Big tides, Big sky.

After last weekends washout (yes the winds were stupidly strong again!) this weekend came as a refreshing break. Saturadays race was 7:30am and it was beautiful. The wind was gentle, the sea calm, the tide a massive 8.4M, and the moon was full and hanging big and low in the western blue sky, the sun bright in the eastern sky.

There were loads of people about to see this tide and quite a few of the club members had turned up to help get the committee boat ashore. This took quite a while and by the time were able to get out on the water for a sail the tide had begun to turn.

There were only two Enterprises and we decided that rather than race we would cruise around the coast into areas we would never normally reach for lack of water. It was a very pleasent time. My daughter Jo, had a go on the helm, she is improving but a long way to go yet.

Before we came in we swapped boats, Tim B sails an old Enterprise and has gradually improved in performance over the season. We saw a big improvement after he bought a good second hand set of sails. I thought it would be a good idea to swap boats for a while, just to see what each others boats are like.

Tim B noticed just how responsive Wild Goose is, especially to gusts. I discoverd that Tim's Kicker does'nt allow him to adjust it easily. Also the jib cleats are not easy to use making it hard to sheet the jib in tight. Otherwise Tim's boat goes quite quick and it seemed to point quite well.
Jo liked the toe straps so we might make a few changes to Wild Goose in that area this winter.

So we shared our discoveries and hopefully we shall benifit from each others insights.

When packing up I noticed a problem with Wild Goose, the mounting block for the Mast post and Kicking strap has a split in it. It looks like water has been getting into it for a while without me noticing it. Now I have to think of what to do about it. Maybe I just need to pour some epoxy glue into the crack but I am worried about the possibility that the problem goes deeper. I have to wait until it dries out anyway and maybe I will know more then. I hope it won't be a big problem.

Added to that is the jib halyard which is fraying where the rope is spliced to the wire loop and it is now down to just two strands. I just need to renew the halyard but I was hoping it would last out the season. Its not so much the expense as the time. I am really busy this week and won't get to look at the boat until next Saturday at the earlist.