"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!

Double Handed

Stephen and I did the first race of the double handed series on saturday in the rain. We were too busy generally to put any oilys on so got soaked. We got a second but were really hampered as the wind died and we were flying the No. 4 headsail; we'd started off with No.4 and a reef.

Spinnaker poles are sooo last year! We successfully flew the kite down the downwind legs without a pole leaving us clear to gybe willy-nilly. It's a good option when short handed maybe....

Weymouth Regatta 2009

Well just back in after finishing four days of regatta..

We put ourselves in a very competitive group in IRC2 and not suprisingly couldn't win it. That said we had a cracking time and although didn't have enough crew on thursday and friday but had some moments of brilliance. Next year I think we'll sail under PY handicap against all the MGc27s as the similar boat speeds will make it more exciting as following very well sailed Sigma 33s around makes life hard.

Many thanks to all who sailed with us for the regatta: Simon Davies (bow, thurs - fri), Dave Evans (bow, sat-sun), Stephen HB (TFSSu), Darren Aston (main SSu), Richard Lee (TFSSu), Stuart "popstar- just flown in from Spain" Riches (helm, sun). A really good team and I'm sure that we have more silverware to get in the future!

Thursday night - wind off.....wind on

After a day of no wind for the squib nationals, we kinda expected the same. We motored out to the start on a glassy Weymouth bay with the visiting brigantine "Earl of Pembroke" looking gorgeous in the evening light. I considered asking them if they wanted to swap boats, but I'm kinda hoping for more gun ports.

As we motored around the transom noticing cat's paws rolling toward us, the wind filled from the south west and before we knew it we were doing 6 knots upwind.

I was about 30 seconds late on line (the wind died away again) and had a frustrating race where the run was dead down in NO wind. Not the best point of sail for a Laser 28. The first beat was marred by Rumrunner and then Scoline tacking in our water right in front of us, Scoline nearly had a Laser 28 trailer! Annoying but I'd have probably done the same thing.

After staying in front of us with their big masthead kite downwind, we accellerated away from Rumrunner to take the line and getting a horn. Unfortunately this was erroneous and the guys were de-rigging the kite sheets as we realised that we were still racing.

A pleasant evening though. The new chef's food hasn't improved since last week, so we'll go hungry next week! If he's reading this, sorry, but have a quick flick through Larousse Gastronomique and then spend some money on the ingredients. Cheers.

Dirty Bottom

Thanks for your comment Anonymous Stibbs!

I dived the bottom on sunday morning. The rear section and rudder were really hard to scrub off with a lot of green weed growing - that anti-foul is not going to last until January.

Next goal for us is Weymouth Regatta. Four days is quite a long time but we're doing alright for crew at the moment I think which is always the problem.
http://www.weymouth-regatta.org/

Thursday 2/2

Fourth last night in fickle winds. We had a great start but were too concerned about getting covered by Hooligan and Draig that we probably sacrificied too much speed for height. Triangular course T,D,H - good hoist and clean air down the run with a nice gybe at D using the human pole and dip pole method which can tend to avoid wrap problems in the light stuff.

I need to clean her bottom again because it looks fouled up again maybe from sitting in the medina for a few days. This light stuff does make you think about how old our mainsail is.......

Days of Yore

I've got a number of old pictures of Farr Out, some that came with the boat and some that are trawled from the interweb. Perhaps my favourite is the Falmouth Regatta poster:

Round the Island 2009

The culmination of our cruise was the J P Morgan Round the Island Race. We arrived early in Cowes and had some time to chill before the big race.

Let's look at our previous performance in this race:
2008 - didn't compete. We'd only just got Farr Out and my son was just being born.
2007 - dismasted about 20 mins from the finish. Chuckles Too, GK24.
2006 - run out of wind and time after the cock-up of sending slow boats against foul tide at Hurst. We finished around 0400 on sunday with less than a pint of diesel. Chuckles again.
2005 - 126th overall in ISC division. Chuckles.
2004 - 1st in IRC2, Marionette. Well that was only me doing mast but I'll quote a first when I can!

So as you can see it's pretty good for us just to get round. We didn't really have a race crew (no main trim, no nav, not too much on the rail). Even so I'm disappointed that we made some mistakes which our previous experiences should have warned us of. That said we had a cracking run from Ventnor to Bembridge around 140 degrees apparant with a bit of puff behind and some surfs. We seemed to be creaming through the fleet.

Ho Hum...there's always next year!

Summer Cruise

Farr Out went on her first summer cruise last week. We took her to Cherbourg on monday, around to St Vaast on tuesday and then went over to Cowes wed night/thursday morning. Good fun had by all with an exhilirating channel crossing in 25+ knots and some seas on the way back.

All over so quickly though!

Crew Race - Fanfare Trophy

Darren drove for the crew race last night. I quite enjoyed sitting on the rail and dragging myself over the cabin top. Results show us as 4th but I think the wrong handicaps were used. Fifth over the water with the two Sigma 33s, a JS9000 and Sapphire ahead of us.

Getting ready for the cruise next week and the Round the Island race on saturday 20th.

RDYC midsummer regatta

Well we put on a good show in 20-25 knots of breeze today. Overall third I think posting a second in the morning and a third in the afternoon. Only seconds in it though and Farr Out was flying recording 11.7 knots on one surf!

Crew: Dave Evans (foredeck), Steve HB (mast), Darren Aston (pit), Rich Veale (main), me (helm).

A great sail for us, but a poorly attended regatta , well two races, with a lot of retirements. Sapphire held a big broach in front of us which was actually caused by the tiller extension snapping off.

We were really happy with her heavy weather performance especially upwind where we were keeping pace well.

Thursday 1 series - what a mess!

Farr Out failed to finish last night in a dying breeze after being third to the windward mark and probably first on handicap. As it was we were scored DNC (did not compete) rather than DNF (did not finish) or as it should be RTD (retired).

Anyway with a southerly direction in the breeze and a windward mark of I against the north arm of Portland Harbour our considered tactic of a port tack pin end start and taking the right side on the beat paid off. We need to remember this for similar conditions.

Afterwards I had a grump with the Cruiser class captain, much as I hate to be an embittered handicap racer - I guess it's just unavoidable but the fact remains that at least 3 of the 6 races in the series had been marred by a dying breeze and as the slowest boat in the fleet it made no sense that the larger and faster boats were generally finishing before the breeze died. As Folio (MGC27) is sailing in the class below and gives us time under WSC PY handicap it might be an idea if we sail in that class next series, but then that would probably upset some people there. Predictably people are starting to notice our handicap anyway.........

Looking forward to the RDYC regatta on saturday where we're sailing in the IRC class, so we can escape from the PY mess.

Nick Sharp's Grand Soleil

A short video of Nick's boat from saturday:

Second by 9 seconds.

Remembered the video camera for the Hugh Rose Trophy out to St Aldhelm's and back. It was a long beat short tacking up the beautiful jurassic coast. Started of with the lapper and tack changed to the genoa just before the Arish Mell buoy. Bear away set at the St Aldhelm's ledge buoy and a gybe somewhere inshore. Had a horrible wrap on the gybe (my fault) but managed to get out of it by pinging the guy clip and bringing the spi back to the deck before re-hoisting. Top boat speed about 7.8 knots I think.

Lovely weather and a good race. We sorted out that squeak on the tiller!

Thursday 5/6

Damn, forgot to take any photos again! Short handed for the race; Dave, Steve and I to start off with but we got Neil transferred from Sapphire as they had 9 - nice of them and he was really good. A nice race in light airs and lovely weather but the dying breeze got us as Sapphire and the two Sigmas finished in stronger breeze.

Port tack start and a beat up the right hand side to "O" saw us cross in front of Sapphire - brilliant! Kept getting caught up with Folio - but that's another story.

I'll try and get some photos and video footage tomorrow on the race down to St Aldhelm's head.