summer 4

did not race. light winds predicted.
suffering from the bournmouth race.

elizabeth cup june 27th 2009

weather was predicted wsw 9 knts,weather was sunny and just right for a nice sail to bournmouth, we knew it was going to be a broad reach there and in pratice we knew it was going to be slow. we worked our angles and were ready. we decided on port tack which was scary to say the least. weducked a few boats and tacked to avoid a few others and frantic calls of starboard, all in all it went well and as far as i could see it went without incident.we rounded the short beat well down but set on our way as we decided.
the spitfires were well away in their own fleet, we decided to stay with the dart18's. dooley and miller. every time we heaeded on port we lost ground to making our way to bournmouth so we decided to gybe often, we headed toward balard and then to make the gate at old harry we then headed well out to see,after rounding the gate we heaed out to see again and went parralel to the bournmouth eye. when we gybed we were heading well left and again losing ground. we were trying to spot the mark of bournmouth by watching the groome spitfire. with a place in mind we altered track and made good speed. a few more gybes later we went around the mark in just over the hour. now for the best bit every wave we surfed in on we hit on the way back, i settled down and john was soon out on the wire. john played the downhaul well and i never lifted the main once just played the steering to suit. when the wind died we headed out on starboard for what semed along way, the condor cat told us otherwise to tack again, all tacks were down very well as i normally struggle in choppy seas.
as we were nearing old harry we forgot about the gate and headed back until we spotted it, we wernt far off anyway, the hobie 18 was tariling us all the way back after recoveri ng froma long capsize. he did well or we were struggling, memories of the poole bar bouy race again !
so now we knew we had to back for line honours over them as they had the same handicap.
they went out to sea and because of the chop we heaed close into the bay. we upped our speed and spotted the finnish. we knew they were beat and we crossed the line in 2hr 9min approx
we were glad to have done the race in what i thought were tougher conditions than in 2007
mark groome finnished in under 2hrs and said the tide and wind didnt help the speed of the race.
as i write this i am absolutly knacked and my back is killing me. roll on 2010 for the next epic race, i dont care wher i finnished, to finnish was all that mattered
mutley did me proud and its all on film i hope, wait for the link posted here.
Spud

Summer 3

crew Alan induni.
not a good week as suffering from the flu, so wasnt sure that i would be upto much anyway.
launched at 10.00am it took most of that time to fig that the tide was running strong and the wind was changing alot and then dying.
sure enough at race start it died and we were in irons as usual. 6mins later we crossed the line.
we got to mark 4 eventually and then it all went wrong. the tide was getting us, we tacked and then we hit the mark. we did a 360 and scared the living daylights out of henry. we knew he was there and it wasnt a problem. the next lap was better until mark 4 again. this time we gave it more room.
we called starboard on adrian (d15) he didnt give it saying he couldnt tack. we tacked to avoid and was sandwiched between 2 boats. alan was on the starboard side when we caught a gust, i shouted as we heeled over. aln was caught under the boom with his jacket and in he went for a swim. like a demon he swam back and i dragged him back on board, annoyed with adrian we caled it a day and sailed back in. we were going to protest but didnt. lets just say im having words with him next week as to why he couldnt tack away.
bad weekend ontop of a bad week. roll on next week.

Summer 2

crew was Alan Induni. we launched in light winds at 1020am. the wind was changing all the time and a postponement was posted. the wind filled in and alan was out on the wire on the reaches.
we lined up at the start and reached half way down the short line, we got a good start and tacked onto port to find we were well ahead once again. we tacked for the mark and were in1st place.
we led around mark 2 as well. It seemed natural to go into the middle of the course as we had good boat speed, but ti didnt work when we gybed. the 2 spitfires took the lead and were gone, next lap we went out to sea off mark 2 and seemed better, alan was doing a good job helping with tactical decisions as well. we were about to start our 5th lap when we were stopped. only 48 mins of racing ??. a bit disgruntled we headed back into the club. alan enjoyed his first race on Mutley. With a bit more racing together we should get better.
this season has started out better then i thought, getting better finish positions overall in our fleet. Also getting better starts is starting to help as well, i just need to sort my downwind technique and we could get even better results.

13th june Rees Cup 2009

am.
sailed with alan induni in the morning pratice for for summer series. wind was light and dropped off completely. It filled in again for a reasonable sail.

REES CUP
crew was John Russ .Wind was filling in nicely just before the start of the race, we seen that the pin end was better to head straight to the mark. we started and were the only on's close to the pin, we didn't hear the hotter and got a cracking start. we tacked and rode over robert baker(laser) nobody was close to us at all. we tacked and rounded the mark in 1st we looked back and the groome spitfire was snapping at our heels, with the spinaker up and the chem spitfire fast approaching the two disappeared into the distance. we did our best to stay with them and had a good sail downwind until we got to the poole bar bouy. mark and chem encountered the barfluer ferry and rather than claiming rights of the sea gave in due to the size of the opponent. we did the same and ran along side running up to the bouy. i didn't want to make the headlines of the local news.
after rounding the mark it was a beat all the way back home. john was out on the wire straight away and we did good speed back to swanage bay. we were still in 3rd on the water and the spitfire were just visible. the hobbie 18 tried overtaking us near the line but we outwitted them and got 3rd on the line. we indeed got 3rd cat from 10 but 20th out of 30ish for the whole fleet.
we had a good sail and could not complain. time 57 mins
in the evening we had a barbecue with the rain falling. tomorrow was supposed to be light winds.

Summer 1 7th june 2009

duty day team 4. typical after the day before we were greeted with good wind and flatish seas.
bill macmillan went over before the race started and we sorted him out, then one of the jnr's had tiller problems on a club laser. the race seemed to go very quikly, which was good for us.

James day cup

wind was easerly and 20-25kts
decided not to do the race as did not like the conditions at all. greg said after i wouldnt have liked the waves at all. i hate waves and that with the wind as well im glad i stayed and watched.