After a few weeks of frustrating light winds I was all set to give it a miss if today looked like being more of the same. I usually do reasonably well in light winds, it's just there isn't much of that there excitement involved.
So when I trundled up to the sailing club things were looking quite promising, around a top end force three with a lot of gusts about. So around the appointed time headed out for the first race. Lots of planing around before the start (wahey!) and then as we start the race........ it all mysteriously disappeared. The course involved a leg which involved sailing in the lee of an island, which threw up the usual unpredictability in strength and direction involved. So all in all rather frustrating with none of the planing about I was hoping for.
As we broke for lunch I was in serious danger of giving the remaining two races a miss but then lo and behold when I got back to the shore the wind picked up again... Appeared to be something to do with the big black clouds hanging aboot....
So having monitored the situation over lunch, seeing as wot the wind was still up, I headed out for the next race. A bit of a delay at the jetty meant I missed the prep signal and didn't have a time on the start, thus winging it would be in order. Kept an eye on the other boats and formed up on the line.... unfortunately a bit close to the line....
Thus had to do a quick u turn and recross the start line. Naturally there was a big gust hit me at this point making things a bit hairy 8~)
Anyhoo, course was a bit more to my liking this time with a cracking long reach diagonally across the loch. Much planing and spray flying, Yay! Did some death rolls on the run but somehow survived without wiping out the committee boat and race officers. Didn't do fantastically well but had good fun and was completely knackered....
This time I remembered to bring a water bottle with me so no dehydration.
The last race was a slightly shorter course but still a couple of promising legs. The wind was up and down, with a few nice planes. Exhaustion and a slightly sore knee meant I did pretty crap again but hey, it was great fun!
So when I trundled up to the sailing club things were looking quite promising, around a top end force three with a lot of gusts about. So around the appointed time headed out for the first race. Lots of planing around before the start (wahey!) and then as we start the race........ it all mysteriously disappeared. The course involved a leg which involved sailing in the lee of an island, which threw up the usual unpredictability in strength and direction involved. So all in all rather frustrating with none of the planing about I was hoping for.
As we broke for lunch I was in serious danger of giving the remaining two races a miss but then lo and behold when I got back to the shore the wind picked up again... Appeared to be something to do with the big black clouds hanging aboot....
So having monitored the situation over lunch, seeing as wot the wind was still up, I headed out for the next race. A bit of a delay at the jetty meant I missed the prep signal and didn't have a time on the start, thus winging it would be in order. Kept an eye on the other boats and formed up on the line.... unfortunately a bit close to the line....
Thus had to do a quick u turn and recross the start line. Naturally there was a big gust hit me at this point making things a bit hairy 8~)
Anyhoo, course was a bit more to my liking this time with a cracking long reach diagonally across the loch. Much planing and spray flying, Yay! Did some death rolls on the run but somehow survived without wiping out the committee boat and race officers. Didn't do fantastically well but had good fun and was completely knackered....
This time I remembered to bring a water bottle with me so no dehydration.
The last race was a slightly shorter course but still a couple of promising legs. The wind was up and down, with a few nice planes. Exhaustion and a slightly sore knee meant I did pretty crap again but hey, it was great fun!
posted by Luke Piewalker at 1:01 PM
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