YCW Spring series 2 - Long Race, DNF

Farr Out got recorded DNF (did not finish) yesterday. We were forced to retire when the wind totally shut off around 1430. The race had started just before 1100 when it was pretty windy.

A great shame because I think we were looking at a top three position before we run out of wind. The boat went well and the crew all did well, I don't think we made a lot of mistakes and our start was pretty good.

There's always next week....

Tough Little Laser

You may have seen reports on Sailing Anarchy etc. about the carnage in the Southern Straits race in Canada last weekend. One boat sank and her six crew rescued, and it's worth watching some of the fantastic surfing video from the boats on YouTube.

There was at least one Laser 28 out there; Voila owned by Frank Fletcher. He tells his story on the Laser 28 forum: http://www.laser28.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=379&SID=84d74f343bb141c35c14cb85db43dcf8

57 knots across the deck!

YCW Spring Series - Race 1

After all the rain we've been having, the first race of the season on easter sunday was comparitively warm with mid teens wind gusting to early twenties.

What can I say? There were 5 boats in the IRC class and we were fifth! In hindsight our port start put us on the right in clear wind (all the other boats were faster than us), but maybe we should have stayed with the fleet.

Our first gybe of the season saw the first broach. All a bit rusty and I suppose there was a fair amount of wind. Good times though. Need those new sails, No. 3 seems to be disintegrating!

New Sails Ordered.

Farr Out is to have a new mainsail and no. 3 jib for the 2010 season. They were ordered yesterday from Hyde Sails and should be with us by the end of april. The sails are both aramid laminates.

Sad News

Sad to hear that Alan Glover, Rumrunner's bowman has had a heart attack and passed away. Dreadful news, he was a great bloke.

START of the new season

Getting ready for the new season, let's recap on some of the things that were good about last season:
1. Crew. We have a great crew and some solid reliability.
2. Boat speed. Concentrating on boat speed rather than trying to point as high as the others.
3. Going the right way. We're starting to really spot the breeze and anticipating what will happen in our bay.
4. Boat trim. You have to sail Farr Out flat, it is the main trimmer's responsibility to make up for the lack of keel.
5. Starts. Being on the money, maybe, see the video below. Great when everyone's line shy. But we can't expect this in Q class, fighting for the commitee boat end on starboard tack isn't gonna cut it. More brave port starts. Starting below and faster than the sigmas i.e steaming in at full speed and tacking away if the right is favoured.

Work in Progress

If owning a boat is standing in the shower ripping up tenners, we're getting pretty clean at the moment. As always there's loads of work to be done on a boat during the winter lay up period and what initially doesn't look like a lot of work or expense ends up being so. How is it that every marine piece of plastic seems to be priced the wrong  side of £100?

Well at least we've got a shiny new propeller, and I'm in the process of fitting new double height deck organisers. Previously someone had fitted two sheave Barton organisers, so we've been sailing with two lines going through each sheave which has not sat well with either the organisers or the rope. Also a bit of gelcoat repairing going on.

Stephen spent saturday polishing the hull, so she looks nice and shiny now.

The spring series commences on sunday 4th April, so we shall be back in the water and raring to go.

Stag Weekend in Bristol.

A big thank-you to everyone that made my stag weekend so excellent.
It's the big wedding this weekend and it's scary. I was cheered up this morning by our new IRC rating, 0.903  - brilliant news.

Here's a nice picture of Farr Out bowman Dave smoking the shisha on saturday night. Dubi melon if I recall:

Farr Out takes to the Yard

Farr Out came out of the water on Saturday in slashing rain. There she will stay until late march or early april, with a bit of work to be done but not a great deal. It was a lot of work on saturday though, we also managed to get all the sails off and got them measured.

Trophies!

We collected a couple of trophies at the Weymouth Sailing Club presentation evening on Saturday: Spring Long Distance Q class and "Irish Distillers" which was for overall non-IRC sunday series. Great Stuff.

New Year's Day - Win

The Farr Out team started off the New Year well with a first place in the New Year's Day race.

This race was invented last year by Kay Stibbs of Draig, and it was great to see the turnout today. It started off very chilly but Farr Out went well in the 15-20 knots of wind.

Farr Out crew for the race were (L-R) Bob Horton, Dave Evans, Jez Rees, Darren Aston, Tom Lewis (not pictured). Pictured receiving the Champagne donated by Kay and Kev Stibbs from WSC Commodore Mark Bugler.

Boxing Day Race

It was still quite breezy for the annual boxing day race at Weymouth Sailing club; the traditional post Christmas blat around the bay with a finish outside the club which involves sailing up the narrow harbour, this year it involved short tacking.

Stephen drove us to a really good finish in fifth place, despite trying to roll a cigarette with the tiller between his knees when we were sailing really deep and seconds away from a chinese gybe!

Always a good race and we only have one more race - New Year's Day and then that's it until April!

Farr Out Wins Weymouth Sailing Club 2010 Handbook Cover Competition

We may not have a lot of trophies to pick up this year but we're going to be on the cover of the club handbook!

The great photo taken by Iain Jones of our recent big broach was voted winner by the attendees of the Commodore's punch party on Saturday. One of the older club members complained that the photo displayed bad seamanship, Ho Ho.

Sunday morning saw race 6/6 in the Winter Series with only three races completed. I'm pleased to say that we were first; not enough to get the series but we were really flying in 10-15 knots of breeze and flat seas. I think we managed to keep in the stronger breeze bands in a northerly wind and to keep the boat going fast.

We plan to move back to the IRC class for the spring series, so our time out front of the fleet will be over. Let's see what we can do though........

Finally we get a race. WSC winter series 5/6

So in this series we've had race 1 and race 5, the rest being blown out. It was a pleasant if cold morning on the water; we started off slightly overpressed under No.3 and full main but had changed up to the No. 1 by the end of the race. Probably not early enough seeing though we were six up and lost it on the beat across the bay.

First across the water but it wasn't enough and we ended up in third place with Daddsie winning.

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?