Killer Weed

Wing rigs, smaller rudders, new foil designs, adjustable wands....all those speed increasing innovations aside I totally agree with Matt Knowles' comments regarding the weed.  Yesterday it was pretty much everywhere and could be a real game changer for some of the front runners I suspect where the racing will be really tight.  I missed a couple of races yesterday after ploughing into some at about 9 knots shattered my twist grip on the boat......dread to think what that kind of weed could do at 20+ knots.  

Yesterday's races kicked off in a very tricky marginal breeze.  This made things interesting as the windward mark was quite close to the shore leading to many low riding and a lucky few that could get up onto the foils gaining bucket fulls of places.  Mike Lennon had a good day finishing in 11th overall in the nationals, very commendable.  Simon Payne building on his top gun quotes during the event build up decided to try and surpass this with an actual re-enactment of a scene.  Going downwind he was heard muttering call signs and screaming eject, eject, eject shortly before exiting the moth backwards/ upside down at about 20 knots - breaking his tiller extension in the process.  Impressive.  Mikis once again reproved that history can repeat itself by somehow breaking a boom (how many is that now?!)  in the marginal conditions, although I wouldn't be surprised if it was the killer weed again!  I think it was a pretty mixed day for the rest of the rest of us brits, having moments of brilliance but also many moments of just going dog slow.....although hopefully with the winds forecast to come back over the next few days this could change...

Heres a clip to give you an idea of what it was like with Ben perfectly demonstrating a new technique for Belmont - 'the Wack' (Weed Removal Tack).....

Time to build that carbon, sailor operated kelp remover for my foils I think!