The Tasar v the Icon

If you like I could come down and take you through a level two course.  You could learn to tack and gybe plus learn the famous Five Essentials.  Then there might be some hope.

Thanks 2547. Your fingers are faster than mine; two finger typing watching the Commonwealth Games sorry to repeat you.

On a leg like that rather than both kneeling in the middle sit one each side.

Edited by 2547 - 03 Aug 14 at 9:00pm

We couldn't sit on the side, a weird course angle with tide, meant sailing just off a dead run and goose winged to clew first lead jib, it develops a sort of death roll, the angle of the waves coming from the stern port quarter, she's rocking and rolling.

I tried dumping the kicker, didn't seem to do much and if you ran with the jib on the same side as the main it was just covered by the main and flapping about.

There was also a mountain of water coming up from the CB case, which must mean the slot flusher is screwed, i haven't inspected the underside yet, must remember to look at it before thursday. I wonder if Hawk have a kit yet.

It was a great day today, 20 odd boats, a Tasar, the RS400 back from his round britain trip, both 500's, both Contenders, a full complement of Lasers, the Merlin not distracted by the Hornet, I'm introducing Trev to the Icon, the sky was blue, the tide low and the wind freshening from the South West.

So when just after the five minute gun we tacked and there was a bang with the result of one of the shrouds flying free, you can imagine my frustration.

By the time we got to the beach the minute had blown, I legged it up to the van found a pin and legged it back, but fitting it in the shore break took ages and by the time we cleared the beach and dipped the line the fleet were long gone. So a great opportunity passed us by, we had a good time, after a while we clawed back through the back markers and after the increasing wind took it's toll on other boats, with swims and breakages we managed to finish 5th over the water and only nearly stacked it the once, it is a scary ride though, you constantly wobble from side to side, we had a couple of nose dives and a clew first broach, but even though we thought we'd lost it one time as dr death sailed right by the gybe mark instead of gybing on our left, shortly after another broach and ramming incident to the right, but trev managed to climb up the side in the respite those wings give you and we came up gybed and still sailing.

I come in knackered, physically and mentally just as i did the windy North Easterly night, probably because we're not used to it, but she certainly is not as comfortable in a breeze as our dear old Alto, having said that, the Alto would have gone over and even if we'd dry capsized it, she'd have been full of water for some time.

We timed ourselves against the merlin and lost another couple of minutes to them, but we were never on the same leg of the course and the course was pretty much a bent out of shape windward leeward that was supposed to be a trapezoid. We didn't seem to gain or lose to the Tasar, but again he was so far ahead we never really got onto the same leg.

There are a lot of things we'd do to it, pro grip the sides, change that pole to something with a fitting, dump the off boom sheeting, a thwart is a definite requirement in that sort of sea, all that rolling about both of us on our knees, that's alright in single handers but unacceptable in a two hander and it needs to be black we've decided.

But the verdict is still good, Trev likes it, now we must make a tough decision.