Who was out this weekend?.....

It's not fair, chichester harbour had no wind sunday afternoon, we ended up drifting backwards at one point on the tide, not very fun at all.

No fair, the south coast had next to no wind.  Think the best wind at Southampton was 9.30am on sat and then it just died for the rest of the weekend and was shifty as hell!!

F 3 - 5 winds bouncing between N and NE at Pevensey Bay near Eastbourne on Sunday. Very flukey winds, but we won the first race, mucked up the start in second as wind had shifted again came 4th. Won the last race. Going fast this season and seriously chuffed.  No Beach fishermen this week.

Edited by GK.LaserII

Nice breeze on the Medway - well actually a bit light but OK.  We broke the bottom pintle just after the start so the rudder fell off and we pirouetted in front of the fleet only 100m from the start.  The 4000 seems impossible to sail rudderless so we had to get towed in but that was after I'd dived in to catch the thing before it sunk.

A bit of a bodge saw us get away for the 2nd start and upwind we almost kept up with the 800s (which aint bad going in a 4000).  However yours truly was crewing and I'm such a clumsy oaf I fell onto the helm afer we hit one wave and we capsised.  Because of the bodge the rudder then parted company with the boat again and so it took sometime to get upright and going again.  More stumbles meant another capsise later after we had started on the downwind leg.

However it is clear we have really good upwind and downwind speed.  So good was the downwind speed that we caught the other 4000s but then fell in again when we tried to gybe to leeward!

So in conclusion the boat is better than the crew but the crew will be in training now and so we can expect some better results.

Plenty of breeze on the Medway this weekend.  We had an informal race in the morning whilst waiting for a special event in the afternoon.  Pretty much just overpowered all the way.  Lovely fast reaches and I think we won.  Very nice to see the 4000 can leave the Osprey upwind as well as down - there have been times when the Osprey has been a problem upwind.

The afternoon may have been windier - its difficult to tell since it was wind over tide and very choppy in places.  The river was also very busy with power boats, cruisers and commercial traffic criss-crossing making life very difficult when on the limit with the kite up.  Later I was told the wind was recorded as 18Knots.  We capsised to windward when we passed to leeward of a bulk carrier on a tight spinnaker leg.  Up until then we only had a couple of 800s in front and had left the Osprey, MPS, 59er and the other 4000s well behind.  However when we got going the Osprey, a 4000, a 29er and a 400 were past.  It was my fault I'm inclined to get "the red mist" in strong conditions and should have been a bit more conservative.  However the next wild kite leg pulled them all into view although it was hairy as the bow went through rather than over quite a few waves.

Most of the race had been downwind and so most of the rest was upwind which was worrying since the Osprey was only just behind.  We were gaining on the 400 and overtook the 29er after about a kilometre on port tack, however the Osprey was now right up to us and sailing higher.  This and some smoother water prompted me to go for speed and it worked as we gradually pulled away but reluctance to tack meant the Osprey, the 400 and ourselves rounded for the next downwind leg together.  The Osprey went straight for the next mark (as they do) and the 400 got the angles right so we all arrived at the next mark in a bunch.  We had a tricky drop/gybe to get the inside overlap and the others had only to drop and round up.  We nearly swam and the others got away, so we had it all to do again.  Fortunately the next big leg was long, windy and thus for us very fast.  We didn't see the Osprey again and the only view we had of the 400 was as it gracefully rolled in to windward!

Going home up the more restricted waters of Gillingham Reach meant flatter water and so we got planning to windward properly again and pulled even further from the Osprey.  A great days racing.

I guess its only fair to mention that on handicap the Osprey was 7th, we were 8th the 29er 9th, and the 400 10th.

Edited by redback