First Melges 20 regatta done........ Tick!
The Section 16 team entered the San Fran Melges 20 event last weekend. My first regatta in the boat and as we didn't have the usual crew up yet sailed it with Jonathan McKee and Chris Lanzinger.
So how'd we do? ...... Awesome! Got a second scoring 2,4,2,2,2 vs the Samba Pa Ti guys.
So how'd it go?...... Wild, 5 races in 20 - 28 knots of pressure and steep big waves. As Jonathan said " that's the windiest you'll ever sail the boat in"!
So how'd ya find the going? .......... Hadn't really been in a boat since Feb when we left SoCal so was a bit rusty. Came out to sail on Wednesday from Europe. Matty had boat in water so it was of the plane, change in car park and a quick 3 hour sail to get tuned up. Whats it the say about jet lag? Oh yeah a little light exercise helps you. Well lets just say I slept fine that night! Our couple of days in the boat back in June helped but Jonathan gave some expert coaching on how to sail in heavy pressure and in waves and I gained confidence with every day and with confidence came the aggression to push the boat hard. Had a few issue on race 2 with a mechanical with the rudder causing several spin outs, hard to take but a good learning experience! Boat worked great although after the abuse of the weekend will need a new race jib! Well on our way to creating our own set of training sails! But that said we got a great set of tuning numbers, have plenty of speed, and looks like Matty built us a good un! The support we also get from Gill racing is second to none and the kit we chose worked really well in the face of a full San Fransisco onslaught
So whats next?...... Boats gone into dry storage in Tiburon and I'll be back out start of Oct for the Nats. This time our full crew will be up with Charlie McKee and Matt Pistay.
Can wait.......
Over and out from London
The Section 16 team entered the San Fran Melges 20 event last weekend. My first regatta in the boat and as we didn't have the usual crew up yet sailed it with Jonathan McKee and Chris Lanzinger.
So how'd we do? ...... Awesome! Got a second scoring 2,4,2,2,2 vs the Samba Pa Ti guys.
So how'd it go?...... Wild, 5 races in 20 - 28 knots of pressure and steep big waves. As Jonathan said " that's the windiest you'll ever sail the boat in"!
So how'd ya find the going? .......... Hadn't really been in a boat since Feb when we left SoCal so was a bit rusty. Came out to sail on Wednesday from Europe. Matty had boat in water so it was of the plane, change in car park and a quick 3 hour sail to get tuned up. Whats it the say about jet lag? Oh yeah a little light exercise helps you. Well lets just say I slept fine that night! Our couple of days in the boat back in June helped but Jonathan gave some expert coaching on how to sail in heavy pressure and in waves and I gained confidence with every day and with confidence came the aggression to push the boat hard. Had a few issue on race 2 with a mechanical with the rudder causing several spin outs, hard to take but a good learning experience! Boat worked great although after the abuse of the weekend will need a new race jib! Well on our way to creating our own set of training sails! But that said we got a great set of tuning numbers, have plenty of speed, and looks like Matty built us a good un! The support we also get from Gill racing is second to none and the kit we chose worked really well in the face of a full San Fransisco onslaught
So whats next?...... Boats gone into dry storage in Tiburon and I'll be back out start of Oct for the Nats. This time our full crew will be up with Charlie McKee and Matt Pistay.
Can wait.......
Over and out from London
