Freakin’ Foiler…

So I finally did it, taking into account some of the other stuff that’s happening with “me” at the moment it may not have been the most sensible move, but god it feels good!

I trekked down to the other side of Bristol, to see Mike Cooke of Aardvark Racing to  pick up his sisters Axiom 3 (3190) International Moth. Some pictures below (not me) of Mike and the boat last year:

It’s a decent looking boat, 3 or 4 years old, solid, would probably benefit from a new main at some point, but for the moment the MSL10 or MS11 (it doesn't say!) will do me fine while I work-out how to keep the tramps and the red hull above the water!

The boat design does look absolutely amazing, and I am bummed that i didn’t get a chance to sail her at the weekend, but I’m hopeful that I’ll get a sail over the next week and post some proper reactions!!

It’s not until you get up-close-and-personal with these beauties and look at they way they’re put together, the lightness of the hull, the form of the hydrofoils (see above) that you can see the class has evolved massively over the last 20 years or so that I’ve been watching them from afar.

I’m really looking forward to the challenges (mental and physical) as well as the new era of me making and evolving “boat bits” in order to get the most out of the class. There’ll be lots more to say about this topic!

BTW any thought as to a name for the boat? “Aerosol Ant Killer” was my thought.. what’s yours?

Draycote Christmas?

Google Maps have update their images of Draycote Water and the surrounding areas recently.

What the hell is that white stuff on the water?? Anyone got any ideas?

Is it:

• Snow?
• Ice?
• White-Horses?
• Reflections?
• Lots of white boats with white sails??

View Larger Map

I would be extremely interested to know what you think the white areas on the water actually are..let me know in the comments...

Technorati Tags: Soulsailor,Sailing,Draycote,Google Maps

DWSC is 18ft?

So, about 6 mad buggers at Draycote have formed a consortium and bought a skiff, of the freakin' 18 foot variety...

I am soooooo pisssed that I didn't see them canvassing for members of the consortium, dunno what the cost ended up but I would have definitely  have been up for putting my hand in my wallet and getting a share in the beast...I think it was the Ronstan boat they got... nice one, looking forwards to seeing that on the water... and if anyone bails, give me a shout, I wanna come and out and play :-)

Draycote may not get like this, but it'll always be cool...

Technorati Tags: Skiff,sailing,soulsailor,Draycote

Sailing Again and Kitting Out

So Saturday was fun, spent some top time with the family and then went to catch the last bit of the Draycote Enterprise Open... Richie Adams won.. with Stevie crewing, Jon/Alex 2nd and Youngy 3rd... but there were only 5 boats entered... really not good for the Ent fleet and I think next year they have now been forced into sharing the open with another fleet, such a shame, with so much good water and usually good breezes and always well run racing that they didn't get more boats... so such is life, good to catch up afterwards with a few of them for a beer, checked the Miracle was ok and generally chilled...

Sunday dawned, did the usual family activities through the morning and then jetted off to Draycote in the afternoon with the kids to see if it wasnt toooo windy to sail, got there and it was great, nice force 2, enough to actually move and really try her out and for the kids to get to grips with the boat properly...

Bought some proper sailing footgear for the kids, nice and warm and comfy, rigged up and we all went out...

I did all the helming this week, kids "played" with the jib sheets and leaning out etc, I have to admit, I'm pretty impressed with how they have picked up the process of tacking and gybing... spinnakers are a little more tricky, but will come with practice, hopefully!

So we had a good sail got the kite up and after a little faffing about, got the bugger flying nicely... not sure I would be quite as calm in a race situation, but if I'm gonna keep my kids interested in crewing me, I'll have to bite my lip...very hard!

So after a while, youngest was getting cold, so we dumped him in at the shore and me and the eldest went out for another 20 mins sail... slotted in behind the lead Miracle in the afternoon race for a few mins, just to get a vague view as to our boat speed and stuff, all looked good. certainly wasn't loosing out so happy with that (so why did I decide to fiddle with the boat set-up when I got in???), then we beat up to the North east shore, tacked around and popped up the kite for a nice broad reach back to the club, eldest had the chance to have a proper go at the spinnaker, without his brother getting in the way etc, went well, he understood what I was explaining, I think, and seemed to be enjoying himself...

So after a good sail, we popped the boat back in and, once in it's berth, I started to check the boat set-up... rig-tension and mast rake being what I was gonna worry about for the moment... spreaders etc can be fiddled with "over-winter" when I take it home...

So mast rake was out (from what I could tell) by about an inch and a half and tension was very light as I suspected.. dropped the rig back on the shrouds a hole to see what that difference made...better but not perfect... oh and then came the question do you measure it to the highest point of the transom or the bottom of the "dip", about 2 or so inches difference...hmmm I was measuring to the top, a local guy thought it was to the top..arse.. now I'm confused.. also fiddling with the rake knackered the "rope and pulley" system the previous owner had for whopping on the rig-tension... it was a system I didn't like and promptly started trying to re-think and re-implement.. but it was getting late and cold, I was getting stressed and not really getting anywhere, so I gave up went to the bar, chilled and went home for Sunday dinner with the wife and kids and dog...

Great weekend...

So convinced the kids are into sailing (for the moment) and after trying a 3mm wetsuit on my eldest which was too good a fit (no growing space) and I think too thin for our winters; they really need 5mm steamers to sail during the winter and be "comfortable" and enjoy the experience... my dad reminded me that the wetsuits he made me as a child (nice black neoprene and yellow tapes!) were 5mm... so we said no thanks to the 3mm wetsuits and I've ordered two Tiki steamers off the Internet, hopefully be arriving in the next few days!!

So, this week / weekend I need to get the boat "re-tuned".... forecast looks not so good for sailing with the kids - 8 degrees C and 13mph-17mph, so we shall see - may sail, may not, but come the following weekend, we'll have steamers... a highly-tuned boat and bags of enthusiasm... I hope!

It's Time 4 A Change...?

..and I really need the assistance of the collective Sailing-bloggers out there to guide me into a new sailing direction...

So, Enterprise sailing seems to be very unfortunately waining... still doing some but not as much as I want so I need some other water/wind/boat stimulation.

Solo sailing... this was the obvious choice as Draycote Water SC has a stack of Solo's out most weeks BUT has it turned into cheque book sailing, please someone tell me if its different, but it appears that the new boats are winning and the older ones are struggling to keep up?? (thats what my dad says)

Plus my dad's talking about giving up the Solo after this year and buying a small 2-hander to sail with my kids...

So, some options from me......

1. Buy a Solo, hold out for a bloody quick bargain and until that happens sail my dad's pretty quick Solo as much as is reasonable

2. Buy a Miracle, what you say a slow two man boat with hardly a fleet at Draycote... well this is true but it would be good for my dad to take the kids out in and if they take to it, theres the opportunity (wih my eldest) to do some events... (and I'd get my dad to keep his Solo so we could use either)

3. Just Sail the Enterprise, maybe I should just be satisfied with the sailing I've got with James and occasionaly sail my dads boat as well.. think of all that extra time for DIY and stuff!

4. Buy a single-handed speed machine, now that would be fun.. but I don';t want to waste mone like I didi with the nearly-forgotten Laser.EPS

5. Sod Sailing... take up surfing or windsurfing or just give it up completely.....

What do you guys think....? Don't forget I'll be blogging about whatever it is forever so it's upto you to make it an interesting choice for an interesting read!!

sailing boat soulsailor

Tough Decisions for an Optimist

So I found out the other day that Draycote were selling their fleet of Optimists... ranging from about £200 to £600.. I immediately got very excited and thought yey! I can buy my boys a boat for the spring, get them sailing properly next year etc etc...(big grin on face)... then I thought about the condition of the boats.. Ifigure a couple of hundre quid for a first boat is fine to get them interested, but if tha equates to the worst, most battered boat in the fleet then maybe thats not so good...

Then I got to thinking hold on they're selling all the Optimists.. they're using Cadets and Pico's as the training boats... how much fun is a lone Optimist going to be, whether or not I spent many a happy year in the damn things, whats my son's gonna feel like being the only Optimist there...

It was a tough one for me, I'd love them to follow in dads foot=steps, but I also dont want to rush them into anything... so thats it.. the chance has sailed by, I haven't (for the moment) bought a boat for the kids and well, I'll keep deliberating!

Pico... Optimist...Cadet... Solo... Enterprise... too many ideas...