Today I sailed at Datchet and could not have asked for better weather. We had a good turnout of boats with some top skippers but most important of all, we had a light breeze with a difficult chop to contend with. It is easy to sail an IOM fast in flat water, but a real challenge to sail the boat precisely in a chop and shifting breeze.
The conditions were reminiscent of Spain in the afternoon sea breeze. The advantage of Datchet is that when the wind is in the southerly quarter it blows right across the reservoir before it gets to the race course.
I got close up to a 3d printed Alioth and V11 and both proved to be equally competitive. The 3d build is now starting to look robust and must be a designers dream as you can put a new enhanced design together and test the result by 3d printing it, as long as you know how to use the software.
Lastly I tried a new technique of steering off the start line to eliminate my heavy handedness by using two fingers on the stick. By stabilising my fingers, I was able to squeeze the boat up gently without loosing speed. I noticed Tony Edwards did this and always wondered why. Now I know.
Next weekend is the IOM ranking event at Woodspring. Should be fun if the wind blows from the right direction and the pedalo swans stay off the race course.
