solo sail 14th april

aftera long wait for the easterly to drop i launched solo and headed for the bay.
the waves were rolling in, the boat was zipping along nice untill i tried to tack. the waves stopped me from going around, i finally got underway again and gybed instead, not feeling to easy about it i reached back to the sheleter of the pier area and tacked ok, then decided to go further inshore instead on a few reaches.
the weather was increasing and a storm looked as theough it was going to hit so i sailed back in.
the boat was awkward to get out on my own as i had to scamble for the trolley leaving the boat bouncing on the beach. finally pete arrived and helped me drag it up the beach.
my session with tony was cancelled.

series race 3 was also put on for me as the wind was already 20knts north east when i got to the club

i decided against it and headed home.

spring series 2

Gary had the chance to crew in his first race with me, a bit of trapeze tuition first from Mike  on land and then we launched. wind was better than saturday and from the west.
we took the chance to do many tacks and gybes before the start to get gary used to doing them.
then we did the most perfect start ever, we were right on the line when the flag dropped.
at mark 1 we rounded after straycat but not totally last. the down wind legs were good and we tried to do something different to the rest by going out to peverill direction.  we all rounded 4 really close and then we lost some ground, however on the next beat we overhauled Pete then the next beat we did something different again and went well right, this worked because we overtook 3 cats and almost overtook straycat who had an amazing lift with the wind that helped us.
 we only messed up one tack which was not bad really , the only other problem was my mainsheeet came undone from the block down wind from 3-4  needs a new one anyway, lost a bit of ground, however the race was over then luckily.  Gary was really pleased with the sailing and so was i.
hopefully Gary and Tony will make an interesting season on the crewing front.

cat training 7th APRIL

mike cemm hosted a cat training session which was for beginners to intermediates. a few new things were picked up on about setting jib tension which i never fully understood until then.
on the water we did tacking and gybing and swapped crews. wind was ligh and not very good, however in the afternoon myself and petes crew were the only ones to stay, so mike jumped on my boat and we had on to one sessions and then petes crew came to my boat, this i found really good and found alot of benifit from
especially helm position during tacks and gybes  not going back to soon.

spring series race 1

after a very cold night i was greeted by a north easterly and breaking waves in the bay.
a bit apprehensive i rigged the boat and then alan gould turned up  to crew.
it was a windward leward course which made a change to be honest.
we outwitted pete and then found ourself with mark and desney. after two laps of following alan suggested going further on the beat and made the mark easy and ahead of mark and desney. however next lap i messed up by not ducking the stern of a wayfarer and went into irons when they called starboard.
i lost 2 places to mark and desney and phil p , however i did regain that spot the next lap with a better  upwind leg.
after the race it was some helming tuition for alan, he found it all strange at first but im sure he will get it sorted.
pleased with today apart from the mistake.

The opener 2012

Tim Saunders was my crew for today and said that he had done some sailing in greee on big boats and on cats  but knew what to do.  he was very friendly and we got on really well a perfect sauturday siling crew
we messed the start up because i didnt have my race watch    , ton y set his but by the time we realised we were late going across the line. we followed mike cemms tracks but found it hard going and rounded the mark in last place, the only way was up and we struggled to catch a few toppers and lasers.
tony came up with some good ideas , pleased we were just on the water really so  didnt care that we were last overall, all the cats were last in the field greg was 1m 55 ahead on me on the water. mike was helming.