Breeze on

Saturday saw 5 of the Bristol mothies out on the water for what was supposed to be a mini coaching event but as the breeze was gusting over 25 knots at times there was a bit too much on to really get anything done.

Simon was back out on his Prowler after a set of tramps were rustled up courtesy of R and J Sails in Clevedon. Alans Prowler was dragged out of hiding by Guadaloupe Gavin as Alan was assisting the RS200 training. Martin and Chris were both out in their respective Bladeriders along with myself in Ninja Tuna after sending out Tom Offer from Chew Valley for a baptism of fire to see if Mothing was for him. Might not have been the wisest of moves as a few mining experiences were had!
We all generally blasted around for a bit before things got really silly in the afternoon when we called it a day and decamped to the pub.

Still nice to be out on the water and the lake has risen another half metre or so this last week so things are looking good for sailing from now on.

Finally - Water!

While Saturday was just plain too windy to go sailing, Simon Hindley and myself made it down the club to do some boatwork and we were both surprised to find the lake has come up a metre in the last week. Pretty impressive on the part of Bristol Water as I'd struggle to put a number on how much water has been pumped in. This means it is now fully sailable - a fact which we put to good use on Sunday, both getting out for a good bit of playtime.

It's good to be back on the water and with a marginal breeze with some good puffs in double figures it was good practice too - remembering how to gybe and figuring out what needs doing to Ninja Tuna (not a lot thankfully!).
Simon had a nasty incident with his Prowler tramps, meaning his sail was cut short, but while he was out the boat was vastly improved after some setup work done on the Saturday.
Next Saturday we are doing a mini training event and hoping to get a couple of the South Wales Mothies over too, along with Martin who has just picked up a secondhand Bladerider (GBR3323) and is keen to get back on the water, and Chris who hasn't been able to sail his boat since he got it due to the lack of lake!

Let me know if you are interested in joining in...

The one equipment rule

For anyone who has listened to the latest Mothcast I thought I'd chime in with my 2pence worth...

There is already a one equipment rule. It is an unwritten rule. Have one set and use it 100%. The finer points of skinny masts, V6, V8 or V whatever sails and smaller rudders are all chasing after tiny percentage gains and until you can sail with one set of everything to 90-100% how on earth are you to know if those things are doing anything for you?

The situation isn't broken, people aren't turning up with massive quivers of foils and sails and are unlikely to do so so why bother trying to come up with overcomplicated rules that will always be got around by anyone who wants to push it.

I've never had more than one sail to choose from, never a different mast or foils and I've no intention of starting a collection until I am the fastest I can be with what I have! That might involve going sailing which is proving a problem at the moment...