Who was out this weekend?.....

Great racing at the Bough Beech Icicle today.  More wind than forecast (about 18mph) so well powered up which you have to be in a 4000 to get anywhere.  We made an average start but pulled clear of the slow boats to be amongst the flying machines at the windward mark (except there was a Wayfarer there too).  Cracked the best route down the long reach to the leeward mark and picked off the 400s there on both laps 1 and 2.  We are definitely sailing better than we used to since 400s would beat us on the water - now they don't - just on handicap!

We made few mistakes even though the 2nd beat of our figure of eight course was very shifty and so came 8th out of about 35 boats.  Much to our chagrin (polite word for peeved off) we were beaten on handicap by CarshaltonFC and BNS in a Laser2000.  Enjoyed it though.

Not much wind on Sunday morning on the Medway and so I went out single handed on the 4000 to see how the new 59er is shaping up in the hands of Tim who has been sailing Ospreys for years.  He looked happy but capsised and got in a bit of a mess with the trots on the way back in.  The tide was fierce is probably his excuse but the truth is that when you remove the dagger board on a skiff type boat it can go anywhere.

The afternoon was better with a moderate easterly and we were fully powered up and made it to the first mark in the lead.  It was a race through the creeks - effectively a beat down the river against the tide and soaking deep most of the way back.  It took quite a while for the 800 and MPS to get past us so we thought we might do well.  After about an hour we got to the windward mark and put the kite up.  There wasn't a lot of power and we couldn't get the thing going properly.  We had rounded with a Phantom which had started 20 minutes before us.  Being high tide (a very high tide) the river was very wide so we took a very long board out to one side and came back again about 15 minutes later to find ourselves still alongside the Phantom.  Something was wrong and it was weed on the board.  Once cleared the boat felt much better and we left the Phantom behind but realised the 59er had taken quite a chunk out of us.

We had anticipated that the 59er is going to be a difficult boat for us on the deep reaches but with weed on our board it was doubly so.  The 800 and skiff were now miles ahead.  Fortunately the last legs were a bit tighter with the kite and so we pulled away from the 59er and the Phantom Canoe and other boats were left well behind.

We came 6th out of about 40 odd boats and so were well p***sed off (disappointed) all because we'd done about 15 minutes with weed on the board.  Its bad enough trying to get the feel of the right angle but hopeless with weed as well.

We have resolved to check more often next time we feel the boat isn't going quite right.

Wilsonian was howling this weekend!!  And im not gonna lie to ya, gybing in that wind didnt exactly work out for me.  And before anyone even thinks it, NOOOO I didnt diddy rig, I may be small but I aint no sissy! 

Doug