The brightest t-shirt in Italy

The ultimate in non-Italian style
(stolen from Mark P's blog)

F16 Euros: Day Five

I had to leave early on Day 5, but as it turns out, there was no wind and no racing, so the results did not change. Here's how it finished:

So overall I'm pretty happy with that, I was expecting to come last.  I think the generally high winds helped me a lot.  I learned a lot during the week, I think I can make up a massive amount of ground just by practicing my tacking technique a lot more and also the boatlengths I lose at the start mean I'm chasing from the off. So quite encouraging, hopefully I can get out of landlocked Germany to get some more practice by next season.

More pictures of the event soon.

F16 Euros: Day Four

OK, so last night and this morning I have been trying to work out what I am doing wrong in the pointing department.  Been talking to a few people, Mark had some good comments on mast rake and Gill had some excellent suggestions on trim on the water - especially as he had just been single handing his falcon in the one up cup.  So based on that, I have rake the mast back a click so it's now back on the factory recommended setting, won't make much difference but may as well do it.  Upwind trim I was now going to try much less mast rotation (aiming the spanner between centerboard and back beam) and using more Cunningham than I had been.  I had been trying to keep the power on but this may have been inducing drag.  I left some shape in the top of the sail by keeping the battens firm too.
The wind is slightly lighter today, so, first race I get my usual terrible start, but the boat is now pointing as high as Hans and still has the same boatspeed.  I get ahead of Hans and beat him to the first top mark, however he seems to be sailing fast downwind now, and gets ahead before the bottom mark.  I follow him and manage to get  past him with just boatspeed. But again he beats me to the bottom mark.  Here's where it goes wrong though, I take the wrong side of the course on the last upwind and Hans pulls away.
Second race the wind is noticeably dropping, I get an even worse start than normal, I tack across to go behind everyone on port but Mark (GBR555) has had an even worse start and is still coming up on starboard.  Luckily being a gentleman he passes behind my stern without even suggesting there would be a collision.  I carry on, trying to catch Hans, but he is faster in the lighter conditions.  At the top mark I stay on the wire to reach to the spreader mark but before I round the windward mark I accidently pop the main traveler, I tea bag into the drink as the power comes off and the force of the water on me is enough to capsize the boat to windward, how embarrassing.  Mark sails past with some characteristically helpful advice on the situation....anyway I right the boat quickly and even have enough room to make the mark without tacking.  Hans is way off, so my dream of ever getting ahead of him is gone, concentrate on getting past Mark instead.  I get past him before the last downwind, which is good timing as he is definitely faster downwind, he also gybes faster, so he tries to out-gybe me all the way down the last leg.  I've learnt my lesson and just keep covering him, gybe after gybe after gybe, each one slowing me down a little bit more and each one having the risk of a mistake and a capsize.  Luckily I keep between him and the bottom mark and stay ahead.
Last race of the day, the wind has dropped right back.  An average start and the wind has evened up the single handers massively all except Hans bunched together, plus I keep making really poor tacks and losing ground. Geert (NED9) is sailing really well in this race, and looks powered up and pointing all the time, always on the trapeze.  I am having to move in and out to keep the hull flying.  We stay close until the second to last downwind leg, Mark suddenly turns dead downwind and slows down, we thought he had a spinnaker problem but it turns out he had snapped a board.  The wind gets even lighter and Geert sails a nice race, staying ahead until the end.

F16 Euros: Day Three

The boat is back to being whole again with a bright and crisp new port rudder! Back on the water in the 1st race of the day (7th in the series), I seem to be developing a tradition of needing the first race to warm up - Mark beats me over the line on this one.  The next race the roles are reversed, I'm starting to get really good upwind boatspeed, I'm pointing lower than Mark, Geert and Eric but going a lot faster, it takes real effort to not pinch and lose boatspeed.  In the next race I'm starting to get better and keeping the speed on, I take a place off Mark by sailing through his lee to windward at one point - no pinching!  Starting to get closer to Hans, but he is sailing at the same speed but higher.  Last race of the day and I actually get ahead of Hans for the first time - someone even gets a photo of it (need to track that down), not sure if this is better sailing or just luck as we took two different routes to the top mark.  Nice way to end the day, but I still need to work out why I'm not pointing (and Hans is!).

F16 Euros: Day Two

Day Two was another awesome Lake Como day, bright sunshine, slightly cooler than yesterday and a steady 18 knots of wind right on cue before the start of race one. 1st race of the day I was having a shocker, almost capsized to windward trying to adjust mast rotation from the wire - luffed the boat by accident.  Was sailing windsurfer style on the windward hull for a few seconds, managed to get enough control back to bring the boat down Mark (Stealth GBR555) and Geert (Blade NED9) were very close - close enough that I could see them laughing!  I kept on making mistakes all through this race but somehow managed to stay in touch with Mark and Geert.  We had a photo finish at the end, round the final mark, Geert had the inside line and called room on me, and I had the inside line on Mark and called room on him (I had got ahead of mark by catching with on port approaching the buoy). We went across the line with each boat overlapped by just 1/2 a boat length. Downwind runs were excellent today, fully powered up.

Race 5 went a bit better for me, not so many mistakes and my better boatspeed to windward carried me home ahead of Mark, Geert and Eric.  With glimpses of Hans (Raptor NED111) ahead.  Race 6 ended in disaster for me, by port rudder snapped in two, reaching on one hull from the windward to the spreader mark - instant capsize and end of the days racing for me - lucky it happened in the final race of the day.

Missing something.....?

Luckily for me, Falcon Marine's EU rep, theboatshop.be was here at the regatta (Gill de Bruyne sailing on Falcon BEL666) and replaced my rudder from his spares and at no cost. Special thanks to him and Matt McDonald at Falcon Marine for getting me back on the water.  Matt and Gill have given me no end of invaluable support and advice.

Hans stroking my rudder..............

F16 Euros: Day One

Today we had a typical Lake Como day, no wind in the morning and then from 1300, like magic, above 15 knots for the rest of the day.  Stayed out of trouble for the start, and was in a duel with Mark on his Stealth for most of the race, a real shake out in the higher wind, kept losing ground due to poor tacks and gybes and eventually finished behind him in 12th.  Unfortunately I became really ill during the race and just got weaker and weaker, I suspect it was due to dehydration.  I thought it wise to retire so scored 2 DNFs for races 2 and 3.

F16 Euros: Practice Day

I arrived at Gravedona about 1400 on Saturday after 16 hours of driving from Monchengladbach, broken by an overnight stay in my tent at Bad Bellingen, just short of Basel.  The trip was made a lot longer by a huge queue (4 hrs long) to get through the Gotthard Tunnel in the Alps.  Saturday was spent rigging the boat and getting the accommodation sorted.  Lots of teams already arrived, including 6 Vipers as part of the 2B sailing team who were already out sailing a mini regatta.

Due to the storm the night before, the wind was directly onshore, making it difficult to get off the ramp.  So the practice race start was delayed until the wind swung round enough to get off the ramp.  Unfortunately the wind started to lighten as well.  So, off to the practice race in a light Northerly, my first race in the Falcon F16 and my first race in anything for about 3 years.  Didn't get a great start and seemed to find all the wind holes around the course.  Made the mistake of trying to pass Eric in his Stealth on the windward side on the last downwind and got driven off into a wind hole - well the wind hole turned out to be the end of the wind! So the fleet sailed off ahead and we just drifted back. Still, good to be sailing on the lake.

F16 Euros: Lake Como

Gridlock on the A2 before the Gotthard Tunnel, Switzerland

OK, so I did decide to go to the F16 Europeans at Gravedona, Lake Como.  I'm glad I did, what an awesome event at an outstanding place.  I only had my ipod with me so didn't write up daily entries, so I am going to try to recreate daily entries here.  Pictures will come later as soon as I get them.

Broken

My campaign has stalled due to injury!  I had a rough capsize on the boat.  With Texel coming up, I purposely went out with the wind howling on the lake, the problem because of the buildings and forests around the lake, the gusts just could from anywhere.  I was sailing upwind concentrating on trying to avoid a skiff coming down the lake.  But while I was looking at him and not the water I got hit by a big footer that took me by suprise and just got knocked straight over.  I got catapulted off the trapeze.  Somehow I managed to hit everything sharp and hard on the way down trying to avoid going through the mainsail.  My right arm got tangled up on the remaining deck fittings from where the self tacking gear for the jib would be. So you can see from the picture that my arm got pretty badly gashed and bruised (was much worse, this was taken a couple of days after).  But also I have a bad side and shoulder strain from it.  Anyway I haven't got that much strength in the arm right now and the cuts and bruises are pretty uncomfortable too.  Like an idiot a carried on sailing for a while and probably made the injuries much worse.

Anyway I've had to pull out of Texel, maybe the ECPR too but we'll see how it goes.  I guess I need a lot more work to be able to sail this boat fast without destroying it or myself!  I had underestimated how much cat sailing ability I had lost. Being a bit fitter would help too.  Might be letting my enthusiasm get the better of me and pushing too hard too soon - maybe I should go back to my original plan of using this season to train and start some club racing next season (hopefully in UK).

A whole day sailing and organizing lines

 Well, interesting day today, about 4th or 5th time out on the lake and by far the windiest, but really variable, from 0 to 15 knots and back down again in an instant. Practice tacking from the wire, difficult because of the variable wind and lots of work to do - mainly to get trimmed and up to speed quicker on the end of the tack.

1st capsize, coming down wind with the kite up, rounded a headland and had a 30 degree header, so now on a true wind tight reach, tried to turn away but I had no room and didn't want to dump the main as the spin was still pulling.  So turned up to see if I could hold it - no way, over I went.  Managed to keep dry though, just slid down the underside of the tramp and grabbed the righting line.  I was quite close to a jetty and being blown down so I needed to get this down quickly.  Uncleated the spin halyard and heaved away.  Boat came up quick but I had forgotten to release the main, so it started sailing on it's side! Luckily away from the jetty so worked out quite well. Dropped it back in the water and with the main released came up easy. Unfortunately I got wet as it came up.

Still lots to do, control from the trapeze is poor and my harness isn't helping, time to invest in a new one.  Need to get better at judging angles too, need to learn that I can't really reach with the spin 1 up.  Seemed to have a lot of weather helm on too so need to look at my rake and maybe stand the mast up a bit straighter.

Also made some sheeting and line improvements after a good read of catsailor forums. Getting there but need a lot more time on the water, Round Texel  coming up hopefully, that will be a big challenge to complete solo, especially if the wind is up.  Then the East Coast Piers Race in Essex, again about 50 miles in open water.  If all that goes well, then the Euro champs at Lake Como in July.  Though I'm not sure I'm going to be ready for it.

No pictures yet!

Pimp My Waka

I've had the good fortune to link up with kiwi artist Sam Clark (www.samclark.co.nz/), his stylized drawings of native NZ birds really captivated me. I'm keen to display one his drawings of the Karearea on the boat to make it stand out a bit and maybe show some pride in the kiwi heritage, even though my accent is going more and more each day!  Sam has just sent me this custom image to convert into a vinyl transfer and go on the boat. Comments welcome, especially on where on the side of the boat to put it.

First Sail

Had the first sail of the boat on Tuesday, perfect conditions for the first sail wind between 5-10 knots, sunny, 13 degrees, no-one else on the lake.  First impressions: what a blast, seriously responsive boat, nothing was tuned but still every little bit got turned into instant acceleration, beautiful.  I need some work though to master this boat and get it fully under control, especially with respect to adjusting everything from the wire.  May have to get a new trapeze harness, the one I've got now is just too restrictive and gets caught on too many things, even so I need lots of practice of single handing from the wire, with and without the kite up.  Learned pretty quick that this lake is far too small for a boat this fast!  Also learned that despite having about 12 fast cats at the club including A class and F18, no one races, so I'll need to do some travelling to find some racing - that'll have to wait though until I'm good enough not to be a danger to shipping!  Not much sailing gonna happen this month, MSc thesis and a couple of law assignments have to be done by end of April.

Almost ready to go

So, I've finally got some time to update this. Had a few delays in getting the boat sorted through having to go back to UK and a few other things....but the boat is now fully rigged (although not quite in this photo), had to everything by myself, including putting the mast as there was just no-one at the club, it was bit cold and you can't tell here but real gusty.  So I just positioned the mast to raise downwind and it actually helped me out!  Sailing report shortly....

Deutsches Technik Museum

Had an excellent visit to the Deutsches Technik Museum http://www.sdtb.de/English.122.0.html in Berlin recently. Fantastic maritime section, the Roman river barge had to be the star attraction for me, but also this Proa was an excellent find. I'd never seen this sail technology before, so great learning experience, wikipedia link if you want to know more about it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotorsail.

Falcon building is stalled for a week while I go to the UK, however the sailing club is now open and in 2 weeks it will be sailing.

Almost there

The platform is mostly built up now, need to get my trailer converted to carry the wider cat now and get it EU road legal.  Hopefully it passes or it's going back on ebay!

Launching at Easter weekend hopefully.

Unpacked! 2

Unpacked!

Could be the only Falcon in Germany, but then it will spend most of it's time over the border in the Netherlands

It's here!

Right, the adventure has officially begun.  My new boat, Falcon F16 NZL202 has arrived in Germany now I just need to turn it from a bunch of boxes...

Into this:

Hopefully I'll get a chance over the weekend, I've got to assemble the boat in my only just big enough garage, so that means finding somewhere else for the trailer and othe gear in there to go.

Got to convert the trailer to F16 size too.

Wait and see.....

This blog will follow my progress in trying to relearn the art of catamaran racing. I'm currently living as far from the sea as I ever have, so just getting on the water is going to be challenging.

I'll be blogging on the sites, advice and techniques I have found helpful on the way and of course any progress I make.

First Things first though, got to wait for the boat to arrive and learn how blog!