3 wise men stood on the beach....

UK productivity fell markedly as 3 wise old men stood on the beach at Hayling and contemplated the lack of breeze when they should have been working. It looked like Windguru was going to let us down but a fitful 10 kts filled in from the North East which got the old folks rigging up. Well, apart from Mike Lennon who declared his mojo was not working and went home.

This left Ricky Tagg and I to enjoy a rather excellent blast around the harbour at dead low tide, sticking to the channels as sand banks are not particularly foil friendly. Rick decided to play an interesting game of seeing how close he could get to my gantry which was somewhat unsettling. At one point I could have leant back and pinged his wand elastic but decided that might not be the wisest of moves considering how close he was. We continued to sail until the lights on the harbour bouys came on.

I see that Philip Oligaro has sold his boat and is bemoaning the lack of activity on the Moth front. Well I can assure him that the Hayling fleet is very much alive and well and are expecting 5+ boats for the Mengham Rythe Winkle Race on Sunday the 3rd January 2010 (please click here for details). MRSC is next door to HISC (we launch from our beach) if you wish to join us as guests for the day.

As long as it stays above freezing I will continue to sail throughout the winter. I love this time of year where we have the water to ourselves and the harbour is at its most beautiful. If you are feeling lonely and wish to join us for a weekend then send me an email and I will add you to our Round Robin list which tells everyone when we will be sailing.

Moths Dominate Xmas Cracker Pursuit Race

I must admit to turning up yesterday at the club not being entirely convinced that this was going to be fun. The car said 0 deg C and when I took the cover off the boat it was as stiff as a board. Fortunately I am a sucker for the herd mentality and with so much keeness from the rest of the fleet I soldiered on with the rigging. It was really nice to meet Paul Hayden who brought his new Mach 2 over from Gurnard on the Isle of Wight to join us.

This being a pursuit race meant that the slowest boats set off first and the fastest last. At Hayling Moths sail off 583 (49ers sail off 678) so it was a leisurely wait for our start 93 minutes after the first (Optimists). We then have 58 minutes to catch up with the rest of the fleet. We started in a chilly 9-11 kts which gradually built to 15kts through the course of the race. This, of course, is excellent news for late starters.

Ricky Tagg tore through the fleet and finished comfortably first with Mike Lennon second. An RS800 was third, a Merlin Rocket fourth, and then Paul Hayden and Ricky Lovering were 5th and 6th respectively. Geoff Carveth in his Bladerider was 12th. Me? suffice to say I finished which was a result in itself but nothing to speak of here. I learnt about the importance of off wind sail setting and I am landing more and more foil gybes.

Racing over the top of the tide with a wonderful breeze made for a peach of a day's sailing. I will let you when my hands return to a normal temperature but that was a small price to pay.

It looks like it will warm up over the Xmas period so hopefully get some sneaky sails in whilst the office is closed.

2.5 days Continuous Sailing

Well I am sitting here on Sunday evening and virtually every bit of me is aching in some way after 2 and a half days of sailing.

Friday PM - 4 moths out in about 10kts of breeze. Simon Payne borrowed Ricky's boat and had his first sail since the Worlds. Its good to see him so enthusiastic. He is getting his new boat in early Jan and it sounds like he can't wait.

Saturday - 4-5  boats out and 3 boats took part in the race in about 15kts N. I was second behind Mike Lennon until I ran aground. This always make me go into super cautious mode so lots of tacks and gybes in the relatively small channels at low tide.

Sunday - 5 boats out in 6 degrees with a 13-15 kt NE. Dead chuffed as I managed to finish both races with a third in the second one after the rest of the fast handicap fleet finished a lap early. This is a problem when the leading Moth finishes in 35 minutes and the rest of the fleet of the RS700s and 800s finish half an hour later. We need to finish the Moths separately to stop the confusion.

All in all a great weekend's sailing. The split in the lefthand tramp is getting slowly bigger. I have just ordered a new set from Mach2 so hopefully it will last until then. I could do without having to fit the new ones as it is a complete pain. Apart from that the boat seems to be holding up well. I will need a new sail next season but this one should last until then.

Anyway it looks like the temperature is going to take a dive during the week. Not a great one for sailing in freezing conditions so I hope it will warm up again soon.

Correct Call this weekend

Hayling saw its largest turnout for some time yesterday. Due to the Weymouth training weekend unfortunately being cancelled 7 Hayling Mothies turned out yesterday for what turned out to be a great day over a high tide. I took part in my first race which was going reasonably well until I jumped off the top of a wave and crashed down. The Mach 2's stability on the foils is partly to blame as I tend to think it will look after me no matter what I do. I will pay more attention in future and make an effort to steer in waves like I would in a normal boat. Anyway, having already sailed for 4 hours my body said that's enough.

Another upside to yesterday was that I landed virtually all my starboard hand gybes although port ones are still proving a problem. Adam May's helpful comments about not hanging about before gybing are key to this. I seem to be developing my own technique to getting under the boom which does not involve doing the splits.

Incidentally the wind at Weymouth barely fell below 20 kts all day so it was probably a good call for cancelling the training weekend.

Today is supposed to be another blow but it looks like it might be OK. I am off to the club to do some badly needed boat work and perhaps a sail if it does not go ballistic.

All Hail Windguru!

Having continued to be plagued by strong winds over the last few weeks, it was great to get a sail in today. Windguru predicted that the wind would go round to the south and build gently for a couple of hours before dark and it was spot on!

Lost my hat which was a bummer. Also the left hand tramp is beginning to split at the front. I am hoping it will stay together for the weekend at Weymouth. We are sailing out of Castle Cove which will be different. I will blog again next week.