Asbo the return part deux, crew no 4 will he die?

So after a long and protracted refurb the Asbo finally returned to the sea today in the hands of a new crew, this crew No 4, who hopefully won't die, jump overboard and swim ashore saying this has to be easier, or be struck down by a debilitating illness.

Two years of single handing and have passed and getting back into this comfy armchair is a doddle, I'd quite forgotten how much better sailing with someone else is, trouble is, this time it's a nice guy, a really nice guy, gentle sort, helps everybody just an around good egg and naturally never been at the front of the fleet before, not a beginner, very experienced, crewed an Iso, trains lots of kids and sharp, doesn't have to be told stuff twice.

So sailing with me and mixing it with the b**tards that front our club race must have been a bit of a shock but he chuckled his way through keeping his head down and taking my advice to ignore the shouty buggers and just focus on getting that bloody kite up and they'll all go away, and they did, we had a lovely race, nip and tuck with a well sailed RS100 a Hornet and a Contender that appeared as the wind built we had a really fun race and he got his first, first over the water of his career and was chuffed, it mattered not what the spreadsheet would say later and I've still no idea what that was, but as I said to him, all the spectators on the sunny day beach saw was him stepping out of that boat with the big red kite that had come first, and that was only after we got a lucky last beat shift that re acquired the lead for us after losing it to the 100 on a deepish reach.

Got to fall in love with the Asbo again, shame the wind came up or we would have creamed it by miles, but as a first shake down race with only a few things going wrong, it was a blast, just as I was about to flog it..

I've actually got it pretty near class legal, fitting the latest kite delivery storage system which I have to say is an improvement over what we had, and other than a bit of a rip, every hoist and drop went according to plan. The sails are so shagged now, the ten years haven't been kind to them, but they still yacht us along OK in light conditions, we just had problems pointing once the wind notched up, the fact he only weighs 5 kilos more than me doesn't help I guess, making us just shy of 140 kgs all up.

So I'm looking forward to next time, just a few more tweaks to sort.

Edited by iGRF - 17 Jul 16 at 8:22pm