This is a top tip which when I last checked wasn't in the Xenon Rigging Guide.....

I have found when sailing the Topper Xenon the slug at the bottom of the main-sail has a tendancy to pop out of the runner in the mast - the result is flappy, vibrating foot on the main sail (see http://wivenhoe-sailing.blogspot.com/2009/07/parts-of-sail.html). Whether this makes any difference or not is hard to know, but it is very annoying when you're bombing along. Maybe it's me but I tend to have the Cunningham right off when sailing round Wivenhoe to get as much curve in the luff as possible. With recent light winds it has been essential - this hasjust made the popping out slug worse.

The solution I have come up with is best described in the picture below. The Cunningham once threaded back through the boom and locked off, is lead-up to the bottom tack. When doing this it is important not to prevent the cunningham working or you will not win races....

Hi, out today god 4-5 blowing no kite still but boat really stomping along, what were these bits mentioned about putting bungess on gennica sheets??? had

This is an invitation to Xenon and Omega's to a joint open with Comet Trios on 7th August. Briefing at 10.30, on the water at 11 for first start at 11.15. 4

Hi Guys, a few things, been on the water a few times, not had genica up yet, loads of time for that, got mylar sail and batterns could do with tentioning,

How annoying, the wind over the weekend (Sunday) was just too much for the race May mug/Sykes 3 to start. The small dinghy with 3 on-board, that did launch had to be retrieved by the safety boat - or rather walker back through the mud upstream.

Below is a snap from the Brightlingsea Sailing Club twitter account giving some indication of the weather. It should be noted that they are down wind from us and I believe a little more sheltered.

PToo Strong Winds

Force 4 sounds all well and good but the gusts at Wivenhoe were er ....very gusty!

May Mug Race Results
Well more excuses I'm afraid. This time we hit the mud right after the start line - I had only just uttered the words, "...if we stay off the mud we might win". However too much enthusiasm to play with the spinnaker ended up with me trying to push the boat off the lea shore which should be renamed lea mud bank. The boat was a mess and we were well behind the fleet. However we did have satisfaction reeling some of them in. Results below....

May Mug / Sykes 2 Results
I heard a rumour I am in line for the Ploughing Trophy - something to do with the mud adventures.
Burgee ReportAt the top of the Topaz Xenon mast there is no-where to put your burgee and I gather that the thing to do is buy a burgee holder. Well, given we were about to go sailing there had to be another solution and  magic gaffer tape was put into use.

PPic - Magic Gaffer Tape Burgee Holder
Can I report the gaffer tape burgee holder works a treat and really does help with sails.

For sometime now I have been sailing without a burgee at the top of the mast to give wind direction - relying on the wind in my face so to speak; that is until now. I have finally invested in a burgee for the Xenon.

Pic - New Burgee for the Topaz Xenon
All I can say is; fellow sailors, watch out next Sunday when we have the next race. 
If you are really into Burgees, here are a few facts

• Burgee is the name of the distinguishing flag, regardless of its shape, of a recreational boating organization.
• Square is for racing, triangle is for cruising.
• GBP6.25 from the Chandlery at Brightlingsea.
• Sailing Clubs and their members may fly their club's burgee while underway and at anchor, but not while racing. 
• Modern sailing vessels fly the burgee from a lanyard under the starboard spreader on the mast, while older sailing vessels fly the burgee from the main masthead. 
• Power boats fly the burgee off a short staff on the bow.

I have just come back from a weekend on the west coast of Scotland at Ardnamurchan just north of Mull. Wonderful weather (for a change). Sunny and breezy

Hi, Went down to roadford lake in north devon camped there, (cool) sunday got totally blown out, but to day, calmed down abit, with a smaller sail up, it was

What on Earth has Web 2.0 got to do with sailing and, what is Web 2.0?

Well first of all, the term "Web 2.0" is commonly associated with web applications that facilitate interactive information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design and collaboration on the World Wide Web. Examples of Web 2.0 include web-based communities, hosted services, web applications, social-networking sites, video-sharing sites, wikis, blogs, mashups, and folksonomies. A Web 2.0 site allows its users to interact with each other as contributors to the website's content, in contrast to non-interactive websites where users are limited to the passive viewing of information that is provided to them. So this blog might be an example!


Our neighbouring club, Brightlingsea Sailing Club, have had a brilliant idea of how to make use of technology to let people know what the weather is. They have an electronic weather station on the roof of their club and the summary data from this is tweeted to twitter every hour.

 Today's Brightlingsea SC twitter feed with very large gusts
This means that using your mobile phone, you can get hourly updates on the wind and weather conditions downstream from the club house. This is important because at Wivenhoe Sailing Club we are very sheltered from the true wind conditions down river. 

Wivenhoe SC (top left) sheltered compared to Brightlingsea SC (bottom right)
Today's race was cancelled because of the wind although the Barman and I have been out in much worse (suckers for punishment!).


Link to www.twitter.com/bscweather

The Gunfleet Xenon Open meeting scheduled for next Saturday 8th May has been cancelled. There are currently no plans to reschedule it. The sailing committee

When looking up your Portsmouth Yardstick Handicap number on the RYA website, you'll find the letters PN, PY, SY, RN & TN next to them.

For example the Topaz Xenon is 1070 RN.

Basically this means that all us Topaz Xenon sailors are sailing on an estimated handicap. Encourage your club to submit returns to the RYA and we should see something more accurate appearing. I suspect though it is probably near enough accurate as I am starting to beat the Laser sailors in the club.

See.....RYA Definitions

Portsmouth Numbers (PN): are measures of performance. They represent times over a common but unspecified distance, and are expressed as whole numbers.Primary Yardsticks (PY):are Portsmouth Numbers published by the RYA and well attested by many clubs over several years. Secondary Yardsticks (SY):are Portsmouth Numbers published by the RYA but not as consistently attested as Primary Yardsticks. Recorded Numbers (RN): are Portsmouth Numbers published by the RYA on the basis of limited information. Trial Numbers (TN):are Portsmouth Numbers allocated by clubs until a Recorded Number is assessed.

Only 2 weeks to go until the first open of the year at Gunfleet SC. The trophy has been polished and the club are looking forward to welcoming the Omega /

To prove I really do have a boat and I really do sail, here's a snap of me and the Barman on the Xenon during the Bostock Cup Race. We had the spinnaker up but the winds were relatively light. Shortly after this we found ourselves in the doldrums resulting in a WOD and Laser catching right up to us on the sea breeze (I've got loads of good excuses!).
 Looks like we are going fast than it felt.
Snaps taken from the WSC Viking heading down river.
Bostock Cup Results
Results from the race along with my examination of handicaps are Bostock Cup Results 

Part of what makes learning to sail interesting is to go and see what other clubs are up to. Last weekend, whilst enjoying the very first sunny day for approximately 6 months (sic) I went to Maldon. Whilst walking on the river front, I spotted the Maldon Yacht Club. Their burgee has green for the river, white for crests of waves and black for the mud. After seeing the mud these guys have, I think it is going to be damn hard to complain about conditions over at Wivenhoe. The burgee is painted on the front of the club house; if you click on the picture it should be clearer.

Maldon Yacht Club and the mud at low tide (I hope!)
Also spotted were a number of Thames Barges including one named 'Wivenhoe'. If you have kids and fancy a pint by the river, Maldon is a great place to go.
Pubs and Barges at Maldon
The Maldon Mud Race takes place on foot every year around the end of December. I am tempted to enter er ....one day. It involves running across the river at low tide in mid-winter. Mud makes it fun I'm told.
Spring view of Maldon Mud Race course

Ahoy loyal crew members, the blog is moving to.....


http://wivenhoe-sailing.blogspot.com

To track and record my sailing progress, I have decided to publish the race results and how I have performed against handicap. I will advise that this is purely for my own reference and interest.

I have used the Results Worksheet which is published on the RYA website and build by the Portsmouth Yardstick Advisory Committee. If you like me are interested in statistics it provides fascinating results.

Standard Corrected Handicap (SCH)
The way it works is as follows....

For any given race, there will be an unknown theoretical ‘best possible’ corrected time that could be achieved by a boat sailing perfectly, tacking on the right wind shifts, avoiding adverse currents, etc. In practice boats are not perfect and their crews make mistakes that cause them to sail slower than this optimum. The resultant distribution of corrected times across a fleet will typically be ‘skewed’ since it is easier to make mistakes than to avoid them. A few boats may come close to the theoretical achievable time, some will make an average number of mistakes & there will be a diminishing tail of slower boats making increasing numbers of errors. Performance assessment requires a comparison standard against which to measure each boat. If this standard is simply the average of all corrected times in a skewed distribution, it will be weighted towards the poor performance end and the majority of boats will appear to have sailed better than ‘average’, distorting the assessment. The performance standard is defined instead as the corrected time achieved by the largest group of boats; that is the peak or ‘mode’ of the distribution. Boats that achieved this Standard Corrected Time (SCT) will have sailed ‘to handicap’.

Click on image for more detail

The YR2 procedure allows for the typical 'skewed' distribution in calculating the SCT. The average of corrected times for the top two thirds of the PY, SY & RN boats in the race gives the Average Corrected Time (ACT). ACT+5%, corresponding to the statistically average performer relative to handicap two thirds down the fleet, defines the 'poor performance' limit. The corrected times of all PY, SY & RN boats faster than ACT+5% are then averaged to give the SCT for the race. This new group of boats may be the same as the original two thirds or more or less, depending on the performance distribution in each race. The elapsed time for each boat is divided by the SCT and multiplied by 1000 to give its 'achieved performance'. Corrected times worse than ACT+5% are defined as 'poor' and should be excluded in calculating a boat's average performance for handicap assessment.

PY Handicaps
The handicaps I have used are those published by the RYA. The one assumption I have made in my calculations is that the handicaps of the Wivenhoe Ones are well established and can be included in SCT calculations.

Bostock Cup Results

Click on image for more detail

Handicaps and statistics are very interesting things. The Xenon crossed the finish line second, came 8th out of the club handicaps and 4th in the RYA handicaps (2.3% above par on today's sail).

If you spot any obvious errors let me know.

To track and record my sailing progress, I have decided to publish the race results and how I have performed against handicap. I will advise that this is purely for my own reference and interest.

I have used the Results Worksheet which is published on the RYA worksheet and put together by the Portsmouth Yardstick Advisory Committee. If you like me are interested in statistics it provides fascinating results.

Standard Corrected Handicap
The way it works is as follows....

For any given race, there will be an unknown theoretical ‘best possible’ corrected time that could be achieved by a boat sailing perfectly, tacking on the right wind shifts, avoiding adverse currents, etc. In practice boats are not perfect and their crews make mistakes that cause them to sail slower than this optimum. The resultant distribution of corrected times across a fleet will typically be ‘skewed’ since it is easier to make mistakes than to avoid them. A few boats may come close to the theoretical achievable time, some will make an average number of mistakes & there will be a diminishing tail of slower boats making increasing numbers of errors. Performance assessment requires a comparison standard against which to measure each boat. If this standard is simply the average of all corrected times in a skewed distribution, it will be weighted towards the poor performance end and the majority of boats will appear to have sailed better than ‘average’, distorting the assessment. The performance standard is defined instead as the corrected time achieved by the largest group of boats; that is the peak or ‘mode’ of the distribution. Boats that achieved this Standard Corrected Time (SCT) will have sailed ‘to handicap’.

Click on image for more detail

The YR2 procedure allows for the typical 'skewed' distribution in calculating the SCT. The average of corrected times for the top two thirds of the PY, SY & RN boats in the race gives the Average Corrected Time (ACT). ACT+5%, corresponding to the statistically average performer relative to handicap two thirds down the fleet, defines the 'poor performance' limit. The corrected times of all PY, SY & RN boats faster than ACT+5% are then averaged to give the SCT for the race. This new group of boats may be the same as the original two thirds or more or less, depending on the performance distribution in each race. The elapsed time for each boat is divided by the SCT and multiplied by 1000 to give its 'achieved performance'. Corrected times worse than ACT+5% are defined as 'poor' and should be excluded in calculating a boat's average performance for handicap assessment.

PY Handicaps
The handicaps I have used are those published by the RYA. The one assumption I have made in my calculations is that the handicaps of the Wivenhoe Ones are well established and can be included in SCT calculations.

Bostock Cup Results

Click on image for more detail

Handicaps and statistics are very interesting things. The Xenon crossed the finish line second, came 8th out of the club handicaps and 4th in the RYA handicaps (2.3% above par on today's sail).

If you spot any obvious errors let me know.

So I have been going on about planing recently and have found the following top tips which we'll be putting into effect in the next race..... planing can happen in a suitably designed boat in moderate to strong winds if the crew do some or all of the following:

• Sail on a reach or broad reach to begin
• Slacken the jib
• Raise the centreboard
• Increase the speed
• Keep the hull level, trapeze if necessary
• Observe the wake until it is smooth and fast.
• Move the crew weight increasingly towards the rear to begin and to sustain planing
• Sheet in as speed increases, and apparent wind correspondingly moves forward.
• Keep the boat flat and level
• Bear away to maintain speed as necessary
• Flick or pump the sails (although there are restrictions on doing this in a race)

While planing, it is important to steer through the waves, avoiding any collision with the wave in front. Also, in dinghies, keep good control of the sail power. A small change in wind direction can easily cause a capsize or gybes. Boat control becomes easier as planing begins, but fast reactions are often needed to get there, to keep the speed up and to keep the boat level. Crew balance and trim are vital, as are sail trimming and minimal centreboard.

So I have been going on about planing recently and have found the following top tips which we'll be putting into effect in the next race..... planing can happen in a suitably designed boat in moderate to strong winds if the crew do some or all of the following:

• Sail on a reach or broad reach to begin
• Slacken the jib
• Raise the centreboard
• Increase the speed
• Keep the hull level, trapeze if necessary
• Observe the wake until it is smooth and fast.
• Move the crew weight increasingly towards the rear to begin and to sustain planing
• Sheet in as speed increases, and apparent wind correspondingly moves forward.
• Keep the boat flat and level
• Bear away to maintain speed as necessary
• Flick or pump the sails (although there are restrictions on doing this in a race)

While planing, it is important to steer through the waves, avoiding any collision with the wave in front. Also, in dinghies, keep good control of the sail power. A small change in wind direction can easily cause a capsize or gybes. Boat control becomes easier as planing begins, but fast reactions are often needed to get there, to keep the speed up and to keep the boat level. Crew balance and trim are vital, as are sail trimming and minimal centreboard.