Cheap Gin, Drama & Too Many Sausages (Southport 24Hour Race)

First Enterprise Yay!

So this post is very very rushed for 2 reasons.. (1) the memories are starting to fade already and (2) this laptop gets handed back tomorrow as I change jobs… sorry but it’ll be better than nothing, I hope!

Anyway, lets wind back to the start… It was touch and go for a while as to whether I was gonna make it to Southport, no crew meant no pass out, even for the Commodore! So social media (facebook, twitter etc) were put into action to try to attract an awesome crew to sail (and drink) with me.. a few false starts, lots of interest but “cant make this weekend” responses and then, from left field, Anne Jackson (already on the team) realised that Rachel had never done Southport and wanted too… perfect!

So The Jackson’s rocked up at chez Clay Friday night a few minutes after I’d finished my home-made steak and chips…good timing.. we transferred the contents of here car into my boot and headed-off in the bloody rain towards Southport and “the party”… two and a half hours later, a coupe of wrong turns and almost constant story telling from Anne we arrived, the rain had eased so tents were “popped-up” quickly and off to the bar.

Up until that point everything was clear, but after that it was a haze of pints of Bitter, G&T, friends I hadn't seen for 12 months or more, team members and random strangers.. I love how you just pick up from where you left off, proper friends!

So at some point in the way too early in the morning kinda timeframe I stumbled with a couple of “colleagues” over to the tents and we all disappeared. Despite the rain I actually slept bloody well until 8am ish (a lie in our house!), I was disappointed to have not managed to get a “lake view” but I think it was quieter at the back and therefore it was a small price to pay! I dozed for a while longer and then after some tweets etc located the best source of sausage, baps & coffee….

So after numerous cups of tea (the coffee taste crap 1st thing, improved later) and some “breakfast” it was time to help sort the boat our and get the starting guys on the water cleanly… Johnny & Alex had a decent start, second flight and great boat speed..and then that was it.. round the marine lake the guys went and I settled in for some watching sailing, drinking tea and catching up with everyone.

Went to the Commodores Reception as always, nice glass of sparkling wine and some canapes… didnt get mullered this year, think you only make that mistake once!

The time to chillax watching the sailing… I did think that it would be very cool if the boats had GPS’s in them so you could track the paths.. be interesting to see whether the top 10 did anything dramatically different than the rest of the fleet!?

We got ourselves over the course of the first few hours up to top 10 position and 1st / 2nd Enterprise so we were on the money, the course was very much in favour of the GP14’s so that was gonna be a battle to climb any higher in the rankings.. but we were god damn trying!

So come late evening, as the sun was starting to set, I was fed and watered (pizza mainly) me and Rachel Jackson sat watching the wind drop (ideal) and the HUGE menacing black clouds build over the sea…<gulp>, interestingly the talk around the boat park was of it getting up to 20-30knots but Johnny was adamant that some weird meteorological “thing” was going to happen and the wind would drop more.

Anne Jackson and Claire were on before us and, as we saw the rain move slowly across the retail park and the dark clouds come above us, and the wind squalling in at 20-30 knots…. I started bricking myself… the last time I sailed an Enterprise was exactly 1 year ago at Southport 24 hour race, I’ve lost weight and Rachel is shall we say on the light side… all up weight was barely 16 stone, not ideally for the squally conditions!

So after lots of pannicking, debate etc we decided to put me helming and Stevie Graham in the front, Anne had had enough so we dived in (a shall we say slick but hairy changeover) out into the middle of the marine lake and then a quick gybe and settle down for our stint… Nailing that first gybe out of the changeover area was awesome, and my confidence came back in bucket-loads… so we had a great 2 hours sailing in decent breeze, with the occasional mad squall coming through, we both sailed well and the boat felt bloody fast!

So we had a great session and I was absolutely buzzing when I cam off the water…. proper big GRINS! So had a half decent hot shower, cup of tea and then went and cracked open a bottle of organic Gin & borrowed Tonic in cardboard Waybuloo cups ;-) So that set me up for a great evening of merriment and then bed in the not too early hours of the morning …

So what was I think around 5am in the morning the alarm went off… coffee, lots of coffee and food, lots of sausages were purchased to get me awake enough to sail the Ent (in first place Ent and in the top 10 overall) around the marine lake with Rachel.

The wind was decent, Rachel thankfully was awake and we went out in her first sail at the Southport 24 hour race and had a great sail, we were consistant, had good boat speed and managed to hold our position nicely (Thanks babes)…. come 8am our stint was done and it was time to retire to the team area, drink more coffee, try to sober up a bit and watch the racing…

So by the end of the 24 hours we were 1st Enterprise, the first time SoulSailor Racing Association has achieved this AND we had 3 * 1/4 lap penalties… ermm didnt I mention that? OK, I only did one of them ;-)

So another awesome event, Southport 24 hour race is a must attend event for all dinghy sailors… it was an awesome craic!

Thanks very much to the team, it was definitely a team event and we succeeded in awesome fashion… see you next year and hopefully before then!!

Aching to Fly!

So as I write this I ache, mentally a little and physically.

Sailing the Moth is awesome, I still haven’t got to grips with the beast yet, but each time I sail I get more confidence, more in tune and more flight-time.

Mentally its a challenge, the balance, the tuning of the rig, foils and physical position and movements… Rigging is now pretty much sorted, although I am still struggling with getting the mast up, not sure whether I’m doing something wrong, or lacking some upper body strength or just ‘cus I’m a short-arse?

I had some really decent foiling runs yesterday, the breeze was probably just sub-10knots the gusts may have been a little more, but not much… I loved the fact that at one point I was foiling but knelt on the centreline! Not sure how many foiling runs I had, but I managed a lot more variation in points of sailing and lots more course changing when up on the foils.

Strangely, and I think I may need external help on this, most of the foiling runs ended, at some point either because of the wind dropping, or more confusingly for no apparent reason… what tended to happen was either:

• Loss of control and a broach with the windward wing smacking the water….and capsize
• Foiling nicely and then a relatively slow heel to windward and then a sudden nose-dive, and a lurching to windward heel and capsize

Still in both the scenarios I didn’t need to worry about tacking… bloody boat did that for me as I was “ejected”! But why.. what is causing the end to the beauty of my foiling run?

• Weed?
• Issues on the surface of the foils?
• Body position?
• …or just the way it happens….(surely not?)

Anyway, the new aluminium trolley worked well I(thanks dad), nothing broke, reputation in tact…. just a shame no-one had a camera to snap my exploits!

I love the moth, I haven’t given it enough time, not enough time on the water, but I hope that Autumn and Winter will give me that time and I can saill in stronger winds and foil more consistently.

Sailing the moth is an awesome buzz, its a challenge on so many levels with associated grin-factor!

Beg Borrow Steal… Compete

Last Saturday dawned with a great breeze to go take the Moth out and have a semi-blast… unfortunately by the time I was actually awake the breeze had waned considerably!

I went up to Draycote to watch my eldest son sailing in an RS Tera and was so proud that he is coming on so well, really enjoying being out on the water and starting to find his “groove”… he’s even started to get a competitive spirit about him and in the next few weeks he’s gonna start race training which is awesome!

So, after deciding not to take the Moth out, I ummed and errred as to whether to go out in my Dad’s Solo and do the last two races of the Solo Open Meeting… with 20 mins before the start to go I decided what the hell… borrowed a sail, borrowed a wetsuit and lifejacket and went out bare-foot solo sailing in a F2 shifty-as-hell breeze.

So with hastily purchased tuna bap in hand I hit the water, practicing some boat handling and generally getting my smeg-together..

Wind was very patchy, and about a minute or so before the start of the 2nd race, I noticed a few gusts coming down the left  side of the course. The line was fairly square so I legged it over to the pin end, had good boat speed off the line and went of a couple of hundred yards in breeze before tacking on top of the rest of the fleet, looked good for a while, with the breeze lifting on port tack, but as it started to die half way up the beat the wind veered and I dropped back into just inside the top 10. The rest of the race was pretty uneventful, had some decent boat speed downwind and made a special effort to go very deep on both the reaches and the runs to try to break into the lead pack.. By the end of Race two I’d managed to just eek myself into 6th place.

So, no time to go back in for a drink or anything.. Race 2 started in pretty much the same kind of breeze, with the lulls being depressingly lighter…I was feeling fairly confident so decided to make a statement and do a port tack flyer… left the final run too late and was around 5 secs late to the start, but pin was favoured so that limited the damage of my ineptitude! This race seemed harder going than the last, did some good moved both upwind and downwind and sailed pretty aggressively, but something always seemed to limit the effectiveness of my moves, gusts from the other side of the fleet, scuffles at the windward mark… and leeward mark around rule interpretations (and idiots).. So after lots of hard work for very little gain I ended up 8th in race 3.

It was a good couple of events, great to stretch the tactical mind a bit and 9th overall out of 22 and only doing 2 out of 3 races weren’t too bad…

The full report and results are here: Draycote Solo Open Meeting

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

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

Summer is Cancelled...?

OK, some not-so-bloody-good-news....

It's looking very likely that James and I won't be doing the Enterprise Nationals this year in beautiful Abersoch...

So there are two options to stop this issue and get me there:

1. If you're a pretty good yachter, have a decent Enterprise, fancy crewing and would like me to helm for you at Abersoch, email me
2. If you're a potential sponsor, and you wanna pay for me an' James to got to Abersoch and be your advertising bitches for a week, email me

If you do email me then it ain't no guarantee... I'm just considering the options..Either way, its all looking a little dodgy I'm afraid for this summers Soulsailor outing....

Whatever happens, be sure that you will see me and James out on the circuit somewhere this year...promise...

Steve Nicholson Memorial Trophy

So first races of the new year... wicked!

160 boats rocked up to Northampton SC on Saturday morning for the annual "freeze-yer-nadgers-off" race!

So, I got there, registed, gave my cash for charity (Asthma research) and found James, new seasons welcomes and hello's to Salty, Anne, Alan, Steve, Chessie etc etc Soooo good to see you all again..

There was a light breeze, some sunshine and a lot of happy sailing faces... no time for coffee or bacon/sausage sarnies which was not a good start, but we were sailing in the plastic tub (23056) which was gonna be good, miss the feeling of plastic on my arse!

So went to the briefing.. usual stuff... we were first start, 60 double-handers (non-asymetrics), one start line.. nice! We had an OK start, very quickly buried by FF15's, fireballs and lots of other bigger boats... hey ho such is the joys of pursuit races! So on with the proper race which was pretty much try to do well in the pursuit but make sure you finish hi up the Ent class :-)

So an average start, average to piss-poor first bit of the race, then we got into a bit of a groove, the race was only about 45 mins, by the last long downwind leg we had managed to crawl our sorry arses upto Steve and Anne, the leader (of the Ents) was well away... rounded the windward mark, Steve and Anne went high with a Lark (crewed by Mr.Haighton) we went fast and really low and overtook the both of them... ahhh that's better...

So back in for lunch while the asymetrics had a play, long queue for the pastie and cup of tea, plenty of time to catch up with everyone which was cool, then back out for the second and final race.

So rocked up at the start line, had a sail around, relaxed, checked out the course, checked out the breeze and the line bias... countdown started, re-checked bias, got vaguely into position, lots of boats (60) start stacking up, we pick a spot about 10 boat lengths down for the committee boat, gaps are starting to disappear, a fireball to windward has left an Ent-sized gap to leeward (N12 is stalled and can't move into the gap) so I slot us into the start-gap Fireball helm&crew go nuts "no room" and other such crap... we get close, fireball drift DOWN onto us (they're not that in control) Fireball geezer grabs our shrouds and tries to push forward off us... so I grab his shrouds and do the same.. he appears to be unhappy, says some words I don't understand, I tell him, well, I tell him some things... managed to get a good push to break us apart, we start up the beat, he tacks onto port (still gesticulating and communicating using short words and profanities!) and then he gets called (and hit) on Port by Anne (thnxs Anne)... so an eventful start, we have a good 1st beat, can't remember if we were 1st Ent or not, we certainly were at some point, but Brian Garrison AGAIN got into the lead Grrrrr, still a good race, some close sailing, not light enough for us to have a chance at doing well overall and not windy enough for some real fun, but certainly enough to blow the cobwebs out and have some tactical games, which was cool..

So we ended up 39th overall, Brian&Tim were 28th and Steve, Martin and Anne 46th, 47th and 48th respectively.

So boat away, shower, watch some grandad doing doughnuts in his car on a muddy boat-park and then into the bar for a pint and more socialising before heading off home down the amazingly boring A14!

Congrats to everyone who took part and helped raise money for the Asthma UK charity.

Seasons Greeting!

Well another year is almost past, I've had about 20400 visitors in the life of this site and you are one of them and for that I am proud and thankful... and it (the site) and me have seen our fair share of sailing ups and downs... but now its Christmas, a time for family, for giving, reflecting on the past and looking forward to 2007...

Thank you all for being part of the last 12 months (or more), thanks for those of you who are close to me, who read my small piece of sailing madness regularly, you know who you are thanks...

Seasons Greatings, Merry Christmas, Love to you all and have a great Soulsailing 2007.

Who Inspired Us?

So Tillerman has asked the question and the wet and windy bits of the blogosphere are answering.. the question? Who or What was your inspiration to start sailing?

So what the hell happened to me at an early age to turn me into a sailor?

Bloody caravans....

Yep when I was about 6 my dad (Mick) leant some guy who lived on our street his caravan, the guy re-payed my dad by taking him out for a sail one sunny afternoon... he enjoyed it, he had another go, he did some crewing (Ents, Flying Fifteens etc) he joined Draycote Water SCC and did more crewing, then he tried helming, he liked that, bought a Solo and well that was that for him, completely hooked and still sailing now...

For me, I went and watched, got dragged along to open meetings and nationals and regattas, watched the cool sailors the competitive sailors and the bloody fanatastic sailors and learnt stuff, read books about transatlantic crossing, single-handed voyages etc and got took out in boats, tried Optimists and did the usual Royal Yachting Association way... up through the junior levels in Optimists and bang I was addicted too... As for inspiration, that I think was "just sailing", just being out there with the elements was what I enjoyed, oh yeh and the competition and the adrenalin fueled reaches in a force 5 when your doing well and you can't afford to capsize on the gybe and you nail the gybe...ahhhhhh...

As for people that inspired me, well it was the people I grew up sailing against really Ian Walters (Europe and Lark National Champion), the Irish's (Greg and Steve) National and International rockstars in various classes (and still are)... then there were some inspirational Optimist sailors who were around and have now dissapeared from the scene Jeremy Davey, Tony Gunstone oh and of course the Lovering brothers, they're still around...Debbie Jarvis (Womens 470's @ the Olympics) was someone I knew well, who helped me and I followed her campaign closely (Thnxs for the Chrimbo card!) and of course John Merricks was a big inspiration as I came out of Oppies and into sailing 420's. During my student years I just got exposed to more and more random good sailors (and drinkers) in random classes I tried and the Enterprise class and my old mate James Date from the Laser class was always telling me to hike harder and get fitter...! (one day I will listen to him)

So thats a very quick view of how I got here, now I need to go and wrap up some Christmas presents....!

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...

One Sailing Boot...

...on the virtual property ladder.

Yep I'm close to doing the do, yes I'm sad, yes I find Second Life interesting, and yes I'm close to buying some land...

So what do I do....

Should I buy one of these, 2 storey houses on a little lagood with a bar in the middle (not sufficient space to sail though):

Or what about this piece of land, not much space for building put a fair bit of sailing space in front:

Seriosuly guys what do you think... if you were hanging out in second life and were gonna come and visit me then where would you wanna go?

Its quite tricky to know what to do.. these properties are all on 512 sq metres of land which is the largest land you can own in SL withought incurring monthly fees... I'm hoping as land prices increase so the value of a measely 512 will also increase.. an investment honest!

Crapper..

Jeeze I am sooo sorry, I've been lame in the past and not posted as often as I should but now I've gotten crapper.. really sorry groovers.. anyway I don't have an excuse, works busy but not inspiring, evenings seem to go way too quickly and I seem to have less time to do stuff when I'm not sailing..go figure.

Anyway I've gotten properly addicted to Second Life now...sorry... seems like other "normal" blogger have too I see Zephyr is posting on it and I'm sure others will follow...

I currently spend my time wandering, exploring, playing, sailing and looking for a "home". Yep I got sad enuff to start thinking it would be cool to own some second life land... I'm looking for a small piece of land 512 sq metres, with an ocean, lake view thats sailable ideally with "space" for a pontoon to moor my boat... let me know if you see anywhere good.

I had my first foray into SL sail racing last week... so ive customised my boat (a Tako 3.2) its got a wooden hull, painted white foils and a "racing" blue/purple main and spinnaker... looks pretty good I think?

So last Thursday evening I rocked up to Starboard Yacht Club in Second Life and put my boat on the water, hoisted the main, had a good practice then the 2 minute gun went, and a good 8-12 boats were there jostling for position on the line, it was pretty cool. You are at the mercy of Computer processing power and the bandwidth of your web connection so you get some jerking at times but otherwise the experience is pretty groovy... I took part in about 4 races, never finished one of the bloody things... first race I was late to the start! Second race I got ground on an island while I was popping the spinnaker up! 3rd race, good start boats all around me, some pulled away, some dropped back, going ok...then I got lost! The course is not straightforward, around marks around islands etc... I really havent got my head round it (I need James to help me navigate!), same happened in my last race as well, going well, started following someone who then did some random manouveres and there we go lost again...

Think I need more practice and maybe suggest a good old Olympic triangle-sausage course!

Anyway thats it for now... maybe some more virtual sailing reports later this week and if I buy me some land I'll invite you all over for the house warming party!