I just spend half a day with the guys from Eclectic catching up and just hanging around a bit which was fun but tomorrow I’m off to the Netherlands for some visits to friends, family committments… and possibly some sailing as well
Times in Soton have been failry quiet though the past weekend was de F45 matchracing which was, just like last year, a great success though it perhaps did not show in the results…
anyway got a long drive ahead so early bed for me, take care
Ciao!
Also known as the South Coast Championships for the Etchells Class seemed the right event to try out Etchells sailing (which is where you can find some really, really good guys and I mean really, really good) with 3 novices to the boat. Thank God the boat is easy to sail and a quarter of a turn on anything doesn’t influence the performance, oh wait even a fraction of a millimeter here or there off immediately shows in the relative perormance of the boat, rather impressive to be honest. The first day was absolutely brilliant, enough breeze and great weather, just a pleasure and best of all the novices did not make a complete fool of themselves!
Tomorrow the second and final day and it should be hopefully just as nice with perhaps some better results (more than 1 boat behind us in more than 1 race…) but if not the weather and people are great so no complaining there.
On a small side-note (and truth be told I haven’t been in contact with the sponsor about this yet due to timedifferences and everything…) the second year is officially finished, passed and behind me so on to year 3 and with that the second half. First thought the second day in the Etchells and I’m still not sure why I agreed to sail one of these, one should definitely be a good sailor not just a good crew on a big boat…
Life’s awesome, ciao!
Well I have seen the forecast and the weekend looks worse in Soton so it’s almost time to head back. Tomorrow I’ll set off for Dunkerque to see the fleet of Mumm30’s roaring to do a lap of France and then onwards to good ‘ol Soton.
Dutchland has treated me very nicely again, even after six-and-a-bit months, with great weather (temperatures and conditions that make it almost summer!) and meeting up with even greater people again. I would almost go as far as saying that because of that I’m planning on more time here this summer (but there are other reasons as well). It all kicked-off with an amazing wedding, followed by a lovely day of relaxing at the kaag. Monday was a day of kris-krossing through The Hague for Lunch, Tea and Dinner. spaced out well enough to catch up properly, have a laugh, enjoy the weather and be on the receiving end of banter. Today was a quick visit to friends at Delft Uni (but exams got a bit in the way of that…) and another lunch for more cathcing up. It seems there is still a lot of opportunity at the WWW and I’ll probably do a plug as soon as it’s all live…
Too many people in too short a time so next time round I’ll be planning ahead a bit more and hopefully catch up with all of you who were too busy these past couple of days. I’ll promise to get in touch before I’m around next time… Unfortunately I’ll be missing a friends wedding which is back in Holland whilst I’d be stuck in the UK but I’m sure they’ll manage a great party even without me.
Ciao!
It’s been almost a week but I feel Weybiza is now just a good memory (ie. no physical effects anymore). The weekend of sailing (Farr45 Nationals) was challenging (2 very light and a light breeze day) and the competition on and off the water was friendly but also very fierce…
As far as results go… well race 1 resulted in a second and in the final race we managed a win, the 7 inbetween are well and truly forgotten… Not the consistency required to get a good overall result but the port-tack start to cross the fleet and take the bullit made more than up for it (not least the child-like cheering from the back of the bus).
Having said that, the last week has been a bit quiet, some research for my 3rd year project and only a couple of housemates still left haven’t fuelled the excitement. A couple of days in the flatlands could well change that and tomorrow I’ll be flying out to good ‘ol Dutchland for not least a wedding as well as a little visit to some friends I haven’t seen in well over half a year.
Should all be good fun and driving back up to Soton I’m planning on a pit-stop in Dunkerque to say hi to some of my friends who are about to start this year’s Tour de France a la Voile (ie. sailing around France in a Mumm30).
Leaves me to wish everyone here in the UK a safe, fast and fun trip around the Island, it’s only 1700-something boats and no Alex Thompson/Ben Ainsley/Lewis Hamilton to create carnage on the line this year…
(HB’s bowsprit after the little starting accident; Photo © Steve Arkley / www.sailshots.co.uk)
Holland here I come!
Ciao!
meant a weekend off of sailing for me and thus a trip to a friend’s (and former neighbour’s) wedding somewhere in the western part of England. this also meant I’d be meeting up with the parents for the first time in 6 months.
Because of this and them flying back to NL from soton it turned in a mini-vacation with the two of them starting with the aforementioned wedding. Let’s just say that for a wedding that wasn’t supposed to be much like a ‘real’ wedding it was a great ceremony and a great celebration of the occasion. I am just not sure what part of it was not ‘like a real wedding’…
Again Ruth and Andy, many congratulations (and thanks for having me there at such late notice).
After the events on Saturday the parents and I drove down (with a stop at Poole to see something on the way back to soton) we stopped at the New Forest for the night. The weather not fully cooperating (and not prepared for such an occasion) the visit was limited to the cream tea, a visit to the pub next door and a small bite though I think the cottage itself was already brilliant enough for the two of them to have an awesome time (with the 4’6″ doors etc.).
On Monday I showed them round Hamble, Uni, my current and future house and we had some lunch at Ocean Village before we parted again. All in all a pretty damn fine weekend even if it was a bit more damp than expected and hoped for. However it’s time to get back to uni-work now.
Ciao!
Well, that’s the exams done, first meeting for 3rd year project out of the way and as a result very low stress levels and/or tension going on. But you might have guessed it this has come with the end of the summer and the weather has been getting steadily worse since there has been time to enjoy it all.
What’s up now? Well did a bit of RIB-driving for Radical Marine (got looked after very well again) and been thinking about the manner in which to fill in my project. Still failed to find a placement within the industry (~20 letters have been send out) but I suppose that is a sign I should focus on enjoying the summer and possibly go abroad on a non-sailing related trip for some relaxing.
Going up to the South-West (scary) for a wedding instead of the IRC-Nationals (some lovely boats again out there). Next week I’ll do some lovely time spend in the library before heading out to Weymouth (Olympic sailing venue 2012) for the Farr45 Nationals. Should be a good laugh. Then from 20-24 June a few days in the flatlands and we’ll see where it goes from there.
Life ain’t bad,
Ciao!
ps. got a new phonenumber (wee-bit of a screw up in paperwork between phone companies), if you haven’t received the new number please drop me an email (contact ->) and I’ll update you as well.
Right, so it’s bank-holiday-weekend which should mean time off, enjoying the weather doing the barbeque-thing etcetera etcetera. Although I can’t completely claim to have done none of those things I am 100% sure it’s not a holiday weekend for me.
As the end of term is in just a couple of weeks the amount of coursework and the deadlines that go with them seems to be ever increasing and although I have not spend all my time in the library (I did get lured into some F45 sailing on Werewolf) getting the earliest lift back possible from Hamble has meant that Saturday night, Sunday afternoon and basically the rest of the time for the upcoming 2-3 weeks will be spend in some way shape or form working through journals, articals, regulations, problems and combining that all into a multitude of hours behind a computer screen to deliver some results. Main focus is at new and advanced ship production technologies at the moment but my ship design is not getting ignored and with four exams as well attention is being spread. But hey we’re getting there and I can see the sun shining from were I’m working (and taking a break now).
I’ll do a quick run of sailing for those interested. Over the past couple of weeks I’ve done some different sailing in the weekends. The Red Funnel Easter Challenge I did back of the bus kinda stuff for the MAT12 of the Dutch ‘Foxy Sailing Team’, with a bullit (1st) in the opening race and 3rd in class after 3 days of sailing in very light conditions. This was followed by a day on a Farr45 of the first weekend of the Royal Thames thing. Last weekend I sailed on a First 40.7 (in semi one-design) with a good friend of mine and posted some nice results even if at times it was very challenging with quite a few new sailors around me and challenging conditions. This weekend was the 2nd and final weekend of the Royal Thames thing for Farr45’s and I got asked to do bow on Werewolf. After a great Saturday run (1,3,1,2) a protest of the first weekend was lost and on Sunday (today) things just did not go the team’s way and that was a bit of a shame. But looking on the bright side I did manage to get outside (and catch some sun) and with the efficient race management I got home both days around 4 so with enough time to actually do some work.
That’s it for now, back to work (which is actually quite interesting if it wasn’t for the deadline pressure).
Ciao!
That was interesting…
and not being sarcastic here.
If there was a downside to the days of presentations it has to have been the fact that the depth of some of the papers was a bit above me but the set-up was such that there was enough time to ask the “dumb”-questions in private during the breaks.
And it wasn’t just good business (or education for that matter) but Genoa (Genova, depending on spelling) with plenty to see and enjoy in this old city. We were lucky enough to have a fellow student from the city leading the way and we got to enjoy some typical Italian lifestyle (free bites with our Morettis). The city’s superyacht dock was interesting to see as at the early time of year meant that the boats were receiving maintenance and thus diplayed some form of life.
So learned a lot and got to meet some very interesting people whilst having a good time.
Yeah, life’s good (and over 3 hours of delay on the way back didn’t spoil it)
Ciao
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Yep another couple of weeks “off” which means the end of the year is also nearing and that’s scary as there’s still quit a bit of work to do. This also means that this “spring break” has been mostly filled with doing the tedious jobs for a couple of assignments etcetera so that near the end of the semester can be focused on exams instead of assignments.
The biggest bummer at the moment is the weather forecast for my little trip to Italy this week… heavy showers all week and about exactly the same temperature as right here in the UK. I guess the very busy (indoor-)schedule should be able to dampen the impact of the poor prediction but it just sounds wrong for a holiday destination such as Italy.
Other than all that there’s obviously sailing (or lack there-off) and the (I think I’m right in saying) usual big talk and false promises that go with the Solent pre-season. It would be quite funny to hear people talk themselves and their programs up and making all these promises about events, spending and the future if it wasn’t sad due to the lack of honesty.
Good thing it’s just a hobby…
Ciao,
Nerdie stuff
So it’s all sorted (I think, fingers crossed and all); flight, hotel and registration done so now just some waiting left. What it is? I’m going to Genoa (Italy) in just under a months’ time to attend a conference on boats. Organised by the Royal Institution of Naval Architects there’ll be 2 long days of knowledge sharing and I guess other than some interesting topics covered it will be a good way of learning more about the business.
But because of the flights and just general program there should be some time to see a bit of the old town (don’t forget that the “Spanish” Columbus set out from his home-port of Genoa when he was lloking for India and found America) and take in some of the local culture…
Day-to-day life is going pretty well, mostly calculations at the moment and after a brief attempt of the spring we’re back to rain (and worse) in the next couple of days. Doesn’t really matter though, life’s good!
Ciao,
