Racing, Curry, Beer and Conversation.

This Wednesday evening my new crew, Stuart Jones, and I participated in battle of seamanship skills, tactics and strategy in light winds among a fleet of various boats and competitors of varying levels of competency and managed a 5th place (very nearly a 4th). Considering it was our first race together and Stuart had never crewed in an Albacore, I think we did very well in very interesting and quite testing conditions. It was one of those races where you needed to keep an eye out for the gusts of wind and respond quickly in adjusting the sails to get the best boat speed. It was great fun. Afterwards we all enjoyed curry and beer and chatted about everything from why men are really never any older than 12, to racing and sailing experiences to even talking about religion and spirituality.
Below is a video of the race from the perspective of the end of my boom (and why not?) and you can get a flavour of the racing. Its quite long so just skip though it and catch bit of it - unless you're really bored. I'm afraid you really had to be there to enjoy the curry, beer and conversation; no video could do it justice.