Back at the Moth worlds, while sitting in a caravan in the rain with the wind blowing its usual nuts off, a plan was formed.
Norfolk resident Andrew Friend had a cunning plan - it involved going to Norfolk and sailing on a funny bit of water, launching in a canal and sailing to a raft in the middle of said piece of water, where tea and cake are consumed, races are done - entered just before at £1.50 a time if you fancy it. Having just spent over £200 for a handful of races over a couple of days this sounded tempting!
Andrew's brief description didn't do the place justice - it is quite possibly the single most mental place you can hope to sail a moth. The courses are short, the wind is a bit shifty, the other river users are slow and have the maneuverability of the biggest bus you can think of. Brilliant!
Saturday didn't see much wind, but gave the chance to consume my own body weight in very fine cake and tea. The sun was out and all was good..
Sunday had a better breeze, but it was raining a bit. Sort of attempted a race, but Andrew forgot to enter and the committee thought I hadn't entered either so we didn't get a finish. Did a bit of boat swapping and had a general play around. Avoiding the White boat fleet turned out to be easier said than done but it was all so light hearted none of it seemed to matter...
Monday was a different pile of kettles of fish, it was breezy and this is where the real fun began, as the gusts were coming through thick and fast and in a boat that really only goes where it wants to avoiding boats was now a real challenge. I had a couple of wipeouts trying to not bear away and land on a passing river cruiser. Only fitted in one race, which was the Bloodbath - this is a race involving every fleet going at once, spaced by staggered starts and all figured out on PY. We had entered the weekend sailing off 900 as the wind had been light and we were being overtaken by 200's and the like - with the breeze up I managed to win it and nearly got away with some silverware until the 200 took offence and asked for a harsher handicap. They settled on 850 instead, which put me second with - surprise, the 200 in first...
I'm going to push for an open here next year. With a raft to stand on for spectating and a generator and some floodlights we could sail all night... Rent in a couple of cruisers for everyone to sleep in and it would be awesome!
More Tea vicar?
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