Hiatus?

Is that the right word?

Since the Nationals last year I managed to get to go sailing twice I think, once at Stone where I had finally got my head around everything and was back near the front, clinging onto the coattails of Rashley and Offer and even sneaking in a second overall. Then once at Draycote in apocalyptic conditions that saw my forestay snap, when the boat blew back upright after a capsize and as the boom was still in the water everything loaded up massively in the 30+ knots we had that day! The ensuing carnage saw a hole in the foredeck and a shredded tramp.

 I thought I'd bagged a 30 knot run too... Unfortunately I give everyone hassle for getting track logs with their peak speeds so I thought I'd better double check and after soaking my GPS in a bowl of rice overnight to recover it showed a 29.45 knots best and a 10 second average of just under 29. Not bad for a 70 kilo runt in the coldest water the UK has to offer!

So Rocket did me proud for a season. Platform and foils are all where I wanted them to be, but rig development was sorely lacking and taking far too long with my brief periods in the boat. I've got some big plans for a new boat and wanted to make sure the old girl had a new home and ended up selling her in January to Andrew Blee up at Draycote. This made sure I could start getting the ball rolling with my silly boat plans, but with Me being Me this has taken ages, it's April and I still only have a hull shell!

But this afternoon, a fairly major piece of the puzzle had started taking shape on my workshop floor, mostly thanks to Badger who lent his joinery skills for the morning (extra points for a Sunday!) and has given me the kick I need.


Parkstone is this weekend. Hoping to do it in a borrowed boat, then probably not sail again for a month while I finish mine. All good prep for my Eurocup campaign this season! Might just make Medemblik at this rate...

Rocket Launcher

 

So the Rocket finally took to the skies at Queen Mary yesterday. I'll post a bit more in depth later on but I figured I ought to put something up for those poor people not on Facebook ;-) . Things went hitch free thankfully and I spend a good couple of hours blasting around trying to remember how to sail (not been in a boat since October) and starting to figure out what settings need tweaking.

You'll have to forgive the ridiculously high boom, this was before I started playing with everything to get it all in the right place!