Sunday Sailing

We had 4 boats out at the club yesterday enjoying a patchy 4-10 knot breeze.

Darren was out in his Prowler for the second time and while the lighter patches were hard going he's getting the boat going and will be flying fine in no time while Leo was out in the Pimp Ninja making the most of some new setup mods and is flying much earlier and more consistently.

Alan was going great in his Yellow boat and has made some massive improvements in his tacking and is very regularly foiling out the other side. Gibing is still entertaining however! Alan did the second and third races and was pulling out a good lead in the last one when the breeze was at it's most consistent.

I managed the first and second races. The first was heavy on lowriding with a couple of bursts of foiling meaning I just managed to beat the ent's on the water while the second saw a bit more foiling action but managed to keep in the puffs and shifts to keep up with the lead boat (300) while lowriding. I finished a good lap up in the end but don't think it will have been enough!

The crazy sail has some new battens in now, which seems to have fixed a couple of issues, but made another one worse! The sail doesn't gibe itself and you now have to hit it really hard to get the battens across in light airs meaning a mid-gibe-whack technique is called for. It is now flying closer to its design shape and we've got a pretty good idea where to go with the MK2 though however. It's been quite an interesting experience trying to get Kevin's theory to merge with the practical reality of sailmaking. It's great that we have Mike Lennon and the Hyde team on board to try and coax the ideas into reality...

While the breeze hasn't really been playing ball lately I've been getting out and doing some Mountain Biking with Emma. We've got a great playground around here in the mendips and I feel it's doing some good to my fitness - at least this year I might be able to persuade myself into a reasonable shape before the end of the season. Maybe one year I might be able to do that and get some practice in too!

Bristol Moth open

Photos c/o Angela Cooke

The first International Moth open of 2010 took place on Saturday at Bristol Corinthian yacht club. With a dire forecast for no wind and a few boats still astray after the recent Worlds in Dubai, 10 of the most persistent Mothies took to the skies in a very patchy marginal foiling breeze including three attending their very first Moth event.

Race one took part in the most constant breeze of the day and started off with a tussel between Martin Fear and Chris Bishop in their Bladeriders and Mike Cooke in his Ninja with current national champion Cooke coming out on top making the most of the lighter patches to pull away.

Race two was a brief one lapper as the breeze was veering wildly. Cooke managed to throw away a hundred yard lead on the run watching Bishop sail around the edge of the lake in breeze and foil through the line. Robin Wood took third after a close battle with Gareth Davies.

The final race of the day saw a patchy couple of laps as the last of the breeze faded. Cooke drifted across the line to take the win, closely followed by Alan Watson in his Ninja with Bishop in third.

Overall results:

1st, 3618, Mike Cooke, Ninja, BCYC
2nd,  3511, Chris Bishop, Bladerider, BCYC
3rd, TBA, Alan Watson, Ninja, BCYC
4th, 3330, Robin Wood, Bladerider, British Steel
5th, 3323, Martin Fear, Bladerider, BCYC
6th, 3253, Gareth Davies, Bladerider, Stone SC
7th, 4085, Simon Hindley, Prowler, BCYC
8th, 3371, Leo Carswell, Axiom v1, BCYC
9th, TBA, Thomas Lambert, Ninja, Wilsonian SC
10th, 3495, Jon Peats, Bladerider, Queen Mary

Bristol open this weekend

The first open of the season is this coming weekend at Bristol Corinthian YC. The event is set to be a 3 race series run on the Saturday 10th April starting at 11.30.
Now, I had planned on running a spectator friendly slalom event on the Sunday fitting around the club racing so as not to get in the way but it hasn't panned out particularly well. If anyone would like to stick around and sail on the Sunday in the club racing and do some tuning they will be most welcome and I will find us somewhere to go for grub on the Saturday night. This is a bit frustrating for me as we did something very similar two years ago with great feedback from those at the club about how good it was to watch.
The postcode for finding the club is BS26 2DL. It is pretty well signposted once you get near.
For accommodation, Axebridge is the closest village and Cheddar another good option.

Cheers, hope to see you all there.

Mike Cooke
GBR3618 Ninja Tuna