I've never sailed an event like it. I think pretty much everyone, even visitors, had to defrost their boats with warm water before launching, set their controls for the day and then defrost again in order to de-rig once ashore. It was absolutely crazy, I had to just leave my two piece mast in one piece as it was frozen solid.
So after defrosting, gritting the control rods, filling up camelbaks with oxtail soup and substituting the usual sun block for deep heat seven of us hit the water for the start. I attempted to retire within the first five minutes with the pretty good excuse of my spreaders detaching from one of the shrouds on the way out. Unfortunately however Chris and Mike were ultra helpful onshore at getting me back on the water, damnit. I was swiftly followed by Andrew who's boat had stamped its authority by giving him a fat lip (the tiller extension punched him). Doug, Ben and Alex then returned ashore with various gear failures leaving only Jonathan in his Bladerider RX and Geoff Carveth in his X8 to battle the elements. Jonathan was unlucky with gear failure, however Geoff staged what can only be described as a heroic performance given the conditions bringing the boat back just ahead of the foiling 600s to claim the foiler trophy.
So after defrosting, gritting the control rods, filling up camelbaks with oxtail soup and substituting the usual sun block for deep heat seven of us hit the water for the start. I attempted to retire within the first five minutes with the pretty good excuse of my spreaders detaching from one of the shrouds on the way out. Unfortunately however Chris and Mike were ultra helpful onshore at getting me back on the water, damnit. I was swiftly followed by Andrew who's boat had stamped its authority by giving him a fat lip (the tiller extension punched him). Doug, Ben and Alex then returned ashore with various gear failures leaving only Jonathan in his Bladerider RX and Geoff Carveth in his X8 to battle the elements. Jonathan was unlucky with gear failure, however Geoff staged what can only be described as a heroic performance given the conditions bringing the boat back just ahead of the foiling 600s to claim the foiler trophy.
The ventilation on the Bladerider was terrible, Geoff had a fence on his rudder which seemed to help him but I don't think anyone got away with it completely. Definitely time to experiment with a few combinations I think.
Next weekend the temperatures are due to get back to a blistering 10 degrees so its all on for the Steve Nicholson trophy at Northampton, 30th January.....hopefully see you all there.
