All Day I Dream About Sailing

What do you look for in a sailing club?

2011-12-31T17:06:00.002Z

A new year is nearly upon us and it holds and heralds change, new things, new places, the passing away of what is now and the beginings of new adventures.
I have mentioned in my previous post the decision to change boats, selling my Enterprise and buying an Albacore and that we will be moving to a new area. Well I can now say that in August we will be moving to Blackpool where, in September, I will begin work as a Deacon with the Blackpool Methodist Circuit working in two housing estates. We are hoping that Sally, my wife, will also be stationed to the same circuit as a Presbyter to take pastoral chrge of two or more Churches in the Circuit but we have yet to hear of exactly where she will be stationed in the area.
So we will be living in a new area, in a new house, making new friends and discovering new places. We will need to find a new sailing club to join, one that offers us the best combination of accessibility and opportunity to participate in club racing. The search for a new club has begun. Using the Yachts and Yachting website club locator I have found two clubs really close by; The Blackpool and Fleetwood Yacht club and Ribble Crusing Club, both within 20 minutes drive and both offering tidal sailing. There are other clubs but the travelling time is significantly longer.
The two clubs offer quite different sailing venues.
BFYC is on a small river, the river Wyre, with a limited sailing tidal window, RCC is on the seafront at Lytham and accesses the sea via a jetty across the saltmarsh and mud but it is not clear what thier tidal sailing window is or if they have one (I suspect they do). I can envision that with strong winds and big waves launching and landing at RCC could be 'challanging' to the point where sailing is unsafe whereas BFYC would not have the same issue.
One of the problems I have with using their websites to explore them is that their sailing programs seem a bit sparse and I don't know if this is a case of 'everybody knows what's going on' assumption of the webmaster or if they really are that sparse. Neither seem to do much frequent/regular racing on any day other than a Sunday (which is a bit of a problem for us) and of the two BFYC seems to do more. I did note that RCC do use a waterfront lake for 8 races on Wednesday evenings between May and July which would be very good but I'm not sure I want to join a club for the sake of 8 races!
It may be that we have to content outselves with just doing a bit of cruising in which case probably the BFYC offers an interesting area to sail and explore but then equally so might RCC.
In terms of membership RCC has a much lower joining fee the subscription depends on when you join. The BFYC entry fee is the same as the subs and both would apply fully no matter when you join and that's not a good incentive to join in August.
I guess we shall just have to wait and see which one turns out to be the best option. Until then I have much work to do, a boat to prepare for the new season and at least the first half of the season will be sailed at Ripon Sailing Club.

Another season gone!

2011-12-05T23:06:00.001Z

Crickey Time flies! The lack of posts on this blog is a pretty good indicator of the significant drop in sailing this year and it doesn't look like being any better next year BUT I am still sailing - well not now. The last sail of the year was at the end of October and currently my boat is tucked up in the garage awaiting some winter attention.

This last season has seen some interesting developments - I've managed to win some of the club trophies and even took home a bit of silver from the NWNSA regatta! Very unexpected! I have been sailing a lot more with my wife, Sally, but I have to say that we are finding the Enterprise too small for the pair of us. At some point next season we will be buying an Albacore and selling Goosey. It's sad to let let a much loved boat go but I can't justify keeping her and not sailing her - its the fastest way to see a boat rot! Boats need to be sailed, they come alive when they sail and die a slow death when they are neglected - especially if left out in the elements. Also it looks like we will be moving again next August and so we will need to be looking for a new club in our new location (can't say where just yet - I do know but I am not allowed to publish details) The good news is that we will be able to sail on tidal waters again (so yes near the coast!). So all change again next year.

Getting my fix

2011-04-21T17:57:00.000Z

Yep its that time of year again. Time for the highly addictive sailing bug to kick in! And it has. I spent perhaps the shortest time ever preparing a boat for the new season - no more than 10 man days of work, quite possible as few as 7. And it shows. Not the best paint job, not the best varnishing (mind you I think some of that is down to the new 'Compass' varnish) but she looks ok and ... well.... I just want to get sailing so as longs as she is protected from the elements all will be well. The Boat cover did get a good waterproofing treatment which it desperately needed. Unfortunately I did it in the back garden and the grass now has what looks like a giant cloths iron burn on it - I really should believe the warnings on the tin but hey it'll grow back!

One thing I did notice was the rise in the cost of paint and varnish! Wow has it gone up! I estimate a 15% jump in a year. However I think it is still a relatively cheap sport/hobby, Insurance £50, club membership £150, Enterprise Association £25, and maintenance cost approx £100, total approx £275 and that should keep it on the water all season. No doubt there will be other costs but not a great deal.

I took Goosey down to the club yesterday late afternoon and rigged her up and had a quick sail in the very calm conditions. A few little things to tweak but she's in good shape for the season. I won't be doing much trailing this year due to financial and time constraints but we hope to do Norfolk week in the summer.

Boat work begins

2011-03-01T00:43:00.000Z

Saturday 26th February. In need of head space, fresh air and something else to do, and with the sunshining away like mad I decided to do some boat work. So I wheeled the old girl out of the garage and with my daughters help I began the task of removing all the fittings, inspecting and and cleaning, packing the bits away so that I can find them all again when the vital painting and varnishing has been completed.
I have noticed that sometimes screws fool you. You think you have put in nice decent stainless steel screws and what happens? One rusts and another sheers! The rusted one did eventually come out but the other has left me with a slight problem - a screw stuck in the wood and I don't want to even try digging it out. So now, when I replace the fitting, I have to somehow resite it in such a way that it all still works. All good fun. I'm sure I'll work it out.

Oner of the things I am aware of is the need to keep an eye on all those areas that are showing signs of water ingression. The tell tale signs is a darkening of the wood, but in a boat of over 30 years of hard sailing there are quite a few places where the damage has been done but its not getting any worse. So I'm looking at a few of the black bits; on the hog just at the back of the centreboard casing and a bit near a knee on the port side, midway, and wondering if there has been any change since last year - has the dark bit grown? What do I do if it has? I guess at some point I'll get a boat builder to take a look at it and see if any remedial action is needed. But for now it will be ok for another season.

So having removed all the fittings a good wash out with the hose removes the grit and grim of the last seasons sailing and now she is ready for the prep work - the sanding down - filling and any remedial work that needs doing (and there isn't much) - and then she can be painted and varnished.
I can't do much until April when I have more time and the weather is warm enough to allow the paint and varnish to dry but little by little we shall get there. I'm aiming to get it done so that we can do some sailing in the latter half of April.

Cold Turkey

2010-12-07T18:04:00.000Z

The sailing season finished at the end of October. Wild Goose is now tucked away in the garage, safe from the horrid snow and ice (all except the mast which is hanging from fence posts and waiting for me to strip down and protect).
For the last two months I've had my head in books studying and the last month has been a little more manic with essays to write so I have not thought too much about it but today I have been thinking 'How good it would be to go sailing' - but not in this weather! I hear the hardy types saying 'Do the winter series' and I could have done a winter series but my wife doesn't do winter sailing and I am not so keen on it either, plus drysuits are just a tad too expensive.

So Youtube sailing vids it is then.....until the new season begins! Ah Boat work first. Well that's something to look foward too.

NWNSA 2010

2010-08-03T14:09:00.000Z

This last week I took part in the North West Norfolk Sailig Association regatta, crewed for the first time by my wife, Sally. But rather than me telling you stuff in my usual way I thought I would point you at Sally's account written up on her Blog: Eternal Echoes.

maybe I will write something later.

TTFN

The birth of a Race Officer

2010-07-05T10:55:00.003Z

OK so I am down on the duty roster to be RO on the 14th July and I have never done it before; I've been on the team, helped with the flags, timings and processed the results many a time but never been the RO with all the weight of responsibility for the course etc. We have an open day coming up on the 10th and I though I could get some top tips and handy hints and maybe a bit of practice then so I was feeling quite relaxed about the prospects of being RO.
That was until last Saturday when I received a call from a member of the club who was down to be RO on the following Wednesday and for family reasons needed to swap with someone and would I do it. OK well I knew that I had to do it so I said yes. I meant to read up on the RO instructions and even downloaded the pdf from the club website, I even skimmed through it but not enough to really know it. But work pressure pushed it back and in the end I planned to give it my full attention on Wednesday afternoon after the informal races and before the evening race for which I was to be RO. I never got the afternoon races and arrived at the club with just an hour to prepare for the race.
Fortunately a long standing member of the club with lots of experience was on hand and gave me a run down on what to do. Gradually the rest of the team turned up and I began to assign tasks and responsibilities.The winds were light and from the SSE direction, which was excellent for the club start line, but it meant that there were a number of dead patches close to the south and east banks, also the north end of the lake had dead patches pretty much all around the edges. I set a windward mark in the middle of the south end and laid a course which stuck to the areas where I could see there was wind and put the course up.

Pretty soon we had started the start sequence, fast handicap fleet first then the slow handicap fleet. Everything went smoothly, two boats over the line in the slow fleet and only one went back, the other, even though he was clearly ahead of all the boats, decided that as he hadn't heard his number called continued.

All was going well, I even had time to tack some pictures, until I noticed that the windward mark was no longer where it was supposed to be and the lead boat was on the last leg of the first lap! We called up the rescue boat to reposition the wayward mark and watched in agony as they did their best to get past the fleet at dead slow speed to avoid creating the annoying wash that disturbes the sails in light winds. With only a few minutes to spare the mark was repositioned and this time with enough warp to stop it from drifting again.

The rest of the race went without a hitch. We shortened course after 45mins and all the boats finished within the hour just as the wind piped up! Typical!

With the aid of a teenage mind with a calculator the corrected times were computed and then checked with the aid of an older, slower and more experienced mind (and a calculator) and the few errors corrected. Job done. Not exactly a baptism of fire but the beginnings of a new skill maybe.

The lead boat demonstrates how to roll tack in light winds - so smooth!

The funny thing is that as it turns out my youngest son has his graduation on the 14th of July. Hmmm. I get the idea that there is a far greater mind at work in the apparent accidents and incidents of my life.

Lost in space

2010-06-24T10:25:00.003Z

Its been a while since I last posted anything on this blog, I think I just didn't have enough desire to write anything. Life has been busy but I have got some sailing in, some with my duaghter and some with my wife.

Club sailing has mostly been on Wednesday evenings with my Sally crewing so it has been a case of teaching her to sail and doing our best with the racing. The good thing about Wednesday evenings is that it is more a social occassion, an opportunity to make freinds and enjoy the sport. The few Sundays we have raced at the club ( 2 I think) have been less enjoyable - the last one had so little wind it was not enjoyable in the least (a lucky puff lotery!) and only frustrating.
The big problem with sailing at Ripon Sailing Club is the peculiar wind, the strength and direction of which seems to vary at random across the lake. The presence of a large hill and many, many trees around it create such strange shifts and gusts that local knowledge and quick reactions, make all the difference. I am gradually getting the hang of it but still make many mistakes. The other issue is getting our team work up to scratch so that it is possible to react to sudden changes in wind strength an direction. Rolltacking is our biggest problem, that and being overweight! The situation in both are gradually improving and in time we will be much better competitors.

I have also done some circuit events with Jo, my daughter. We started with the Inland championships in April, the Masters in May (a fantastic venue at Staunton Harold) and then Filey regatta (pictures here) in June. Our results were not good by circuit standards but we have been improving in performance and results all the time. Our biggest problem was getting a good start, we were having big problems finding space on the crowded start lines and often found ourselves buried under others and sailing in their dirty air. However, we were doing much better at the last regatta, although there were less boats competing for space on the start line. In the last race we hit the line at the pin end moving fast and right on the gun; we kept on starboard to the favoured side of the beat and were 4th at the first mark and finished 6th among very good and well respected crews.

The next regatta in the North West Norfolk Sailing Association Regatta at the end of July in which Sally will be crewing as we make it our main holiday this year so we will be camping at Snettisham Beach SC for the week. We are doing our best to get fit and ready for the event but I do not anticipate any silverware this year. It will be just nice to sail on the sea again and among friends.

A good read

2010-01-14T20:02:00.005Z

This Christmas my eldest daughter, Emma (otherwise know as DLP), gave me a copy of Ben Ainslie's autobiography and it is a good read. I am not a great one for reading just for the fun of reading but every now and then a book really grabs my attention and I have trouble putting it down., This book is definetly one of those books.

I love the story of his first dinghy - an old wooden Oppy that he sailed on Christmas day whilst wearing a duffle coat and wellies - no hint of a lifejacket or proper sailing gear! He was just 12 years old and had never sailed a dinghy before! I could hardly believe it! I am not one for wrapping my kids up in cotton wool but this just made my blood run cold as I thought of what could have happened. But it didn't.
When you think how parents today go to great lengths to eliminate risk from thier children's lives, Ben's parents must seem really careless.
But hey look what a sailor he turned out to be! Maybe its not such a bad thing to let kids take real risks as they grow up - they learn how to assess risk which enables them to reach beyond mediocrity and take hold of the things others only dream about. That is certainly the way Ben seems to go about his racing. The funny thing is that on shore he admits that he is a bit of a worry-wart. I wonder why? Why does he have such freedom on the water but feel so threatened by the possibility of getting it wrong in the rest of life?
I wonder if we are all like this in some way - we have our comfort zones where we feel free to risk getting stuff wrong and then other places where we dare not put a foot wrong?
Anyway its a good read, you get a real sense of the tension of olympic racing and I have certainly picked up a few tips on tactics and strategy among other aspects of dinghy racing.
He also writes about his adventures in the Americas Cup boats and what a contrast it is to go from a small singlehander where everything is done by the helmsman - sail trim, strategy, tactics, helming - the whole shebang - to being just one in a team where everyone has thier own task and all have to mesh and work together or something horrible can go wrong with very expensive boats.
As I said its a good read and if you're looking for a half descent book on sailing I can recomend it.

The wind has changed

2010-01-03T20:59:00.000Z

There is a new direction and the sails must be trimmed to the new wind.

I am not particularly impressed with arbitary transitions in time but this time the transistion of one one year to another heralds some interesting changes and opportunities in my life. I start a new job next week - only an 8 month contract but a welcome job never the less. I also commit myself to a series of interviews that could result in a long term prospect with the Methodist Diaconal order.
One thing is for certain - the focus of my sailing will change over the next 8 months as a significant aspect of my work will be on Sundays. Wednesday afternoon and evenings will become my new 'weekend' as there is some racing at Ripon SC at that time. This should see my wife sailing with me as crew and so a new chapter will begin where we learn to sail together. It shouild be interesting! All we have to do is shed about 7 stone (45kg) between us and we should be somewhere in the right area to be competative! A good reason to lose weight but I think we will need to do more than lose weight to be competative. However I imagine that in the process learning to sail together we might just make some progresson that front too.

I hope that I shall do a few regattas this year. One that is on the books is Filey - it looks such a fantastic bay to sail on. The North West Norfolk Sailing Association regatta is another one that we shall do. I am hopeful that I can add to that a few other events as well but we shall have to wait and see just how things work out.
I know that Jo my daughter will want to do some sailing too but she has a few things on her plate this year as it is her last year of university and afterwards she is off to Africa with her boyfriend for several weeks in the summer so maybe there won't be too much of a conflict of interests or crews!
Before then I have a few months of boat work ahead of me - welcome relief from other pressures. One thing I need to do is straiten out a slight kink in the bows - the result of a colision with a Topper in the penultimate race of the last days sailing this year. The Toppper only had a small bit of damage but being plastic it was enough to be a write-off - can you believe it? A Carbon fibre hull - the most expensive material to make a boat with - could be repaired but plastic being perhaps the cheapest cannot be repaired (actually I suspect wood is the cheapest). Yet another example of stupid design - the inappropriate use of materials. Never mind - that is why we have insurance - because accidents happen. Hey ho. Here's to a new year - God bless all who sail in her.

Armistice

2009-11-11T12:41:00.000Z

Something I came across that I found quite moving:
In 1944 Major John Pott was shot on the battlefield in woods near Arnhem. Struggling to write what he imagined was a final letter to his new wife he was discovered nearly 20 hours later by German troops and subsequently incarcerated for the rest of World War Two in a Prisoner of War camp until released by American in 1945. His grandson, Joel Pott, lead singer of rock band Athlete has penned Black Swan Song which the band will be performing at the Royal British Legion Silence in the Square event on the 11th Nov 2009.

A Friday afternoon sail

2009-10-03T15:53:00.004Z

Friday afternoon I went for a sail. Normally Sally and I would go exploring the local countryside on foot and go for a sail on Saturday afternoon. However the weather forecast for Saturday was for very high winds (and they were not wrong!) so we went sailing on Friday instead but Sally didn't feel up to it so I went sailing single handed, Sally sat in the club house and read a book and took the photos you see on this page.

It was a good sail, especially as the wind freshened and I could get the boat planing in the gusts. It was a useful time to get to know the lake, what the wind does, and it does some strange things depending on where you are on the lake! I must have spent a good 2 hours on the water, maybe more, sailing in really lovely conditions with the trees just begining to turn making for beautiful colours . There was no room in the boat for the stresses of the last few weeks so even though they were still waiting for me at the shore at least I had a few hours respite. One advantage of non-tidal sailing - the water is always there when you want to go sailing. But I do miss the waves.

A great innovation

2009-09-21T10:06:00.005Z

Until last year the only flyaway jib pole on an Enterprise was when the crew lost the bloody thing over the side!! But last year the Enterprise Association permitted the use of flyaway jibpoles for all but national events and at the AGM it was adopted into the class rules. The flyaway jibpole is a great innovation. I was sceptical to begin with and resisted the move, primarily on the grounds of a big expense for little gain, but saw an opportunity to create a cheap home made version out of an old aluminium extending broom handle.

It was only 1.5M long but it proved the value of the system and this summer I bought the 2M carbon fibre kit from P&B and it works even better although I have modified the layout from their recommended layout.

These images show my configuration for the flyaway jibpole:

On the P&B layout they put the turning block and cleat on the deck next to the mast step. I think this is prone to the jib sheets catching on it during a tack so I have lead the rope down the mast into the boat to a turning pulley on the hog and then to a cleat under the thwart near the centreboard casing. This gives an added advantage that, when on Starboard, I can also reach the pole downhaul, and the being just that bit further back gives an added advantage in windy conditions because the crew doesn't even have to reach forward to the foredeck position to release the pole downhaul.

In addition they show the downhaul rope being tied onto the clew; I use a plastic bobble which I trap in the jib sheet loop through the clew (see picture).

So what does it do and just exactly what are the advantages?

It is much easier and faster to deploy and recover than the 'manual' jibstick
You cannot lose it over the side!
It can push the jib further out to windward when goosewinging so it catches more wind.
It tightens the leach of the jib making it more efficient
It means that the crew doesn't have to stand up to deploy and recover the pole, thus the boat is more stable.
The crew doesn't have to move forward to deploy and recover so the bows doesn't bury, a big issues in a blow!

These are the advantages I have experienced and they make a big difference. One other is that it makes it possible to use the jib pole when sailing single handed.

How does it work? Well there is a light weight rope that is connected to the clew of the job and passes through the end of the pole and exits through a pulley at the other end of the pole. The rope is fed down the side of the mast to a turning block and cleat. The pole is connected at one end to a line that runs up the front of the mast and has an elastic cord that pulls it up the mast such that when it is not deployed the pole dangles from the elastic cord. It is deployed by pulling the rope which pushes the pole down on to the jib clew and pushes the sail out from the mast as far as required. It is recovered by simply releasing the rope from the cleat and the elastic cord pulls the pole back up the mast.

How do you use it? When reaching the best way is for the jib to be pulled in so that the clew is near the fairlead and then to pull on the pole and easing the jib sheet to the best jib setting and tensioning the leach to get all three jib telltails flying correctly - ie streaming on the leeward side and slightly lifting on the windward side of the sail.

Here I am on a reach. Notice in the picture on the left, how the jib leach is not bar tight but curves gently, parallel to the mainsail leach, and the whole sail has the correct angle to the wind. Without the pole (and this picture shows my prototype home made one) the leach would twist such that the lower half of the sail would be oversheeted and the upper part undersheeted. Compared to the picture on the right taken in 2008 prior to having the flyaway jibpole where you can see how much the jib leach is twisting and the top of the sail is actually back winded.

Here we are goosewinged. The pole (and this one is the P&B 2M pole) could probably go out a little further.

Lastly why not check out the video of the NW Ent Championships and spot the boats on the reach using the flyaway jib pole - it makes interesting watching and you can see how well the system works.

More information can be found on the NW Enterprise association website under the 'news' section. There are 3 articles all of which are worth reading.

The Enterprise association website also has some info.

Sailing with my Bride

2009-09-20T22:24:00.001Z

This weekend my wife and I went sailing together at Ripon Sailing Club. First on Saturday afternoon sailing amongst the young sailors on their Toppers and a few others out in a variety of boats including a number of Enterprises. The winds were light and we had a few hours of doing some basic sailing manoeuvres, teaching Sally how to move in the boat, what to do with the sail and when. We had a good few hours out on the water and went home tired, with a few aches but happy to be sailing together.

Sunday we went to South Milford Methodist Church were Sally is the minister and was taking the service. afterwards we went to the Sailing club and were in good time for the last race of the day in beautiful sailing conditions - a nice breeze, sunshine - fantastic!

Sally was nervous about racing but we got out on the water a little while before the start and sailed about just to get familiar with the conditions. With no watch (thanks to my daughter inadvertently taking to Uni with her) our start was guess work but it was reasonable if too close to the leeward bank. We were 5th at the first mark and managed to stay close to the top boats - the leader (the hot shot) got clear away but he does sail extremely well. We were caught by the 6th and 7th boats who slipped passed us when I overstood a mark but we overtook them both before the end of the 1st lap. We took another boat on the 2nd lap and held onto our 4th place to the finish. Mid fleet and I thought it was a reasonable result for our first race together in a long time.

Over the course of the race our team work got better and Sally started to move much more easily and sympathetically to the movement of the boat as the gusts hit and the boat heeled. Our tacking was very sluggish but it improved over the race; role-tacking is a skill yet to be mastered, and much the same for our gybes but we will get there. Next week Sally and I will sail on the Saturday - all being well and on Sunday I shall trail the boat via Sheffield to pick up Jo and then on to Rotherham for an open meeting. well that’s the plan and I should get my watch back too!

First Day at Ripon SC

2009-09-13T20:48:00.005Z

Well today we joined Ripon SC. We trailed Goosey to the Club, paid our fees and joined in the last race of the day. To our suprise we won the race by a country mile! We started well and led for the first few legs but allowed the local hot shot space to get through at a gybe mark. For most of the race we chased him as he gradually pulled away and the boats behind us gradually gained. It was extremly tricky sailing with very - and I mean VERY strong gusts ( 25mph +) with big shifts in direction which made for some very hairy and exhilertaing sailing. Righht at the end of the penultimate lap we pulled up on and and passed the leader on the beat and went on to pull away a big lead by the end of the race. It was good fun and very energetic. One second you're hiking for all your worth the next your diving back into the boat to stop it from capsizing to windward! Then there were those screeming reaches with a bank looming up so very fast and the realisation that at the mark you have no option but to gybe because there just isn't the room to do anything else! Scary! Then there were the rapid jump accelerations when a huge gust hits and - no joke - I though the Rig was about to part company such was the impact of the gust as the boat leapt up onto the plan and shot off like a demented beast! Then there were those crazy moments when the wind just vanished and the sails hang lifeless waiting for even a faint whisp of wind to capture. What a laugh - crazy racing. It was fun but I have to say that on balance I would rather be racing on the open water of the sea at Snettisham but hey I don't have that option and I am sure I will learn a great deal about racing and sailing at Ripon SC. Here are some shots from todays action.

Last of the Norfolk Summer wine

2009-09-01T15:24:00.008Z

The day finally came - the day I knew was inevitable - the day I would leave Snettisham Beach Sailing club for waters new and uncharted (by me at least). The day marked the end of an era and the last summer of racing on the Norfolk coast, from now on I will be a visitor when I return, and I will return!

The reason for this sad day is our move of home to North Yorkshire, just east of Leeds in a place called Sherburn-in-Elmet - several miles from the coast! For a while it looks like we shall be pond sailors and the top favorite club in our vicinity is Ripon SC where there is an excellent fleet of Enterprises.

This summer has seen some great sailing and some frustration. This year in spite of being the quickest boat in the Enterprise fleet of the North West Norfolk Sailing Association Regatta we failed to retain our title. The reason was simply too many errors in too many races, we finished third overall but right upto the last day anyone of three of us could have won the event, it was that close.

This weekend saw the beginning of a new phase of my sailing, namely sailing with my wife crewing. Having moved house two weeks ago we returned to Snettisham with our tent for the August Bank holiday weekend with the plan of sailing together and then to bring the boat away with us to our new home. Sally has not sailed for many years and we have done little sailing together in the past so this new era heralds a new learning curve with many hurdles not least the need for us both to lose weight if we are to be competitive (something we need to do anyway for much better reasons: i.e. our long term health!! )

Saturday was deemed too windy by my wife so I was crewed by another Enterprise helm who discovered that crewing has a lot of challenges and getting the jib in tight takes some effort but pays dividends in sailing close to the wind. We had one capsize - the result of the crew slipping during a tack - but we were soon up and racing again.

The next day I managed to get Sally out in the boat but the conditions were if anything more windy. We didn't race but reached back and forth enjoying the incredible speed and the tension of sailing always on the edge of disaster. It was hard work and we soon came in but I reckon if Sally enjoyed that, and she did, then there would be few problems with fear in the future but we have some work to do to sail well together.

For a crew of two to get the best out of a boat there needs to be a degree of physical fitness, agility and knowledge of how to move in the boat. I liken it a sort of dancing on water where the movements of boat and crew need to be synchronous. There is footwork for each manoeuvre, knowledge and experience of just how fast to move and when, how to control the sails and the helm. When the team work is good the boat seems to manoeuvre effortlessly and quickly in all kinds of conditions and over long periods of time - and this is just one element of successful racing!

No doubt I will continue to sail with Jo, my daughter and possible Emma, my eldest (although she has her own boat) but it is inevitable that both will want to do other things with their time and it is right that they should. It is equally right that where possible Husband and Wife should enjoy doing things together and that is what I hope Sally and I will able to do in the years to come with our sailing.

The weekend was marred by the behaviour of a few unknown individuals who decided to 'steel' a couple of boats from the club, for some unknown reason, one they left upside down on the beach, the other they dragged on it trolley half a mile down the beach and over the sea wall into the bushes where they set up camp and proceeded to drink the contents of a least 100 can of larger.

They left an absolute mess and seriously damaged the boat they stole and then abandoned, the police did get involved but quite frankly they is little chance of the yobs responsible being caught. Perhaps the best thing that came out of it was the 20 or so club members who together recovered the boat and cleared away the mess and for me it was a lovely thing to see a community taking care of their own and their environment. A complete contrast to the company of idiots that made the mess and did all the damage. Long may sailing clubs promote such positive actions and attitudes!

Video of Enterprise racing

2009-08-27T11:26:00.003Z

A decent bit of video of Enterprise racing.

Lots of leasons to learn through just watching. Look at the mark roundings, spot the good ones and the rubbish ones. Look at the effects of heeling and see the leeway slip and the amout of drag producing helm used to keep the boat on course! observe the positions of the crew to promote planing and the way they respond to gusts (or not). All good stuff.

Paul Dickson Challange Cup 2009 @ SBSC

2009-07-20T20:42:00.003Z

I went out. I came back. It was too windy and I didn't want to risk breaking anything. So I stood on the shore and took pictures of the unfolding drama.

Start racing

2009-07-08T11:00:00.006Z

I have noticed that many who go sailing don't race because they don't know the rules and don't want to get in the way. This is a great shame because I believe that you learn how to sail a boat more effectively by racing it.

The reason is that racing a boat gives you objectives both in terms of where you point the boat and how to control the speed and direction of the boat through steering, trim and sail controls. It thrusts you into collision avoidance decisions requiring quick thinking. It makes you more aware of the sailing conditions, the effect of tide, the importance of boat maintenance, appropriate clothing when on the water and what to do when things go wrong and you need to right a boat or jury rig solutions when equipment fails. All of these are aspects of good seamanship and all who take to the waters should be disciples of seamanship for their own sakes and the safety of others and you never stop learning.

When I first started racing dinghies I knew nothing beyond the basic ideas of steering and simple sail control - pull it in and the boat goes, push the tiller and the boat turns - simple stuff eh?

My first race ended in my self and my crew being picked up out of the river and my boat abandoned to the elements to be recovered by the rescue boat. No harm was done and the important focus was on making sure we were unharmed - hats of to Burnham Sailing Club who back in 1976 took great care of their cadet fleet.

From that time on I began to learn the skills that made me a much better and far more competent helmsman and I am still learning the skills that improve my boat handling, my tactical and strategic skills, and reading the sailing conditions (weather and tide).

So my advice to any reader who would like to have a bash at racing is to read books, ask questions, seek advice but have a go and learn from the experience.

I recently found some Club websites with some 'rules made easy for beginners' ; well work a look:
Burfield SC
and

Burnham Overy Staithe SC

There are some excellent books about too. My favorite is called 'Start to Win' by Eric Twiname which has been out of print for 20 years but is soon to be available again although you can still get copies of the original.

Another I have read and liked is Jim Saltonstall's 'The RYA Book of Race Training'.

There are many others that are probably equally as good.

The following image is a handout I created for the pre-season session of dinghy racing back in March this year:

Boil-in-the-bag - the pros and cons of wetsuits in summer

2009-07-06T13:50:00.011Z

Over the last few weeks here in the UK we have had the most excellent of weather, plenty of sunshine and a range of sail-able wind strengths. But what to wear in such conditions?

Some go for the shorts and tee shirts - nice and cool but if the wind gets up or there is a sudden rain shower (with squall) then it can become quite chilly with the windchill factor and although not a problem on the smaller inland waterways it can be decidedly dodgy when sailing on the sea as even in the heat of summer the sea temperature close to shore can be quite cold.

One could use a spray top giving protection against windchill but it doesn't help if you end up spending any time in the sea - clearly some form of wetsuit is needed.

So what about the shorty wetsuit? No hitching up of the shorts mid tack, no problems with changeable conditions plus padding against the inevitable bumps you get when sailing - it looks like the best option. But for one thing - the gradual boiling of the body in the hot sun (yes -even in the UK) amplified by the excellent thermal insulation properties of the rubber whose black surface absorbs copious joules of thermal energy. When you finally prize your body out of its clinging grip the sweet fragrance of ones own sweat is released into the cramped atmosphere of the changing rooms adding to the collective concoction of sweat from several sailors making the air almost unbreathable! Added to that is that some of us don't look that hot in rubber !

Whilst others look soooo good they raise our temperatures just looking at them!!!
A capsize seemes a beautiful idea as a welcome relief from the heat! But instead I would wait until I had the boat ashore and then join the group of floating 'boiled in the bag' dinghy sailors wallowing comically like a bunch of seals or walruses in the cool shallows sharing a few moments of heat relief and postmortems on the days sailing before heading for the changing rooms and then the bar.

There is another option, which seems a reasonable idea but requires a further outlay on the sailing gear front! - hiking pants! They come in the form of a half wetsuit providing some protection in the lower half of the body but the upper torso has minimal coverage and with the addition of a spray top adequate protection against the elements can be achived but without boiling the body. Plus you get that extra bonus of being able to hike harder for longer! It might worth the expense.

So do I continue to save up for a new jib or lash out on a pair of hikers? Or both and risk sudden death from the wife? Hey this is the UK so summer will be over in about a week or so - a new jib it is!!!

Time for an update

2009-07-01T15:14:00.005Z

Masters @ Ogston SC 25th & 26th April

Excellent racing. I got a 4th in one race!! I led the race for the 1st lap all thanks to a massive lift to the 1st mark just after the start. It just goes to show how much a good start matters when racing on confined waters. Overall I finished 20th out of 36 according to the results but on equal points with the 19th place and I think my 4th should actually place me 19th. In this picture we are middle of picture near the far bank.

Next event was an open meeting at Dabchicks, West Mersea on the river Blackwater - my home waters really. Day 1 was blown off with 25kts plus wind, day 2 was heavy winds and we started in a F5 which jumped up to a F5-6 after the 1st lap - so windy that we had the main spilling almost completely and we could just keep it flat. The reaches where incredibly fast - the wild untamed Goose returned and we struggled to keep the boat upright espeically as the centreplate kept of coming up under the pressure of water. We completed the 1st race and in rising winds and a squall coming our way Jo and I called it a day and retired from the last two races.

The 20th & 21st June saw us racing on home waters at Snettisham in the combined Lionel Wilkinson regatta and the Enterprise Open meeting. Numbers where low but this mostly down to the race times with the Sunday racing not starting til the end of the afternoon when most vistors really want to be packing up to go home. Having said that the racing was excellent with two races each day in very variable wind conditions. The racing was with one fleet with everyone entered into the Lionel Wilkinson event and the Enterprises also using thier relative finishing positions to cound to the Enterprise open result.

We finished 9th inthe handicap points for the Lionel Wilkinson trophy and 2nd in the Enterprise open.

In this picture we are the chasing Enterprise.

Then to finish off this little round up this last weekend we competed in the Inland National Championships at Pennine SC on the Winscar reservoir up in the Derbyshire Hills. The water level was low which reduced the sailing area and the winds were very light and variable making for very testing conditions. I was not so happy with our result but considering it was my first time at this event I guess it was not bad as 29th out of 47. We did get a 17th in one race but I don't think we got one really good start. I really don't know how the top guys do it but they are so consistantly at the top, they just seem to wiggle through and find the wind and the shifts. I cannot blame the boat, even though she was the oldest there, we were clearly quicker than many others so it must be a case of gaining more experiance on these inland waters, something that I will be getting more of later this year - more of that later.

In this picture we are on the extreme left.

Middle Nene SC open meeting

2009-04-23T22:10:00.005Z

This weekend just gone, Jo and I trailed Goosy over to Middle Nene SC at Thrapston for a coaching day followed by an open meeting the next day.

As usual Mike Macnamara was on good form with some more excellent Coaching. It was good weather but quite windy with some big gusts. We spent more time on the recent rule changes this year and there are some interesting changes, Rule 18 being the one.

One thing that we need to do is to re-establish our routines - we were quite uncoordinated and this showed particularly in our tacking. We were also getting used to using the new fly-away job pole system and we are begining to develop a new procedure for that.

The open meeting was great fun; 20 boats on the start line and not much room. I had big problems trying to find a space in the start line and the best start I got was at the wrong end of the biased line and a bit late but with freedom to tack into clear air so even though I immediatly gave away several boat lengths to the leaders I was ahead of the pack simply because I had clear air and most others were dealing with the dirty air of the leaders. We finished a respectful 7th in that race. Overall we finished 10th with a 7th and 11th to count; our 12th place being our discard. It was a great weekend racing, very tiring, very enjoyable.

This weekend coming we are off to the National Masters Championships at Ogston SC. First time I've done this so it will be interesting.

The SBSC launch supper

2009-04-12T15:09:00.002Z

The SBSC launch Supper this year was on the Easter Saturday and this year we had a presentation prior to the meal on the topic of 'key points of dinghy racing'.

It took me several days of preparation, building the powerpoint, trawling the internet for images of boats in caught on camera in the throws of various manouvers, clips of film and diagrams.

I had to pitch it at a several levels; for the parents of junior sailors who just want to know what thier kids are going on about; those who are hoping to start racing and what some key pointers on what to do; those who want to move up from being tail-end charlies, to the more experianced club racer.

So I broke it down into the key elements and in the space of an hour we skimmed through it. There were loads of questions, clarifications and pretty much everyone went away with a nugget of knowledge that they hope to make use of. I know I missed out loads of stuff and there are always areas that could be dealt with in more detail but with only an hour you have to make those kind of choices.

It was quite a challange but I was pleased that my first foray into the realm of coaching went so well.

To cap it I found some Rules quiz questions on the web and printed them out for a quiz during the meal which like the food went down well with the highest scoring table winning a bottle of wine.

All in all it was a good evening.

They thought they had silenced him

2009-04-12T12:48:00.005Z

This is something that wrote on Good Friday. The thoughts came to me during the Good Friday service and I became almost oblivious to the service as I followed my train of thought.
I share it here with anyone who cares to read it.

The image is the 'Piss Christ' by Serrano Andres,(1987) which has caused quite a controversy but I think they guy has managed to capture the scandal of the Cross. Andrew Hudgins wrote a great poem about it whcih I have very helpful.

Stuff for the soul.

..........................................................................................................

They thought they had silenced him. The city authorities had finally had enough and had done for him. No more of his pointed teaching, his critical commentary on their leadership, no more of his extravagant claims and outrageous prophecies, no more of his ‘so called miracles’, no more disturbance of the peace and the normal pattern of life.

They though they had silenced him. Arrested and tried, whipped and executed naked as an outcast and a criminal, they thought they had robed him of dignity, of respect, of a following. They thought they had silenced his voice, forever.

They thought they had silenced him. By their judgement and violence, by the full weight of the law, twisted to make it fit, just like the thorns they twisted to make a crown to adorn his head. They had no idea how fitting a crown it made for this king, a king like no earthly king.

They thought they had silenced him. But through all this rage, this wicked act, this venom and malice, scorn and hatred, he spoke. This king of grace reached through it all and embraced a broken humanity; this king of mercy forgave the sins of many; this king of love suffered all the abuse of humanity and kissed those who hated him; Kissed a fallen world through a bloody cross.

They thought they had silenced him. But this love cannot be silenced; It cannot be killed; It can never be silenced. It stands like a rock in the raging sea of human sin and depravity and all who tire of this world’s sin, who long to be rid of their own guilt; who seek sanctuary cling to this rock and find salvation, peace and find themselves.

They thought they had silenced him. But he speaks and is speaking still. Can you hear him?
He calls your name.

Tim Coleman
10th April 2009

The Great Exhibition and another reason to lose weight

2009-03-08T23:32:00.005Z

So I've been to the Dinghy Exhibition at Alexandra Palace. I took my two daughters and Ben, a young friend, and we spent pretty much all day there. I saw loads of boats, loads of gear, visited the Enterprise Association stand, met loads of old friends, listened to an RYA coach explaining how I can 'go faster without spending a penny' and bought myself a new spray top. A good day was had by all in all.

Jo, my youngest daughter and also my crew, responded to the plea from the Enterprise association for young people to be on the stand. She spent from 10am to gone 12pm explaining and demonstrating the new 'Flyaway jib-stick'. It's a good job we tried it on Goosy just before the end of the last season so she did at least have some awareness of how it works and what the advantages are.

One of the good things about the exhibition is that you have the chance of looking at a load of gear and investigate, and try on, to determine the best gear for you - and buy whatever it is, sometimes cheaper than you might through the more usual channels. For me the downside was finding out the hard way why it is not good to put on weight - it means you have to get the XXL size. Trying the XL size spraytop is just plain embarrassing and having to ask if they have any XXLs and owning up to the fact that basically I'm just too dam fat is even worse - like what buisness have I got even thinking I can do this sport!!!

There are all kinds of really good reasons for getting your weight down closer to your ideal level and the bookshelves of bookshops groan under the sheer volume of books telling you how to do it But being motivated to do it is another thing altogether. Just facing the fact of your weight problem is bad enough - you already feel like a failure - but how can you beat a problem if you don't acknowledge that it's there? You can't so you just have to face it and work out how to overcome it and I suspect that it is mostly in the head.

I don't like the idea of these fancy diets, you might lose weight but unless you have a change of lifestyle you are doomed to put it all back on again. I much prefer the idea that you make changes that lead to a healthier and fitter life and part of that is understanding how you got to be where you are, what is going on in the head.

One thing I am trying, and it is a small thing, is no longer taking sugar in my tea. I don't know if it will really help but I figure its a step in the right direction.

Next on the list is to reduce food intake and do more exercise. This is the tough bit. I already spend too long sitting still and studying and nibbling food is all too easy. So I need to work out a strategy to accomplish this. Ideas and suggestions are invited. The good thing is that once the sailing season starts I will invariable lose weight through the summer but this time I want to keep it that way through the winter.

getting ready

2009-03-01T14:43:00.004Z

Like some kind of hibernating creature my sailing alter ego is surfacing slowly from its winter sleep. Thoughts of sailing are stirring the mind to think of boat work, of varnishing and painting, fitting out the old girl for another season on the high sees of Norfolk. Already the cheque is in the post to renew club membership and another to enter for the 60th Anniversary North West Norfolk Sailing Association regatta that is already up to 50 boats (the limit is set for 65 at Hunstanton SC). Next week is the dinghy Exhibition and my daughters and a friend and I are going to be there next Saturday.

The old Girl (Wild Goose or Goosey Loosey as she is affectionately called) has already a good coat of varnish on the cockpit surfaces; the decks will be done last but next is to prepare and paint the hull. Meanwhile I have been working on the clubs new website and preparing for the Launch supper evening where we are going to do a coaching workshop session, looking at the essential principle of sailing and racing a dinghy. All good fun. can't wait to get on the water. I'm aiming for 18th April, a coaching event at Middle Nene SC.

Best post of the year

2008-12-31T00:11:00.002Z

Well Tillerman has done it again and set a challange to get us all adding to the bloggingsphere world of words. So out of the megre offerings of my posts this year which one do I think is the best? You know I am not too sure. I guess it depends on what criteria you use. I quite like the first post of the year on my visit to the London Boat show. It has a number a good elements in it and isn't purely about sailing.

Then again if I was to pick the blog of my best exploit this year it would have to be the report on North West Norfolk Week simply because it is about my most successful regatta to date.

Then there are some entries in my blog that about my growing concern for the environment and the human activity that is making the mess, not about sailing in the least but I just wanted to say something about it.

The post on the almost last sail of the season has the best pictures of the lot and reported on a very enjoyable weekends sailing. (The last sail of the season turned out to be a dead loss and I was so heartly sick of it that I wish I hadn't bothered and I just couldn't bring myself to blog it.)

so which one is simply the best? I think I stick with my first choice: The London Boat show visit. This post is simply the best because of the variety of elements that fit into it and make it an interesting story; from meeting a fellow Enty to walking the decks of a warship, admiring a vintage Hornet, snapping some shots of the racing and just spending a day out with my eldest daughter doing nothing in particular, just messing about with boats. So what do you think? Do you agree?

The Rich fool

2008-12-30T23:47:00.003Z

I saw this a while ago and it seemed to be a very appropriate story for the age of consumerism.

Happy new year folks.

America wrecks the world, it would seem.

2008-12-10T22:30:00.002Z

I'm sure this applies to the UK and the rest of the industrialised nations too.

Advent meets water

2008-12-04T17:21:00.001Z

The almost last sail of the season

2008-10-12T20:36:00.015Z

This Friday I went to the beach to collect the boat, the season at the club has come to an end. Just before I towed the Wild Goose home I took a photo of the sunset over the falling tide, somehow it seems to resonate with my feelings of the end of the season.

Saturday morning Jo and I trailed Wild Goose over to Hickling Broad Sailing club for a two day Broads area Championships. Six races with the best four results to count.

Saturday was breezy but not heavy, probably a good F3 gusting F4 (marginal planing conditions).

We got off to a good start with a 2nd, then a 3rd and finally a 4th. Every race was won by Brian and Linda Cummings from Dabchicks SC, West Mersea. Brian was just too quick for the rest of us, I could keep up with them on the beat but they were quicker onto the plane in the gusts and would pull away several boat lengths by the end of a reach. There is nothing for it I'm just going to have to lose weight if I want to gain that extra bit of speed off the wind. By the end of the days racing I was lying in 3rd place on 9 points, 2 points behind the 2nd place boat and 6 points behind Brian and Linda.

Sunday morning dawned with mist and fog and we arrived at the club to the surreal scene of mist on the water, backlite by the morning sun. There was only the faintest of breeze and the water was shrouded in mist.

The racing was postponed for about an hour when suddenly the wind swung to the south and piped up to a nice F2 breeze clearing the mist away enough for the OOD to set a course.

Just as we took to the water the mist rolled in again but we went ahead with the racing anyway. How anyone could see the start line transit or how the race officers could see if anyone was OCS is beyond me but I think most of us were wondering how we were going to find the windward mark without colliding with somebody else! I got a reasonable start, not the best but at least I had clear air. It was really cut and thrust stuff, real close racing with everyone looking for the windshift that would get them up the fleet. I managed to get into top group of 4 boats and on the second beat I went to the LHS of the beat whilst the other guys covered each other over on the right and I got the better wind and by the time we had got to the windward mark I had a substantial lead and all I had to do was hang on to it to the finish, which I did. By now the mist had finally cleared away and we finished in brilliant sunshine.
Race 2 started badly, firstly I slipped getting into the boat at the pontoon and cut my thumb which then preceded to bleed profusly, all over the sails! It blead for two laps of the race! Again not the best start and we seemed to lack speed through the water. I noticed that the main needed hoisting another 2cm which I corrected on the run and then I spotted at the end of the 1st lap that we were trailing our painter! having corrected these two faults we started to make progress and pulled back from 9th to 6th. Not the best result and to add injury to insult I slipped getting out of the boat onto the pontoon and badly scrapped and bruised my left leg and fell in, much to my daughters delight!

The last race went much better and once again I was in the top few boats battling for 1st place. At the end of the first lap I and the 2nd placed boat were both messed up by other craft either not giving water or forcing thier way where they had no rights to water. We got clear ok but it slowed us up and the leader got clear. We chased hard and I eventually got into second place but could not close the gap enough and we finished a respectable 2nd place.

So overall we finished with a 1st, two 2nds and a 3rd to count placing us 2nd on 8 points behind Brian who finished on 6 points and 3rd place went to a chap called Keith who finished with 9 points.
We got a nice china mug and a pen each both enscribed with Hickling Broad Sailing club; makes a change from a bottle of wine.

Sailing innovation: the planing hull

2008-09-11T10:08:00.012Z

Tillerman via his blog: Proper course, has given a group writting challange on what we believe is the greatest innovation for sailing.

The greatest innovation in the sport of sailing is in my opinion the planing hull. Although not the inventor (that goes to Cmdr R Munroe in 1898) Uffa Fox, in 1928 designed his International 14 with a planing hull and in one season won 52 races, 2 2nds and 3 3rds out of 57 races started. Thus started the revolution in sailing dinghy hull design. Today from dinghies to open day boats to ocean racers, any boat designed for speed has a hull designed to plane.

Why is a planing hull so important? There are two main reasons: speed! and thrills!

Prior to the development of the planing hull boat speed was limited by the waterline length of the boat with a formular thus Speed (in Knots) = Sqrt of hull length (in feet) times 1.34.

This 'displacement' hull produced a bow wave and a stern wave which, a bit like the sound barrier for subsonic Aeroplanes limits its maximum speed. And just as an Aeroplane needs to break the sound barrier to reach supersonic speeds so a hull needs to overtake its bow wave to travel faster.

Thus by designing a hull with a V entry bow section and a flat beam and stern section the hull, with enough drive power and the correct technique, can lift over its bow wave and accelerate to greater speeds than its displacement speed.

The hull is no longer supported by bouyance but rather by the water pressure created by its foward speed and so there is less of the boat in the water and thus less drag . Thus the boat goes faster, creates its own apparent wind which increases the power from the sails and in turn produces even more speed.

With skill (and thats the tricky bit) the speed increases until the the remaining hull drag balances out the driving force of the sails.

The danger is that a mistake can result in this precarious balance suddely going wrong and the result is quite likely to be a spectacular capsize:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZDXxcyqjjc&feature=related

All this adds up to real hair rasing, trail blazing, wet arse fun! Just like last weekend!

The key ingredient to getting a boat to plane is the correct hull trim by moving crew weight aft to lift the bow and keeping the hull upright so that the drive from the sail isn't pushing the boat into the water but lifting it and driving it foward. Maximise the sail trim to get optimum power, a common fault is over sheeting the sails.

The rules say that you are allowed to pump the sail once for every gust or wave so a well timed pump can give the boat the extra kick to get it over its bow wave and planning. Waves can be your friends too giving you the extra speed to get planing. The trick is to get the boat surfing on the wave front, this increases your speed and by triming the sails in time you can get the hull to plane and sustain the 'surf' and by catching sucsessive waves you can keep the boat planing a long time.

Once the boat is planing you may need to trim in the sails to the new apparent wind and maybe even bare away to keep the boat upright and the sails pulling. Avoid sharp helm movements as this will slow the boat and then you risk a broach and even breaking the rudder blade, try to hull trim to steer. If the wind dies, head up to keep the apparent wind and keep the boat moving as long as possible in the plane. Avoid hitting waves but try to steer through the troughs and gaps in the waves.

Fluke? or a sign of the future?

2008-08-31T22:43:00.004Z

This sunday we trailed the boat to Alton Water in Suffolk, not far from Ipswich, to compete in thier open meeting.

Ten boats turned up and in very variable, testing and frustrating conditions we completed 3 races with the best 2 results to count.

We also picked up our new sails, well not new but a very nice set of second hand North sails, only 2 years old. I wasn't expecting to be able to use them but the chap who sold them to me had changed the sail numbers for me! What a star! Cheers Brian!

So the picture is of Wild Goose sporting her 'new' sails, on the final part of the second race, in drifting conditions!

We did well, much better than expected. In the first race we were 1st the 1st mark and very nearly won but finished 2nd. The wind boxed the compass and it was most disconcerting to have a massive lead wiped out as the wind left me wallowing whilst everyone caught up!

The second race started well with a light breeze, we choose the right because of the extra wind pressure and found ourselves right on the transom of the leader at the 1st mark. Then the wind just vanished with the exception of small puffs every now and then. We gained the lead by the second mark and pulled away and nearly won the race but on the last leg one boat in particular caught up and with a lucky puff scooted past us to take the bullet by 10ft and we got our second 2nd.

At this point the race officer was considering abandoning the last race and if he had we would have Won! But (and I'm quite pleased really!) the wind piped up again so we sailed the final race.

Again we were first at the first mark and held the lead to the second mark where the boat behind us had an overlap and took us on the gybe. We stayed with him for the next two laps but he gradually pulled away and we were left fighting for second place, a fight we won and so we got our 3rd 2nd.

The result was 3 boats tied on 4 points but because I had not won a race I finished 3rd overall, even though I was the most consistantly high finisher in all the races. Under the old rules the discard would have been taken into account to settle the matter and I would have won but alas the rules are what they are.

But hey! We finished 3rd! Cool eh?

North West Norfolk Week

2008-08-07T22:36:00.003Z

I have had my most successful week of Dinghy racing. The fleet was small but the competition was tough. In past years I have struggled to keep up with these guys but this year I was equal to them and in fact better; by one point! Yes we won the week!

Three 1sts, 2 2nds, and a 3rd.

I discovered how to get better upwind speed and improved my downwind speed but noticed that I still need to improve offwind speed, especially on the run.

The problem I really had was with managing the right level of aggression. The right level of aggression is needed to get a good start, to drive the boat upwind to get good tactical positions. But over cook it and you get the 'red mist' that clouds judgement. At the beginning of the week I was just surprised to find myself leading and winning races. In the middle of the week I was trying not to get too tense and consequently my starts were rubbish and I had to work hard to get back into the race. By the end of the week, realising I could win the week I overcooked it and got myself into a position where I infringed another competitor and had to retire. Everything rested on the last race but by now I knew I could outsail the others, especially upwind, and I romped away and won the last race and the week!

Enterprise Eastern Area Championships

2008-07-03T15:37:00.007Z

Last Weekend Snettisham Beach hosted the Enterprise Eastern Area Championships and it was my job, as fleet Captain, to organise the event. So over the previous few weeks I had been asking fellow club members for their help in Manning the committee boat, the rescue boats, the galley and the registration of entrants. Some offered willingly, others responded to my requests with pleasure and it all went very well. The only stress was the weather and that turned out OK.

So I just want to dedicate this post to the team and to thank all who contributed to the smooth running of the weekend's sailing. Bless you all!

To Bob, Luke, Tony and John who maned the Committee boat; an Excellent job! well done!

To Sue and Roy in the galley with their helpers, Ann and Jo. They kept the fleet fed and watered over the weekend.

Steve (Our Glorious Leader, the Commodore) behind the bar when not on the water.

Charlie, Bryan and Jim and their respective crews (more folk I can't remember) who maned the rescue boats.

John and Mark with the registration forms and sailing instructions and all that jazz.

And last of all, a big thank you to all the boys and girls who came from near and far to participate in the fun and games on the water. Bless you for coming, it was lovely to see you and we hope that you will come again next year.

This is the report I wrote for the Eastern Area Champs at Snett last weekend.

Held at Snettisham Beach Sailing Club on the 28th and 29th June 2008.
The winds had been blowing hard all week and the fear was that the weekend would be blown away with more high winds but come Saturday, the wind was a good strength moderate breeze F3-4 and 13 visiting boats from as far afield as the Midland Sailing Club in Birmingham made the journey to join 3 local boats for two days of championship racing. (p.s. slight correction here as the Dennys have now joined SBSC so its actually 12 visitors and 4 local boats!)
The Race Officer, Bob Fletcher, managed 4 superb races with Olympic courses over the two days. The weather turned out to be excellent with plenty of sunshine right until the final race where the wind blew up to a good F4-5 and just as all were safely ashore and the prize-giving was underway, the weather turned, with heavy winds and driving rain.
The racing started on Saturday in a nice F2-3 but soon freshened to a good F3-4; the waves gave the visiting pond sailors something to struggle with; for some crews it was their first time on the sea.
Both Saturdays races were won by Andy Ritchie and Joanne Sallis with healthy leads over the second placed Brian and Linda Cummings. The middle fleet was very close with several boats sharing equal points. The racing was so close that on almost ever hour long race only a few seconds would separate 4 or 5 boats!
Sunday dawned with a good F4 and there was a level of tension among the teams as folk packed away their tents, chatted about sailing in waves and wind shifts and waited for the tide before the last races could take place. For some it was a welcome delay to sleep off the previous night’s indulgence!
The penultimate race started in a F4, giving plenty of hard work for already tired limbs driven on by adrenalin. Andy didn’t get it all his own way and the first race went to Andy Bayliss and Vicky Woods sailing an old borrowed boat with Graham Kirkup taking second place. Again the middle fleet was very close with many places changing several times during the race, even up to the finishing line.
In the last race the wind jumped up in strength and continued to climb and soon some boats were heading for the shore. After the first lap Andy Ritchie capsized as a sudden gust caught him napping and with his feet not under the toes straps. With the knowledge that he had done enough to win the event he retired. He wasn’t the only one to capsize and Jonti Mason’s upturned hull gave everyone a good reason to tack round at the leeward mark. Only eight boats continued on the last beat to the windward mark and the fast express reaching ride from there to the wing mark where Andy Bayliss took 2nd place from Steve Chapman by gybing inside as Steve tacked round. The race was won by Graham Kirkup crewed by Dominic White with Any Bayliss Second and Steve Chapman third.
The contingent from Hykeham and done their best but there was still some beer left for Sunday’s after race celebrations. First place went to Andy Ritchie and Joanne Sallis, second place to Andy Bayliss and Vicky Woods, third place went to Graham Kirkup and Dominic White, fourth place went to Brian and Lynda Cummings. Special mention for Iain Leiper, 13 yrs old, crewing for Paul Young as it was his first time racing on the sea. Well done Iain!.
Oh and loudest scream (no prize given this time) went to Jo Coleman… Again!
All agreed it have been a most enjoyable, strenuous and rewarding two days of very competitive racing and good crack!

Some Picture here (Thanks Tony and Luke for these!) http://www.flickr.com/photos/51862087@N00/sets/72157605938907315/

And the results

Wooohoooooo! sailing!

2008-04-10T14:44:00.007Z

The dark days are passed, the winter is losing its grip. The summer breeze is calling, the echo of its voice resonates in my soul and I am drawn irrevocable to dance to its tune. All through the winter, the mere sight of open water captured my mind and I feel the breeze and the movement of the boat as she moves over the surface, responding to waves and currents. I respond to this call with a ritual of painting and varnishing, fitting and fettling until the moment comes.

This weekend the moment arrived, trailing to Middle Nene Sailing Club, near Thrapston, a mere 90 minute drive from home, to the Eastern area coaching day on the Saturday followed by an open meeting on the Sunday. The weather forecast didn't bode well, a winter backlash, but although cold the sun shone through, the winds were more moderate than expected (although we did get some 36kt gusts on Saturday afternoon!).

How good it is to go sailing. The Coaching was fun, lots of short races, lots of tacking, gybing and mark rounding. The changing condidtions meant lots of sail adjustment, lots of movement. As usual Mike Macnamara's teaching was very encouraging, informative and every time I go to one of these events I am reminded of things I know about and always pick up something new.

The Open meeting reinforced the need to keep you head outside the boat, watching for windshifts and gusts. Unfortunately Jo and I were to busy getting back into sailing and our team work lacked its usual smoothness. We had one really good race, second at the first mark and we managed to stay close to the leaders for at least one lap and then found ourselves enjoying real back and forth place changes in the middle fleet, I think we finished that race 7th. The other two races werer not so good. The last race we just seemed to tack on all the wrong shifts and found ourselves becalmed in our own personal windless hole whilst everyone sailed past us. The thing to learn was the need to get the sailing of the boat as natural as possible so that you can concentrate on keeping a lookout on what is happening to the wind and where other boats are and what they are doing.

Overall a great weekends sailing, really good fun. Jo got a prized for the 'Loudest screem' which she let out when we accidently gybed whilst I was trying to release the mainsheet from getting tangled around the rudder pin.

Overall we finished 12th out of 15.

Wild Goose good as new

2008-03-30T14:45:00.001Z

Wild Goose 003
Originally uploaded by snettbish

All that ugly damage gone! You wouldn't even know it had been repaired!

Wild Goose nearly done

2008-03-30T14:43:00.001Z

Wild Goose 011
Originally uploaded by snettbish

One more coat of varnish on the decks, add a few fittings and the centreplate and she is ready.

Wild Goose 006

2008-03-30T14:42:00.001Z

Wild Goose 006
Originally uploaded by snettbish

Mirror Finish!

How to get a fantastic Paint job

2008-03-30T14:37:00.004Z

Wild Goose 002
Originally uploaded by snettbish

Now this is a lovely paint finish, my best yet! I knew that surface preparation is key and to be sure I did get a nice clean smooth surface to paint on to but I have discovered a secret to getting really lovely translucent gloss finishes.

I decided that I would try spray painting and bought a cheep spray gun. To make it work with the paint I had to thin the paint to get the right viscocity and I used International No3 thinners with International's Toplac paint.

The problem was that I found I didn't have enough room to spray correctly and I over sprayed and it started to run. So I had to recover the situation using a roller. The finish was ok, I still had a few runs but overall there was a quality of finish that I could only put down to the thinning of the paint.
I used Wet n Dry (400 grade) to get the surface smooth again and then applied another coat with the thinned paint with the roller. Then sanded again with 600 grade before a final coat again applied by roller. The end result is a lovely glass like finish. Sure there are a few spots where its not quite so good but overall it is very satisfying.

I haven't given up on the idea of spray painting but it seems you need a good deal of elbow room to do a good job. I'll have to see what I can do about that next year.

Varnishing is Hard Graft

2008-02-17T22:30:00.004Z

Varnishing Wild Goose has started. Two coats done so far and I'm on to my second tin (International Gold Spar).
Each coat took about two hours and involved varnishing all internal surface and the decks. Fortunatley I was able to do this in the open air and thus avoid the worst of the fumes as the sun was shining and the sky a loverly blue.

I shall give the decks another coat or two later but next task is to turn her over and start work on the hull next Friday.

Goosy Lucy gets a good sanding

2008-02-10T22:52:00.000Z

One of the less attractive aspects of a nice varnished wooden boat is the sheer amount of sanding required to get a good varnished finish.
The good thing is that I don't do it so thoroughly every year but this year she did really need it. So as we have some rather nice weather at the moment I have taken a couple of days out of my busy schedule to get to grips with the task.
It has actually been very theraputic and even good exercise! Sanding a boat is not such a difficult task and it leaves the mind free to drift and wander and wonder and imagine and I even found myself begining to find answers and ideas for work and study. In the midst of it all I found I was communing with God in prayer, It was a most mentally, emotionally and spiritually refreshing experiance, even if the body did complain about it afterwards!
I still have a bit left to do (all the fiddly bits) and then some regluing of the port side seat slats to the mid point support and then she can be revarnished and if this weather holds out until next weekend then I might just succeed in getting the varnishing done.

I am aiming to get her ready for the April 5th for the coaching weekend at Middle Nene sailing club. I think it can be done ok.

The Enterprise, accessible sailing at a reasonable price!

2008-02-05T00:00:00.000Z

Extract from the 'For sale' section of the Enterprise Association website

Are you looking for a used Enterprise ready for racing and in exceptional condition, fitted with modern fittings, good sails, remote kicker, metal mast, spreaders and boom? My retirement hobby is preparing boats. to meet this requirement. Please consider the following:13593 £550. "Spartacus" min weight, new deck, nylon bags, Perkins built.13997 £500. "Morning missed" Rare built-in side buoyancy.7951 £550 New sapele deck, nylon bags ALN built, 2-pack finish.1882 £495. "Inky" New deck, good bags, International Paint finish.11726 £550 "Chatter" 1lb over min weight, completely stripped, ready April, Moores built.Laurie Philipps Tel: 01384 395640 (Milands) Detailed specifications are a phone call away.All boats are certificated.

If you are looking for a decent boat for a reasonable price, get a second hand Enterprise. The season is just about to begin so now is the time to bite the bullet and get one!

Boat show 2008

2008-01-25T16:51:00.000Z

In January's copy of Dinghy was a pullout of the London Boatshow and I thought to myself 'I wouldn't mind going to that' . Well my Dad ended up with two spare tickets and gave them to me! So on the penultimate day of the show Emma, my eldest daughter (another boat freak like her Father), and I spent the day looking at lots of shine boats and all related paraphenalia much of it way beyond my pocket. Emma did pickup a bargin, new PFD worth probably about £40 for £15.

We met a chap on the Crewsaver stand who sails an Enterprise just up the coast from us at Burnham Overy Staithe Sailing Club noteable for its lack of clubhouse (and very reasonable club fees!). There are about three Ents that sail at his club so I'm wondering about an interclub thing; I shall have to get in touch and see what we can arrange. Anyway he's got an invite to our Open meeting this year.

One of the best things was the racing on the dock, 7 Musto Skiffs doing a simple sausage course; very entertaining! I snapped a couple of shots:

Among the boats there I found this vintage Hornet looking lovely, completely varnished with a sliding seat! I used to crewe in a Hornet when I was a teenager, They are great fun and a very accesible boat and still well supported in the UK and Holland.
We also got a short tour of HMS Exeter, the last surving Ship from the Falklands war and soon to be de-commissioned.

So what did I think of the show? Not bad but I think I prefer the Dinghy Exhibition at Alexandra Palace in March. At least at that there are loads of dingies to see where as over half the floor space at the boat show was taken up with power boats of very obscene sizes, prices and no doubt enormously obscene consumption of fossil fuel and poluters of the sea! How do people justify such things I have no idea but then I guess sailing is a pleasure industry that can seem incredible selfish when contrated with the needs of well over half the population of the planet. Such thoughts are just too stressful.... I must get some relief... I know I'll dream about sailing and maybe work on the boat for a while.....

I wonder what it does cost me to sail my boat for a season? Perhaps I'll work it out. I wonder what its carbon footprint looks like? Oh Man I'm getting stressed again.... boat thoughts, sailing thoughts ahh thats better. perhaps I'll plant a tree or two, mmm, that might be a cop out but it can't hurt to plant a tree can it? Does it really make a difference?

Wild goose repairs

2007-11-23T14:56:00.001Z

So the big hole has gone, it just needs repainting, which I will be doing soon any way.
Plus the old kingpost and mounting block have been replaced and the hog dried out and sealed with epoxy resin.

And the port gunwhale has been repaired, the previous repair was loose and looked ugly, this is much better.

All I have to do know is the meriad of other smaller repairs and the repainting and varnishing of the hull, deck and internals. But that is going to have to wait untilI have more time.

Learning from photos

2007-11-21T21:52:00.001Z

I find studying photos of my class boat being raced is a good way of seeing how 'fast' and 'slow' look. This works for anytime of year but it keeps your head in the game during the winter months.
It helps because you can make a mental note of what you should look like if you are doing it right. You don't get as much as maybe seeing video footage but you can check out the sail trim, boat trim, the crew positions, tiller position, all that kind of stuff. It is helpful if you know that the picture is of one of the class leaders but sometime just comparing two photos of boats tacking you can see which one is going to be quicker can give you pointers as to what makes a boat go faster.
For example check out these two pictures of boats tacking in what look like not too dissimilar conditions:

The one on the top is the faster; the mainsail is filled, the rudder blade is central and look at the crew position and movement! These guys looked to be moving in sympathy with the boats roll and look like they will come out of the tack with good acceleration. The rudder blade on the boat on the bottom picture is going to act as a brake, the mainsail is not filling and the crews movement looks uncomfortable by comparision.

Sometimes, when there is more than one boat in the frame, I like to try and think through the scenario as best as I can deduce from the picture, and ask myself what I would do if I was one of the boats. This one for example:

Supposing you are the blue boat sailing towards the mark. Do you pinch to lay the mark or tack? What would you do?

Getting the most from your rig

2007-11-15T00:52:00.000Z

I thought I might have a go at looking in a very broad way at the factors that make for good boat speed. The first factor is generating the power that drives the boat. This power is generated by the sails and transmitted through the mast and rigging to the hull. Well fitted standing rigging (mast, mast step and shrouds etc) is important for power transmission.

Every boat has its optimum rigging configuration for any given wind and sea conditions, often sail manufacturers will give set up advice which form a good starting point for boat tune but will need deviations as masts, hulls, sailing styles, crew weights, etc will affect the overall performance.

The Sails are the power generators and the trick to optimising the power from the sails in varying wind and sea conditions is to be able to adjust the sail shape, the camber of the sails, the twist etc, using the controls that are available. Thus it is important that the rigging has the ability to be adjusted controlably, repeatably, easily and reliably.

The final aspect is the correct sail trim, i.e. the attitude of the sail to the wind direction relative to the hull, this angle of attack , the angle of the sails to the apparent wind, is only a few degrees variation. Variations in wind direction and strength relative to the hull are dynamic and so the sails need to be adjusted dynamically if the optimum angle of attack is to be maintained in order to generate the optimum power from the sails.

The use of tell tails on the sail luff and leach are key to recognising when the sails are correctly trimmed so getting the optimum power from the sails requires frequent attention. Whilst top sailors develop a feel for boat speed and so are able to maintain good speed whilst giving attention to other matters such as strategy, optimum speed requires constant focus.

I have found that learning how to adjust the sail shape is the hardest thing because you need a combination of knowledge and experience to judge what is happening and what to change and by how much, even minute by minute. Time on the water is the only way to marry these two, preferable sailing with boats of a similar speed so you have something to compare the effects of changes.

The image is of an Enterprise mainsail; Mike Macnamara is explaining how the mainsail shape is affected by mainsheet tension as part of an Enterprise Association coaching session.

From what I can remember the tension causes mast bend high up which means that the belly of the sail remains fairly full whilst the leach is tight giving plenty of camber and is good for pointing. Easing the tension a tiny bit opens the leach a bit and increases the power. (correct me if you think I'm wrong) This is the kind of settings you might use for medium wind strengths.

What makes a boat go fast?

2007-11-06T16:34:00.000Z

Tillerman on his Blog 'Proper course' has been asking the question of what makes a boat go fast? What is the secret of good boat speed? As he rightly reports top sailors in any class will tell you that boat speed is king. So what makes a boat go fast?

I think there are a number of things that contribute to boats speed. Certainly a good boat with rig and effective systems is important for good boat speed but this alone will not put you at the front of the fleet. Good sailing technique is perhaps of paramount importantance, a good sailor will make even the slowest boat go well, perhaps faster than a good boat in the hands of lesser sailors.

So what are the key skills that make a boat move through the water as fast as possible.

The first priority is getting the most from your rig, which is the powerhouse. All the energy that is required to make a boat accelerate quickly to the maximum speed comes from the rig, rig being the sails and the mast that controls the sails and transmits the power to the hull.

This means learning how to control the rig to control the power. I say 'control' because sometimes you need to reduce the power to a manageble level or you will be overpowered and this can be slower than another boat which is has optimum power. Knowledge of how the rig works is important as is experiance. I spent half the year wondering why I was slower on the reach until I realised that I was letting of the kicker too much and losing power.

Second is boat boat trim, the attitude of the boat in the water can aid steering, promote planing, reduce drag and reduce the slowing effect of waves or enable better use of them. The key control for trim is the position of crew weight.

Then comes steering, and by this I mean the control of the boats direction by use of boat trim, sails and, if need be, the rudder. The boats direction is never static, it is always changing and should be. The wind and the waves are always changing so it stands to reason that the boat should be responding to those changes.

The trick of good boat spead is bringing all these factors together so that the optimum power is delivered to the hull which is at the optimim attitude for the current manouver that suits the needs of the prevailing conditions.

Add to this good stratagey (i.e. finding the optimum track around the course making the best of the prevailing conditions), good tactics (i.e. taking advantage of the relative position of other boats in the race for your advantage using the rules), a good mindset that enables you to think clearly and quickly and to summon up the mental energy to keep it going and the physical fitness that enables you to give all that it takes, and you have a wining combination.

But what makes the difference between sailors of equal skill and boats? I think some just know how to position themselves in the fleet to take advantage of changes in the conditions or the mistakes of others. Its a bit like chess; assessing the position and then making the right kind of moves eventually leads to an advantage opening up. Of course it doesn't always result in a race win but consistanty being at the front of the fleet increases the possibility of winning.

Now the only problem is doing it!

Sailing in the City of Newcastle

2007-11-05T23:09:00.000Z

Well you can't see the boats really, they were somewhere over to the left.

I had taken a trip upto Newcastle to visit my Daughter Emma and her Partner, Ralph.

We visited Tynmouth to take a look at the sailing club there as Emma is looking for a club to join and sail PoppyCock from. Tynmouth do have an Enterprise fleet so could be a good club to join.

We took a walk out along the North Pier and saw a group of dinghies near the south Shields shore but they were so small they were lost in the picture, probably better seen in this picture.

Newcastle itself is a fair bit further down the river but the enterance is quite a wide expanse of water.

To paint or not to paint?

2007-10-28T17:52:00.000Z

With Wild Goose being repaired, I thought I would start work on her centreboard.

What started out as a bit of probing to see if all was well beneath the paint ended up with a major paint strip and sanding job to reveal a lovely laminated centreboard.

I can't quite get rid of the paint in the grain and there have been some serious cracks in it which are quite visible so I am in two minds; should I coat it in resin and then paint it again? or just leave a clear gelcoat on it?

The last, last of sail of the season

2007-10-21T23:30:00.000Z

Today my eldest daughter and I took a chance and went to the beach to see if it was possible to get a sail in. The tide was a mere 5.5metre and the wind very light so it was a bit doubtful and sure enough when we arrived the wind very patchy and very light.

We were on the verge of heading home when we noticed the wind filling in from the south and we decided that even though the tide had turned we would give it a go.

We had a few problems launching and managed to bust the transom flap which allowed water to pour in if we sat to far back. So we sat forward of the traveller, which was ok until I went to pull the rudder blade down and busted the elastic! It was beginning to seem like a doomed trip. But we got out there and enjoyed ourselves, even got the kite up for a while. She took on some water through the transom flap and when we couldn't find the bailer to empty the water we used our boots and ended up with cold feet. Eventually we headed back as the sun sank lower and its warming rays diminished leaving a chill in the air. The water ebbed away more quickly than we thought, the wind dropped away and we were too late to get back to the beach and ended up dragging the boat across the sandy mud (or muddy sand) back to the shingle. When we finally go the boat back to the dinghy park the sun was setting over the shinning mud with the wading birds in silhouette, the wind no more than a whisper and suddenly all was still with only the sound of the birds and the clubs generator throbbing away in its metal box! Oh well. Until next year then.

End of another sailing season

2007-10-13T00:33:00.000Z

A week ago I collected Wild Goose (E20202) from the Beach and took her home, stripped her out and the next day took her down to Chipping Onger in Essex where Gerry Ledger is going to repair her battle damage and fix a few other things that need doing.

Today I collected PoppyCock from the beach and she is now snug in the garage awaiting my Daughters loving attention over the winter. I say 'My Daughter' because Emma is buying Poppy and is going to sail her in the new year 'up north' somewhere in the vicinity of Newcastle.
So yes Chris if your reading this I'm sorry but you're gonna have to find another boat to buy but

I am sure that you will (and I haven't fogotten the £10 I owe you).

All that is left is for Billy Boy (the ancient 420 in the picture above) to be collected and stored away somewhere. Although I am tempted to leave her there a while in case I get an opportunity to take her for a spin on a nice day (Hope springs eternal in the human breast!).

Ideally I would like to do a spot of racing over the winter somewhere but its a cost and time thing. The new term has started and I have lots of study to do and plenty of work.

The beach was looking stunning again but somehow a bit desolate. The lack of water doesn't help but somehow the emptyness of the seascape echos an inner feeling. It's not a bad feeling, a bit sad but I guess thats ok. Next season is not that far away really.

A green Iceburg

2007-09-23T00:50:00.000Z

I recently read Tillerman's blog 'Proper course', where he is considering the environmental impact of his sailing. What pertubed me was the first comment he recieved by somebody who wishes to remain annonomous. In escence the person seems to be of the opinion that 'global warming' is a myth.

Global warming is a fact. wether it is totally attributable to the 'greenhouse gases' (CO2) is another matter. Opinion is divided. There is a good deal of evidence to suggest that it is and there has to be a cause, if it isn't greenhouse gases then what is causing it?

However, no matter what the cause, polution in all its forms is ugly, it does damage the environment, kills off widl life and pollutes our food chain and I think we have a responsibility of care for the world we live in for our own sakes let alone the future inhabitants of planet earth.

Reducing pollution, planting trees and 'all that crap' can only improve the environment, wether it affects the earths atmosphere or not (and I think it must, even if only at a local level).

I have thought about this in relation to my sailing. I've worked out that I travel about 4000 miles each year in relation to my sailing. I very rarely trail the boat to events, I would like to but the reality is that I find the cost rather prohibative. Not only that but finding time to do it and the willingness of my family to accomodate my desire tends to limit what I can do. This, more than my concern for the environment, is the biggest reason why I have trailed no more than 100 miles from home and only two events. Given the freedom to do more I suspect that I might do so but I would be picky about the distance and the event. But this is just the tip of this 'green' iceburg.

I do not take foriegn holidays even though prices are really cheep, because I think it's a gross misuse of the planets resources; the cost of air travel is way to cheep and the real coat is hidden. But it's not just travel that we need to think about. I believe we need to think about consumption of earths resources in general, especially as developing countries like China and India become more hungry for the worlds resources. I have my doubts as to the worlds capacity to support such consumption.

In my opinion America is particularly extravagant and its people need to think more clearly about the future in this regard. Some are. Here in the UK we are almost as thoughtless in our use of natural resouces but at least our government is begining to wake up to the reality of pollution, if only the rest of the populace would.

My fear is that it's not going to make that much difference even if we reduced our CO2 output to zero, while countries like China are starting up coal burning Power satations every week. But why shouldn't they? afterall thier industry is supplying us with products we want.

In my home I have taken steps to reduce energy consuption which has reduced my bills, and now recycle far more than I did. I also think more about purchases. Too often stuff is purchased that is really unnecessary, all with its own packaging that either ends up in landfill or worse, drifting on the tide! I hate seeing this rubbish washed up on the coast, its not pleasent to sail through it either.

It makes sense to be careful with the planet, if for no better reason than to be able to continue to enjoy it. But I think the reasons for more conciderate living is probably more to do with sustainability. There is a real risk that the world economy will collapse if demand outstrips the planets ability to supply and sustain our extravagant way of life.

Damage to Wild Goose after a head on with a Phantom

2007-09-17T22:13:00.001Z

Damage to Wild Goose after a head on with a Phantom
Originally uploaded by snettbish

The next venue was Blakney. A decent breeze but the cramped race course ment that the course crise-crossed and this was an accident waiting to happen. The picture shows the massive gash created by a collision with another boat. I was on starboard close-hauled and the other boat was running on Starboard, I hailed but he took no notice, I luffed at the last minute and he chose that moment to bare away.
After the collision he capsized and we were in irons. He did his 720 but I had lost so much distance that it took me the rest of the race to catch up and finished 3rd 10 seconds behind the 2nd place.

We were not the only collision but I think the only one with any damage. A fellow competitor gave me some RAF battle damage tape to patch the hole up and it has lasted for the last two months of the season. Repairs will be done in October. The Insurance companies are dealing with the claim and I guess they will work out who is responsible but in my mind it's a no brainer!

NWN week - Wells

2007-09-17T21:52:00.001Z

Wells
Originally uploaded by snettbish

Wells was the next venue after Hunstanton. The wind was quite light and from the SW. The shape of Wells harbour is like a dog leg with one end leading down to the town and the other end out to sea. The knee of the leg has the Lifeboat station on a small promontary of land sticking out int o the harbour. See picture above.
This creates a very interesting tidal flow and with the gradual build up of a sea breaze over the course of the race it seemed as though there where two beats with a Westerly wind on the leg out towards the sea and a South westerly lighter wind on the leg into the town.
The big waves outside of the harbour made life interesting when approaching the mark in the harbour mouth, the waves became very steep and made the approach a choice of sailing in the relatively flatter water against the tide or bouncing across the shallows out of the tide. The first time I went towards the shallows and lost ground, from then on I kept to the flatter water and when teh tide turned it was lumpy wherever you went!

The start line was NE of the lifeboat station and the first beat was towards the town. with 2 minutes to go I sailed on port from the committee boat towards the pin end and with 30 seconds tack under the boats gilling up to the line on starboard and with 10 seconds went for the line and got a near perfect start. I lead from beginning to the end, not without some challanges but we just sailed very well and finished with a good 200 yard lead.

NWN week

2007-09-17T21:11:00.001Z

Hunstanton Day 2
Originally uploaded by snettbish

This is a picture from day 2 of NorthWest Norfolk Week and this is the first race of the day. The wind was from the north and with the incoming tide it paid to sail into the shore and short tack up the shore. I made a good start and quickly went off on Port tack to the shore. The photo captures a point whilst I was still leading but as you can see it was very close racing. I caught the wrong end of a shift and got caught on Port and had to crash tack onto startboard. This was the point where I lost the lead. I set out too soon for the windward mark but should have tacked along the shore a litle further. I managed to retain 3rd place so not too bad a result.

Northwest Norfolk week

2007-09-17T19:22:00.001Z

Hunstanton Day 2
Originally uploaded by snettbish

Northwest Norfolk week started at Hunstanton (sunny Hunny!)

Its a great place to sail, loads of water, nice waves and launching is easy, accept when the tide is high and there is a bid sea running.

This year the weather was quite well behaved unlike last year when a waterspout raced through the fleet with disasterous results!

Sunset at snett

2007-09-17T19:18:00.001Z

Sunset at snett
Originally uploaded by snettbish

Well I thought it was time to either add to the blog or close it. I decided to add to it. This picture is of a sunset at Snettisham Beach during the Northwest Norfolk sailing association regatta! It was fortunate that the two weeks I took as holiday just happened to be the only two weeks of the summer! Cool eh? Lucky old me!

Wow what a weekend!

2007-07-10T15:26:00.000Z

Wow what a weekend! No rain and plenty of sunshine!

No racing for me this weekend as the cub was hosting the Dart Open meeting and most folk were tied up in supporting that event, I didn't have to be involved so I tried my hand at filming the event.

Saturday was a good strong breeze so I did the filming from the shore which made for very jumpy work as I was on max zoom which amplifies any camera shake and there was quite a bit due to the strong wind!

I did get out for a sail myself and it was a blast! Great fun. Sunday was much more calm with a light to moderate breeze and I decided to take the camera out on the water to see if I could get better results. I needed less zoom but had to cope with my own boats movement so it didn't improve the quality much.

Most of Sunday I sailed with Chris, a new member to the club and keen to get out on the water. He usually sails cruises about in a Waferarer with friends but likes the look of the Enterprise so it was good to let him have a go. He helmed a good deal I was able to give him a few tips on how to tack without getting in a muddle with the tiller and main sheet. At one point we sailed down to the start area of the last race to film them and spotted two seals playing in the water just in front of us! They were quite happy and seemed to be watching the antics of these strange water craft

Here are the film clips, not to hot but they give a good flavour of the weekends sailing at Snettisham Beach.

The day I first raced a dinghy

2007-06-23T22:37:00.000Z

I was thinking about the first time I raced in my Cadet, back in 1976 I think it was. I was used to sailing on my Dad's cruiser, a 24 ft Bilge Keeler: Trident.

We mostly cruised the east coast and the occassional holiday across the north sea to France, Belguim and Holand. So when my Dad sold his boat and bought the hull of a new boat to fit out, he spent a bit of cash on an old Cadet (CK1346) and some new sails, for my sister and I to sail. One windy day my sister and I, under the watchful eye of my parents, went out for a sail and soon capsizd; that was it for my sister, she never stepped in the boat again!

So I asked my best mate to crew for me and as he had some experiance he agreed. So the day came for our first race, again it was another windy day and we started badly and were soon chasing the leaders. I was quite happy sailing along with a good bit of heal on her but my mate kept on about sailing it more upright but hey I knew best, I'd sailed for years, I knew what I was doing! and it was my boat and I was the skipper. Somewhere up the river Roach we capsized.
Course card of Burnham Sailing Club 1976.

The rudder assembly started to drift away and I grabbed that but I just didn't know what to do.

A passing Squib (open Day boat) picked us up and we abandoned the boat. Soon we were back on dry land watching the boat being towed back by the rescue boat along with a bunch of other Cadets. Fortunately the boat was unharmed. My friend never crewed for me ever again, we remained friends and did plenty of other things together but never sailed together again.

I learnt a great deal that day like 'sailing a dinghy is quite different to sailing a cruiser'. But more than that, I learnt that I need to listen to others even if I think I know more. I just wish I could remember the lesson when I really need to!

.

The Cadet Newsletter front cover from 1978, the last year I sailed Cadets.
Happy Days!
I finished 29th out of 111 boats with an 8th as the best result!
It would have been better but I had to retire after a nasty broach when the
rudder blade snapped! (I was lying 10th at the time!)
This is me, with crew Sylvia Johnson, sailing Orange Squash CK6690,
a borrowed boat, at the 1978 Nationals on the River Crouch & Roach, less
than half a mile from where my first race ended abruptly!

Open Day at Snettisham Beach Sailing Club

2007-06-23T15:39:00.000Z

It started out as an invitation to some of my friends from Wesley House (where I am studying) to come and enjoy a day at the beach, try our sailing, have a BBQ; that sort of thing. I ended up organising an openday for the whole club, with club members inviting thier friends and collegues down for the day. We ended up with 18 visitors taking to the water in a variety of boats and having great fun although the wind died away and a thunderstorm drifted in. Everyone ended up in the clubhouse and what a great atmosphere!

We ended up with two new family memberships and a possible single member and quite possibly others too. My friends had a great time, in fact I think everyone did.

PoppyCock!

2007-06-21T18:32:00.000Z

Poppycock is done and delivered! What a difference between the old Poppycock (top) how she looks now (bottom)! The old Sadolin coated deck is now a nice and shiny varnished deck!

Too busy day dreaming....

2007-06-19T09:02:00.000Z

I was abducted by aliens! ? Doesn't wash does it?

I was lost at sea! No?

The real reason: I was too busy getting my assignments in by the deadline to even think about blogging. Then I was too busy with a million and other things to even think about it.

so here is a quick update.

PoppyCock: finished and ready to be taken to the beach. Pictures will be on thier way soon.

Coaching weekend: Brilliant although numbers were half of last year.
Things I learnt:
1) I discovered that I need to let the luff rope in my maisail into the luff as it has shrunk causing the sail shape to be affected adversely but it has a short tail to allow for this. I checked with the sail loft and they confirmed it so I made the adjustment and it seems to work OK. The sail looks better but I suspect I am still putting too much tension in the halyard. I need to find the optimum point. Perhaps I shall change over to a wire halyard and use a ladder hook when the season is over.

2) A starting technique that works well but needs lots of practice. Essentially you have to approach on port and tack under the starborad tack boats as they come down the line and then pinch up to close the door on them so they are forced to point up. This creates a hole below you and then a few seconds before the gun goes you reach off and pick up speed and go for the line. The problem with this is that it is difficault to do when the tide is pushing you over the line!

3) It makes a big difference to the shape of the jib if you can really get it sheeted in tight! I was shocked to see the difference in the sail shape between what I thought was tight and and how tight you can get it. This could explain why the top guys point so high!

Enterprise Eastern Area Championships: only 18 boats (thanks to the weather!) but great racing with some of the top boats in the country turning up. I finished 8th overall. Made some silly mistakes, messed up the starts of 3 of the 5 races and so only got 2 positions that I think reflected my ability (6th and 7th).
Lessons learnt:
1) DON'T go back to the start line if you think its a general recall! Keep going until its obvious. I thought I heard a general recall signal and started back to the line and was wrong!

2) Don't cut it fine on a mark! I hit one and went from 5th to about 10th during my 360 turn.

3) It is important to approach the start line with speed, you can't just sheet in and go as others will ride over you. So don't arrive at your starting position too soon. Trick this when the tide is pushing you over the line.
The two starts I got right I was close under someones bow and lee-bowed them nicely!

4) I need to generate more power in moderate winds and I suspect I need to use the kicker more effectively.

The only problem I had was that the repair to the kicker anchor point has failed! I need to remoive the entire anchor point, and replace it and probably bolt it right through the hull. A big job best saved to the winter. In the mean time I have done a temporary fix with a plate and two long screws to stop the split from opening up (see picture).

Last weekend was just ordinary club racing. It was good close racing but Malcolm and Lynn in the oldest boat won 3 out of the 4 races, I got a 1st, 2 2nds and a 3rd.

Here we are rounding ahead of Malcolm.

Currently I am organising an open-day at the club.

What to do when you can't go sailing

2007-05-21T01:53:00.000Z

High winds or none at all has meant that over the last two weekends I've only got one days sailing in. This has meant that I have put some time into PoppyCock and she is looking better. I managed to get two coats of epoxy on her today and she will be ready for sanding and painting by next weekend. Here are a couple of shots of her prior to and just after coating with epoxy.

This weekend I took a walk on Holme beach with my wife and boy did we get some dramatic pictures !

This morning I got up at a silly time to make the early morning race only to find there was no wind! Ah! Once again we have a world of stupid extremes with the weather!

Last weekend I took some shots of Kite surfers out in the wild winds. At least someone was having fun on the water!

I'm hoping next weekend will be sailable. Please God!

Poppy - Back to the wood

2007-05-11T22:36:00.000Z

Yes I did a stupid thing several weeks ago now, I started to sand PoppyCocks paintwork and found a few dodgy bits and scrapped away and before I knew it I was stripping a whole load of paint off her. Now she is completly devoid of paint and I'm sanding her clean ready to be coated in EpiGlass epoxy before an undercoat and a couple of top coats (Fire box red of course!)

I have also removed the old brass rubbing strakes on the bottom and I have some second hand aluminium ones (salvaged from a wrecked Ent) to fit on! so that will reduce her weight a bit.

I guess the end result will be a boat with more durability, stiffer and lighter. I doubt that she will ever be quick but hopefully quick enough to be a useful boat for the kids to use and others to borrow.

The Tillerman's Challange

2007-05-07T22:40:00.000Z

Tillerman has laid down a challange to the boating bloggers around the world http://propercourse.blogspot.com/ , to write a piece about our most embarassing moment afloat. My problem is that I just don't know which one to pick.
Now it could be the time when I was a cadet and trying to tack up against a flood tide on the river Crouch trying to make the start of a race. Having run aground in the putty for nth time I stood up in the boat and shook my fist at the heavens and let God have it, only to discove my RE teacher standing on the seawall and hearing every word!

Or it could be the time I was roll tacking up the shore and left it to late to stand up and couldn't get myself off the windward deck and rolled the boat into windward!

Or the time I missed the toe straps and fell out the boat, in front of the club!

Perhapps the best embarrasing time was about 25 years ago when I was crewing in a GP14 which was rather old, it had old sails and a wooden mast. It was a breezy day and at that time my morals were not too hot. I suggested to the owner that if he put LOTS of tension on the rig the boat would go better and if it was too much tension then the mast might break and then it would be possible to claim on the insurance for a new mast! As I said, at the time my morals were not so hot and its not something I would suggest today.
So we went racing and it was very lively, however half way up the first beat there was an almighty bang, the rig goes slack and the boat is settling in the water! The rig tension had broken the hog and shoved the mast through the bottom! The boat was a complete right off! The insurance did pay up and with it my friend built a new GP14 from scratch in his garage and painted it in his Church! Yes, he was (and still is) a Church of England Vicar!

As good as it looks!

2007-04-29T22:21:00.000Z

It was as good as it looks!

The wind was easterly F4 with gusts well into F5. The further off the beach the more steady and heavy the wind. We got Wild Goose planing and it was just brilliant. We even had the odd sensation of surfing upwind on port tack because of the NW waves, that was just weird! The windward quarter would lift and the wave would throw the boat foward, it made sailing on the tell tails hard work!

Jo was away for the weekend so my eldest Son crewed for me. He did well considering that he hasn't raced in an Enterprise since 1997 when he sailed with the scouts.
We had one close shave with a gybe that didn't go too well but we just about kept her up.

We were going quick upwind but offwind we struggled to keep up. It may have been the extra weight and the combination of Paul's inexperiance but I was also using old (1999) North sails, the mainsail is exceptionally flat which was great upwind but we lacked power off wind, even with the foot loosened. I had difficulty getting the kicker tension right off wind so all of these may be factors. The upshot is that whilst we could make ground upwind we lost it off wind.

So for April we managed 6 races, 5 with just 2 boats and one with three boats. I have 2 x 1st, 4x 2nds giving second overall, decided in the last two races!. The racing has been really close, so even though we have been down on numbers the competition has been great and that makes it good fun.

Billy Boy

2007-04-13T13:28:00.000Z

One very dirty 420

And after a day of cleaning
tada!

she needs a bit more work, like varnishing and maybe a couple of coats of paint on the hull, and needs some fittings, like trapez fittings, a new slot gasket, new battans for the main and modifications to add a highfield lever for the Jib halyard, but she is looking a lot cleaner.
We have worked it out that she must be well over 40 years old with a sail no in the 6000's. but she is very light, much less than an enterprise.

We have decided to call her Billy Boy.

My new Bailer

2007-04-11T09:32:00.000Z

In case you're not sure what you're looking at, its a 4pint plastic milk carton with the bottom cut off. Cheap, simple, ergonmically designed! and easily replaced if lost over the side (not that I'm planning on poluting the sea).

Cool eh?

Thoughts and reflections on sailing and life

2007-04-10T23:17:00.000Z

I had a funny thought about my sailing escapades at the weekend. It was the Easter weekend and for three days I was alone on the water but on the last day suddenly the place came alive with other boats and racing, the club house bar opened and there were people about. There is something almost biblical about it.

I have been reading a book recently: "The stature of waiting" by Vanstone. It was recomended as preparation for a placement with a Hospice Chapliancy as part of my training. The gist of the book is that we sometimes find that we are passively waiting as we are subjected to situations that are beyond our control. This is especially true of people suffering from a terminal illness, or something less serious perhapps as retirement or losing a job but the book makes a point of saying that in our everyday life we are often subject to situations beyond our control and all we can do is wait. Our success is less dependant on our ability, wisdom, power or authority and quite often in something quite simple but beyond us, like a power cut or a traffic jam.

One of our Church members has an old 420 that he hasn't sailed in 22 years, it has sat in his garage for all that time collecting a film of grime and garden paraphenalia. He is 87 years old and is finding his increasing immobility frustrating. He was a very active man, ran a very succesful buisness, raced rally cars, flew aeroplanes, played a variety of sports, sailed boats of all types, raised a family. He has been a doer of stuff and now he can't. I can sense his frustration and I wonder how I will be when I cannot do the sailing I love so much.

So I got to thinking about sailing; why I like it so much, what is the attraction? And this is my thought: Sailing a boat has a number of variables to deal with but by and large our 'success' is a matter of our ability to master the elements and our vessel. Maybe this is why it is so relaxing (or should be), why it is so enjoyable, why we get such a sense of achievement. It might seem quite trivial and even pathetic for a grown man to race a small wooden boat around a collection of small plastic bouys but it sure is fun and maybe it restores a sense of sanity to the human soul.

I shall be collecting an old 420 on Thursday morning. The plan is to take it to the club for some of the older Junior sailors to try thier hand at something a little more challanging than a Topper. The thought that is in my mind now is what can I do for my old friend?

Oooh! Visitors to my sailing club!

2007-04-09T21:58:00.000Z

So I turned up to race on Friday... nobody about. I turned up to race on Saturaday.... nobody about. Sunday? You guessed it, nobody about. So I wasn't holding out much hope for Monday. But I was presently suprised! 5 Dart 18s, 2 Laser 2000, a Laser and little old me, the solitary Enterprise. It was nice to have some visitors to my sailing club!

It looked like it was going to be a good days sailing with a decent breeze and it started out as F3 westerly which died off to a F1-2 within 20 minutes of us taking to the water, then down a to a very variable F1 swinging between W and NW but it picked up a bit at the end to fairly steady F2 Westerly. I teamed up with the L2000 and we had a couple of friendly 1 lap races round a triangular course. It was great to be racing against someone and even though they have an asymetric spinny I was easily a match for them in the F1-F2 conditions. I was ahead at the end of the first race and right on the transom of the first L2000 in the second race so I guess that probably puts me as the winner on handicap. All good fun and a change from sailing on my own.

Here I am ahead of the L2000 in the first race aproaching the last mark.

How long does it take

2007-04-08T21:05:00.000Z

before they get bored? Or is it simply that some people are easily amused? I mean how long does it take to wizz around in circles, disturbing all the bird life, irritating everyone with the noise from the wretched machines and the stench of petrol fumes before you get bored? Where is the fun in it? Is there any skill required? Are there any tricks that are worth while?

The Jet ski: the invention born of a small mind, a parasite in the hands of the unimaginative.

Do they even have any insurance? Do they have any knowlegde of the navigation rules? Yes, I know i have blogged on this before, I guess I just have to let off a little steam about every now and then.

First race at Snettisham Beach SC of the 2007 sailing season

2007-04-06T19:09:00.000Z

This morning I was out of bed at 6:30am, on the road to the beach by 7am, arrived by 7:40am in good time for the first race of the year. The wind was a nice F2 NW with a bit of a chill, the sea had a slight chop, the sky was a beautiful blue, perfect for the first race of the year.
(Picture taken on camera Phone)

Only one problem .... there was absolutly nobody about. We hung around for about 30 minutes, still no one. If I had remembered to bring my club keys we would have gone out for a sail just for the hell of it but I had stupidly left them at home. So we went home, picked up the keys and went back to the beach and got in a good hours of sailing! Fantastic! Enough wind to sit out upwind and surfing on the waves off the wind.

Well lets see if anybody at SBSC can be bothered to get out of bed tomorrow! (is that a bit harsh?) If not I shall just enjoy another solitary sail! I actually began to wonder if I would be better off sailing at another club but there is no certainty that another club would be any better. I guess I just going to have to wait until folk realise that the season has started.

Workday at the beach

2007-03-28T20:29:00.000Z

This weekend was a workday at the Beach. The task for the day was to repair the concrete slipway.

If the wind wasn't blowing the sand in horizontally it was blowing in the rain.

It was wet, cold and we had a great time! It was like a boys day out! And we got the ramp done.

The next day was like a totally different world! The sun was out, the sea calm, the wind was light. I took the boat down ready for the start of the season. Next weekend the racing markers go out and the Easter weekend is the begining of the season.

Coaching day at Aldenham Sailing club

2007-03-18T23:33:00.000Z

First sail of the season!
Jo and I trailed the boat to Aldenham near London to take part in a coaching day with Mike Macnamara. The day was great fun , it was good to be reminded of some key points and I came away with some things to work on. The weather was good, warm for the time of year, with a good breaze that freshened in the afternoon which made for some very gusty conditions.

So what did I learn? here are some of the key things:
Rudder movement: 3" of tiller deflection creates the same amount of drag as sticking an arm over the side. I really need to use less rudder.

kicker tension:
To get max power, let it out until the top telltale streams.
To point high, increase until the top telltale is streaming only 20% of the time.

Sail trim, general principle:
If in doubt: let it out!

Starting:
I was useless at this! I need to improve my slow speeds boat handeling to be able to get my positioning and timing better.

These are just a few of the key points that I have chosen to focus my attention upon, others were good too but it is better to get a few sorted at a time and then pick up others.

The last thing is a realisation that I need to lose wieght and get fit! probably the biggest challange!

PoppyCock now has a breakwater fitted

2007-03-10T23:22:00.000Z

The weather was so good that I decided I could fit the breakwater to Poppycock. She had been moved out of the garage so that I could start work on Wild Goose but the day was so warm I thought I would risk it.

I selected a suitable shaped edging wood from a DIY shop, cut it to give me two identical lengths, cut a miter on to each for the centre join and shaped the ends to make them nice and rounded.
I used Balcatan to glue the strips to the deck . This is an excellent glue that gives plenty of fiddle time. it takes about two hours to harden and about 48hrs before it sets like concrete.

All I did was simply apply the glue, positioned them and pined them in place with a few copper pins. When the glue was hard enough I pared away the excess and left it to harden.

It looks ok.
Now I just need to sand and varnish but I shall paint the hull first. Watch this space for futher developments.

To Busy to blog

2007-03-10T22:44:00.000Z

At long last I have decided I needed to catch up on the blog. It has been over a month since I have added anything. Life has been busy and I have had almost no time to blog but I thought I really should bring it up to date.

So I decided in view of the imminent start of the season that I should put further work on PoppyCock on hold and switch my attention to Wild Goose.

Wild Goose was moved into the garage and I started first on the hull, sanding and painting. I had some problems with International paints 'Toplac' with my second coat; it just didn't seem to harden all over the hull, there were patches where it was touch dry but when sanded it started to rub off. Not good. I suspect it was either too cold or possibly condensation. I had to remove some of the paint and other bits did eventually harden but it is not the best finish. I did put 4 coats on, applied with a roller so they are thinner than if done with a brush, one 750ml can's worth did the job.

The decks, transom and insides were sanded and varnished next, two coats on the decks and transom, just one on the insides. I decided to leave some of the varnishing on the insides until warmer weather as I was beginning to run out of time; I need to be ready for the 17th March.

Refitting was fairly quick although I spent some time trying to solve problems with the cunningham controls. I purchased two new blocks to do the job and so far it looks good.

Today I fitted new halyards to the mast, stepped it and hoisted the sails, including the new jib, to check measurments and control lines. I had to make a change to the mast rake, We had just a tad to little so moved the pins a little. The problem is that I don't have a tension gauge but I shall check it as soon as I can. I might even buy one!

The final job was to check over the launching trolley and road trailer. I built a mast support and light board to mount on the pintals, I was never happy with the setup last year and nearly damaged the light board. All I need to do to be complete is get one wheel changed on the road trailer and we are ready.

I have done some work on PoppyCock's new deck but I shall blog about that tomorrow, or later, but it will be soon!

The New Sail has arrived!

2007-02-01T18:51:00.000Z

Wow! it arrived today! A new Jib from Pinell and Bax! I Got it at a 25% discount by ordering it last November and today it arrived in a rather snazzy bag.
Now all I need to do is get the rest of the boat sorted out! Fortunately there is not so much to do on Wild Goose (E20202) so I've moved her into the garage to start work on the hull and moved PoppyCock out onto the drive under a cover. I shall complete her later in the spring.

Wow I sense the coming season is just around the corner!

PoppyCock looking like a boat should

2007-01-28T11:54:00.000Z

Poppy is now looking much better. After sticking the deck down I had to wait until the glue hardened before I could do anymore work, however at the time the weather was quite mild so it didn't take to long.
The next job was to trim the inner comming edge to the frame to make a nice slightly rolled edge. For the most part I used a wood shaver and sandpaper but for the tight corners I used a jigsaw. I did try to trim a fairly wide overhang with the jigsaw but this was a mistake; I tried to take it too close to the frame and ended up cutting into the frame very slightly! fortunately it doesn't look obvious. After that I stuck to using the wood shaver.

Because the new deck uses 4mm ply the gunwale sticks proud of the deck by a few mm so my next job was to shave the guwale down to the deck without gouging the deck! For this job I wished I have a plane but I couldn't find mine! I thought it was in the garage somewhere but I'm blowed if I know where it is. I made do with the wood shaver again and it seemed to work ok.

Finally I need to sand the deck to get a nice clean surface ready for he first coat of resin. This took a while and I was never very happy with it but I reached a point where I knew it would not get it any better. So I cleaned it with thinners a couple of times and then coated it with Epiglass epoxy resin. By now the weather had dropped the temperature somewhat and I was concerned abouth the prospect of blomming but mercifully there was only one very slight patch.

Here she is with just one coat applied already looking like a boat should. (picture taken by my wife)

I have now applied a second coat and she looks pretty good although there is a little bit of blooming particularly on the transom but I'm not so worried about that as it will be covered by the mansheet traveller.

Here she is after the second coat. Not to bad. I can see loads of mistakes and what I should have done.

The worst thing is the seam down the foredeck. The picture is kind to my workmanship but now I know why often the foredeck on boats have a middle strip! Its because trying to get a nice clean seam is not easy!

Oh well it is my first attempt at redecking a boat and at least I have achieved my primary objectives which were to stiffen the hull and improve the deck. Quite probably I have also reduced the weight of the hull a little into the bargin.

I have a bit of work to do yet. The breakwater need to be fitted and she needs a few coats of varnish as well but I shall probably leave that to later as I really aught to start work on Wild Goose to get her ready for the season which starts mid March with the coaching day at Aldenham this year (it was at Hunts sailing club but has moved for some reason)

Fortunately Goose need only one major repair which is to the Kingpost block. so I shall resume work on PoppyCock sometime in March when I should have completed the work on Wild Goose.

A messy job

2007-01-24T17:05:00.000Z

At last I managed to get the decks glued in place! It took a bit of time and was more tricky than I thought. I had to pin it to the frame using copper pins and I didn't get the port foredeck in quite right so the gap to the gunell is bigger than I would have liked. The starboard side is a better fit.

It was messy work and I managed to get some of the glue on the outer surface. At the time I didn't worry to much about it but I am now worried about it affecting the final finish.

I think I should have coated the deck both sides before attempting to glue it to the hull, this would have protected the wood.

The glue I used was the International 'Epiglass' which seemed to work ok but I'm not sure how well it has worked. I think if I was to do it again I would use Bolcatan which gives a longer working time and also expands to fill cavities, something that the Epiglass doesn't do.

Next job is to trim the inner coming and the gunnel flush with the deck, sand it down (try to get rid of some of the glue marks!) and then coat it with the Epiglass to sheath the wood.

The Decking of PoppyCock progresses

2007-01-12T16:41:00.000Z

So in the last week I have purchased, for £25, some EpiGlass, made by International, and have sheathed the underside of the deck to give it some long lasting protection.

I found that the easy way to do this is to arrange the deck panels upside down on the wrong side of the boat and using a foam roller with a mix of about 100ml of Epiglass, which was enough to cover the deck area. Two coats are needed to make sure that the wood is sealed.
I wish I had done this with the inside of the Bouyance tank last year but its too late to do that now as it needs to go onto bare wood to soak into it.

My next job is to pin and glue the decks into place. After that I need to shape and fit the breakwater to the foredeck, trim the deck coaming to the frame and give the frame and deck a couple of coats of Epiglass before a couple of coats of varnish.

Progress on PoppyCock

2007-01-09T14:38:00.000Z

Well as you can see I have got the decks cut and shaped to fit the hull. The problem with the foredeck is that it needs to curve to fit and that makes aligning the two halves hard work with only 1 pair of hands. I'm qute pleased with it at the moment and hopefully it will all glue together ok.

Next job is a good clean out of the hull, then purchase some Epoxy resin (Epiglass probably) to sheath the ply and coat the bare wood of the frame. After that I have to glue and pin the deck in place, trim up the inside edgeof the deck to the frame and make and fit the breakwater.

I was hoping to get this complete by the end of 2006 but assignments, work and family all took priority. i need to get this done soon so I gan get Wild Goose ready for a coaching event in March.

Half Decked

2006-12-29T23:38:00.000Z

I have completed half the deck on PoppyCock. The hardest bit was the foredeck fitted and getting the join with the side decks right with no gaps. I had thought of doing a scarf joint for added strength but decided it would be easier to do a but joint where the deck knee meet the frame.

I have now marked out the second half ready to cut out and shape. Once thats done I can sheath the innerside and then glue the deck panels in place.

Then I can trim, shave and sand all the edges, fill in any gaps and prepare it for a couple of coats of varnish. Oh and I have to make a new breakwater too. I'm not quite sure how to do that yet as it has to slope fowards and the two halves have a miter joint on the centre line, but I'll do it.

I am enjoying this but can't give it enough time plus the weather has been very cold. I hope to have the rest of the deck completed by the end of the Christmas break.

When I was a boy...

2006-12-28T15:29:00.000Z

I learnt to race in an International Cadet. Here I am in a borrowed boat at the 12th National Championships held at Burnham-on-Crouch in 1978. I finished 29th out of 111 boats.

I was sorting through the office looking for the Car's manual and I come across a pile of old old sailing magazines and newsletters and among them I found this picture.

I remember being bitterly disappointed in the one heavy weather race of the event. I had just rounded the 1st mark in 8th place, we got the kite up and were taking off when a sudden broach ended our hopes of a good result, the water pressure had caused the blade to move back from the vertical and when I tried to correct the broach the pressure snaped the blade.

The lesson has lived with me; make sure your blade stayes down! I use a sheer pin these days! It's a bit of a pain when racing in shallows but I never have problems with the blade sliding up in a blow.

I sailed Cadets for 3 years and it was great fun, I didn't win much, my best result was a 4th in the Blue Circle SC open meeting 1978 and even at the club level I was always chasing the leaders in my ancient boat. Unlike some kids I didn't have my parents trailing me about and cheering me on, spending thier hard earnt money on new sails, fittings and the best equipment. That's not to say they were not supportive, they were but most of the time I cadged tows to events and got most of my support from club members and the cadet fleet captain with the result that I gained confidence in my own resources and how to mix and work with others. I got a paper round to earn money for paint and fittings, I bought second hand what I could and asked about for free stuff. I was given an ali' mast to replace the old wood one and someone gave me a spare rudderblade, the local boat builder sold me a new centreplate cheep when mine busted, I just had to paint it. I think it did me good and I learnt the principle of giving and recieving, helping others in a sort of 'pay-it-foward' kind of way. Later in life I discovered that this is a truly Godly principle but you have to do it without expecting anything back, just do it because you can and someone else needs your help. Such an attitude has it's own reward. I don't know how it works, it just does; its the 'divine economy' of God. Thinking about it maybe I should see what I can do for the Junior fleet this year; just because I can.

Tacticat! almost adictive as the real thing!

2006-12-26T00:10:00.000Z

Merry Christmas folks!

Just recently, over the Christmas break, I've been playing about on an on-line dinghy racing game: TACTICAT. It's quite good fun, very much a strategic and tactical game, no boat tuning, no sail trimming etc. So it gets you thinking! I have tried a variety of start techniques, rounding marks, and most important is tackling the windward mark pile up! I have discovered that even if you join the starboard tack lay line early you will still get port tackers piling in and creating a mess in front of you and then you need to tack up and go round the pile up. Bit real to life!
Coming in late on port is no good unles there is a good gap. Best is to come in about 8 boat lengths from the mark and tack slightly beyond the starboard lay line to give about 1 - 2 boat length clearance from the mark.

The course doesn't have a wing mark as such and the leward mark is a gate which is interesting and if the wind direction has a good bias then picking the right way through the gate is very important, go the wrong way and you throw away boat lengths.

The game has even got wind variations so making it even more interesting and bringing in an element of luck; I got a bang on start on one race only to discover that the wind started a permanent shift favouring the other side of the beat, 20 seconds after the start!

The only problems is that the controls are a bit clunky and if your comms drops out momentarily then you lose control completely, which is no good if you have a manouver coming up. Otherwise its really good fun. Give it a go and see what you think.

Y'all have fun now! Y'hear?

http://www.tacticat.com/index.php

The decking of Poppy!

2006-12-16T18:29:00.000Z

Ok so I have been busy for a while and although I have spent some time working on Poppy Until recently there had been no major changes. This week I took delivery of the marine ply for the deck; two 8x4 ft sheets of 4mm 3ply for the princly sum of £30. Not bad eh? It came protected with two sheets of thin cardboard, just the job for making templates! So now I have two templates cut, one for half a foredeck and the other for the side deck. The 'differences are small enough not to require differnt templates for each side, I will simply over cut and trim down each piece to the required fit.

I have cleaned away the old 'Sadolin' from the gunell and I am now at the stage of cutting the plywood sheets, a fairly major step and best done when I won't feel rushed. Plus I want to check the templates, check the marking out and check again before I cut anything. I can't afford to make mistakes, its too costly! I am tempted to cut the two sheets together but I'm not sure, I would need to make sure the underside piece didn't move whilst cutting or it would wreck it.
The pictures show the template cut out and placed on the 'deck'. The template was created by measuring the distance from the centre line of the hull to the gunell and 4" points, then 'plotting' the curve onto the template cardboard like a graph and cutting it out. Simple!
Here are the templates laid on the plywood sheets ready to markout.
The bottom picture shows the new corner piece (there is one either side!) to strengthen the hull when the rig is tensioned. I re-glued much of the framework and it is much stiffer now.

A day to be proud

2006-11-24T23:42:00.000Z

Today was a day to be proud. My little Princess graduated in a graduation ceremoney at Canterbury Cathederal! What can I say? But well done daughter.
She has completed 3 years at ChristChurch University in music (she plays the Cello and violin) and come away with a Bmus Hon.

Not only that but she is a pretty good crew too!

Here she is pictured outside Canterbury Cathederal.

This is a bit of the ceremony I found on YouTube, it is worth a look just to get a bit of the flavour. You have to endure the National anthem first but the bit that follows is brilliant and an indicator of the standard of the music performed by the students.

stripped naked and washed down!

2006-11-05T21:15:00.000Z

Well its done! there's no going back now. No more racing until the spring!
This weekend, Jo and I took all the fittings off Wild Goose and washed her out thorougly. At the moment she is under her normal cover but I'm hoping to get her into a barn until I've finished on PoppyCock and then I will swap them over to work on Wild Goose ready for the new season.

The pictures show Wild Goose in variouse states of undress, you can also just make out Poppy in the garage.

The other shot is of the king post support which has a nasty crack in it. I had tried to fix it with an epoxy glue as a temporary fix but when I came to remove the glue it had turned to a sort of rubber! So I guess it sort of kept the water out but didn't do much else.
You can see from the black water stains that the water has crept under the block so whatever glue I use it has to get right into the the crack, filling it completely providing a water tight solid strong joint. Any ideas what kind glue would do that? The alternative is to remove and replace the block and I don't fancy that idea much.

Last sail of the season

2006-10-30T15:00:00.000Z

Rollesby Sailing Club open meeting was great fun even though there were only 4 Enterprises entered and one of them had gear failure and had to retire.

Jo and I set off at about 8am and arrived in good time, we quickly rigged the boat and got changed. It was quite breezy and gusty and I was a little apprehensive as racing on ponds can give rise to some wicked wind shifts and heavy gusts resulting in sudden baths!

I got a good start in the first race, in the middle of the short line and was first at the windward mark by some quirk of good fortune! I took the wrong line to the next mark and had to gybe losing out to the other two boats. However I did manage to stay with them and I soon got the hang of the gusts and clawed back into second place by the finish. The second race I was again 1st at the 1st mark and stayed in front all the way to the finish! I was now in equal first place! Oooh!

My start in the third race was a real mess and I was trailing third and had to work hard to get into second place, I got to the 2nd from last mark and tried to cut inside the leader and the mark as we rounded onto the wind. He slammed the door on me and I had the choice of hitting him, the mark or shooting the wrong side and having to tack and gybe round. I took the latter and had to tack around the stern on the third boat. (What a silly billy was I) This turned out to be the pivital mistake of the event for me and determined my finishing position.

So I now had one and a bit legs to catch up. I did and it looked like I just got back into second place as we finish with a split millisecond between us but in fact he just snuck into second (I didn't know this until the prize giving, both of us thought I had pipped him!).
Now I could do no better than finish second even if I won the last race and I thought with a 1st and 2 2nds I had alread done that but I was wrong.

By the time the last race started the wind had moderated a lot and I was having a lot of problem adjusting. I just couldn't get the boat going, our tacking turned to rubbish and we struggled to keep up. we finished 3rd and on equal points withe the other contender for second place and thus, because we had the same discard and he won the last race he took took second spot (and the bottle of wine) and we got third place.

It was very close racing against good sportsman on a lovely, if small, puddle on a lovely sunny day. Fantastic fun.

The sigificant lesson for was that I should not try to squeeze inbetween the mark and good sailor, it can only end in tears!
If I had hung back at the mark rounding and allowed the leadser to clear the mark I might well have managed to get past him to win the race but I would certainly have held my position and finished second overall. I just hope I can remember the lesson!

Here is the Rollesby sailing club report: http://www.rbsc.org.uk/default.asp?id=29&mnu=29

Now I have to pack the boat away for the winter and get on with the job of redecking PoppyCock!

Deckless PoppyCock

2006-10-21T18:03:00.000Z

decklesspoppy-1, originally uploaded by snettbish.

PoppyCock is getting a new deck! Ripping the old deck off doesn't take long but t looks like it will take a bit of time to clean it up.

1st stage is to completely remove the old and clean off all the old glue etc.

Some of the pins holding the old foredeck just disintegrated when I tried to pull them out and two corner pieces just fell out!
No wonder the old girl flexed so much! Hopefully the new deck will make he much stiffer.

I think I'm gonna try a 4mm ply instead of 6mm, it should help shed some weight.

Northampton open meeting

2006-10-21T10:10:00.000Z

Nhampton, originally uploaded by snettbish.

Here we are on the lay line for the mark. bows obscured by the mark

Northampton open meeting

2006-10-21T10:07:00.000Z

2006northampton1, originally uploaded by snettbish.

We are at the back of this leading pack! (sail No 20202, blue hull) Lying 8th! Didn't finish there though.

I got those 'must go sailing' Blues!

2006-10-19T18:57:00.000Z

Saturday morning dawn is hidden in a fog and we are on our way to Northampton to compete in an area Championship. Sailing may have stopped at Snettisham but not elsewhere and so those desperate for a sail trail the 80 miles in fog across fens and hills to a tideless puddle of rainwater collecting in the hills of Northamton. Actuallly it's qute a nice place for a pond, and not a bad size.

Racing there was fun but it certainly put some perspective to my own abilities! Just about the best sailors in the National Enterprise fleet were there and boy! can they sail or what! There were 25 boats altogether with some from Cornwall and Scotland and hardly an old sail or old boat in sight, in fact mine was the 3rd oldest.

I'm not used to sailing on fresh water and on such restricted water at that and I didn't really get the hang of it. Although the reservoir is not particularly small the race officer only used one end and it seemed very cramped and it was very hard to get clear air. At least on the sea you can normally bang the corners until you get clear air, even in a big fleet but not on this puddle. This made the beats very challanging and the relatively short legs meant that the reaches were a procession and although the runs were more interesting it was not easy to get clear air and make a good course to the next mark. The first race was a real shock! I had the most appaling start and struggled to make sense of everything, it didn't help that the race officer moved the windward mark from where it had origonally been, I was wondering why everyone was over at one side of the course!

I did get one good start, 5th at the first mark and I managed to hold off the pack until the end of the first lap and then it all went to pieces and by the end of the second lap I was 5th from last!

We were fairly consistant in our finishing positions with a 21st as our discard and an 19th as our best. The thing that encourages me is that the chap who finished 20th regualrly does well in open meetings so even though I was so far from the front I was still in good company!

The results are published on Northampton SC website http://www.northamptonsailingclub.org/results/OpenResults2006/EnterpriseMidlandChamps2006results.htm with some pictures: http://www.northamptonsailingclub.org/galleries/Enterprise%20Midland%20Champs%202006/index.html

I found one were we can just be seen on the layline for the winward mark, our bows obscured by the mark :
http://www.northamptonsailingclub.org/galleries/Enterprise%20Midland%20Champs%202006/slides/Ent%20Midland%20Champs%20151006041.html
An altogether humbling experiance and bloody good fun!

We have one other possible event before the end of our sailing, the 29th October at Rollesby Broad SC has an open meeting! So depending on the weather we may be trailing to the other side of Norfolk at the end of the month!

Then it will be back to boat work for the winter and this year I am planning on redecking Poppycock. Watch this space for further news!

Oh no! The season is over!

2006-10-08T21:35:00.000Z

Well today was a sad day, I went to the beach to bring home my boats. Poppycock first, now tucked away in the garage where I shall start work on her soon. Then Wild Goose, now on the drive. Next weekend we plan taking WG to Northampton for an open meeting and then the last sail will be at Rollesby Broard at the end of October and that will rap up the end of the season.

September series points finished with a very disappointing day. I had a stinking cold, so I did the sensible thing (not), I took a dose of painkillers and went racing! Jo was not able to crew (She is section leader for the Norfolk Youth Orchestra and they had a rehersal) So Jon, my youngest son crewed. Jon weighs about 13st and is over 6ft tall, ideal for a blow but not a F2-3. That and the fact that I was sailing like a complete plonker meant that I didn't get the result that I need to win the September points.
In fact I got a 3rd and 4th, the worst results of the season for Club racing. I just couldn't get my act together. Almost every decision was stupid. I could put it down to my ill health but that would be unfair on my fellow competitors who sailed extremely well, especially Malcolm who won one of the two races.
The series was won by 'Whitty' who sailed consistantly well over the 5 races sailed to get the best 3 to count. The September Cup was donated by his mother in memory of his Father who origanally won the Pot at the Esssex show for 'best Pig'. The trophy was re-ingraved for the club. Nice story eh? I am pleased that Whitty won it because he had not been able to sail until September due to a back injury and there is something poetic about his victory. It's just right, if you know what I mean.

Sweet!, oh so sweet!

2006-09-24T21:37:00.000Z

Sunday morning 6am: Man is that time already? Got to get up, must get up.
6:30am: Not as much fog this morning but a fine rain. mmmm, not sure about this.
7:15am: Wot! No Enterprises? Am I the only one? Thank God it is a handicap race!
7:30am: Not much wind, patchy but it is there. The rain has gone away, the sun is breaking through and the wind looks like it might be filling in a bit. Yes I think it was worth while.

So the amarda of small and assorted boats makes its way out to the desigated start area, choosen by the beach committee (i.e. all those rigged and ready to race). The Course, choosen by the beach committee, was a simple triangle, 2 laps. Yours truly was the pathfinder gate boat. Everyone was to start thier watches as I started and record thier finish times. The results would be calculated later.

I knew that the conditions favoured the Enterprise so I decided to really get my head in gear and think strategically since I knew that it would be stratagy that would win the race.

The wind had shifted to a more southerly direction (SE) from yesterday and the forecast was for a further shift to the south. It was a very light 5mph kind of wind, a bit shifty but fairly stable, becoming less stable on the second lap as the wind started to shift around and increased in strength.

The tide was again ebbing but only just but it would increase in strength as the race progressed.

I started on port and stuck on it until I got close to the layline. My thinking was that the expected shift would favour those on the right hand side of the course, and it payed off as I was still ahead of the Laser 2000s and all but one of the Darts at the windward mark.

On the reach I sailed low to keep out in the ebb tide and away from the land to avoid the windshadow. This worked well as I had to come in on a fast close reach to reach the wing mark. A nice wide turn and in close to the mark and I was inside and upwind of the Laser 2000. I managed to keep him in my windshadow for quite a while but he did pull through and was soon ahead of me, but only just.

After rounding the leeward mark I found myself behind a slow moving Dart and sitting in his backwind. What to do? Do I try to pinch up to windward? Or break through to leeward? Or tack away? I should have sailed through his lee amd leebowed him but I tacked instead. To make things worse I had to sail beyond the Laser 2000 to avoid his backwind before I could tack back onto port.
By now the wind was shifting further to the south and this is when I realised I had done the wrong thing. If I had not tacked to clear my air I would have been ahead of the Laser 2000 again but at least he was only just ahead of me at the windward mark and I knew that if I could keep with him I would probably beat him on corrected time and might just win the race.

At the wing mark I again did a nice wide turn coming in close to the mark and this time sailed much higher in the relatively slacker tide to the last mark. By this time the wind had piped up a bit and we were sailing fairly quick. The Laser 2000 held his kite as long as he could but soon it was too close for him and he had to drop it, effectively losing his advantage and by then he was almost banging straight into the strongest current.
By sailing high initially in the slacker tide meant we kept a better angle as we approached the mark in the stronger current near the leeward mark(now the finish mark) and I think it helped us make better time.

We finished in 57minutes, only 42 seconds behind the Laser 200 and 8 minutes behind the Dart. On corrected time we had won, by about 35 seconds ahead of the Laser 2000.

The Dart who finished first acted as a time keeper and recorded the times of each boat as they reached the finish mark, which is a good job because a few had no watches and I couldn't stop mine! (finger problems!).
So it looks like I'll have another bit of silver to polish this winter! Cool!

Finally we joined in a scratch race with the Laser 2000s to a winward mark and a reach to the mark just off the beach and it was close and good fun in the freshening breeze. In fact it was so much fun we did another two laps just for fun and practice before we too headed for the beach.

What a great sail! The rest of the fleet don't realise what they missed out on!

Mixed feelings

2006-09-24T15:12:00.000Z

Saturday 23rd, 6am: Do I really want to get up?
6:30am: Fog? is it worth the drive?
7:15am: Is there anybody else at the beach?
7:30am : The breeze is good, the sun is breaking through what is left of the mist, the tide is high and the sea is calm and yes there are some others to race with! Yes it was worth it!

The three of us did a running start to the leeward mark followed by a beat to the windward mark, two reaches out and back to the wing mark and finishing of a final beat. The beats were interesting, the shifts were there and on top of that there seemed to be a persistant shift favouring the left hand side. The current was ebbing and the direction was such that the port tack was leebowed slightly giving an extra lift to that tack.

So put all these into the hat and it was hard to choose the best course. In the end I choose the starboard tack into the persistant shift and it seemed to pay. On the second beat Steve tried the port tack out to the right hand side but I don't think he gained anything by it. I think the problem is that whist the tidal flow is not even across the area he didn't get enough of an advantage from the leebow to compensate for the bend in the wind. The result was that I won with Malcolm second and Steve third.

Race two was another running start and I was last to the leeward mark, I tried sailing high to compensate for the stronger current near the mark but I think I over did it. We rounded the mark well going wide and gybing round onto the beat coming in tight to the mark and got inside Malcolm so I was well pleased with that.
I seemed to be going well and making upwind on Steve but he seemed to be preoccupied with a problem and it was strange how he didn't tack when he reached the layline. It turned out that he had collided with my eldest daughter, sailing a laser, resulting in his leeward shroud being sheered at the chainplate. Steve's mast was thus unsupported on the port side. No wonder he didn't tack! He sailed into the shore and dropped the mast in a controlled maner and was towed back to the beach by the rescue boat.
We decided to abondon the second race with the idea that Steve might need some help. By this time the tide was ebbing very fast and there wouldn't be much time left anway.
In some ways it spoilt the sail and I was left feeling a little disturbed and uneasy and a little annoyed, probably because it was my daughters fault (she had inadvertantly dropped the tiller and lost control of the boat) and I guess I felt somehow that it was my responsibility; however she is old enough to take responsibility for her own actions. I was impressed with Steve who delt with it in a very mature way; as he said, "Accidents happen. No one was hurt and that is the most important thing." What a guy! I'm not sure I would have been that calm about it.

I guess one thing that cheers me; (although it seems a little hollow and shallow in the light of the incident) I am now leading September points as I am the only one who has sailed all three races so far with a total of 5pts.
David, who was unable to race for lack of a crew, is still in contention with his two firsts so if he sails next week and gets a good result it will make it intertesting, assuming, of course that the great British weather is going to be reasonable and not wreck the last weekend of racing of the season.
I am writing this having raced today (Sunday) for the Club Cup, a handicap race where I was the only Enterprise competing against 3 Dart16s, 2 Laser 2000, a Fireball and a Laser, but more on that later. Suffice to say that there was no fleet racing for Enterprises on this Sunday so the results of the Septemeber points all rest on next Saturday's racing.

Enounters of a fishy kind

2006-09-20T11:07:00.000Z

I was looking forward to this weekend and was disappointed when I discovered that the usual crowd were not sailing! My dismay was alleviated when I discovered that One guy who has not sailed all season because of a back injury was given the all clear by his doc and was rigging his boat as I arrived. Also another less regular sailor, Claire, was also about so in the end we had three of us, making a race feasible.

Then as I took the cover off Wild Goose I remembered that I hadn't fixed her from last weekend, I simply hadn't had the time to get down to her. So We took Poppycock instead and it was intresting to note just how much lower in the water she was compared to Wild Goose.

Now the wind was about a F3 from the NNE with a slight sea, the tide a very low 5.3M making it difficult to sail close to shore. I was gateboat and I was expecting to be leading despite being in Poppycock, simply because Dave, who is normally very quick, had not sailed for almost a year, and Claire is not yet of a statndard to be a serious contender but I noted that she was never far behind which is a big improvement from the beginning of the year.

I led the first race until the last 100yds when Dave had got to grips with sailing again by then made the best of his boats superior speed and broke through above me and there was nothing I could do.

Then a funny thing happened as we were waiting for Claire to finish; a fish jumped into my boat! Joanne leapt across the boat in fright nearly capsizing us. It took about 5 minutes to get the fish out of the boat, it was impossible to grab whilst trying to sail the boat and in the end I had simply to let everything go, use a bucket to scoop the fish into and then chuck it over the side.
It was th efirst time anything like that has every happened to me!

After our enounter with the fishy kind we prepared for the next race. I was gateboat for the second race and again led at the 1st mark, but only just and again Dave broke through and took the lead. We did well to keep withhim and nearly took the lead by the end of the second beat but he was just inside us and once on the reach he never looked back and opened up the lead to win by a good margin.

So well done to Dave, it is really great to see him back on the water and in such good form, and good to see Claire and Russ doing well, much improved and hopefully they will soon be serious contenders in the club fleet racing.

Sundays racing was a washout. 6 boats intended to race (by then I had fixed Wild Goose), one dropped out due to gear failure and the rest of us just retired due the sudden and complete failure of the wind! Oh well, I lose count of how many races have been lost this year to either too much wind or not enough! I just hope we don't lose anymore this year.

bigtide-1

2006-09-10T22:39:00.000Z

bigtide-1, originally uploaded by snettbish.

The Big tide. Sunday's was even higher! Good job the winds were light and from the south. North winds hold the tide in.

Oh-oh

2006-09-10T22:30:00.000Z

Oh-oh, originally uploaded by snettbish.

Mmm, I need to fix this. But How?

Justcruising

2006-09-10T22:28:00.000Z

Justcruising, originally uploaded by snettbish.

Tim B in his Ent, taken from Wild Goose