Possibly the most appropriate colour scheme for yesterday's shenanigans....
The day dawned with a light breeze so after some boatwork I hit the water to try out my new Hyde for the second time. This was to be short lived however, as soon as I lined up with a few of the Aussies my kicker blew out meaning a return to shore to re-rig. The sail feels good although bizarrely I'm finding it much easier to tack than to gybe at the moment.
During the afternoon the breeze built to 20+ knots with an awkward chop. Myself, Ben and Arnaud decided to launch and join the others that were doing mock races. These were good fun upwind and the pack seemed fairly close. Downwind however all hell would break lose in the waves with people spilling and nose diving all over the place.
Mike Lennon had an unlucky day breaking his mast on the final tack of one of the mock upwind legs. Being a true humanitarian I sailed up to him and offered to head back ashore to fetch help (nothing to do with the conditions...). I then proceeded to capsize, pitchpoll and roll my way downwind before making it ashore to get a rib to come to the rescue. The rib driver was a friendly chap who told me that around a month ago he had spotted a hammerhead shark as he pointed at Mike who had been drifting for over an hour by that point.....a detail I thought Mike might not appreciate me sharing immediately. Rumour has it that one of the Yanks also had gear failure and was circled by a menacing shark, however this has yet to be confirmed with conflicting reports suggesting it may have simply been a friendly dolphin, or possibly the shadow of a passing cloud.
Bearing away in 30 knots (or so he claimed) Ben managed to crack the hull of his ninja just next to the centreboard casing and so returned ashore. Perhaps unluckier however was Mikis who proved that history can and sometimes does repeat itself in the moth class. Whilst foiling at some speed his centerboard horizontal decided to go AWOL and also took out his rudder as well for good measure. Fortunately, unlike in Horsens, this time it was a fairly clean break leading to no prolonged centreboard whacking in the boat park.
Today is looking fairly breezy again but at least the sun is out, hope the folks back home are enjoying the snow!
2 comments:
Thanks for bringing this up.
I think we all (Mothies, who are not there) owe you guys, presently out there on the waters of Belmont, a BIG thank you for going out and testing the stuff at 25-30kn. This can only lead to more reliable equipment and better sailing techniques. Not saying that the equipment isn´t any good but you are raising the bar for all of us. Really appreciate this. Happy new Year and smooth sailing!
Mikis the destroyer rides again! brilliant!
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