Wednesday sailing

Finally I got a good sail in! I've been loitering around since the worlds trying to get on the water and get a good few hours in and this Wednesday it was my time. There was a nice 10-12 knots of breeze and hardly anyone on the lake bar some windsurfers allowing me all the room in the world to get some tacking and gybing practice in and then mess around doing some speed runs during which I clocked up 22 knots which wasn't bad considering the lack of breeze - nearly double the windspeed! Need to work on my foil controls a little for the weekend and then get back out there and get this foiling tack thing nailed...

No other moths about this week though, Alan is down in Falmouth (practicing for the open?!) and Helens boat is in my shop having its wingbars sorted out post Portland flying mission. Emma was going to go out and have a play in the newly refurbished FBG but unfortunately she had a run-in with her skateboard so took it easy instead.

Headcamming

I've had several headcams over the years, starting with an Oregon ATC1000 (which they never made the waterproof case for - damn them...)  and ATC2000 and a crazy little wireless jobby but have always been disappointed with the picture quality.

I was in my friendly local kite shop last week picking up some carbon rods and came across one of these : GoPro Helmet Camera

The picture quality is pretty damn good and its even waterproof to 100 feet - I've got a wide angle lens on the way so it should get most of the moth in shot from either end of the boat! Its got a load of funny mounts and straps to so for my first mission with it I strapped it on my head and tried to keep up with Em in the Squirrel in Leo's lowrider (my first moth build!)

I was going to try and upload the video here uncompressed but Blogger didn't like that so I've put a short clip on on Youtube

A little bit of not-so-secret Squirreling

Fat Bottomed Girl is currently in the workshop, getting new trampolines (which fit!) and a new rig, so today I went sailing in the Squirrel. And jolly nice it was too.

It was a lovely sunny day at BCYC, with just enough breeze to go foiling. I was a touch nervous, as I had not been sailing for quite a while, but my nerves were soon proven to be superfluous. I hopped in the boat and blasted off across the lake with no worries whatsoever.

I *love* the Squirrel. She is sooooo smooooooth! The transition between lowriding and foiling feels so natural - the boat just wants to fly. The ride when on the foils was also extremely smooth and I think, if the Squirrel were a car, Jeremy Clarkson would be rather impressed.

My sail was cut short by a drop in the wind. Short but sweet, I would say.

During the week Mike had bought a new waterproof headcam thingy, which he took out whilst sailing his old lowrider (thanks Leo) and followed me around. Unfortunately, as I was so super speedy, he couldn't really keep up with me. He will be putting up what footage he did manage to get though, as I think he wants to show off the enhanced picture quality, or something...

Maybe we will get FBG back on the water for Wednesday. That would be nice.

TTFN,
Em

Post worlds comedown

Its been a few weeks now and things are slowly getting back into their usual swing. I've been busy doing a few tweaks to the Squirrel including making a new daggerboard with a few tweaks in (and the shocking pink colour again...). As long as the fine english weather provides me with some wind I should be getting back out on the water tomorrow.

Not put any pics up of the new boat yet, so heres a couple:

Em has been busy with the Fat Bottomed Girl too, we've got a new mast on her and a secondhand Hyde sail and a nice little list of pimps to get her sorted.

Not too many events to look forward to this year, but Falmouth should be pretty cool along with a mission to the Norfolk Punt club (Andrew Friends home club) for tea, cake, a sailing club on a raft and mudweights to anchor the boat with!

The worlds that never were...

Well, I thought I would let you all know what the hell is going on down here. Its pretty damn windy and 4 races were got in yesterday, along with however many they can fit in today. I managed (in the loosest sense of the word) to get one race in. 

I was bombing around with way too much lift on as one of my rods had run out of thread and I couldn't do a thing about it, stacking repeatedly in the 20 knot breeze between coughing fits and nursed myself home into 54th position before heading in to get it sorted - missing out the second race in the process. My misfortune didn't finish there, as I've also had a allergic reaction to the antibiotics for the chest infection, resulting a sore and swollen hands and feet - great for sheeting and hiking...

I cant fault the Squirrel though, she's super fast upwind and the new Hyde rig with the skinny Aardvark mast is working well. New foil shapes are sweet and takeoff is nice and early - no doubting that with some time to get myself back healthy and the boat nicely fettled that she will be able to take on the best.

I've got plenty of photos taken, and will keep adding bits and bobs over the course of the week when I have the time.

Boooooooooooooooooooooooooooored

I am bored bored bored. But apparently there is going to be a speed challenge shortly...wonder who will go out and risk boat-breakage.

Ho hum, I'm off to twiddle my thumbs.

Fun pics so far...

In order:

Howling seas at Portland Bill

Bladeriders "Camp Epoxy" in the hangar

Helens poor little Citroen after being attacked by her Hungry Tiger - wind blew boat with roof racks off the car...

Garys trailer after being attacked by vandals

Emma, making the best of the bad weather

Cheeky tea drinking seagulls - one of them stole some sandpaper earlier in the week!

Still sitting around

Borderline sailable today, but committee on the cautious side. Gust up to thirty knots, averaging well over 20 though...

Apparently the BR FX went sailing last night with Pilot Bora on board, in thirty knots of wind and the predictable result occured, resulting in more than one piece of boat being brought back in again. Its quite amazing how BR's camp epoxy is still going strong in the hangar despite not having anyone sail since Friday - Maybe they took the Chiz's advice on preventative maintenance a little too literally!

Blown Away!

Well, so much for the light winds worlds that were predicted around the globe! Yesterday's practice race was blown off, with massive gusts hitting the harbour. This proved a good thing for some, particularly Mr. Thomas A. Whicher, who came on holiday with no clothes but those on his back. I took him on a mammoth shopping trip in the afternoon and he is now fully kitted out, although he did put back the wife-beater vest emblazoned with the words: 'If found please return to the bar'. Disappointing.

The evening saw a nice bit of grub at the academy's opening ceremony and we were even treated to a cringe-worthy speech by Bristol's very own Alan. The shame!

Overnight it felt as if the weather would get the better of the caravan, but we awoke to find it still in one piece. We were also greeted by pelting rain and more high winds. After an initial postponement, the racing was canned all together, due to more heavy winds. The rain cleared up, though and the sun put his hat on and came out to play. Hoorah.

Mike and I headed over to Portland Bill this afternoon and were awed by the amazing waves. We were particularly impressed by the cheek of the seagulls, who appeared to have embraced the British mothie spirit and were enjoying a nice pot of tea! Photos will follow....

Today's special mention must go to the Cookie Monster, who managed to lock his keys in his van this morning. Soooo embarrassed when calling the AA...what a t*t!

Camp foiltown

Weymouth is shaping up to be one hell of an event - nearly 100 boats entered so far, plenty of people in with a chance of winning it and plenty of shiny new kit floating around.

I've been out in the Squirrel for a few hours now and shes shaping up nicely - I've been taking it easy this week as I still haven't shaken my chest infection and am off to find some antibiotics later on.

Martin has now made it down with the Morocco Mole and is looking nicely fettled - will be interesting to see how he gets on with it over the next week...

Will try and do random posts and get some photos up over the next couple of days.

Cheers

Cookie

Manic few weeks

The Squirrel got its maiden outing at BCYC on Saturday after a manic few weeks of building - everything went pretty well and it was nice to get back on the water.

We are now camped up in Weymouth, assembling boats, bimbling away and getting everything fully pimped - yet to go sailing down here but it was looking pretty nice today - plenty of others out getting practice in.

I'm still yet to fully shift a chest infection which I've had for a few weeks now, so I'm taking it easy for a bit and making sure I've got everything I can get in order. Either way, I'm unfit and out of practice! not ideal prep, but there we go...