GP14 Nationals at Tenby - Day 3

Tuesday 5 August:Day three of the 2025 GP14 Nationals:

What would Tuesday bring?

Maybe three races to “catch up” with the schedule?

Monday evening brought the announcement that we were only doing two races on Tuesday. Maybe that was because the forecast was still showing up to 20 Knots. But at least the gusts looked to be manageable.

Setting off

Tuesday dawned with winds of 20 knots westerly.

We put down the shrouds on the mainmast, to de-power the Mainsail. We were ready.

Launching 13941 was fun; a gust hit us from the land side and nearly capsized us as she came off the launching trolley. 

Although the wind on the shoreline was on-shore, by the time we were heading to the starting line the wind was behind us. Trying to maintain a “training run” approach was difficult. A couple of gusts hit us & we nearly broached. It was enough.

Sarah had kept the boat very flat, but despite dropping the shrouds, applying lots of Cunningham and Kicker, this was proving too much. It was time to go back in.

We turned around, and headed back to shore. We were joined by at least three other boats. And a further three had not even left the shore but decided not to race.

We were not the only ones to be beaten by the conditions.

It was a good seamanship decision. 

We could at least be proud of the fact that we had tried. We had even gone out. That’s something to be proud of.

Races three and four

We didn’t get a score on these races. 

Conclusion?

We had at least tried. We looked at the conditions and came back in. We weren’t the only ones.

In the end, sailing has to be Safe and Fun. We kept ourselves Safe. Thats good seamanship.

Tomorrow promises to be calmer. 

Looking forward to it.