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!

Long time...

Time is just not on my side currently, it's trickling away from me faster than the tide...

So, quick re-cap before Monday morning grabs me and the melody-go-round fires off again!

Midland areas at Staunton Harold, 20 boats, kinda dissapointing I think? wind was fairly light, sun was out for a bit then it rained solid for the night and next day! We had a good first race, first round the windward mark, but then lost a fair bit and ended up 6th... after that it went bad...stabalised and basically although it was a good weekend, close racing, great beer (including the Captain G&T that me and Steve invented), broken sleep with the rain thudding on the roof and then more average sailing in the rain...sigh, we ended up 10th.... not happy really with that...again... getting boring this me not being happy with my results!

Then last Sunday I took the kids out in my dads Solo for the first time in a while... Youngest is a bit of a nutter / ninja-crew in the boat... no fear and really loves it, eldest is a little more controlled but once I got him helming he got really into it...so much so that I managed to get 5 mins sat on the foredeck, legs round the mast being a kid again! BVloody fantastic hour and a half sailing!

Then this weekend there was 2 days of "fun" at the club.... Saturday evening there was a BBQ and disco.... the sun was very warm, no breeze the BBQ was great...especially the toasted marshmallows, I had a good few mints of "Hooky", we watched the sun set with the kids playing on the shore and the music drifting out of the clubhouse... I find that kinda think amazingly chilling...

Then today was the inter-fleet champs... 6 teams of 10 or more sailors form the different fleets - Managerie, Fireball, Youth&Juniors, Miracle, Flying 15's and Solo's... very short races (10-15 mins) infront of the club house in either Laser 2's, Laser Vago's or Pico's... I had the pleasure of sailing with Lance (crewing once, we came 4th) and helming twice...first in both :-) the rest of the team had some good races and some bad... my dad capsized in 3rd place on the finish-line in the Pico...not happy! In the end after a stilt-walker, magicion, bouncy-castle, sumo-suit wrestling, sailing demo's, windsurfing have-a-go's and stacks of races.... Youth&Juniors won... well done... we came 4th or 5th but it was a fun day, I think and the wind held up and the sun shone so most people were smiling as they went home.....

Anyway lastly, best give you the recipe for Captain G&T:

Any Good landlord will tell you to stop drinking if you order this becuase in order to drink it you must have drunk way too much already....

The woman at Staunton Harold that served us obviosuly hadnt though it through... so:

Captain G&T
1 measure of Gin
1 measure of Captains Rum
Some Tonic
Shaken and Slurred

...it turns a lovely golden colour and tastes like crap... still and midnight-ish who actually cares...?
sailing boat soulsailor

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

Easter Sailing...!

Yey I went sailing! So it feels soo too long since I was sailing, after the dissapointing "mis-start" to the season of the Rugby&Daventry Open last month, getting made redundant and then a hectic few weeks of Birthdays for my family it was nice to suddenly get the opportunity to sail for myself.

Actually it was a freakin' fantastic Easter Monday... woke up, walked the dog... Family and I went to Draycote... sun shone, wind blew pleasantly (F2-F3)...

It started as an opportunity to sail with my kids, but my dad was bummed at his performance on the Sunday races so he lent me his boat :-)

So me and my youngest went off onto the water first... wan't very many minutes until he was grinning from ear to ear as we raced across the reservoir, him fishing for trout with the painter with his legs wrapped round the mast on the foredeck of my dads Solo... then he did some helming, some leaning out and had some more fishing with the end of the mainsheet out the stern of the boat... 40 mins later and some real nice quality father-son time on the water we headed in for my eldests turn... So back out again, some dark clouds managed to bring some decent gusts across the lake so we did soem nice planing (just) and he soon got back into the groove of helming the boat (damned impressive), but tacking and gybing didn't really happen, but hey its only April we've got another 6 months to perfect things and really have some fun!

So after another 30-40 mins of great sailing and fun we came in, grabbed some lunch (thanks Claire) and went off to do the Easter Monday Severn Trent Water Board pursuit race... There was about 45 boats and 12 Solo's in the mix, the breeze was light but probably not light enough for the Solo's to be in the chocolates... so with my dad's brand new Edge sail on for the first time, I set out for the start line, eager to get back into the sailing groove and see whether I could prove myself against the old-hands of the fleet (the Mikes) and the new-boyz (Norm, Greg etc)... Had a good start but didn't get enough boat-speed and wasn't in the groove enough to point high and sail fast so I soon ended up on a one-sided beat in dirty air.. freed off a bit and got into a half decent position, enjoying myself being on the water... first beat was a long bugger from the damn across to 'C' on the far side of the reservoir... by the time we got there I was in about 6th place, but knew I had the speed and brains to eek my way up the fleet a few more notches before the 90min race was over... downwind speed again didn't let me down and I managed to roll one boat on the way down the first leg, with the likes of Jon and Rich Byne chasing me a little too hard and Mike P using his years of Solo expeience against me. (damn he's quick when he wants to be!) So the rest of the race was pretty good, nice close sailing, no real chance of any of the Solo's being in the main prizes...

By the end of the race I'd managed to drag my arse upto 4th place, right behind Norm... or Dr.Norman Bird as he is now, used to be my crew in 420's (he split my head open just on my eyebrow at the Spa regatta in belgium with the spinnaker pole..thnxs!), he's sailed alsorts an dis now at that pointy end of 505's when he's not Solo'ing... Anyway, got upto Norm but he's a vicious bugger and there was no way I was gonna get past him downwinf to windward... i made a few tries at diving to leeward but there just wasnt the wind or waves to pull it off... up the last main beat I did get past him on a good lift, but when I tacked back about 10 boatlengths to windward the wind died on me, he stayed in pressure and worked the boat up in front of me... damn.. make 10 boatslengths, loose 10 boatslengths don't ya just love sailing!

So that was it.. a great sail, no stress, no hassle, just good close fleet racing... ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

So, finished the pursuit in 13th place, 4th Solo... I was happy, my kids were happy and hopefully Claire was happy too.... Happy Easter!

It is sooo good to be back... now I definately think I need to buy a boat to sail locally... I also need someone to offer me a boat and crew to do some Ent events in June and August...pleaze?

Right I need to go to bed now... I've got an interview in London in 12 hours time!

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...