All systems working properly

Sarah & I took out 13941 for Saturday Racing yesterday.

Everything worked properly.

The day started with a single-handed check-out. The boat seemed very well balanced, and ready to go.

I helmed the first race, and we took our normal place near the back of the fleet. My objective these days is to learn as much as possible about how to race the GP14. The fact that I have such an objective is proof that I am now comfortable with the boat.

We made some progress through the race, lost a few positions, and gained a few. I think we were 4 or 5 boats from the end. Lots to learn.

Sarah then helmed the second race. We had a difficult start - the line was quite short, so we were behind the line at the start, then tacked to port, ducked the fleet and found ourself in a lifting tack on the right hand side of the course.

My crewing let us down at least once - we were leading some boats out of a mark rounding and I got her to tack in front of another boat. We had to do turns, which left us as the back of the fleet. Then things got interesting.

At this point, Sarah did really well - probably the best helming ever. We systematically overtook at least 4 other boats to claw ourselves back into the race. Pride was restored.

And, at the end of the day, there was no water inside the boat.

We are ready for the new year.

Now, where was that copy of  Start to Win.... ?

Where is all the water coming from?

Today was an important day; my beloved 13941 was back on the water.

I was really impressed by the work that Ben Dingwall had done with the repair to the bow, and looking forward to sailing her again.

It took most of the morning to get everything set up. I did not check the mast rake or other mast settings, but I know the rig tension was correct.

Weather was very very mild this weekend - about 1 or 2 knots, and coming from different directions every time - typical Welsh Harp, in fact.

Sarah & I sailed out together, seeing this as primarily a "shake down" cruise, rather than real racing.

The challenge I find in light wind courses is the need to keep focused and concentrate on the very minute wind changes all the time. For the first race, I accidentally balked Lydia (14038), and had to apologise later. She was very gracious about it. We started near the top of the fleet during the first beat, but went too wide, lost concentration, and ended up half way down. From then on, things got worse. At one time, we were at the back of the fleet. But coming up to the penultimate buoy, it seemed to me that there was a chance to sail "loose" for the committee boat, rather than the finish buoy. It worked, and we took a couple of boats before the finish.

For Sarah's race, she also made a reasonable start, but it is not easy sailing in light winds, particularly if you do not have much experience of roll tacking. So she lost a lot of places, but we were again able to sneak in a couple of gains on the final leg.

The last race was an unfortunate mixture of things done correctly and things done very badly. I think we ended up last overall.

However, it was an enjoyable day.

The only problem was when we took the boat off the water. I estimate that we had had a couple of gallons of water (10 litres?) pour out of the bung between the two "skins". What had it come from? I have no idea.

I noticed that the starboard self-bailer had filled with water, so clearly there is a leak somewhere there. And it is possible that we had shipped water through the centreboard casing when we roll tacked the boat.

So we have some investigation to do.

Next Stop: the Brent Regatta during the Bank Holiday Monday. Looking forward to it.

Venetian 2019 - Progress

Saturday 6 April, 2019.

The 63rd Venetian to be held at the Welsh Harp.

And Sarah was crewing for me.

Because my beloved 13941 was still in for repair, we were able to use Tom & Sarah's boat - 13851, although it was carrying the sail numbers 1388.

Winds were force 4, with gusts of force 5. It was coming in from the East, which is usually a good sign for me, since I have sailed well in that situation before, and I know that the southern shoreline can be faster than the northern one in those conditons.

Bearing in mind that we had only sailed together about 3 times, we focused on enjoying ourselves, and ensuring that we did not hit anything!

Unfortunately, we did not have particularly good starts in any of the races. The first race I mis-timed the run to the line, and was below a gaggle of boats on the line. Time to tack off to port, and get ducking them all. But we were able to finish 17th in that race, out of 25 entrants.

The second race was after lunch, and we had problems rigging the boat, which meant that we actually set out from the pontoon and straight into the race. Overall finishing position 22nd.

The third start was better, but we still had to tack off and duck boats before we could find a passing lane. Final position was 19th.

So the biggest achievement was the first race. The course was 7-8-1-2, which meant a spinnaker run to 2, followed by a quick reach. At the final lap, we then had to beat for the committee boat. As we came in to number 1, we had a couple of boats near us. Rather than gybing the spinnaker, we dropped it and hardened up, keeping very high on the reach from 1 to 2, which would give us the inner lane at 2, and luff up anyone trying to climb over us. This worked - textbook. So we hardened up at number 2 and went full-pelt to the committee boat (biased line to the committee boat end) and managed to gain our 17th place from that manoeuvre.

So allowing for the discards, we ended up 19th. Not last, and we had shown some potential.

The spinnaker work had been fun, and we had done some great tacking.

All in all, and extremely enjoyable day. A great encouragement.

I still have a tendency to pinch too much, and must keep the boat flatter, but its a good beginning.

Now, about the idea of taking part in the other Southern Travellers series this year....

We must get back on the water.

Following the massive collision the previous week, the week of 2 February was a much more positive experience for myself and Sarah.

We were able to use 13851 - the boat that Sarah and her husband Tom have purchased recently. She is a really well fitted and tuned Speedsails GRP boat, and has a well balanced feel.

We spend the morning rehearsing our tacking and gybing, and with some trepidation we headed off to the first real race we had done together - hoping all the time that we would not have any accidents this time. 

For the first race, we were able to get a good start on the gun, only to find a very late General Recall from the committee boat. I checked with them - we had not been over, but a sufficient number of other boats had been OCS to cause them to make the late call for a General Recall. 

Very often, a committee boat will do a Black Flag restart after a General Recall. However, this time they were being kind to us, and just displayed the normal sequence. We had a reasonable, although not spectacular, start. 

The rest of the race was relatively uneventful. We keep our position, and were able to take a couple of the stragglers, to the point where we ended up in the second half of the fleet, but at least not at the very end. In fact, I was really pleased with the whole episode, because Sarah has become some smooth that I felt confident enough to look "outside the boat", rather than having to worry about technique. It was a question of "just tack here", and we did so - no fuss, no drama. The wind was northerly, so I was able to make VMG over other boats by heading to the Southern shore. A reasonable result to restore our confidence. 

The second "B" race meant that we were obliged to keep clear of racing boats, since the race did not qualify for me. Nevertheless, we finished around mid-fleet again, which reinforced my confidence that we were a team to be reckoned with in the future. 

We won't be sailing together for a couple of weeks, but the future looks promising. 

Watch this space....

Harp - we have a problem

Bang !

According to my friends, the collision was heard the other side of the Welsh Harp, back at the Club House.

It was 26th January, and a blustery day, and the first outing of 13941 with myself and Sarah Lohan, who had joined me as a new crew for this season.

Sarah and I had a great practice session before the afternoon racing, and were beginning to get a smooth routine for tacking and gybing. We are not yet into flying a Spinnaker, but I am sure that will come.

We finished the morning in high hopes.

The afternoon was going to be very physical, but our objective was to get round the course.

It was not to be.

I take full responsibility for what happened at the four minute flag. The "P" (Blue Peter or Preparation) Flag had just gone down, and we were on Port Tack along the line, preparing to position ourselves for a committee boat start. I was in the middle of trying to explain something to Sarah, who was paying attention to me. Neither of use saw Steve Cooper's boat (14151) coming on on Starboard tack, until it was too late.

Instinctively, I tried to slow down the boat by leaning back and digging the transom in the water. However, it was too late. 13941 reared up like Jaws, and cut into the port side of Steve's boat, and suffered major damage to her bows as a result.

There was enough damage to Steve's boat to cause a significant hole. Despite this, Steve and Amy elected to continue racing, and actually came third in their first race. They also stayed in the water for their second race, which Amy won.

On the other hand our own boat had sustained a massive hole, and was sinking. I made sure the safety boat was aware of our predicament, and we gently nursed the boat back to the pontoon, staying on the transom as much as possible in order to prevent too much was ingress. 

When we eventually limped back to the pontoon, the boat was probably half the freeboard it normally  had. Despite the help of a couple of Sea Cadets, we were unable to pull her fully out the water; we just had to wait until the water had drained out (it seemed to take hours...) before we could get the boat up the slipway.

What followed was a standard breakdown ready for travel. The mast was stored on top of the started clubhouse. All the other fitments (rudder, boom, sails etc.) were put into our car, and the road trailer was set up ready for a visit to the repair shop.

I subsequently spoke to the insurance company, and to Ben Dingwall. It looks like this may be some time, and of course Steve's immaculate wooden boat needs to be repaired at insurance cost before mine is repaired. 

Not a very impressive start to the season. 

Things can only get better in future. 

So we need to get back onto the water as soon as possible, and try to go forward from this setback.

New Year - New Resolution

Welcome to 2019 !

It was time to start as I would like to go on...

I must admit that 2018 was a bit of a disappointment as far as sailing was concerned.

It had started with the problems with the boat during the 2017 Nationals, the broken centreboard, and the subsequent discovery of the significant damage to the centreboard casing at the end of the year. The work on the centreboard casing had taken months to resolve in early 2018, by which time I had taken up a new job that involved me travelling a lot throughout Europe, Middle East and Africa. Ewe also had a very enjoyable family holiday in Canada, which meant that I did not have holiday time available to attend open events (particularly the GP14 Nationals). So not much sailing was done during 2018.

With the start of the new year, it was time to make a new resolution, and determine to make time for the sport in 2019.

The boat looks in good condition. GP14 number 13941 did look a bit forlorn when I uncovered her in the (cold, freezing) weather at the Harp today.

So it was time to be re-acquainted. An hour or so on Saturday morning - single-handed - should help. It was only a couple of knots of wind, so I did manage to get the spinnaker up for a few minutes, without any issues. The wind was northerly across the Harp, so fairly consistent if you sail on the southern shore. Having dropped the kite, I tried some rudderless sailing, just to remind myself how to do this. After half an hour of pirouettes, I decided it was time to get back in and have a go at afternoon racing.

Although the wind was light, the afternoon looked like a good opportunity to start racing again.

I made a call out for someone to crew for me, and Mike Smith replied instantly; it was a chance for the old team to make in an appearance!

The first race was a bit disappointing. I mis-judged the timing to the start, and had to tack off to port behind the fleet and followed everyone else throughout the race. We did have a couple of opportunities to luff up a couple of other boats, but we were both out of practice and they rolled over the top of us. Almost at the back of the fleet, we had at least made it round the course.

The second race was a bit more interesting, although it was a 'B' race, which meant that I did not gain any qualifying benefit from the race.

We had a better start, at least up with the fleet, rather than 30 seconds behind.

Keith Street had given me a hint from the safety boat in the interval: the northerly wind was lighter on the north shore, and became stronger on the southern side of the lake. The advice was: "go low" with the spinnaker. The advice was timely.

The race was about 3 laps. In each case, we went low during the spinnaker run, and were able to overtake some boats (or at least able to keep up with the fleet).

We ended the race around the middle of the fleet.

The only down-side to the day (apart from the fact that it was very cold...) was that we had a problem with the starboard spinnaker twinning line. Mike pulled it on - and the clear pulled out of the the hull. It seems that we have some repair work to do before the season starts.

BUT, all in all, a great start to the season.

Let's see what the rest of the year brings...