MBM

July 28th & 29th July Summer series 7

Saturday was duty day for the commodores cup
in the afternoon i sailed on Stray cat with John Russ on a stryder cat cruiser.
 In total i did not get off the water until 1730 in the evening there was fireworks as the start of carnival week

Sunday i had a new crew Lauren who had only just completed her adult training course and had never been on a cat before. after everyone was taking the mickey out of us on the beach while i was telling her about the basics of the boat.
the wind was picking up all the time and the waves were choppy, a good force four to five. I messed the start up by being to far away from the start !!. we went across the line a few minutes late, starboard tack was very heavy due to the waves and i didn't make much progress at all, after rounding Mark one the reach was no better, but downwind to 3  was better. (a triangle course)
 Each tack for the committee boat was messed up and i had to reverse the rudders every time. I really struggle in waves and wind to do this, however toward the end of the race we were sailing much better, a good reach from 1 to 2 was fantastic and Lauren commented on it after.
considering the conditions and with a novice crew we did really well. Lauren did exceptionally well for a first time on a DART 18 , with more training for the helm im sure Lauren will do very well in crewing on a dart.
as far as i could tell she didnt make any mistakes at all which is very good indeed. trapezing will be the next bit to master and then real progress can be made.

summer 6

after not sailing on the Saturday with Richard on freespirit i decided to launch early and go for a long sail before the race. launched at 0915, wind was light easterly. made my way over to the octopus as some kayaks were over on the beach, the sea was very clear as i got nearer to the beach. after briefly beaching the boat for what was going to be a quick swim i thought better of it as the boat was being washed onto the hard shingle. i made my way around the bay to ocean bay and then the mowlem and then over to the committee boat to see what was going on. by 1045 a lot of the boats were out and the wind was picking up.
my start was poor as i forgot where the pin end was so it was follow the fleet past the committee boat .
the tack to go for the line at the end of lap one dropped me way back as i had no jib.
however i did seem to make progress as the race went on, lapping in about 14 mins, the others didn't seem too far ahead.
after about 4 laps and dicing with the lead lasers i eventually finished almost catching Clive Stacey
race time 1h05m05s the beat back was good and caught up many boats as the wind filled in.
a good sail overall with no crew and no jib,  very hot and sunny for once  so cant complain !

on board view from MBM

on board view from MBM

wind was very breezy. 9 years ago on this same weekend the wind was fresh as well but a simple capsize went wrong and i ended being rescued by the RNLI. ths even still sticks in my mind and today was spooking me out, however a few words of wisdom from a few fellow club mates soon put me right.
so we launched and felt our way around  taking it very gingerly, spilling lots of wind. a few cats went over including Pete. after strugling to tack the boat around to tack the start we eventually set off a few mins late, however when we were about to tack for the 1st mark we noticed every one was heading in, race abandoned, we did not know why.
we got back to the club in one piece only to hear that the race officer abandoned for people going out when they really shouldnt have (novices) and with a few boats over as well the officer was concerned as the weather wasnt letting up
i was glad in a way but felt it was a long drive down just for about 25 mins total sailing.