Deben Open Meeting

Today was the Deben Laser Open. I had been following the weather forecast all week and it was expected to be nice and windy. The wind was around 15knots with gusts hitting 25 or even maybe more. Last year we had gone with Steve and Liam but we didn't know that the sailing area was half an hour's sailing downstream from the clubhouse and that the format was 3 races back-to-back. This year we knew, though.

I decided to make the trip with Liam. Steve couldn't make it, so we borrowed his trailer (thanks Steve). we loaded the boats on the trailer the yesterday, so this morning we were ready to go. We arrived there in time, unloaded the boats, went for the briefing, changed and rigged. We launched and we made it to the starting area. Liam had a small mishap during as he was launching, but everything was OK eventually.

On the first race I wasn't going to have a good start because I found myself in a bad spot. Luckily enough many people were over the line, so it was a general recall. We started under black flag and this time I had a better start. Deben is a tidal river, but since I am not very experienced when it comes to tides, I didn't really know what I was doing. I was doing OK upwind, but I was loosing ground downwind. Still though I didn't do as well as I would have liked.

On the second race, I messed up the start. While I thought it was about 20 seconds to the start, I checked my watch and it was saying 42 seconds. Because I was too far forward I tacked around and made a turn. I checked my watch again and it was saying 42 seconds, again! Then I realised that it had stopped. That moment I started gearing the others' watches beeping. I was too far from the line, so I had a quite bad start. I managed to gain a few places and I was just behind of the middle of the fleet and was sailing towards the finish line. Then 200 hundred before the finish line, I capsized. The wind shifted and the boat came on top of me. I recovered as fast as I could, but I had lost 4 -5 places. I was quite pissed off with that, but there was nothing I could do.

On the last race I was a bit too tired and I settled for the second row at the start. Other than that I did quite OK. Down wind I was losing all I was gaining upwind. It seems, I seriously need to sort that out. On the last downwind leg, a couple of boats that were just ahead of me, gained much more on me and I didn't manage to catch them before the finish line. Overall, I am quite happy with my performance, apart from that capsize.

I finished 17th, 14th and 12th and that gave ma an overall 15th position out of 18. If I didn't have that capsize at the end of the second race, I would be 12th overall. That's to show that something like that can be quite costly. Anyway, I am quite happy with my overall performance today. As for the capsize, I'll have to live with it and the fact that I recovered quite quickly doesn't make me feel that bad after all.

This coming Wednesday is the last of the series, so I expect quite a few Lasers out.

Lottery

Light winds today and everything is a matter of luck. It's the Welsh Harp Lottery as we call it. the shifts, the gusts, the wind shadows and holes create a very difficult mix that you need a fair amount of luck in order stay ahead.

So, not a very bad start and at least in the beginning I was doing OK. At some point the tiller extension came off the tiller. That was really bad luck and seriously pissed me off because I lost 3-4 places. I tried to forget it and focus on the race, but I couldn't really do it. I was too angry and I couldn't calm down; it made me too impatient and I kept trying different sail trim all the time. I was losing places even towards the end. I finished 16th out of 18. I have to say that I enjoyed it although I wasn't happy with the overall result.

Is It the Sail or the Sailor?

Nice weather today warm and sunny without much wind. The forecast was saying 6-7 knots and I was hoping it would be just about that. I went to the club rigged my boat and got ready for the first race.

I had a reasonably good start and I managed to keep up with the leaders. I was fighting really hard and for a short time I was even 3rd. Then I was 4th with Ben ahead and Dan astern for a while, then we swapped places a couple of times with Dan, until the before-last lap that he passed me and I was too fed up with the race because it was getting too long. So, during the last lap I was on my own at 5th place and there was no way I could recover. I finished 5th out of 15 boats. I haven't had such a good result for 6-7 weeks.

On the second race, I had a pretty good start and although I wasn't doing as good as on the first, it was quite interesting. I was very close to Corbin, Jay, Charmian and Tom. We were battling it all the way to the end. On the last upwind leg, I managed to sail past all of them except Corbin who chose the middle of the Harp and he managed to get ahead of me. So, I finished, once again 5th out of 16. Now, I don't know if it was my seamanship skill or the better sail I have. Only the future will tell.

Bad Run?

Light winds today and I wasn't expecting much. I was just hoping though. I have managed to make my starts much better. At least, now if my plan doesn't work, I usually have a backup plan. Most probably what happens is that when my plan fails I quickly think of what to do and I go for it. Before, if my starting plan wasn't working I couldn't think of a recovery move and I was ending up in a quite bad situation.

So, my starting strategy didn't seem to be working, so very quickly I changed it according to the conditions of the moment and I managed to recover. I had a little incident just after the start with someone who came on port and got on my way, but I managed quite quickly to get it out of my mind and carry on with the race. There were no major incidents after this. I didn't have a great result, I finished 8th out of 12 but I enjoyed it.

More action on Sunday. See you then.

What Happened to the Other 20%?

Since last week the forecast for today's weather, looked good. Winds over 10 knots and dry. Since Monday it started changing. It was showing 9 knots wind, for the evening, and rain. Fortunately, the wind stayed at over 10 knots but we still had some rain.

I don't really have any good comments for the race officer because he set the line parallel to the wind and just a few meters from the shore. Alan ran aground twice before the start and we were lucky we all crossed the line on the same direction. I was off the line quite fast with a pretty good speed. Slowly, but steadily, I started dropping back. On the first downwind leg I managed to loose to Rob and Alan.

I tried hard to catch up but it was impossible. I was trying to keep the boat flat, but it wasn't helping. I was trying to point high and the only thing I could do was keep Ian, who was following astern, away. For the last part of the race I went for speed, but Ian was getting even closer. I managed to finish ahead of him, but still I wasn't happy.

When I went in, I started complaining about my sail. It turns out that Steve is so fed up of listening to me complaining about my sail, that he lent me one for a couple of months, provided that I will never complain about my sail again. Later on in the club house, Brent said to me that I accelerated nicely off the line. They say that 80% of the race is the start. I really don't know what happened to the other 20% and my result was so bad.

Next week, we'll see if the sail was to blame.

Exciting Weather

Today it has been nice and windy. I was expecting this weather, especially since yesterday's swim, and I was looking forward to it. I rigged Bubble and went out for the first start.

I had a decent start and after the dust had settled, I then it was a matter of staying upright. I was battling against Tom and although I could get ahead of him, soon enough he would fight back and get ahead of me. He managed to stay ahead and finish ahead of me, so I managed to finish 8th out of 15. Quite happy with that, not bad performance but most of all, I enjoyed it.

For the second race the wind had picked up and a few people DNFd. I had a capsize but other than that, I did quiet well. The wind made it quite exciting and I definitely enjoyed it. Eventually, I finished 7th out of 13.