Wednesday 8th August

Bright sunshine and 10-15 knots at Cheddar this evening. Great practicing conditions, and a great chance to send one of my old 12 sailing buddies out in the Silver Samurai to see what its all about. Tim Laws had a Big Issue 2 from me a couple of years ago before moving to France and started sailing Europes. He has however, seen the light and is eyeing up the Moth secondhand list. He posted a pretty impressive 18.4 knots on his first sail in a foiler, although his sail was interspersed with many capsizes trying to go around corners. Pretty standard stuff though.
He was pretty surprised to find that the foiling was as easy as it was though, requiring very little input to keep it up. Testament to all the control work I've had to do lately!

When Gibes go wrong - windward heel on the way in...



When gibes go right - still a bit dodgy on the way out, but its not bad!



Arseing for the camera



My afternoon was mostly involving gybe practice and occasional speed runs in the gusts. Managed a new personal best of 21 knots, I'm also getting to grips with a full centre main system on the boat (I've had a transom bridle/boom sheeting up to now). As long as I remember to put the tiller round the back its all good!

Few random video clips to follow on youtube...