Who was out this weekend?.....

Discovered the breaking point of my toestraps this sun...

I'm assure the sight of crew flying in2 jib on trapeze was superb, as i braked the boat going in backwards.

Laughing so much could hardly get boat up again

I had quite a good weekend- came 2nd in Nw series open at Budworth (2,2,9) http://www.yachtsandyachting.com/news/?article=17942 im the boat to the leftin the pic- 44981

, then had a good sail in the 200 in club racingon sun!

Fantastic sailing on the Medway this last weekend.  The Sheppey web cam suggested the wind was 30mph.  It must have been about that as the downwind legs were so fast that it was like riding a bucking bronco - we were overtaking the waves so fast it felt like we were beating.  There were some long 2 sail reaches too, which were blindingly fast (literally blinded by spray, even with my googles (sunglasses) on).  They're very hairy 'cos the bow wants to submarine.  Had a substantial bit of airtime when we crossed behind a powerboat but nearly disappeared to sixty thousand leagues when we came down rather too bow first, fortuately the crew knows to hang on to the helms bouyancy at such times and managed to keep his feet.

I was very impressed with the boat, we creamed past our rival on the downwind leg after a poor start.  The other 4000s were left for dead and so too were some of the 800s (swimming).  We had one very wobbly gybe when we had to drop the kite before we gybed.  You have to admit that a drop, gybe and round up is the worst sort of manouevre - you should try it in 30mph.  Our rivals were close behind and managed to get the downhaul and kicker in quickly and climb to windward of us whilst we were heading for the mud banks.  We had to tack but then tack back again in quick succession since our rival caught us port/starboard.  A few tacks later we dropped it in and our rivals got a couple of hundred metres ahead.  However on the long final beat (about a mile) we gradually ground them down and pipped them at the post.  Did we feel good.

A 4000, in a blow, is one hell of a machine, so fast upwind - if you get the hang of it - its all about driving and not pointing.  There was one cruiser coming up river, it made about half a mile whilst we did several laps of  our mile long windward leeward.  My crew says they had their mouths open with astonishment - I'm afraid I could not look round to verify.

The afternoon race was similar except we dropped it in a couple of times, our rivals didn't play - they were "too knackered".  Most boats retired in the afternoon.  Everybody except a Vortex were flattened when a force 8 squall came through, a cruiser lost half his mast, I didn't see it, I was busy stowing the kite whilst the boat was on its side.  I suspect our swimming didn't do our position much good - but what the hell.

I could barely get out of bed this mourning - aches and pains.  I went round a roundabout and nearly passed out with a muscle spasm down my right side.  Sunday had been quite strenuous!