Dart 7424 Men Behaving Madly 19/08/2011

ok, good news today, i sealed the deal on a dart 18 #7424

http://dart7424menbehavingmadly.blogspot.com/

getting ready for the new season

buying a new boat is not cheap when you have to buy other kit as well.
new rudder/centreboard bag  £65  wind indicators £25  silva 73 compass and bracket £125
hopefully i will not need anything else for now.
friday the new sail numbers were put on to the sail, after being cut to the number shape required.
This job is always somethhing i hate doing as the sail has a natural curve in it and does not lie flat,
so when you re lift the number you can not just put it back down flat again. no 6 proved a pain !!
the sail was rolled and not folded so that made things easier at the end.
The season campaign is being drawn up and some old venues will be revisited, like the Exmoor beast pursuit
hopefully some new ones like the Starcross steamer.
Work will be a cruical factor in what time i have to race this year and what time i have off, my plan is to do masters series ,wessex traveler, south traveler, UK Q and nationals, and some south west travelers as well, also some cup races at Swanage. in the mean time spare weekends will be used at Swanage for training. i will not be doing the series events as last year proved you need to be in every race to contend.
The traveler series is more spread out so you can choose a series to compete in and dedicate too.
I know when i sailed lasers back in 2001 on the open circuit this suited me well and got into the top 30 of the masters just by completing enough races.
more news soon

new boat

Today was the day i picked up mutley197 my new laser from sail laser in weymouh portland. the home of the 2012 olympics. the day started off ok but then after transferring stuff from straycat to the van i noticed the key was slight best, after a small bend  twang the key snapped. greg was on his way and suggested ring the rac.
they gave me numbers for car key cutters and did a good job. we tried swanage first but to no avail.

So at 930am we headed off to bournmouth with sat nav shouting left right  lol
the man said no problem, so i said two, he said £48, i said thank god you could do it.
We tried ringing tom at weymouth but he never got the message, so we knew we would be late , we eventually after going straight to weymouth met tom and we sorted the boat. really pleased we asked light board he said no, oh ,halfords, ok.
We picked it up in weymouth town and i thought hope its long enough, guess what it wasnt.
We got to portland tied the thing and left. we got back to swanage and unpacked and i repacked the boat down using ratchets straps and a proper light board.
So after an eventful day i am now the proud owner of a 8 month old acadamy owned laser 197631

Now the testing begins to get upto speed before the new season haha, watch this space !!!


This boat was bought by a swanage member in 2013 and has since been sold to Josh Craven in yorkshire sailing club.

straycat

straycat the dart 18 was sold on the 26th january.
i will be sailing a laser again in the UK Q, Masters and traveler series in the south and west

i will name my laser mutley when i get him
further updates to follow