Should have bought an RS...

Dunkings

2012-01-18T21:10:00.000Z

Not me this time!

Slow Mo

2011-12-06T22:07:00.001Z

A bit more GoPro action but this time in 60fps slow motion mode. Look out for the tack of the season.

Wind: On Wind: Off

2011-11-29T15:57:00.001Z

Some on board video from Sunday. Anemometer showed min of 3knts and max of 31knts within a 10 minute period - hence a couple of dunkings for Kim

KimmyCam

2011-11-21T19:57:00.001Z

Spot of KimmyCam from the weekend. A long and a short version. The short version is less likely to induce motion sickness. After editing both these video's I'm starting to feel a little bit peaky.

Short Version

Long Version

In the words of Punch & Judy: That's the way to do it!

2011-11-07T19:03:00.001Z

Great sail yesterday. Myself and Peter Travis decided to sail Peter Davies' 2K. It was a decision a long time in the making. I think we both felt our results to date in the 4K were not representative of our personal performance but more of an issue of a dodgy handicap rating. Sailing the 2K against the rest of the 2K fleet would give some indication of where we stood. Of course, it could also go horribly wrong. What if we really were that rubbish?

Conditions were great. Sunny, averaging over 20knots with gusts of 27. The 2K was an absolute puppy in these conditions compared to the 4000. Another top bonus was the race was Windward/Leeward.

In the race we had a great start, and extended our lead on each leg. We ended up 3rd on the water and 2nd on handicap and over 4mins in front of Hugh in the next 2K.

To be honest, although I would like to claim some sort of God given gift to be able to sail amazingly well, I think with the 2K it really comes down to he who hikes hardest wins and boy did we hike. My thighs today - strewth!

Sail

2011-10-17T18:26:00.001+01:00

I has a GoPro again.

2011-09-27T23:29:00.000+01:00

The Dark Side

2011-08-22T11:33:00.000+01:00

Weymouth Regatta. A Distant Memory.

2011-07-12T13:16:00.000+01:00

To be honest the Weymouth Regatta didn't go they way I thought it would. The regatta itself was good - 17 4K's, sunny, enough wind to move (just) and a great location with the racing out in the bay. It was just our performance that was rubbish.

The first race of six was our best with a 7th place and it went downhill from there really. Most layline calls were wrong so we either had to tack more times than necessary or crawl along pinching our way to the mark. T-Boning another 4000 off the start wasn't great either!

Here's a picture of us and Peter and Sally in the same shot. This wasn't because we were having a better race, it was just they were having a poorer one.

On the plus side, it was great to have all 5 CCSC boats out at the same time, even if it was only for one day - Harrison.

Richard White got some great shots on the second day which you can see here

The regatta increased our losing run to 10 races. Things were getting pretty dire to be honest but last night we managed to get the newer sail up the mast and had an excellent race. Just two 4K's out, ourselves and Peter with Will. Both of us starting on Port at the pin end. The start was perfect and by the top mark myself and Kim had a huge lead. This first leg to the top mark won us the race with Peter and Will gradually reeling us in during the evening. By the time we crossed the line the lead was down to 30 seconds. Both 4000's did one more lap than all the other asymmetrics and with the wind dropping we assumed yet again we would be losing to the 2000's on handicap. Infact, it turned out we whipped their GRP arses. Over 6 minutes in front on corrected!

Peter, Will and GoPro

2011-06-28T01:58:00.001+01:00

Gotta love this one

Monday night.

2011-06-20T19:44:00.001+01:00

Terry and Harrison a well sailed second. Tim and billy are still keeping the kite in the sock. They may be some time but they've done well with it Gusting 26 knots!

Monday night

2011-06-20T19:41:00.001+01:00

Peter T nearly drops it in on the drop. Sally its not you! Flags are up. Peter and will have finished. Nick griffin not far enough behind.

Monday night

2011-06-20T19:26:00.001+01:00

Tim and billy are two sailing it downwind. Peter and will looking really fast upwind. Peter and Matt look to be having a shocker in the 2k.

Monday night

2011-06-20T19:22:00.001+01:00

Peter goes around wrong top mark. Terry almost catches up.

Monday night

2011-06-20T19:21:00.001+01:00

Great gybe by terry and Harrison.

Monday night

2011-06-20T19:19:00.001+01:00

Tim and billy fall over at the top mark. Peter T falls over at bottom mark.

Monday night

2011-06-20T19:18:00.001+01:00

Peter Davies port tack flier. Terry and Harrison capsize with a minute to go.

No Pressure Then

2011-06-18T23:10:00.000+01:00

The new European 4000 Champion is coming to the Weymouth Regatta. Congratulations to Kevin Barnard and Emma Warner.

Infact the top three British boats are all coming plus others from the Europeans.

Boat 4625 is the one to try and follow then!

Full results here.

I thought I'd done well to go this long without boat electronics

2011-06-18T17:18:00.002+01:00

Olympics

2011-06-14T21:12:00.001+01:00

49er medal race?

Not particularly relevant but....

2011-06-14T13:10:00.002+01:00

... the bloke falls right through the wing sail!!

How Very Bloody Annoying!

2011-06-13T22:37:00.001+01:00

Had an eventful race tonight. Managed to miss the footstrap and do the classic roll out the back of the boat and then a capsize after overshooting the leeward mark (by that point we had made up for the first capsize).

My only consolation was that the video camera was running but apparently even that was having a bad day and has refused to offer up any video.

Arse!!

It was that close!

2011-05-31T10:04:00.001+01:00

Great close racing last night between ourselves and Peter and Sally. We swapped the lead almost every leg. In the end Peter and Sally slid past us on the last downwind leg and held the lead all the way to the line.

Quite frustrating at times but good fun.

P.S. Won't be attaching the camera to the tiller extension again. Mainsheet kept getting caught on the bloody thing.

Weymouth Regatta

2011-05-09T13:08:00.000+01:00

Online entry for this years Weymouth Regatta (Laser 4000 event) is now open. Click Here to get your name down - NOW!

Check us out!

2011-05-04T13:32:00.000+01:00

So here it is. In full - Mostly

2011-05-03T23:35:00.002+01:00

It's interesting how loud the prop on the rescue boat is. He wasn't anywhere near us when we first went over but you can still hear it.

You may be best to fast forward to the start of the 'race' at about 10mins in.

Mucho Respecto to Harrison and Tom

2011-05-02T14:13:00.002+01:00

It has to be said that Yesterday was bloody windy. Windy enough for the black flag to be hoisted and all the idiots who fancied their chances were to sign a disclaimer.

Harrison and Tom (perhaps actually just Harrison) decided to give it a go. While they got sorted I helped to stop the International 14 from flying clean off it's trolley and assisted them into the water. Marcus, who was already kitted up with just the mainsail to hoist on his contender seemed visibly alarmed by the buckerooing 14 and decided the best place for his Contender was back in the dinghy park.

Harrison and Tom eventually got launched. Luckily for them the start was delayed by nearly 20mins allowing them to start the race. By this point the 14 had given up waiting and were just having a blast about the harbour (with my video camera on board).

A figure of eight, gybeless course was set. I think first lap around there was some reluctance from all the boats to hoist their kites. Second time round however and all the kites were up. From the shelter of the club house you could easily see the 4K absolutely caning it. It looked twice as fast as the other boats upwind and three times faster downwind. It obviously wasn't as they still came last but it looked awesome.

The bar has been raised and it seems a 4K can be sailed in pushing 30kts - if you're young enough and stupid enough that is.

Garda. Wow!

2011-04-27T23:01:00.001+01:00

4000's at Garda in 2010

A Couple of Great Races Today

2011-04-24T22:06:00.000+01:00

Arriving at the club this morning it was quite a surprise to find such a breeze on. At one point the anemometer was reporting 20kt gusts. It was forecast to drop, and it did a bit, but both races had significantly more breeze than the previous in the series.

For the start of the first race we had a stab at a Port Tack flier but ended up approaching way to early and had to bail out back on to Starboard for a conventional start. Actually it wasn't that conventional as it wasn't a bad start. By convention most of our starts are crap!

We were going well in the race and was the lead 4K up until the slider thingy that attaches the sail clew to the boom snapped. We were forced to cut off the daggerboard retaining line and lash the sail to the boom. It had been split since we had the boat so it was only a matter of time before it let go.

The second race was a lot of fun. We had another go at the Port Tack start and this time it worked. To be fair there wasn't a huge amount of other boats to worry about but hey, I enjoyed it!

Our lead was short lived when Peter and Sally managed to get past us on a downhill leg. The usually gybing tussle ensued with Peter just getting to the mark first. With the kites dropped we pulled off a better mark rounding and was clear in front again by the time Peter had to tack. From that point we managed to hold the lead but only by 20 seconds or so. A good solid fun race!

GoPro Photos

2011-04-21T21:44:00.002+01:00

I've had quite a reaction from the photo in the previous post. Here are a few more of the 2800 pictures taken on Harrison's boat last Sunday.

(Note to Self: check my mast rake)

Another light one.

2011-04-18T09:13:00.001+01:00

Another light wind couple of races yesterday for the Spring and Spring PM series (as Alex and Harrison demonstrate above). Four boats out again which is great although myself and Kim didn't manage to stay out in front this time.

The first race was the lightest and for us was the worst. Peter and Sally were somewhere in the distance and we had Tim and Billy bearing down on us most of the way around the course. We managed to get ourselves stuck to leeward of a variety of different boats allowing the others to catch up. This again happened on the last beat of the first race where we found ourselves stuck to leeward of a Fireball with Tim about to pass both of us to windward. We managed to double tack out of it and was surprised to cross the line quite a bit further forward than both boats.

In second race we had a better start but wrongly tacked off when Peter tacked and had to duck two boats. Coming down the first downwind leg we caught them by the mark but Peter 'announced' we were not coming past so we had ourselves a luffing match. I tried to gybe out of it but with the bow sprit always being longer than you think, it hit their boat so a 360 turn it was for us. From that point we never really gained any ground.

Two wins for Peter and Sally, two seconds for us, two thirds for Tim and Billy and a fourth and a DNF for Harrison and Alex.

We're Racing!

2011-04-11T22:43:00.001+01:00

Yesterday was the first race of 2011. Despite a later than usual start, most of the fleet left the beach in a mild panic trying not to miss the start. I think Tim and Molly we're still trying to get their rudder down when the 5 minute warning sounded but they hung around for the second race which with a bit more wind was lot more fun than the first race where the wind disappeared and what was left was blowing in the opposite direction. One lesson learned, watch the boats behind as well as the ones in front. John Jenkins worked out he could fly his spinnaker on what used to be the upwind leg and managed to almost catch us up. We only noticed when the International 14 in front hoisted his.

For this race Harrison had the camera mounted as I thought we would be on for a sure fire £250 from You've Been Framed. As it happened, nothing happened, other than noticing a few odd things about his boat that needs looking at. The sort of video I was after was more like this one from our good friends in the Vago (who now sails a 4K!)

Priceless!

2011 Starts Sunday

2011-04-05T21:41:00.001+01:00

This Sunday marks the start of the 2011 Laser 4000's at CCSC championship. It also marks the start of all the other CCSC championships but as we'll probably all pay no part in occurring silverware from any of them we'll disregard those for now.

The 4000s@CCSC fleet is also facing competition of another kind this year. The 2000s@CCSC fleet! This year, with the help of Peter Barfoot, they are stepping up their promotional campaign and could be accused of stealing a march on us 4K'ers. They already have their pre-season social get together organised and have actually been using their new Google Emailing Group.

This year the 4000, 2000 and Scorpion fleets have official reps. This entitles each fleet to have their own results extracted from the general handicap results. For the 4000 fleet this differs slightly from last year as our results were recorded completely separately from the main results and consisted of a single year long series without any discards. This year, partly because of the planned changes and partly because I can't be bothered to run a second system, the 4000 races, series and discards will now mirror those of the official Castle Cover series. However, as per last year, I propose excluding Wednesday races from the 4000 championships. Besides, Travis now has his new toy to play with and I suspect he'll be grateful for a few discards on Sundays and Mondays too!

So, the forecast for Sunday is looking a little on the light side which will give everybody a chance to work out which string does what in a slightly calmer environment. My only concern is choosing which boat to stick the video camera on. Which boat is likely to produce the most entertaining foul ups?

It was only ever a matter of time.

2011-04-03T00:21:00.000+01:00

Enterprising Enterprise

2011-04-02T00:17:00.001+01:00

New Carbon Tiller Extentsion

2011-04-01T12:57:00.000+01:00

Super light feel to it. It's almost like it wasn't attached!

One of four instances on Monday Night.

Modding Done

2011-03-19T18:28:00.000Z

Add a pair of these...

Thread the kicker tail through them and these...

Splice the ends together and what you got?

A continuous kicker! Hoorah! No more running out of kicker line.

Sorry, what was that? Not class legal you say?

Trapeze Slippage

2011-03-07T13:11:00.000Z

Watch from 1:15. Outstanding.

Modding

2011-03-05T17:10:00.000Z

A not entirely legal little mod.

An extra eyelet on the jib sheet car. I wonder what that could be for.....

Interesting Angle

2011-02-28T21:26:00.000Z

Young Oli got his camera on his bowsprit before I did. Now how to get the launch and retrieve sorted.....

Something to look forward to.

2011-02-15T07:57:00.000Z

I got a waterproof video camera for Christmas to record our hilarious cock ups and glimpses of pure exceptional skill (that'll be when the battery goes flat). Here's some footage I took using it on our recent Ski holiday.

Looking forward to bolting it on Marusa when she hits the water again this April!

If Carlsberg Made Recoveries...

2011-02-07T21:14:00.000Z

Easy Mistaka to Maka.

2011-01-13T13:18:00.003Z

Last night it was revealed that one of our fellow Laser 4000 peddlers has bought himself one of these;

A Mini Transat.

Unfortunately Kim misheard and thought he had bought himself one of these;

A Mini Transit.

That's it. Roll on 2011 Season.

2011-01-02T15:59:00.001Z

Just brought Marusa home from the Dinghy park. She'll now be here until bloody April! Still, Suki the Cat is happy. She can once again spend her days running up and down the boat cover trying to kill whatever she thinks is below it. I keep telling her it's actually just a swivel jam but she's not having any of it.

In a few weeks I'll start to give Marusa a once over and see what's worn during the season. There must be some new bits to buy surely?

P.S. Forgot to say. Kim got me a water proof video camera for Christmas so there's some minutes to be had working out mounting points. Fun, fun, fun!

Kim's spangly new top

2010-12-19T11:03:00.000Z

Super Bling!

My Domain

2010-11-27T13:33:00.001Z

I know it's been a bit quiet on here lately but then not a lot's been happening.

However, this blog now has a posh new address!

http://www.l4khazzard.com

Excuse to have some more T-shirts done? Possibly, especially as I noticed today the URL printed on the car and some of the T-shirts is wrong!

Rutland Pics

2010-11-08T12:40:00.000Z

Courtesy of our friends the Vagoists.

Bow down and accept our own level of incompetence

2010-11-03T19:00:00.002Z

Team Fletcher and Sign at it again in the 'arbour.

This evening Kim is not allowed to go to bed till she's worked out how to gybe a kite like young Mr Sign.

Builders. What they like eh?

2010-11-01T17:10:00.000Z

The other Sunday Peter and Sally managed to break their seemingly indestructible Laser 4000 by ripping most of the Port Rack off. Not normally an easy thing to do but apparently easier when the boat is turtled and you've resorted to jumping up and down on said rack.

Sailboats.co.uk who have taken over the supply of 4000 parts failed miserably in regards to a replacement rack. Having assured Peter they were in stock before driving to Northampton, they then proceeded to deny all knowledge of the conversation upon discovery that infact they did not have them in stock at all!

Simple solution: buy another boat.

That now brings the total CCSC Laser 4000s to 6 although the new boat will be missing a rack for a bit while we work out a fix.

So, people of Castle Cove, watch this space. You may be able to get your hands on a very cheap Laser 4000 for next season.

Yeah Baby!

2010-10-24T21:22:00.000+01:00

And the winner is...

2010-10-23T17:45:00.000+01:00

...Me and Kim!

We have won the inaugural Laser 4000s @ Castle Cove championship. A championship that at times felt like it would never end and at other times had us wishing it was a little bit longer.

If ever something was going to stress me out it was this bloody championship. I think it was the fact that Peter and Sally in Soup Dragon and ourselves in Marusa Ferk were so evenly matched that heightened the tension and a late surge from Tim and his new mast towards the end meant if we weren't leading the race then we also had to look back to make sure Tim didn't get us too.

Under this years rules and after adding the Rutland Results the points were as follows;

Keith & Kim 140 points
Peter and Sally 157 points
Tim and Molly/Billy 204 point

I say 'under this years rules' as we all think the rules need tweaking a bit for next year. Primarily that at least two boats are required to make a race. If we apply the new rules to this years results we end up with;

Kim & Keith 99 points
Peter & Sally 112 points
Tim and Molly/Billy 142 points.

22 Races were sailed where at least two boats took part so all in all a pretty good turnout. Individually myself and Kim sailed 32 races, Peter and Sally 25 races and Tim and Co 17 races. From an Ego point of view, in the 18 races where myself and Peter were both competing, we won 11 and Peter won 7. Next year of course we'll hopefully have all 5 boats racing regularly so we'll see what that brings.

Another rules tweak up for discussion is whether to split the championship down into separate series to stop any one keen/fast boat running away with an unreachable lead. What I think may work is if the championship points are made up from the finishing positions at the end of each Castle Cove series rather than from each individual race. This does mean the results may be swayed by the number of non 4000 boats competing e.g. points wise it would be bad news to come last in a ten boat race but pretty good to come last in a three boat race. It may just add even more drama to the championship!

I now need to go and make myself a trophy!

Laser 40,000?

2010-10-22T12:59:00.000+01:00

I think we represented Castle Cove quite well.

2010-10-18T11:29:00.006+01:00

After the three races of the first day all three Castle Cove boats had firmly secured the last three positions. Going in to the evening social we were invited to join the other 4000 sailors for a few drinks and somehow Peter, after 5 pints of German Lager, managed to become 'the' entertainment. On the second day of racing Peter "I don't feel good" Travis and Sally and myself and Kim crumbled under the pressure and lost our last place slots to two Rutland boats that weren't competing on the second day. Tim and Molly however thought nothing of such a minor technicality and held on firmly to last place overall.

To be honest the weekends racing didn't go as I had planned. In the boat park on the day before the event we decided that perhaps we should check some boat stuff and things. It was decided it would be the mast rack we would check. It's quite amazing how you can measure the same thing 5 times and get 5 completely different values. One tape required 10cm removing from it's value whilst the other required 10mm removing. As you can imagine that was completely impossible to calculate. It wasn't helped by the fact that Tim was running out of shroud plate holes yet his mast was still bolt upright. We concluded his new mast was either too short or his new shrouds were too long. It turned out the shrouds were about 5cm too long which was a bit rubbish as they were supplied with the mast! Sally provided some entertainment when she some how managed to flick the main sheet over the top of the mast. Oh how we laughed as we each managed to come up with an impossible to solution to the problem.

Boat tuning dealt with it was off to the pub. Great meal as usual at the Wheatsheaf and then back to the club house for a couple of night caps. A yet to identify common factor between what Peter and Tim eat/drank had them both up in the middle of night certain that there appendixes were about to rupture. Peter was adamant of the fact despite no longer even having his appendix.

The Saturday morning dawned bright and breezy and bloody cold. We had a few hours to wait before the start of the racing so I decided to leave it until we were just about to launch before checking the spinnaker rigging. Yep, completely wrong. Out of 4 knots I had to re-route and re-tie three of them. With that panic over it was time to initiate the next panic and get to the start line. 87 other boats were cunningly hiding the start boat from our view but eventually we found it, worked out how many laps we were supposed to do, readied ourselves to start and then got stuck in irons. What then followed was an argument all the way up the first beat between Kim and myself as to the number of and location of windward marks.

The rest of the day was a continuation of the same incompetency. Multiple capsizes, multiple missed marks, multiple near and very near misses and multiple realisations that it's just impossible to count to 6 (the number of laps we were supposed to do). I think we were on 7 when we realised we should have gone for the finish line. The only time we saw Peter/Sally during the racing was when we hit each other, managing to get his control lines wrapped around our racks and Tim/Molley when Tim tacked with Molly still clipped on the trapeze which wouldn't have been quite so bad if he hadn't capsized onto the leeward mark. One of our own personal highlights was when Kim's trapeze wire ejected itself from the top of the mast. I think I've mentioned the 'splosh' sound before. This was another fine example of a splosh. This time Kim went completely under and came up sans hat. Another piece of sailing gear lost to the ocean (or a big pond up North). Unfortunately we also managed to turtle the boat trying to get the trapeze wire back on and got the mast stuck in the mud with net result being a brand new wind burgee not even surviving a single race. By the end of the Saturdays racing we all felt completely destroyed. Peter had a hole in his knee, I had a long graze down my shin and Kim had a very impressive black eye. Time for a beer!

As eluded to earlier, Peter was on good form. The culmination of this 'good form' was a threat to dance on the tables, a spot of pole dancing around the central club house column and a challenge to climb it to the top. Fortunately, Toby, a much younger and much fitter Laser 4000 sailor, took pitty on poor old Peter and attempted to climb the pole. A good effort got him half way up and was enough to convince Peter to put his shoes and socks back on.

Sunday morning was an early start. The sun was out, it was still bloody cold and as forecast there was no wind. We all launched anyway with the race officers keen to get some races going. As Kim just said to me, that first race was possibly the worst race we ever had. The wind was extremely light, which is never easy, but in the past we've always managed to hold our own in those sort of conditions. Our start was ok, infact we sailed the whole race without too many cock ups but we were just slow, like REALLY slow. Peter and Sally lapped us and Tim and Molly weren't far of it either! I have never been so frustrated sailing a boat. Probably not as frustrated as Peter though. After just lapping us we were positioned right behind him with the kite up. We were getting closer and closer to his transom so I either had to go above him or below him. Obviously it's Peter so we have to go above him - it just hadn't dawned on me that we weren't actually racing him at that point. I stole his wind, made an amazing gybe to pass in front of him and lost him five places. Whoops! Ironically we had decided before the races that our total points accrued at the end of the weekend would be added to our CCSC championship points so it was quite important for Peter and Sally to get as many boats between them and us as possible. In hindsight it was a move that Ben Ainslee would have been proud of but I honestly hadn't clicked at the time. Pete lost 5 places but luckily for my conscience we ended the weekend 6 points in front of them anyway so it wouldn't have effected the championship. Sorry Pete mate!

The last two races were MUCH better for us. No obvious cock ups and with a 6th and 7th out of the remaining 13 competitors we were definitely mid fleet which was good. Peter and Sally's bad luck continued though with Sally getting t-bagged trying to hold the kite on a really dodgey reach and then a capsize trying to get her back in. Just to rub salt into the wounds, Tim and Molly got past them and held it to the end. The last race was also quite satisfying for us as we hadn't hit anybody. However it sounded like just about every other boat out there was either colliding or shouting there interpretations of right of way at each other. Each time we had managed to sail serenely past the lot of them.

So, an enjoyable weekend. We have much to learn and lots of areas to improve. One thing that we all have to take from the event is that capsizing is slow. You can have all the boat speed in the world but it ain't no good if all the other boats are staying upright.

Rutland Results

The Finale!

2010-10-14T22:04:00.000+01:00

Tomorrow morning all (original) three CCSC boats head up to Rutland for the Laser Asymmetric Combined event. The boat's packed up, the car's loaded and the cats are sensing somethings up.

The Rutland weekend is going to count as the Laser4000@CCSC Finals with double points up for offer. With about 12 kts forecast for Saturday and 4kts for Sunday anything could happen. We currently have an 11 point lead over Peter T so at least we have a bit of a buffer to stop me getting completely stressed out!

Looking forward to a good laugh. See you on the other side!

Is it 25% or 20%?

2010-10-14T21:56:00.001+01:00

Either way we've now grown from 4 boats to 5. Would you believe it! This time last year Laser 4000s weren't even a twinkle in Peter T's eye.

The new owner is young Harrison who somehow has the ability to make us capsize just by sailing in our vicinity. That was while he was sailing a Laser so god knows what's going to happen with him at the helm of another 4000 - cold shiver runs down spine.

A good stuffer is difficult to beat

2010-10-14T20:33:00.000+01:00

Here's a great post form Doug Baker on the Laser 4000 Forum;

There are two ways to sail a Laser4000 upwind, pointing/stuffing and reaching. In the lower wind strengths you need to concentrate on pointing. When it gets above a certain wind strength it pays to go for more speed. Get it right and you can actually end up pointing higher and going faster than the stuffers as they stagger sideways while your foils are working far more effectively.

However, it is very very easy to lose ground if you get it wrong when attempting to reach upwind. You usually need longer courses or really strong winds for the advantages to be really obvious. Of course you also need to be able to switch modes if you cannot get enough clear air.

A good stuffer is difficult to beat.

A good reacher is impossible to beat if all you can do is stuff.

Something to work on!

One word - Ping!

2010-10-10T00:17:00.002+01:00

Now we're gonna look fast!

2010-10-07T21:07:00.000+01:00

...when the boat's on the trailer.

The undercover arrived today from Rain and Sun. Looks like it's just the job. Marusa sure is going to be cosy on her trip up North.

What the web was invented for.

2010-10-07T12:46:00.002+01:00

As wikipedia puts it;

"The World-Wide Web (W3) was developed to be a pool of human knowledge, and human culture, which would allow collaborators in remote sites to share their ideas and all aspects of a common project."

And here I can reveal it's crowning glory... (click here if the thingy below doesn't load)

Rutland. Can it really be windy & cold three years running?

2010-10-04T13:11:00.002+01:00

October is the time when winter arrives. Not necessarily down here in Sunny Weymouth but if the last two years are anything to go by, if definitely does up in Rutland.

Two years ago Rutland was the venue for our first ever dingy race, in any type of boat, ever. In hindsight it probably wasn't the best race to choose as complete novices. Out of the six races over two days we managed to start 3 and finish 1! It was, and possibly still is, the windiest conditions we ever sailed in.

It couldn't have been too bad though as we again dragged our Vago the 4 hours up North to do it all again the following year. That year we completed all the races and finished 4th overall. Progress made.

This year though I expect any progress to be halted pretty sharply. This year it's all about the 4000s. It will be our chance to find out how rubbish we are compared to the rest of the class. What's increasing our chances of being rubbish is the weather lately. None of us have sailed much lately due to too much wind. Next week end looks like it too may be blown off so we could all be heading up without hardly on the water time in the last two months.

I'm sure we shall overcome though. I'm looking forward to it, with some intrepidation. It should be a good laugh and I'm sure this year the late Indian summer will kick in and it will be 20c with about 18kts of breeze. Bootiful.

Notice of Race
Sailing Instructions
Entry Form

And Then There Was Four!

2010-10-02T16:31:00.005+01:00

Breaking News! This handsome craft arrived at the club this morning (that's not the club in the background, it's the sales photo).

This expands the fleet by 33% (or is it 25%?) Anyway, it's another red one. That means out of the 6 boats currently in the Weymouth and Portland Area, 5 are red. Our Vice Commodore desperately needs to buy himself a yellow one. He know's he wants to really.

It also means Peter T bags himself a bonus point for his work in persuading the two new owners to join the fun.

Phew, what a relief!

2010-09-29T18:21:00.003+01:00

It turns out that our trouncing by Nathan Batchelor during the summer was justified. After sailing his 4000 twice this year (the said trouncing) he entered the 4K Coastal Nationals in Plymouth and finished 2nd! Add that to winning the J24 Europeans and a 5th in the J24 Worlds and we have ourselves a potential cocky little nit. It's a good job he's a nice guy too!

Here's the write up from Y&Y;

Laser 4000 Nationals at Mayflower Sailing Club

11-14 September 2010
By Toby Linnell 29 Sep 2010 17:47

Plymouth’s Mayflower Sailing Club saw host to this year’s 2010 laser 4000 National Championships on the south coast of Devon. Many of the teams arrived to sail with different crew configurations making for some very interesting racing.
The Mayflower, perched on top of the harbour wall, offered the competitors friendly faces and a helpful hand to a few last minute repairs before the 1st race got underway.
Each Day consisted of 3 races out beyond the breakwater, about a 2 mile sail, usually a great opportunity to get warmed up and the helm to receive some wake up spray of salt water from the reach out to the starting area. By the time you’ve sailed to the start area any evidence from a night out with the fleet was completely removed. Once in the starting area I must admit to took a little while to try and locate the windward marks but with a bit of squint they were just about visible more than a mile away.
The first day welcomed the fleet with a beautiful 4-5 foot swell remaining from Plymouth’s previous nights blustery affair. The wind was packing a lovely 12-16knots of breeze to race around the 3 lap course. By the end of the days racing Al and Sue in 4518 had a very impressive score sheet with two bullets under their belts and narrowly missing a hat trick on the last race to take second. The day wasn’t so rosey for Chris and Penny after experiencing gear failure and forcing retirement from the second half of the day’s racing.
Sunday saw a big shift in the conditions now blowing off the shore creating some interesting wind characteristic and throwing the wind strategy book out the window. The 1st race was reset 2 times before the puff had established its self sufficiently enough to allow a race to start. The swell now subsided from the previous day gave the teams a chance to try and read the shift as best as they could. Later off the water stories where frequently being told of slide down to last place only to be climb back up to the top 5 in the same race! The bullets were scattered over the score sheet but John and Mark took the 1st race by storm in some of the most inconsistent conditions the fleet has seen. This wasn’t the only win for the ex 49er campaigning helm as they also cleared up in the final race of the day leaving Ali and Sue to take their other 1st.
Races 7,8,9 where opened by a win from Castle coves 4249 sailed by Nathan Batchelor and James Clarke . The race officer managed to turn around the races so fast there was literally only time for a quick drink before he was reset and ready for the next sequence. Perfect. Just how we like it bang, bang, bang. Bar. So day 3 hosted an awesome 14-17 knots of SW airs to light up the race track. Martin Boyde and Jo Morrison lead the final race of the day only to have their 1st place robbed from them on the last lap. The fleet then took recovery with the aid of some ‘pound a pint’ action, a Plymouth Gin distillery and a night club.
The final day dawned, all was still to play for to secure all three podium places so the pressure was on. Literally. The Committee boat was clocking 29knots and the breeze was filling in. Beautiful. Just in case there wasn’t enough going on, on a day like this the fleet had to navigate around a Naval Warship anchored inside the breakwater of the Sound. The pictures from the fly bridge for this massive ship would have been incredible.
The fleet made only one race before the committee decided to call it a day. The 1st beat had heart racing as survival skills where becoming important and trying to keep the mast pointing in the sky. Well the 1st gybe proved to test a few teams as 4 boat wiped out within a couple of boat lengths of one another. Ali and Sue rightful took the bullet to add to their scores and this allowed them to win the title of Laser 4000 National Champions.
Overall Results: (top three)
1st 4518, Alister Hodgson & Sue Ogg, 12pts
2nd 4249, Nathan Batchelor & James Clarke, 19pts
3rd 4509, John Wilson & Mark Domaille, 28pts

In Cold Persuit

2010-09-27T13:25:00.001+01:00

On Saturday we did the Weymouth Bay Persuit Race. When I say 'we' it was myself and my mate Howard who was standing in for Kim as Saturday is just another work day for the good lady.

The forecast was for 13kts guting 15. Perfect! As it turned out the gusts never got below 20kts. Not so perfect.

It was exactly a year since Howard had last crewed for me. Same race, different boat. Last year we were still sailing the Vago.

In the Vago he never really produced a trapezing 'master class' and in the 4000 things weren't going to get any better.

The sail to the harbour entrance was a bit erratic with a lot of swinging out, swinging in, tripping, slipping and swearing. You can make it out on the GPS trace below.

Once through the entrance things calmed down a little and we started to search for the start line. We only had a few minutes to wait till our start and actually got away quite well.

My memory of the rest of the race was one of bad tacks, tired limbs and few laughs as Howard t-bagged himself on the trapeze and managed to get a good 14 foot from the boat whilst still clipped on. I'm amazed the bungee stretched that far!

We had no idea when we were supposed to finish so we kept battling around the laps until we heard the race officer shout something and decided that was a good enough signal to finish.

We had a good kite run back to the harbour entrance which helped to regenerate a little more energy to get us back to the shore. The GPS showed we had sailed 22 miles in just over 3 hours.

Back on shore Howard was officially broken!

Confirmed: The PY Handicap is wrong.

2010-09-20T13:29:00.004+01:00

Just back from a brilliant week of Sailing at Porto Heli in Greece. A week of sun, warm water, good enough wind and a massive choice of vessels to sail.

We sailed one of their three 4000s once, just to show off our excellent skills but even before we arrived I had already decided to sail a Laser 2000 in the last days race - the 'Race around the Rock' as they call it.

At the club we've always ribbed the 2K sailors for their 'favorable' handicap against our unrealistic one. The race was going to be a good indicator if that really was the case. There were two 2000s, two 4000s and a RS500 taking part. The course was simply from the bay to the rock and back again.

In the light shifty stuff at the start, the 4000s and the 500 made some good early ground on a beam reach while we were stuck sailing along side a yacht that was also doing the race. The other 2000 (sailed by a 2000 sailor) got his kite up early and was able to carry the angle. At this point we were someway above him so also got our kite up and headed off at almost 90 degrees to the wind to catch the other boats. We managed to carry the kite to about half way to the 'mark' before having to drop. The other 2000 persisted but lost some ground.
By this point we had made up a lot of time on the other boats.

The RS500 and one of the 4000s had some moments rounding the island but the other 4000 kept it upright and shot off with the kite up for the return leg. They kept the kite up all the way to the main land before dropping and heading upwind to fetch the bay. We dropped the kite for a while on the return but raised it again on the final approach.

We crossed the finish line someway behind the 4000 and the 500 but found out later we had won the race on corrected time beating the 500 by 100 seconds and we were 5 minutes in front of the 4000!

So the moral of the story is, if you can sail a Laser 2000 flat and not let it fall over then us poor sods in the 4000 don't really stand much of a chance - but then I'm sure they already know that!

GPS Track Clicky

Holiday Shirts

2010-09-10T18:56:00.001+01:00

We're off to Greece tomorrow and being a bit lacking in t-shirts this year I thought I'd get our friends at Azure Logo to print some off.

A little bit sad I suppose but hey, I also write a blog!

We Finished a Race! At Last!

2010-09-07T19:16:00.000+01:00

Absolutely loved last nights sail. It was windy enough that a few weeks ago I would have had doubts about going out but after the last few races that had been purely about survival, this sail was just FUN!

It was 17/18knots gusting into the low 20s. Still a bit edgy at times but mostly it was just about keeping the boat trucking. We sailed a bit differently last night with the kicker not so tight and the jib not sheeted so hard and with a desperate attempt to not keep pinching all the time. It seemed to work. The boat felt fast without the stalling feeling you get when pinching just a little too high.

We had an issue raising the kite which meant the first half of the downwind leg was a two sail affair with the kite in various position between trawling for mackerel and up the mast taking the sheets with it. I didn't even attempt to two sail gybe but tacked around instead before successfully getting the kite up on the new gybe. With warp drive engaged we headed for the bottom mark. As it turned out it was the wrong mark so a bear away slowed things down a little which probably wasn't a bad thing.

The rest of the race was solid with a slight hiccup as we approached the finish line when the stopper knot on the jib came undone. We sailed across the line with a very hooked jib due to Kim hanging from the lazy sheet but job done none the less. We kept a healthy lead over Pete and Sally who lost a lot of ground practicing their backwards sailing among the moorings. They still haven't quite nailed that tack yet!

Off topic

2010-09-06T22:41:00.001+01:00

Just re-found this from our Obergurgl Holiday a couple of years ago.

Another 10mins to give up but it's worth sticking it out till 6 min 30secs.

Here's hoping for even more wind

2010-09-05T13:19:00.001+01:00

It turns out we're leading the current Sunday Series. What's more impressive is that we haven't actually finished any of the races in it!

Two of the races have already been blown off so as we're in Greece next Sunday lets hope it too gets blown off ;-)

Warning: Watching this may be costly.

2010-09-03T23:18:00.002+01:00

15 mins of your life that you will never get back.

Look what I found on that interweb...

2010-09-03T19:28:00.000+01:00

Never seen the bow up like that before. Looks more exciting on the wire than it does sat at the back!

Error in Post

2010-08-23T22:25:00.006+01:00

The previous post read;

"Still tonight should be the complete opposite. 20kts plus forecast which once again will make me feel slightly nauseos as we get ready to go out but I'm sure it will be fine once we're racing."

The previous post should have read;

"I'm sure it will be fine if we don't die!"

Once again a bit of Sun, flat water and a sheltered dinghy park lured us into a false sense of security. The harbour wall was showing an average of 20kts as we rigged up the boat but the railway embankment was holding the wind away, just waiting to laugh it's ass off.

We launched at 18:30 in a fairly sedate breeze. Nothing to worry about. The tide was in so we could get the daggerboard and rudder down early and head on out through the moorings.

At 18:30 and 30 seconds we were drifting through said moorings with Kim in the water and me stood on the daggerboard. Even from 50 meters out I could hear the bloody embankment sniggering to it's self.

A gust knocked us clean over with both sails already all the way out. We let the boat drift past the remaining moorings on her side before righting. From that point I thought the best form of defence was attack so we hoisted the spinnaker and went for it. The hoist was horrid but it wasn't too bad once we got going and after surviving the first gybe we shot off in completely the wrong direction to get us to the start but there was sod all we could do about it. We had to drop and head back into the wind to reach the start line. We got there with 5 mins to go so headed for Bincleaves. With 2 mins to go we decided now was the time to start our journey from Bincleaves to the start. It was actually not a bad start considering we were almost in another county as we approached the line.

The first beat was ok. We were in third position (out of four) at the top mark and had it all to play for after the hoist. With the kite up we were travelling much lower and faster than Paul in his K6 and John in his 200. We had the International 14 overtake below us and then the shuddering site of the K6, having gybed, making a beeline straight for us. We threw in a gybe which almost worked but eventually inevitability took over and we capsized again. It took us three attempts to get and keep the mast upwards at which point we called it a day.

It was only when I got back to the dingy park that I realised we were on bloody starboard when we crash gybed to avoid Paul on Port!

Still, (and there always seems to be a 'still') we learnt a thing or two. Getting back up quickly from a capsize is an invaluable skill and something we seem to do fairly well. Getting Kim to hang from the windward trapeze as the boat rights stopped the boat from flipping for the second time so that's a banker. Also once travelling I tried letting off the kicker to allow the main to twist (copying the International 14) which felt just plain awful so the kicker was back on as hard as it would go. Chatting to Nathan afterwards he agreed this was probably the right move on a 4K so that's once less thing to worry about.

Anyway, here's a screen grab of the harbour wall anenometer. I took the opportunity to highlight our launch time!

We got us a Laser4000mobil

2010-08-23T13:30:00.003+01:00

At long last now we have a vehicle with a modicum of practicality to it. When we bought our two seater Tigra I thought 'we don't need a big car, we just need a small car with a tow-bar'. Unfortunately it turned out you're not allowed to fit a tow-bar to a Vauxhall Tigra as it would be illegal! You can add one to a Corsa and a Mariva (both of which are the same car from your arse downwards) but apparently not to a Tigra.

Anyway, 4 years later we now have ourselves a gurt big French bus called 'Alberto'. Tow-bar has been added, roof bar pads fitted, windows tinted and stickers added.

The 'Frenchness' does bring me out in a cold sweat every now and then with the fear of what could go wrong but at the moment he's just the job.

Even had a couple of flash chrome stickers done;

In other (sailing) news:
Not a lot has been happening really. Peter and Sally are away on their hols. We've sailed a few races without anything much happening to remember. Yesterday was an awful race. No wind, stalled on the start line as the hooter went off and had two or three tacks forced on us by the stupid, shifting wind. At one point, as we approached the finish line, Kim was convinced we were travelling away from it in reverse.

Still tonight should be the complete opposite. 20kts plus forecast which once again will make me feel slightly nauseos as we get ready to go out but I'm sure it will be fine once we're racing.

First Bonus Point Awarded

2010-08-02T22:35:00.002+01:00

Pretty frustrating race for us tonight. Slow of the start, slow upwind and slow downwind. Pretty much slow really.

Pete and Sally had a race long tussle with Paul in his K6, eventually pipping him on the final beat to the line. Pete seems to be developing a bit of a penchant for that maneuver having got one over on us yesterday.

For once though having a faster boat in a dying breeze was an advantage as far at the CCSC results were concerned. The faster and the slower boats all did 3 laps. Being fast enough to cross the line before the breeze died was useful. The slower boats were still to round the bottom mark as we finished and lost a shed load of time. It makes a change though. Usually we end up crawling along behind them having raced an extra lap.

The end result was a first place for Pete and Sally and a 3rd for us which considering how crap our race was surprised me.

Unfortunately for us our rules do state that if a 4000 wins a handicap race then a bonus point is deducted. That now puts us on equal points in the championship. Pretty cool after 28 races!

Splosh

2010-08-02T08:59:00.000+01:00

Splosh is the sound a large rock makes when you pick it up off the beach and throw it in the sea. It's not a splish, it's not a splash, it's a splosh.

Splosh is also the sound Kim makes when her trapeze line breaks. Kim 'sploshing' is not fast when you're racing.

Still, it was funny. She even managed to grab a rack as she plummeted and drag herself back into the back of the boat without actually loosing too much time which was impressive. The race was over though with too much wind to continue without the trapeze which was a shame as all three boats were really close together at that point. There was even a 'yee hah' to be heard as all three boats rounded the bottom mark within touching distance of each other.

The previous race was a bit disappointing mind. Clear in the lead at the last bottom mark, we went left, Peter went right and got to himself across the finish line just before us to take the win. All getting a bit close in the championship now!

49er. Next boat?

2010-07-30T21:03:00.001+01:00

Perhaps not. Cool ad though...

Sun and Fun

2010-07-26T23:44:00.000+01:00

Good race tonight. 26 degrees when we arrived at the club, plus it was still windy!

Not a perfect wind, infact it was bloody gusty, but everybody seemed to enjoy it. Mark 4 was set as the top mark which meant we had to battle are way into the lull from the shadow of the underbarn, hoist and then wait to be right royally fired off downwind once back into some breeze.

We had a capsize when I tacked with Kim still on the wire (I did apologise as we tacked!) but a speedy righting reminiscent of our Vago days had us going again without losing too much time.

Peter and Sally's kite parted somewhere mid atlantic again so we may well be blessed with the sight of a blue and white spinnaker soon.

Boat and crew 'Chartered'

2010-07-23T17:01:00.000+01:00

Well sort of. We're on the Edwards & Keeping website!

Click here http://www.edwardsandkeeping.co.uk if you're rich enough to require the services of a local accountancy firm - or even if you just want us and our Vago to flash up on your screen.

Off topic - Amazing Contender Promo Video

2010-07-22T13:39:00.003+01:00

Contender Promo - v2.0 from Bullet-Train M&C on Vimeo.

RIP - Joe Isaacs

2010-07-21T22:27:00.003+01:00

Old Joe Isaacs past away during this evenings race. Something like this is always sad for lots of people in lots of ways but I'm pretty sure for Joe it was absolutely perfect. He was sailing his Solo with the gusts in the twenties and his health still with him right to the very end.

What more could any body ask for.

From the Commodore;

Joe Isaacs 18 May 1929 – 21 July 2010
It is with great sadness that I pass on the news of Joe’s death whilst sailing his Solo on Wednesday 21 July. His love of sailing and all things nautical has been an inspiration to many of us, both young and old, and his encouragement and patience while instructing has given novice sailors confidence to progress and enjoy their sailing.
Joe joined Castle Cove in the mid eighties since when he has worked tirelessly for the Club both on and off the water, always willing to lend a hand with any task. He was Boats Chairman for many years, Beachmaster at countless open meetings and regattas and was involved with Ladies Sailing since its inception, never missing a Friday morning and always making sure the safety boats were up and running before the “Ladies” arrived. He will also be remembered for his driving instruction having taught many of our younger members the art of handling a car. His passion was sport of all kinds, having been a keen runner, boxer, rugby player and skier. He also loved music and many of us will remember his accordion playing at one of the Valentine Suppers. He always had stories to tell of his time in the Royal Navy and he never missed and opportunity to give advice on the correct procedure for flying flags.
He will be sorely missed by all in Castle Cove.

Sara Lloyd
Commodore

Well Done Martin & Toby

2010-07-18T10:26:00.004+01:00

Martin Boyde and Toby Linnel have taken the honours at this years Laser 4000 Europeans.

Class Chairman and now European Champion too! Final results here.

With the Nationals in September, lets hope our very own Nathan Batchelor can give them a run for their money. I so hope he does well. That would give us at least one excuse why we can't keep up with him!

Laser 4000 Europeans

2010-07-16T17:04:00.002+01:00

The Europeans are on at the moment at Lake Garda, Italy. Martin Boyde, the class Chairman is currently leading - Results. Hopefully he'll bring it home for GBR.

It looks like they've had a bit of breeze on too! Photos

Still, two years 'till the next one. Plenty of time for more practice.

Etch-a-sketch

2010-07-12T22:48:00.000+01:00

Drew a picture in the harbour today with the GPS on my phone.

Not too sure how accurate it is as it reckons we were sailing 50m about sea level??

Still despite the wind dropping to nothing (or perhaps because of it dropping) we had a reasonable result. 3rd on handicap 1min 45sec off the winner (Nathan B in his 4000).

Silence is Golden

2010-07-12T08:53:00.001+01:00

The humming has officially left the building! Spent some time on Saturday getting to know the back edge of the rudder. As per the Laser 4000 CA tuning guide I sanded down the trailing edge to produce a nicely squared off edge and about 1mm thick.

We tried it yesterday in absolutely gorgeous conditions and all that could be heard was the gentle splash, splash of the water against the hull. Not even a faint whisper of a hum!

We also tried the GPS Beer Can Racing application for my Android phone. By pointing it into the wind and setting the wind direction it will display your upwind VMG. We tried going high and slow against lower and faster and there really wasn't much in it. Both modes were between 4 and 5 knots. This was backed up by two beats with Pete and Sally. The first run we cracked off and Pete pinched and in the second we swapped. Both times we got to the mark just before Pete so again it seems there's not much difference between modes. Going lower was probably easier to sail and much more fun so I think we'll probably edge towards that in the next few races.

Close - but no that close.

2010-07-07T23:20:00.001+01:00

Last race in the Wednesday Night series this evening. Not our best race but not the best course either. Didn't even bother hoisting on the first reach and couldn't make the mark on the second reach with the kite.

Finished 3rd on the water, 11th on handicap and 2nd overall in the series. We would have had to have been 2mins 21 secs faster to hold the series which was never really on. Even without our atrocious start we wouldn't have made that up. Never mind though. We shouldn't have been as high as we are for a non-asymmetric series.

Other News
Apparently Pete has chopped of a portion of his finger. Seems a bit drastic. All he had to say was that he didn't want to sail tonight. ;-) Hope it heels quick Mr T!

Other Other News
Tried our 'good' daggerboard tonight. Well at least we now know it's not that the hums. It has to be the rudder. Off to B&Q for a belt sander me thinks.

'Discard' the previous post

2010-07-06T08:57:00.000+01:00

Apparently there are two discards in the current Wednesday Night series. That will put us on equal points with Paul Robbins in his Fireball but behind on countback. Bugger!

Our chances of holding on to the series are now slim to none but we'll give it a go. Looks like it will be fairly breezy on Wednesday which isn't ideal against a fireball.

Other News
We were all stuffed by the new 4000 last night. Nathan Batchellor and Bill Barker gave us a demonstration that sort of indicates that the 908 handicap isn't actually as far off as we thought. Again - Bugger!

Not a good race for the Travis boat either. I'm hoping he was still just 'tired & emotional' from the previous evenings party.

Who wrote these rules?

2010-06-30T22:52:00.000+01:00

Forgive me for being a little presumptuous but we're heading into the last race of the current Wednesday night series 10 points clear in the lead.

In the back of my mind sat a little gem that a series win would give us another extra couple of little points but..

"Rule 5.3 - Wednesday Racing - not blooming likely

Laser4000@CCSC championship points can only be won on Sundays and Mondays."

Bugger.

Vago Nationals - New flag learnt

2010-06-27T22:26:00.007+01:00

Ended up in 4th place at the Vago Nationals out of 16 boats. We were only 1 point away from 3rd position and 2 points away from 2nd.

What was slightly annoying is that we were leading the 4th race when they shortened the course. We never noticed the man waving a flag at the bottom mark and proceeded to drop the kite and was just about to head up for the next upwind leg when I realised we were supposed to be heading for the finish line. By the time we got going another Vago slipped on past. That would have had us on equal points for 3rd but with a win we would have had the position.

Still, we know what this flag means now!

Fairly chuffed though. We were beaten by a pair of ex German 49er Squad sailors, the Class Association Chairman and two Sail Laser instructors, one of which was an ex Topper champion.

I was very pleased with our boat speed and learnt a thing or two that should help with the 4K and a brief chat with Paul Brotherton (who wrote the 4000 tuning guide and is currently part of the GBR 49er squad) was VERY interesting.

Mr & Mrs July

2010-06-26T22:57:00.000+01:00

Twice in a year. Must be some sort of record.

Other News
Currently lying in 5th place overall in the Laser Vago Nationals. Had a 5th, a 3rd and then an awful race where we ended up 7th. Going fast enough, just need to sort out direction.

Voyage of Discovery

2010-06-23T23:27:00.005+01:00

I discovered I don't sail very well with other 4000s. Tonights race, as the only 4000 out, was an absolute stormer.

A forth place out of 24 boats and only 4 seconds shy of a third.

What's particularly annoying abouts tonights result is that it took us a minute to cross the start. We also went around three bottom marks as by the time we got there we were the leading boat and didn't have a clue where to go.

We hadn't planned to race tonight but instead thought we would practice a few things but Celia suggested we start the race anyway to get the points so we did.

After waiting for everybody else to start, and not bothering to look at the course boards we ended up 3rd boat around the windward mark. How does that work?

An enjoyable evening and a few things discovered (after reading some tips on sailing Hobie 16's which I already knew but had forgot.)

Still, it won't matter. The next time Pete stuffs us up at the start I'll probably fall apart again and no doubt stress myself out the rest of the way around the course.

This weekend we're back in a Vago for the Nationals at the Academy. Let's see how that goes!

It's the Wetsuit

2010-06-21T23:00:00.001+01:00

Very nice sail tonight. Trapezable winds - just. Short sleave rash vest, new O'three long john wetsuit. Convincingly beaten by Peter and Sally though. I think it must be the new wetsuit. It's obviously not fully up to speed yet. It will come but at the moment it's effecting boat speed.

Either that or I think we're finding our zones. We need more wind. Much more wind.

20 minutes that changed the world...

2010-06-14T23:03:00.002+01:00

...well kind of.

Explain this then. At 18:30 we were air rowing our way to the start line. Peter had decided tonight was another good'en for single handing the 4000.

A cheer could be heard as a bit of a gust came through but shortly afterwards we were back to dangly tell tales. All of a sudden, whoosh we're off and I mean properly off. I jockingly said to Kim she should clip on and then it was 'KIM, CLIP ON!!!'. We had gone from gusting 2 knts to gusting 20 within 20 mins.

Remember at this point Peter was single handed. I looked across to see the most perfect capsize. All the sails all the way out yet still, ever so slowly, over he went. Paul in his K6 kindly volunteered/pushed his crew in to assist but all was Ok and the Soup Dragon was promptly righted, and the 5 times after that apparently!

For us I was glad to get racing. The reaching about before the start was a bit of a night mare. As it turned out a few of us were more than keen to get racing. After an hour of racing in what was probably my most strenuous race to date we crossed the finishing line to be told we were OCS (jumped the start). Kim was mortified. I was just glad it was over.

Back at shore we were told that 5 boats were OCS and only 1 (Nick Griffin) had gone back. Nick went on to win the race.

So when does an individual recall become an general recall? Surely 50% of the fleet counts?

4 Points for all the 4000s so no movers or shakers tonight in the championship.

Soup Dragon Blows Her Kite

2010-06-14T12:37:00.001+01:00

During yesterdays race, the spinnaker on Soup Dragon decided enough was enough and it let go. Quite a large hole.

Infact so large that I found this reenactment of it. One minute it was whole, then it wasn't.

Interestingly though, Soup Dragon was nearly as quick downwind going low without the kite as we were going higher with the kite.

Second lap we too went low and increased the gap to a more reasonable size. Just how windy has it got to be to go high with the kite to have some fun?

Wide Boi

2010-06-12T14:46:00.003+01:00

Habitual Criminal with racks set to the max.

Looking very B14.

Wednesday Night Photos

2010-06-10T08:55:00.000+01:00

I took some photos whilst sat relaxing on the rescue boat last night.

Peter had a good 3rd place result if cheating only a little bit (he's the one single handing the 4000 with it's BIG sails!).

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/ellistine1/CCSCRace090610?feat=directlink#

Happy Timmy

2010-06-08T08:56:00.001+01:00

Tim and Billy seemed to enjoy themselves in last nights race - which is a relief. Looks like the golf lessons are back on hold again.

It was a good sail. Nice strength wind although it was raining which doesn't seem to dampen the actual sailing so all good.

Had a good race with the International 14 and would have beat it on the water had we not capsized on the last downhill run. Came in forth but again not that far off time wise (ignoring the 29er as always) despite the capsize so we were pleased too.

Windy Weymouth

2010-06-06T21:30:00.004+01:00

Good couple of races today. The wind was much stronger than forecast. Infact I was quite surprised to see wind on the habour anemometer jump from 8 knots before I ate my Shreadies to gusting 20 knots afterwards.

For the first race we had two 4000s sailing. Tim and Billy had to head back home to get his trapeze harness so it was just us and Peter and Sally for the start.

To be honest I've no idea how Peter and Sally did. The last time I saw them I was giving them a wide berth on the starting line as it looked like they were about to fall in after what looked like an altercation with a 2000.

I think they saved it but I didn't see them from then on. I think they DNF'd.

Still we had a stormer. Quite tough on the arm and the legs for me and Kim fully flat wiring found the weight of her own head was creating a bit of a neck ache. I think we were both relieved to tack!

The downwind runs were mega. Properly fast although I was trying to head low whilst keeping Kim out on the wire. It was difficult to gauge if this was effective or not or whether we should have just heated up a bit further and used the apparent wind to send us down to the mark.

Looking at the corrected time results we did ok. We were 3rd but more importantly, only 6 seconds of the lead 2000 time. A good race in these sorts of winds could see us doing better on handicap I reckon.

The second race was entertaining for everybody around us it seems. With 10 seconds to go and approaching the start line fast, Kim lost her footing and swung all the way around the back of the boat and into the drink pulling the boat over with her. I distinctly remember saying in a real derogatory voice as she swung past me, arms and legs flailing, "don't do that".

With our 'delayed' start we were still past all the other boats except for the 29er by the time we reached the first bottom mark and ended up roughly 1:50 down on handicap (against the lead 2000) so not a bad result either really.

Sam was crewing his 29er today with Terry (who decided today was not a good day for his International 14) at the helm. They were going really well and comfortably won both races. I think Terry was quite impressed with the 'boys' boat.

Todays results puts us 3 points clear in the championship which is just as well as Kim's of galavanting again in a few weeks and then we have the Laser Vago Nationals to botch up so a buffer is good.

Something 'Freeky' lies beneath.

2010-06-02T03:08:00.003+01:00

Today it was announced on the BBC website that DORIS images of the Dorset seabed had been released to the public via Google Earth
http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/dorset/hi/people_and_places/nature/newsid_8716000/8716819.stm

The images are quite amazing but something odd in the corner of the harbour grabbed my attention. There's a bloody great hole below mark 9!

When I over-layed the CCSC racing marks it became even more surreal.

Remind you of anything?

Bitter Sweet

2010-05-26T23:01:00.000+01:00

Well what can I say. The Laser 4000 handicap sucks.

We had almost the perfect race tonight. Light breeze gradually dropping. Finished second on the water, nearly 3 minutes ahead of Pauls RS K6 and 5 minutes ahead of Nicks Laser 2000. The rest of the fleet were crawling a long on what was left of the breeze.

I honestly thought we might have been up for a win. I would have accepted a second as the 'first on the water' RS 700 was a little way ahead.

Bloody 7th!

Ended up over 4 minutes down on Nick Griffin on corrected time.

Anyway Tim, about this corrected PY......

Who'd of thunk it?

2010-05-24T23:21:00.001+01:00

On my previous post I proudly displayed the graph showing the steadily closing gap between us and the lead Laser 2000s.

We'll tonight we broke the graph! It can't handle negative times.

We finished 2 minutes and 58 seconds in front of Nick's 2000 and came 3rd in the race - in 2 to 6kts!

It might have been an even better result had we not completely kyboshed the last beat. Somehow we managed to lose massively in the last 50 meters or so. The K6 came steaming past and a couple of crap tacks left us like a sitting duck on the line.

On the 2nd lap we were ahead of the 29er! I bet that had them worried.

Still, I'm sure the status quo will return shortly.

I tell you what though, I'm sure the jib we're now using that doesn't have a broken batten is helping. Kim reckons it rolls up a lot easier so it must be faster!

No Peter and Sally tonight as age is catching up with him. That allowed us to pull back to level in the champs and even Tim seemed quite pleased to pull back 2 points.

Laser 2000's, be afraid, very afraid!

2010-05-24T13:14:00.001+01:00

Well Ok then, not that afraid. Probably not even slightly alarmed, but we do seem to be catching up.

After comparing the corrected times of the leading Laser 2000 in each race against the time of the leading 4000 a downward trend emerges.

I thought I would post this now before we start to go backwards again. The forecast is looking a little light this evening!

P.S. NG = Nick Griffin. Come on Peter and Jane, bring your boat back down. It's too easy for him at the moment!