above us. Exhilirating...

The next SB3 kite got launched and we flew off after our chase at 11 knots boat speed. Red Fox is an RF290 from Dartmouth which is essentially a Laser 28. We were just catching her when "puff", we blew another kite. Jib up, reef out, and we rounded St Catherine's. As it happens the wind had gone forward so white sail was the right call anyway.

We saw Crewcut from CCSC just before the next kite hoist to power us up to Bembridge Ledge buoy. Our new Ullman S2 spinnaker went up and we powered off on a lovely downwind sail surfing down the waves. A difficult gybe meant the inevitable broach and we damaged our new kite! Tears - but we still had one left so the red and white spinnaker went up as seen in the previous post.

Round Bembridge ledge we set off on the fetch becoming a beat upto Ryde. The wind was strong now and we were probably a little overpowered. The short tacking along Ryde sands to stay out of tide is always a worrying time and we did bump bottom once as we straightened up in the tack back out.

With no further issues other than some fluky wind off Osborne house we broke the finish line. We never could catch Red Fox but there were a lot of faster boats behind us.

Our finish was 15th in IRC division 3C, 140th overall out of 457 IRC finishers and an elapsed time of 08:12:34 - 20 minutes faster than last year. I'm happy.

Thanks to all the FarrOut crew who did a great job. The level of silence on the boat as we pushed her downwind was impressive. As I started to struggle on the helm, they'd already anticipated and the mainsheet eased, the kicker eased, and the spi trim eased - all to gently go back on once she was back on the rails. All in absolute silence, everyone knowing their job. Brilliant.

Sunday's delivery back to Weymouth upwind in 30 knots with big seas is best erased from our minds. Hideous.

Check out the battle flag at the top!

FarrOut crew: Alice Perrett, Jack Baker, Adam Greaves, Darren Aston, Stephen HB, Jez Rees

Monday 2 Race 2

One aspect of a true dictator's reign of terror is control of the media.

There will be no report of my spell on the foredeck in this race other than school children will be taught that it was a glorious episode in our shared history resulting in a marvellous victory.

Whilst it's blowing hard here, let's enjoy watching others...

I just thought I'd post this lovely Youtube video of Figaro 1s training in some wind. Enjoy.



Sometimes that spinnaker pole just gets in the way doesn't it?

WSC PY Autumn 4. WooooHooooo!

What more can you ask for? Sunshine, flat sea in the bay and 25-30 knots of breeze; just the stuff. Top boat speed of 10.3 knots today, really enjoyable. We spectacularly wiped out on the first gybe which the commitee boat got on camera so hopefully I can post some pictures soon.

What with another issue of getting the spi halyard caught on a mainsail batten, we only managed a third. The Achilles 24 of Paul Barford and Achilles 9m of Steve Dadd both like a bit of wind and sailed to a corrected finish in front of us although we were first over the water.

Really enjoyed the sail though, Farr Out positively gurgles and lifts her bow out of the water when you've got enough wind behind her. Must remember to keep the weight to a minimum on the bow during the gybe in heavy weather - you got to do it on your own Dave!

Check back for the cool broach photos.

"Guy Gone!" - Again

Thursday night racing saw us seriously depleted in numbers, just the three of us Dave, Bob and me. Just the thing when it's blowing dogs off leads. We had an excellent start in a No. 4 and 1 reef sailplan, I guess it was about 23 knots out there. We decided to go for the pole less hoist again and it all went well until we tried to climb too high without putting the pole on first and a nice big gust span us and we broached. Probably the most over we've ever been in the boat and there was nothing for it but to blow the guy completely, enevitably meaning that the crappy Gibb clip opened mid air and that's another 16m of spinnaker guy/sheet at the bottom of Weymouth Bay.

We found another bit of rope to use as a temporary guy and we were back in the game. Some exhilirating times, but I'm sure the boat is faster port tack than starboard - what's all that about!