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!