Winds were around 15knots, gusting to around 24 knots. It wasn't a race day, so a good opportunity to try out the gennaker in higher winds than I've been out in for a while. Also a good chance to get the trapeze 'nappy' on and see how it goes...and at least if we go in, we won't lose a position!

Gennaker running

Wind was good today, it was fairly consistent- a bit changable in direction, but around 10-12knots. The race didn't start until the afternoon and consisted of two races. The first race was helmed by dad. We got off to a cracking start neck and neck in first position alongside a Laser 2000. We just pipped it at the post to the first buoy, but as we approached the buoy the wind changed and we had to tack around in order to clear the buoy. However as we tacked back toward the buoy the rest of the pack were catching up fast and because of the tack we were on port and had to tack again to give way- nightmare!! We went from first to pretty much last in a matter of a minute! Still, we didn't give up and the spinnaker made up some very valuable time on the downwind stretch.

I don't know about you, but I tend to gauge how good a days racing it has been by how wet I get and how much I ache the following morning. Judging by the pain experienced on raising my head from the pillow it must have been a pretty good day! The race consisted of 3 races, 2 in the morning and 1 in the afternoon.

We got an early start on the water in order to ensure we were at the start line on time, it also gave us a bit of time to discuss the indecipherable flags, beeps and various racing rules before the serious stuff got underway. The wind was around 12knots but was pretty changeable in direction and speed. We spent some valuable time doing some practice starts and getting a feel for the wind. The start line was packed, not sure of the numbers, but about 20 boats, will need to check the results for that.

Well I was a little disappointed with the wind this weekend- I haven't been out on the boat since somwhere around October time and am feeling the need to be belting across Bewl water at break neck speeds...instead Dad and I experienced somwhere between 5-8knots. Oh well!
We started to rig the boat, but after popping the mast up had to drop it because of the arm at the end of the shroud lines wasn't sitting straight where it goes into the mast. Eventually got the boat rigged, decided there was no wind and went for a coffee!
Eventually got on to the water at about 10:30am. Wrapped up warm- but with the nice warm spell we've had this week I felt maybe slightly overdressed in my wetsuit, thick rash vest, thin rash vest, spray top and buoyancy aid.
It was good just to get back into the swing of sailing, the biggest benefit was that there was enough wind to fly the spinnaker and as there was no one else on the water (it reallly was light wind!) we could do a long down wind stretch practising jibing all over the place without the risk of being spotted making a cockup of it!

A weekend of sailing- fantastic! Wind guru did its usual guess work and got it wrong, suggesting Saturday would be between 0 and 1 knot! It was fairly calm in the morning, with 5-8 knots, but the afternoon was a little more lively hitting somewhere around 10 knots. Sunday was more exciting at around 14-16knots!
The format of the weekend was:

Saturday:

• Practice starts
• Practice races
• Follow the leader
• Course sailing/racing
• And theory of course!

Sunday:

• Race practice around a single buoy
• Real racing with the sunday racers

They did a good deal of videoing to provide some really helpful constructive criticism. This was very revealing not to mention embarrasing!

This was a nightmare from start to finish! We went down to Bewl Valley for a race afternoon. We started off with our new main halyard in place. It ran really smoothly, but sadly as it wasn't rigged correctly we had trouble- I won't go into details, but we had to drop the mast to rectify this!

Then eventually out on the water everything was fine until we decided to test the gennaker. The lines were slightly tangled, so we had to land, pull it out and then sort out the lines, repack it then launch again!

Then out on the water for the second time, the race got underway. The course was one of those that has a clear down wind stretch, but also has another strech where you might get away with gennaker too. We struggled to get the gennaker flying, then when we did, we struggled to get it back down effectively. Eventually on several downwind turns to drop it it decided it preferred to hide underneath the  boat, where it got stuck! We sent dad over the bow to retreieve it. By this point we were well and truely out of the race and a bit fed up of the issues and poor winds!

Home time!

Well WindGuru predicted some dreadful winds of 5-7 knots right up until the day before the sail, when it was suggesting 10, progressing to 14 in the afternoon.
 
Today is novice race day!! Hooray!! We were definitely up for some racing; and having mastered the gennaker in very light winds, felt sure that slightly better winds would add pace to our big boat with a helm and 2 crew, giving us the advantage we needed.
 
We spent a couple of hours in the morning again practising with the gennaker. Winds were a bit gusty, with a prevailing wind of maybe 9-11 knots and gusting to a whopping 12-14! Hmmm. So we went from pulling some speed with the gennaker to having a floppy deflated balloon draped stylishly across the front of the boat!
 

Sorry, this is a little retrospective, but I was busy and didn't get a mo to blog this sail!

Winds were predicted to be fairly calm for the day so I wasn't expecting much, but at the same time gennaker practise was the order of the day, so although not extreme, it was very freindly training speed of around 10knots.

When we arrived at the slipway we were entertained by a mini regatta of remote controlled boats! Good fun until we wanted to launch without sinking all of them in one foul swoop! At this point the wind speed was hitting the lofty heights of 5knots...

Staarted off with a bit of light wind sailing, getting the weight shift up front and ducking the side of the boat into the water to reduce drag...but that didn't quite satisfy- I had in mind something more extreme. Anyway, we've all had days like that- shame it wasn't even particularly sunny!

We're planning on taking her out next weekend for a burn across Bewl. The plan- test out the new addition of a trapeze and see how fast we can go with the Gennaker out!

We're booked in for a novice race later in May, so we want to improve our speed sailing. Have been reading up on tips from the Captain's Blog (http://wivenhoe-sailing.blogspot.com/2010_04_01_archive.html) who seems to have got a good deal more sailing out of this season than we have!

Need to work on the planing- credit to the captain for the following tips:

Went down to Bewl Water on bank holiday Easter Monday. Me, my brother and my dad were going to do a bit of sailing in the morning then catch up with the family to take part in the afternoon Easter events (face painting, egg throwing, Easter fancy dress, Easter egg hunt etc.-must point out that between me and my brother we have 4 kids)!