Who was out this weekend?.....

well i have been at sunderland for an rs300 event, saturday was absolutely crazy with steep, tightly packed BIG waves and force 6-7 winds. lots of wipe outs eventually ending up with whoever held the boat upright the longest between capsizes/ pitchpoles on the way downwind winning.

races 4,5 and 6 on the sunday were tough with big waves but more space between them and strong winds (force 5-6). very close racing and very physically demanding. hopefully pics to follow. and im now off to bed

Medway Sunday

Close racing in a steady f4 on Sunday.  Good racing in the morning but we were always playing catch-up because we'd missed the start.  We caught the rather well sailed Vortex on the line when he pitch-poled.  The afternoon was better until I sailed into a mudbank at high speed.  Crew was brilliant at getting the kite down but it didn't save us from a swim.

Medway Monday

Wilsonian South Kent Race - basically down to the Thames and back - that's about 20 miles.  We set off in about a f4 and it gradually built to 5 and it was rough down in the very open waters at the turning mark.  The 59er dropped in on probably their first gybe, same too the 29er. The 5000 dropped back when they fluffed a gybe and ended on a lee shore.  The 800 was about a mile ahead when we then dropped in for a swim by being a bit tentative.  Meanwhile the Contender wasn't that far behind given all the fast asymmetric blasting.

After a 10 minute blast with the main ragging and all our weight on the kite we  reached the South Kent Bouy.  A bit trecherous because of the chop - we were hard pressed to hold high but bashing off the waves made for a rough bucking bronco type of ride.  By this time the 800 was gone and we seemd not to have anybody behind and so assumed retirements by the others.  We had certainly seen boats from the slower handicap fleets in a mess.

It was a beat all the way back and it took a while to settle down.  In other words it was difficult to get forward and get enough downhaul and kicker on whilst also dumping and then sheeting the main in the gusty, choppy conditions.  We did it though without disaster and then noticed the Contender behind and gaining.

He got past in the roughest part of the course and then we got back ahead of him but the trend was set and he gradually pulled away over the next hour and finished with a lead of a couple hundred metres.  Meanwhile further back we noticed the 29er but the water was flat compared to earlier and we could really get the boat planing to windward which held him back and also demolished a V3000 we came across from another fleet.

We arrived back at the club with the wind whistling in the rigging and completely knackered and surprised not to see the 59er and the 5000 in the dinghy park - clearly they were still out there.  Much to our relief they appeared at the line whilst we were downing a beer - so no breakages then.

Later we found we'd come 2nd to the Contender and so had beaten the 800 on handicap.  We felt good and although it was pretty frightening out there we agreed you can't talk about it unless you do it.