Who was out this weekend?.....

unfortunatley no i dont,  would love to get it but goes against my principles as would cost more to buy the rig than what my boat cost me

Ask for an early birthday present.. I got new rig for my boat like that (OK it's a Topper, not quite the same expense, but you might have a bigger family than mine!)

I was out on the Medway again on Sunday.  Medium to strongish winds.  Long race (about 2hrs) in the morning with tide going upwind so got beaten by a Vortex Asymmetric and a RS800.  The afternoon was better with just a tad more wind but unfortunately an early capsize but now the wind and tide were with one-and-other hence long beats which is great in the 4000.  We practically kept up with the 800 and left the Vortexes for dead.  We had tremendous upwind performance and went downwind at warp speed but were wobbly at gybes and roundings and the 400 had a bit of luck on a tight 3 sail reach (ie just a little less wind) so could lay the mark.  I love the way the boat goes upwind in a breeze - it will just sail past a 400 either to windward or leeward. However the 400 had the last laugh and beat us on handicap, so we came 2nd.

Ended up on the roof of my folks house re-threading haliyards on my brothers 3000. Got the boat looking tidy again though. Gutted we couldn't go sailing because it looked dark across the water with no real chop, nice 49er weather and it was blowing too........

Another cracking Sunday on the Medway.  I expected light winds but was soon swimming before the start of Race 1 when hit by a heavy header whilst putting the rudder down.  Manged to get upright and off with the gun to lead for the first 300m but the tell tales were stuck to the jib and another 4000 worked over the top of us and rounded the next mark in the lead, by which time the 800s had caught up.

Very annoyed at that so chased with maximum effort, to find a 400 gaining on us!  However the next mark required the kite and we blasted off in a gust for a 2km fully powered up reach (it probably only took 4 minutes) and we'd almost caught the leader, and at the next mark we did.  The rest of the race had us leading the other 4000 with a couple of other boats knocking us back to 4th on handicap.

The afternoon race had even more wind but we couldn't get past a Vortex untill we went under him on a beat!  He won in the end, and we came next to last since both 4000s went for the wrong make and when we realised we had to go back.  We don't care though, it was a fully powered close reach back and then another one back to where we had been.  We probably covered a few kilometers in less than 10 minutes - not that I saw anything, the spray is blinding.

Next week the Medway Marathon - big distances, great in a 4000.