The Kids Are Alright

Began thinking a bit more about the results at the Gorge. Clearly a full on event. With Matt, Zack, and Hans all in the hunt (3rd 4th and 5th respectively) it's starting at last to look like a young persons class, not just the young at heart. Yes I can say this from my lofty old age! But it has struck me that we need the teenagers in the class to help drive it along. Many don't seem to join because of perceived expense, but when I see what Hans and Eric are able to do with "old Bladeriders" makes me think a junior could enter this class with a $8000 BR and be somewhat on the pace. And these are exactly who we need to encourage to join us. The question now is how? Answers on a post card please.....

Good news Sunday. I finally figured out how to post a video, this one shot at the Gorge with my GoPro.

Other great news, CST have come through with a new mast, which is just awesome customer service, thanks Luka. Race is on to get it to to Harbor Springs for the North Americans!

And if you haven't seen it, go see Inception at the movies, great film!

As you can see I'm missing the boat! Only one more weekend.

Thursday Grind: The Schooner Rigged Moth

Developed in a wood shed in Washington by Dan of Raptor sails and piloted by our own Charlie McKee, the schooner rigged Moth made its first appearance at the Gorge last weekend. Testing went well but it was reported to be a bit of a handful in the gybes. Asked for a comment Charlie said "it's intuitive"

Remember you heard it here first

Ch Ch Changes

Sorry no report last night, I was shattered! With Sunday forecast for the Gorge to go nuclear, the RC crammed in 7 races, 3 in the morning session and 4 in the evening. Crawled out of the boat at about 7pm, pizza beer and bed. And yes Sunday was nuclear with no racing. Dalton sailed supremely to win, followed by Charlie, Matt, Zack, and Hans. Hans sailed very well in an old Bladerider, just shows what you can do with talent and skill!

For me, not the best regatta I have done, but a huge learning curve and experience. My usual consistency deserted me, probably through trying too much in such extreme conditions, and once gone it was hard to get it back. It's clear that when the breeze is 25 knots plus, it will punish the slightest mistake either in boat handling or in boat prep. Just getting to the start with 2 - 3 knots up hill current, readjusting to where to place, and just understand the signals, was tough, boy hard day at the office.

I had an awesome setup on the Raptor / Nano / EC6 combo, but trying to rig in the gusts of Saturday I snapped the forestay, then had to rush into trying to set up the wire shrouds whihc I had never done before. Too much rake made the boat really fast but almost unhandleable through the transitions. For the evening I put the MSL 13 back on as I knew the settings, but there's quite a bit of adjustment needed between the 2 rigs and I didn't quite get it right. So lessons learnt all around:

1. Gybing and tacking going great even in high winds
2. Make sure you know ALL settings if you use two rigs
3. Why splice when you can knot!

I'm going to re think a little and make sure I am keeping the boat very very simple and change only one thing at a time! Time to look at that list of 14 mods and start to reduce them. Eric made the job somewhat simpler, snapping my Nano 4. To be fair to him it was a really weird break, just snapped in half about 5 inches below the join. Looks like carbon hadn't been wetted out with enough epoxy. Calling CST...

WIndmlls of the Mind

Well the breeze was on by 9am, and continued to build. The photo above is where our leeward mark would be. The windsurfers had already been in and changed down to their 4.0s. The RC wisely called it at 20:13, no racing till at least 4pm. We all duly arrived back at 4om, still blowing dogs off chains, local wind speed had 28s gusting 33s. Delay again till 5pm, still blowing, RC called it for the day. By 6:30 we could have got 2 or 3 good races in but wise call this early.

Must admit got a bit phased out by today. I've never enjoyed long delays on windy days, would rather get on it. By 5 one side of me said "rig up and get out there", the other said, "you'll break something". It was soften slightly, but I prevaricated, and by the time it had softened enough to be reasonable, I'd lost the mood /drive to go out and practice. Still tomorrow needs to be Go Big or Go Home.

Positives for today:

• Really great tour round with Liz during day, there's some awesome scenery
• Seeing my old boat out on the water and going well

Survivor medal goes to Dalton, his score for the day was

• Gantry off Chris R boat
• Sailing Dan with no bungs
• Gantry off Dans boat

Don t know how many times he had to swim in towing a Moth, but I got tired just watching :)

Take me to the River

Well that was awesome! My first time sailing at the Gorge and it really turned it on. Still a training day but we had Jonathen, Dalton and Lyndsey, Matt, Zack, Eric and me out. Started off at aroudn 11am with a relatively sane 15 knots, but quickly built to over 20, then built some more.....25 to 30 ish. At which point we all came in. Liz and I went off for a bit of sight seeing but there are a couple boats back out at aroudn 6pm. I suspect Zack Dalton and Lindsay.

Used the Raptor / Nano for first time and still have a few tweeks to do but loved how repsonsive it was in the big breeze. Had max vang and max d haul on to hold it and it sailed great. Uphill saw some 16 knots boat speed at times so pretty pleased with pace. All I need now is consistency, but the relatively flat water cf Long Beach does flatter tacks and gybes.

Lookng at some video I shot couple learning points:

1. Nice and steady into the gybe, even carve
2. Focus on not waggling rudder all over place,
3. Move body and tiller in unison to keep boat flat through gybe and tack

First race tomorow, little less wind would be good!

Wild Wild Life

Great day practice in Long Beach Sunday, managed to come in just as wind bulit but it was ok, got my practice in but didnt get to do much speed testing with Nat Zack or Eric. Boat was packed and now as I write this at 40 000ft I'm trusting the boat is on the roof of Zack's van and on its way to the Gorge. We're planning for a late sail Wednesday before full on testing Thursday and racing through weekend. Time to see if all the training / set up and the new boat since the Words is going to pay off.

Liz is always amazed by the amount of time I can spend "fettling" the boat so though I'd write a list of the mods I've done to the Mach 2 in the three months of ownership. Nothing compared to owning a Bladerider but fun all the same. So here goes:

1. Precourt micro tension block on forestay
2. Gulari custom wand mount starboard side (tap snapped in the port side one!)
3. Wand elastic tension system brought back to wing bars
4. JPZ ride height adjuster
5. Million $ shim tape on front foil
6. AMac custom front foil horizontal (thinner section)
7. 4:1 mainsheet
8. 8:1 down haul
9. 24:1 vang
10. EC6+ "cheese slicer" on rear wing bar
11. North Spectra hiking straps
12. Sailing Bits Velocitek mount
13. Breather tubes on hull drains
14. Nano 4 / Raptor / EC6+ rigging / Boat Bits carbon prodder rig as number 2 rig

Whats on your ride?

Check in for daily reports from Gorge Madness, along with pics by Liz.

Video Killed the Radio Star

OK, been trying to upload my first video, shot and edited last weekend. So I am kind of hoping it is going to appear here!! Anyone with some advice on how to publish vids, I am all ears. It's only 2.8Mb how hard can it be.

Well the last weekend before the summer road trip is upon us. Haven't been able to get too much sailing in but what I have I've really tried to focus on quality, following religiously my training plan of practicing:

1. Boats speed testing with Nat
2. Sail with one hand helps with moving in and getting to sail controls
3. Usual Gybes and tacks
4. Start line lay lines, foiling and non foiling
5. Gybing into mark rounding

One more weekend and we'll see how it plays out. Felt pretty good up against the A cats last weekend till the vang lost the plot

We're planning to get out Sunday at ABYC, with Zack, Eric and Nat. Should be good if I can tear them away from the World Cup. I reckon, rig, change watch the match (Go Spain :)) and dive in the boats. We'll also need to pack Sunday evening, which means getting the travel box to ABYC on the top of the car, will be a slow drive down with that up there.

Tomorrow I'm planning to finalize the new rig, Raptor on the Nano all held up with EC6+. Vang is now all sorted and guess what I learnt to splice properly.

Now back to seeing if I can get the vid to up load, says its still loading....

Pump it

Been a few weeks since out in the boat, an insane work schedule accounting for most of it. After last sessions tales of broken vangs, I began to feel a bit sorry for Eric. Last time out he just got out to us and I broke the vang, this Saturday, he'd just arrived on the race course, and the very neat piece of splicing I'd done came apart and there I was with another broken vang. Sorry Mate, it isn't personal!

It was the ABYC 4th July regatta, low key affair and although It was supposed to be be me, Eric and Zack, only I was out for first race. So started with the cats, and whilst being canned up wind, I was all over the A cats and F18s down wind, eventually winning the first race on the water. Felt very pleased with boat setup and handling. Tactics and positioning still need some polishing before the Gorge, but happy where I am. Pretty weird conditions at Long Beach with a long South swell making its presence felt inside the breakwater, and the usual vicious wind chop coming the other way. Very interesting on port tack where you could choose to go bow down by a few degrees and make 15s with the swell, but poor angle, or point high and do 11s. Not sure I ever worked out best option.

One more weekend before we pack for the Gorge. Shipping is booked for the North Americans, and Zack is driving the boats up to the Gorge next week, role on summer!