Why is it some days I can go out and sail like a god and then others the devil gets into my head and it all goes wrong. My sailing a Poole yesterday was an example of what not to do on the race course. Misjudging starboard crosses, trying to do turns in the middle of the fleet, being conservative when an aggressive attitude on the start would have been so much better. We sailed at the south end across the inner pond by the clubhouse. The beats were short and racing tight w

Boat Preparation The DF 65 comes in a box with the hull fully fitted but before you put it on the water there are things you meed to do. Waterproofing. I put a little 5 minute epoxy around all the screw eyes on the deck to make sure they are completely sealed. You can also fit a sticky back plastic sheet on the bottom of the hull around the fin box. I am not sure if this has any impact on performance but as I found on my last DF95. when the fin box started cracking at the b

I have tested, spinnaker cloth, wool, strips of silver fabric used as warm blankets after marathons and finally concluded that there is nothing better than a piece of wool. I wanted to prove Craig Richards wrong but yet again I have to agree with him. To quote someone at the last DF TT, "Hse is annoyingly good". On a recent visit to a garden centre, I found the perfect black wool, three strands but very light, ideal for tell tales. With a quick spray of Fly Float the woole

Subtitle - Finally a win for the author against Craig Richards, described by one competitor as annoyingly good. Southport, UK — Competitors arriving for the DF Traveller Trophy weekend at West Lancashire Sailing Club (WLSC) were greeted by a familiar companion: relentless February rain. For many, the journey north on Friday was a tour of Britain’s saturated landscape, with flooded fields stretching across Oxfordshire and the Midlands. By the time sailors reached Southport, t