I have sailed at Gosport twice now. They have a fabulous facility with racing run by Paul Edwards who does an amazing job. Not only is he a skilled measurer and creative race officer, he is a dab hand with vane and skilled radio sailor who offers plenty of excellent advice and give praise to all.
Last Thursday the wind was blowing down the lake 5-10 knots with 13 boats on the water so great for starting practice and getting the first beat right. The course was windward leeward with a gate at the leeward end. The first two races did not go to plan. I sailed the plan but the plan was wrong. Those boats that got out to the left hand side of the course picked up a very handy port lift to carry them across the fleet. Those that went right got a port tack header. I went right thinking there was more wind. Going the wrong way combined with my ability to trawl for weed near the edges of the water led to 2 disappointing results.
At the end of the second race Paul suggest that I might stay away from the edges of the lake which I duly did and put a string of good results together. Its funny but I felt I sailed a very average set of races only to find I won overall on count back. It is so easy to put yourself down. The other advice Paul gave me was I was starting with 1 second to go which put me over the line once but apparently I was very close to being over in some other races. Point duly noted.
I had rigged the new BG sails which look fabulous apart from a slight distortion in the upper horizontal seam of the jib. I had the same on my Housemartins so I assume it is an unfixable problem. When sailing they look perfect and I love the fact you set them up with a little mast bend which gives a lot of flexibility in the set up. Here are the results.
R9 was nearly a disaster. Over the line, hit a boat returning and then got caught on prt two more times. 3 turns but a good recovery. Not sure what I was thinking of in that race but it certainly was not stay away from trouble.
Next stop tomorrow is practice with the Emsworth team and then racing with them on Tuesday. Should be fun.