Who was out this weekend?.....

Originally posted by Rob.e Hmm, well that stirred a few people up! Hee hee..

One word:

Git

Damn thats three.

Now its six

and now nine................

Edited by Contender 541

Me and 'er took the 200 out in a lovely sunny F2-3 and pootled round the harbour at about the same time. Only marred when I tried to hoist the Assy: the pole came out, but the kite wouldn't go up . It was much better when I untied the halyard from the mast and attached it to the sail .

ive had a problem when the kites gone up but the pole didnt go out on the feva so i told the crew to stop pansying around and pull harder and then there was a great big bang and the crew stood up quickly and wobbled out the back of the boat , the pole still didnt come out but this time the kite fell on the deck too.

Yes the apprentice showed the master a thing or two.  What a machine - fast upwind and down.  That's what I'd call planing to windward - really blasting along, and down-wind fast flat and so steady - I can hardly believe it.  Nice light and stable hull topped by a really big rig - I can see why he's such an enthusiast - I loved it.

Never-the-less quite a heavy boat to sail.  The jib is quite large (ie Laser mainsail sort of size) and its just straight one-to-one purchase so quite a heave required, and I swear I could feel the 8mm sheets stretch when I was asked to get the last little bit in.  The spinnaker goes up a long way (7.5m) and its big (and I suspect its not exactly a friction free hoist) but it requires really big heaves - and several of them to get it up to the top.  That's after a big heave on the cap shrouds to support the mast.  Then to ge it down its just as bad except the cap shrouds need only be released.

But the worst for me was the trapeze (I'm probably not agile enough) but I'm use to stepping over the side and hanging on one arm and hooking on.  This boat was different.  The handles are only just above deck height so its a question of sitting over the side and then pushing out with the legs.  I found it difficult and expended an inordinate amount of energy doing it.

After one race I was knackered (but daren't let on) after two I was on the ragged edge.  When I got to the changing room I was able to literally, tip the sweat out of my drysuit!

But what a boat, so impressively fast, so stable off the wind, such a massive kite, so fast on the beat but oh such hard work - I loved every mintue of it.  I want one - but I'd have to get some muscle bound fit guy up front - especially around the tight courses at Bough Beech.

It was a good sail today. On the trapeze in a vago -with the same idiotic helm that likes to dunk me!!! We had a slight problem with our jib, it didn't want to unfurl. It is always Colgate that does that, proberly cos it isn't anyway near as good as aquafresh. It was blowing bout F2-3 and our combined weight was about 15.5 stone - we only capsized 3 times and that was due to our teacher talking at us and my helm pointing up to much with the spinny up and us haveing very little controll over the boat. It was fun tho.