I went down for some friendly racing at Emsworth on Thursday. Perfect conditions initially with 5-8 knots of breeze from the south straight down the slipper pond. They are a great bunch of sailors and have a lot of fun and race very competitively.
David Howlett was the race officer for the morning and did a fantastic job with good trapezoidal courses and windward leewards. Variety is the spice of life.
It started dry but as the morning went on it drizzled and the wind went soft, only picking up in the last race.
What an up and down day. First in the practice race, last in the first real race as picked the boat up weed before the start and had to make a pit stop. Won the next race, another pit stop in the third for weed (last place) and won the forth race. The last four races were a mature of top 5 places and in the last race lost concentration in the last race on the first beat as I was walking round a motor boat to move up the course and was hit by a starboard boat.
You would not believe the glee on peoples faces when they all said 29 finished on the water in race 1 and 3. They need to be kinder to visitors.
It was a fun day and had the boat set up with just over 10mm gap between the main post and the inside edge of the boom and the jib boom pointing at the shroud. It was particularly fast when the wind picked up over 5 knots but perhaps not so good for the very light weather when I could have done with a bit more height on the beat.
Dave Campbell James took the honours by 2 points and sailed very steadily on the day with Dave Cockerill third, a couple behind.
My thanks to all at Emsworth. Good competitive fleet and well organised racing. See you all again after Christmas.
Comments