Southern Championships - Some Progress

I have to be an optimist. Not the dinghy, you understand - that's a small kid's bathtub, in case anyone did not know -  but the glass-half-full type of optimist.

Why? Because, try as I might, I cannot progress beyond the back half of the fleet.

Last weekend, I had the privilege to race with Simon Carman, who has kindly agreed to crew for me at the GP14 Nationals in Looe in August.

As an optimist, I took comfort from the fact that we made 12th place out of 17 in our second race, and that the boat felt fast.  Simon's a great crew - he spots technical things that I miss, and he is happy to call tactics, which means I can focus on getting the boat moving.

But on the pessimistic side, we are in last place in most of our races, and I wish I understood why.

Maybe we don't keep the boat flat enough?

Maybe it is my irritating habit of 'pinching' into the wind when I don't have enough boat speed?

Was I using too much kicker? Or not enough? Was the boom in enough during the beats, or was I stalling the sails by pulling them in too tight?

Someone please tell me.... !!

With our experience, we should be mid-fleet by now. It's very demoralising being relegated to the back markers.

But I need to be an optimist.

Brightlingsea was a great place to sail. We had 2 races on Saturday, and then three back-to-back on the Sunday. Glorious sun, 10 knots wind, and enough swell and gusts to get us planing on the reach during the end of Sunday.  A chance to get valuable sea experience in advance of the Nationals.

WHSC was well represented - it seems that the club is really getting out-and-about these days, so it is good to have company.

Apart from the time when my watch stopped, we were able to get some good starts, and were pushing through the fleet to the first mark.

It was great to be able to fly the spinnaker through the gybes - a skill we are beginning to master. The spinnaker launches and drops worked well, although there was one occasion where we were seriously threatened by a group of Merlin Rockets who were a lap ahead, and gunning for the same leeward mark as us!

In short, I think we are beginning to work together as a team. I just don't want to let the team down. Any suggestions on how to make the boat go faster, please send answers on a postcard.

A few more sea races, and the Nationals is looming up.

P.S. Thanks to Hannah for the photo.