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....