Saturday sailing

Well, the forecast for the weekend had Saturday down as the lesser of two evils... When I got down the club it actually looked pretty good with a peaky 15 knot breeze. I started getting rigged, but with new boat stuff this took a pretty long time.
Adam turned up and it had gotten pretty windy so we went for a nice cuppa (seemed like the civilised thing to do). The wind abated a bit and coaxed me back onto the water and with a solid 20 knot breeze, Edwards first outing began.

Problem number one. I'd already ran out of cunningham - my funky dogbones to attach said item to the mainsail had taken up a bit too much space and the cascade had run into the boom!

Problem number two. I pulled a lot of kicker on quickly from a dubious angle and wrenched part of the cleat flipper off the kingpost. Nothing some new bolts wouldn't sort anyway...

Anyway, the boat foiled nicely and smoothly - its always hard to tell on flat water how well everything is working for you with the controls but so far so good. After a few blasts back and forth, then up and down I'd hit 20.5 knots and decided to call it quits for the day as there were some nasty looking clouds sneaking up.

Pics by Angie Cooke, more to follow from Adam...

GBR 3191 Jamming with Edward

The first of the v.4 Axioms is now pretty much done. Just barring a coat of gloss on the new foils and my sail to turn up I should be back on the water on Saturday.

The new shape is flatter and fatter at the back for improved bouncing and shift the buoyancy aft from the v.3 shape. The tramps all lace to the hull in the classic style and a first for me is removable wing bars. All the usual Harken gear and a Hyde sail. Spars are Aardvark and foils are new shape Aardvark ones, with some interesting stuff going on with the rudder and a hopefully improved flap hinge system.

The general plan is to sail Edward in anger at Cheddar for a few weeks before heading off and taking part in a few winter handicap events.

New sail numbers

After a weekend down in Weymouth mulling over various ideas with Mr May I now have my new sail number!
I've decided to go with my new ISAF plaque number early to save messing around with numbers further down the line meaning I have the rather wacky number of 3191 and Mr Whicher has 3192...

Undercoat went on the hull today, hopefully the boat will be pretty much there by the end of the week, with just sail and foils to be done.

Mad pimpin' pt 2

This evening saw all the carbon going on the joins and getting the tramps marked up for chopping... All good fun, Martin will be back out on the water in a weeks time. Just wish my new boat was done now!

Mad Pimpin' -pt1

Well, it was discussed by most of the GBR team in Italy that we really should sort out Tom Whichers' boat. It had a bit of a tidy up and sort out on its return to England, but its only now that the (very high) wing bars have been sorted out...

Martin Fear (boats new owner) and myself spent an evening cutting and shutting the wing bar tubes into their new geometry. The results actually look pretty cool, with a bit of a Stuka effect going on...

Axiom 4 pictures

My new hull has hit the painting and decorating stage, so heres some shots for your perusal...

New mothy

Martin Fear, a former RS600 sailor has joined the mothy ranks at BCYC having picked up Tom Whichers old Axeman 7. Hes got some tinkering lined up and I'm giving him a hand with some tweaks before he gets on with learning to fly.

That in theory takes us up to 7 boats at Cheddar. If only we were all on the water at the same time!

Weekend sailing

Last weekend saw a load of random boat swapping going on. Tom Whicher was up checking out progress on the new v.4 Axiom pending his new boat so we cruised over to Cheddar to steal whatever we could find and go play.

Gavin Dove had borrowed Alans Prowler and was getting well learning the foiling basics in a 10 ish knot breeze. Chris Bishop was sorting out his B14, so let me out in his Axeman, while Tom took Gavins Axiom out. Quite entertaining lowriding again after two years of foiling and it was quite surprising how fun it was with a couple of us bombing around...

v4 Hull is done, pending some paint. Wingframes are done. Rig is done. Just waiting for new shape foil moulds and sails to arrive... Awesome!

So long, farewell, etc

Silver Samurai has now gone to her new home on the South coast. Building work commences on the new v4 now - hull and most of the deck is done and I'm hoping to have a new boat on the water by mid November... Rock on!

Heres the boat on its way up the motorway...

Draycote Moth open

The end of season bash was pretty interesting, being sailed all saturday in marginal stuff. It gave a pretty good opportunity to try out take off skills and perfect the light airs gibes.
Jason gave us all a good kicking, but the minor places were close fought.
James Roche in his Prowler did a bit of a horizon job in the last race and I only managed to catch him at the finish line!
Can't wait now for my new foil moulds to turn up now, and the v4 mould is ready to go... New boat due in early November.


A dozen Moths braved a rather dire weather forecast for the Draycote Water end of season moth bash, with boats ranging from an old-school Magnum 8 to the latest in foiler technology.

An unexpected 5 to 10 knot breeze had appeared on the lake in time for the start of the race, making for some interesting tactical choices and testing the marginal wind skills of the foilers.

Jason Belben sailing his Prowler showed his nationals-winning form, to take all three races by a considerable margin from Russ Wheeler, king of the lowriders, who was sailing his Hungry Tiger. Ed Sibson, sailing in his first Moth open meeting took third in his Skippy, having finished on equal points with Alex Adams in his Mistress 3 and Mike Cooke in his Axiom v3.

The evening saw a fine roast from the host club and plenty of cake to fuel the conversation and tip-sharing into the evening.

Sunday morning dawned to a windless lake and an early start for the hardcore Mothies, who were found huddled around a portable TV outside the sailing club watching the Formula 1! There was a postponement to allow the wind to do something, but it continued to do nothing, so the Race officer made the sensible decision to call it off.

Until the next time....

1st Jason Belben, Prowler Foiler
2nd Russ Wheeler, Hungry Tiger Lowrider
3rd Ed Sibson, Skippy Lowrider
4th Alex Adams, Mistress 3 Foiler
5th Mike Cooke, Axiom v3 Foiler