Who was out this weekend?.....

Went back home to cornwall for a weekend.  Rented a L3000 with my bro.  Prefect day for sailing; f4 gusts of f5, small waves and blue skies.  Having not sailed with my bro for over a year or more...  and the fact that my trap experiance is some what limted... but we still went like hell.  Sure, I have several bruises from slamming into the shourds a couple of times.  Constant planning, surfing waves... still can't stop grinning.  Oh then we lost the rudder.  Suddenly 'rudderless sailing' comes into use, although I dont think it was intended to sail 1/2 mile or more without a rudder.

Was I out! Hell yes!

Was the MSC Cadet Week all last week, sailing Mirrors with 8-10 year olds, great fun, and a 2nd for my kids in the long distance race (kids helming, me as tacktical navigator!!)

The Saturday bought on the Cadet Regatta with wind galorre, Picos and Toppers upside down for me and my Rib crew to rescue just so glad it was warm.

Sunday, normal club racing and again wind, Laser reaching to the extreme, great fun.

Monday (today), resting from the weeks events and counting the bruises, Mirrors have beaten me up!

Wind full of holes and shifts on the Medway this weekend. 

We've had 3 weeks off from sailing and so we were a bit rusty in the 1st race and capsised soon after the start when hit by a gust with the kite up.  Still we faught our way back and caught and past most boats in the fleet by the finish.  We came about half way on handicap.

All together a more promising start for the second race when we, a 3000 and a 800 left the rest of the fleet in a hole on the start line.  The 800 got past us after about a kilometre but the 3000 dropped back.  We thought we had it made but the next leg was deep and the 3000 and a couple of 29ers could plane when it was marginal for us and they caught us.  For the rest of the race we had a battle with them and a Vortex.  We weren't really powered up enough and one 29er got ahead and we couldn't quite catch them by the finish.  Again we finished in the middle of the fleet.

It has to be force 4 for the 4000 to do well and the lightwieghts do well compared with us in the f3s.  If only we weren't carrying all this lead which also makes it very hard to drag the boat up the beach.

.....Jax and I look forward to it.......just realised that I've put this in the wrong thread , old age and bad eye sight. Hope your club uses big marks with flashing arrows on.