Email Notice.

I've just checked my spam inbox for my Gmail account and found quite a few emails that were not spam. If you have emailed me recently and I've not got back to you please try again.

Broadband Up and Running!

I've finally got my broadband internet connection sorted at home so I can get back up to speed with updating my blog.

I'm currently helping out film a sail and rig tuning DVD for the RYA so long days at the moment, but plenty of Moth news to update on here shortly.

2.4s in Weymouth

From the RYA press release by Lindsey Bell:

RYA National Ranking Series winners crowned at Weymouth.
The RYA Olympic Classes National Ranking Series drew to a close this weekend, with both seasoned campaigners and young guns clinching victories after the final event of the three-weekend Series at the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy (20-21 October).

The 2.4mR class missed out on the two previous Series events due to a clash with the IFDS World Disabled Championships in Rochester, USA, but they were in action for this final event this weekend. With racing open to disabled and able-bodied sailors, Skandia Team GBR’s 2.4mR coach Adam May took the opportunity to race against his charges Helena Lucas and Megan Pascoe, and clinched victory with four wins from the six races – Lucas finished second with Pascoe in third.

For results from the 20-21 October event, visit www.wpnsa.org.uk



I'd talked about sailing in an open meeting for ages, but timescales and boat logistics had never quite allowed it. Fortunately this weekend worked out nicely. Helena's second boat had just come back from the USA, and we'd been based in Weymouth all week for a squad camp.

I was slightly nervous as I've only done a little bit of tuning in a 2.4, and a few practice races. Helena got the march on me in the first two races, but I managed to get it all figured out eventually. I was vulnerable downwind, as I wasn't very used to the angles downwind, but managed the shifts okay upwind to gain more upwind than I lost downwind. I won the remaining 2 races on day one, and then the two races on Sunday, but it was much closer racing than the scoreline suggests. I often managed to make my biggest moves on the final beats of the three lap races.

So I might have to retire from my 2.4 sailing and remain in the coach boat now! It was very fun close tactical racing though, so I'm likely to be tempted back for more. I learnt a lot from the weekend, and it was great to sail against my squad sailors, Helena and Megan. I picked up a lot of things from actually racing them.

Back in the UK

Just got back from China, where I couldn't access my blog or any others that run a .blogspot account actually. I'll do a full update soon, once I've caught up with everything. Great trip though and we even got to do the Great Wall of China on the way home!

F27 Cruise Photos

C Wings

C Class

A foiling C Class Cat. But the event is currently being led by its more 'conventional' sistership. The foiling boat is yet to be perfected, and actually had the foils cut off tonight!

More photos and a full report soon, but I'm going to do the return trip on John's trimaran to Kingston tomorrow as the sail over was so much fun.

Toronto

I'm now in Toronto to watch some of the C Class Catamaran Championships. I sailed down here from Kingston at the other end of the lake with an old Tornado friend of mine John Curtis in his F27 Trimaran. It was light and upwind most of the way and we covered 170nm in 26hrs! Great fun though! Loads of photos coming soon. (Internet access on the boat from the club, but no battery life left!)

IFDS Worlds Day 1

Only 5knots of breeze and slowly dropping resulted in only one race for the 2.4's today at the IFDS Worlds. The practice race was abandoned yesterday after a period of 20k overnight had built up quite a large swell. There was still a fair bit of swell left over today, and it made for a hard race in the dying breeze. Helena Lucas finished 2nd, and Megan Pascoe finished 4th.

Niagra Falls

Having had a very productive week of training here in Rochester we took the opportunity to take a day off yesterday and go over to Niagra falls which was only a short drive around Lake Ontario.

It really is very impressive, and an incredible sight up close. We did the 'Maid of the Mist' boat tour, and have the trendy blue ponchos to show for it!

More Moth Coverage

I picked up copies of Sailing World and Sail magazine in West Marine chandlery the other day only to find an article about foiling sailing in one with quotes from me in it, and a 1/4 page photo of me from the Worlds in the other one!

Rochester Update

We've been training here in Rochester for a few days now, and although I haven't seen much of the place I'm liking it here. Everybody has been very friendly and I think it will be a well run regatta. We've had it pretty light for the last few days, and completely flat calm yesterday but we had 15k and pretty big waves today which was fun.

Foilborne C Class Cats

I heard the other day that one of the Canadian C Class cats is actually a fully foilborne one......

Then I read Rohan's blog and found out he'd already got a go on it! He's got two good photos on his site.



Here is a video of Cogito the current form boat:

Rochester, USA

Hello from the US side of Lake Ontario. I'm out here now for the IFDS World Championships - the Worlds for all the Paralympic Sailing classes.

It was a bit of a trip over here though with a diverted flight to Richmond, South of Washington, due to a huge storm over Washington Dulles that closed the airport for an hour or so. We held for a while but ran low on fuel so had to put down elsewhere. So I missed my connection, and had to stay in Washington over night, before getting up to Rochester the following morning.

Meg and Helena sailed yesterday, and we'll finish getting the rib together today so we can start training here properly.

Seems like quite a nice venue.

Boat Lending

So how do you say thank you to those companies and people who support your sailing. Well hopefully regular reports, and good media coverage with nice photos keeps them happy, but just recently I’ve managed a new little twist on the standard return for support.

I’ve lent out my new Moth for 2 months. Dave Chisholm of Carbonology.com who has helped me out a lot this season is currently undertaking flight school and burning off the local windsurf fleet at a small lake near his place in Ipswich.

I’ve known Dave for years, first meeting him during the Sydney Olympics where he was running logistics for the British Olympic Association. Since then our paths have crossed numerous times, and Dave is often on the phone to bounce around ideas on a number of boat projects. I kept telling him he needed a Moth, but he insisted he was a twin trapeze skiff man. That was until I gave him a go in my Moth during the Moth nationals in Weymouth, and the grin hasn’t left his face yet!

The timing was right as I wasn’t using mine for a while whilst overseas at several regattas, and if he broke it I knew he had enough carbon at work to fix it!

Marlow Visit

I popped over to visit the new Marlow site today, which was quite impressive. I went over for a general catch up and chat through of some interesting stuff they've got going on. More info soon.....

Seeing all the machines winding, braiding etc was very impressive, and makes you realise just how much goes into making a piece of rope.

Sunday at Poole Week

A few of us went over to Poole on Sunday to put in a bit of a Moth showing for the start of Poole week. We had Si Payne, Rod Harris, Mike Cooke, James Roche, Gary Ireson, and myself. Unfortunately launching amongst such a big fleet in breezy conditions took longer than expected, and only Simon and I actually made the start. We lead the fast handicap fleet round the top mark, but had no idea where the next mark was! So we were doing 18/20knots across the top reach, and I'm trying to find the mark on the laminated course card. Once we'd found it I held the card in my teeth for a while but soon gave up on that when it just bend up and covered my eyes! So I wedged it down my rash vest until it had to come out again to find the next mark! Eventually we figured out the course, but I did have to walk the boat off one sandbank, having landed gently onto it mid tack. Simon waited for me though, and we kept the racing close between us for a few laps. Doing 20 knots through the moorings and X boat fleet seperated by only a few boat lengths was probably quite a sight, with some impressive syncronised gybes!

23.3 Knots was my top speed of the day. (I've done a new little gps mount, so I can now easily see it from both tacks which is nicer!)

Should be some video soon.....

Queen Mary Trip

On Saturday morning I went up to Queen Mary to drop off Nemesis for Adrian.

While up there I caught up with two new Bladerider owners Chris and Mike before they went for a spin around QM. It was pretty gusty but they went out and did okay. There was some interesting leeward heel foiling which is pretty hard to do, but they are dead keen and enjoying it. They've already been looking into accom in Weymouth for the Worlds!

Graham & Katherine Vials' Wedding

It was Graham and Katherine's wedding on Saturday, and I went along for a very nice reception and dinner. I was sat on the 'Bladerider table' as each table was themed as a class of boat.

Sept Dinghy Sailing Magazine

More great coverage in the latest issue of Dinghy Sailing magazine. Which also includes a superb article by Emma Wilkins on the building of her 'Fat Bottomed Girl'.