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After the events of this weekend I have to plug these two companies and they definitely deserve to be here in the sailing part of the website and not just the usual blog.

First of the two is Schickler Tagliapietra, a Holland based yacht engineering company. The firm formerly known as SYD-E is involved in yacht design as is currently involved in both racing and cruising designs varying from a mini 650 proto to the America’s Cup Class 90 footer and a 24ft lake sailor to large production cruising yachts. The firm got coverage in all the major magazines over the past year, with recognition from Seahorse Magazine for their ACC-design as the latest that I know of. More can be found at their website: http://www.syd-e.com/

The second is Radical Marine. This company not only takes care of a lot of racing yachts around the Solent such as Sanguma (the Ker 31 I race on regularly these days), but also Formidable 3 (Lutra 56, from Dutch owner Piet Vroon). They not only can take care of the boat but will also look for crew and many other things involved in keep a yacht and possibly racing it. And if that wasn’t enough they also can provide coaching or even help you buy or sell a boat. Other than looking after Sanguma, two of the company also sail with us (and boy do I learn a lot every time I’m out with that boat!). Here their website: http://www.radicalmarine.com/

But the story begins about 24 hours earlier. My Italian friends had invited me to join them for the game against Scotland and even they agreed that the match was boring to watch and the victory was stolen. Not that it bothered them in any way, because they qualified for Euro 2008 and that’s what counted. Than it was time for a Swiss-Italian pasta meal, before going to a house party with just international students. The biggest problem with those parties is the diversity of people and as a result all stereotypes can be thrown out the window… Didn’t make it too late though, I was looking forward to a nice day of sailing on Sunday. So around 1:30 I went home and had about 5 hours of sleep to look forward to.

And that brings me to Sunday: Got up at 6.45 (am that is), was in time at the ferry. We got the lovely Sanguma rigged and ready and we were almost at the usual starting area when we got confirmed there would not be any racing today. The wind wasn’t that bad (occasional above 20 knots of breeze and we have already raced in 30+ this series), but the result still was the same: turn around and do something else…

So when we arrived back in Cowes, we cleaned up the boat (fast, because it was still raining) and went for breakfast at Eegon’s. With the menu challenging us, most of the crew went for Eegon’s Breakfast Bonanza in our search for recognition and a certificate. The biggest plate of English breakfast per person soon occupied the table and the challenge was on! At least I don’t have to have lunch or dinner tonight but I did got this:

(sorry for the quality, don’t have a scanner readily available here)

Anyway, after breakfast it was time to head for home and still in my foul weather gear I did the bike ride back up the hill. It is nice and warm, much more pleasant than outside:

Anyway, I’ll better make good use of the time I’ve got today and do some more work.

Ciao!

(yeah yeah, I know I should get higher quality photos… but everything on this side of the pond is so much more expensive)

You know the song (http://www.eatthismedia.nl/cameron/visual/clips/weekend.html) is what was playing in my head this morning. Another tiring week has past, but I’m still enjoying myself over here so I am not complaining in any way. The London-trip just piled up the amount of work that had to be done during the week. And so today I am in the library with the goal of making sure I have less work to do during the upcoming week.

So what’s up? Not much, tomorrow I’ll be out on the water again (and I can say with a big smile again with Sanguma), this afternoon I’ll be joining the Italians when they will be watching Italy vs. Scotland and afterwards there is supposedly something of a party somewhere where we are all going to… Should be fun and what I’ve heard about the last Euro-qualifiers from Holland I’m not going to miss much by not seeing the game tonight.

And I got my first taste of proper Italian cooking (and especially the way you have dinner) yesterday. Got invited by one of my Italian friends (the only female one though ) and had a simple, but lovely and very enjoyable meal. Pasta to start with, a bit of salad and a lovely roasted chicken, I was a happy man.

Not much more to say right now, I’m trying to find the correct version of the song…
In the mean time (because I didn’t put a photo up before) this is the boat I’m learning lot’s again and enjoying myself on:

And I know I promised something about the London-photos, but I haven’t downloaded them yet… When I have, I’ll add a couple to the London story.

Ciao!

Just back from a very long day of London and good times once more.

As always the plan wasn’t final until Thursday or so, but it sounded like good fun and a great bunch of people was coming along. So Friday afternoon and the train in to London. A place in a hostel had been arranged (near South Kensington, on Queensgate) and the plans were almost none-existent! So we dropped our gear and went on our way to visit some of the locations on the list of one of our friends for whom it was the first visit to England’s Capital.

When the waiting for our fifth person of the group (can you imagine going with a group of Italians and you have to wait for the one American?!) was starting to take very long we found a nice place in Chinatown for dinner. The combination late start and British closing times resulted in a decent but in no way extravagant night on the town and as a result Saturday morning wasn’t that hard on everyone.

After breakfast we visited an impressive list of “must-see” sights, including Tate modern (interesting exhibition in the main hall), St. Paul’s, House of Parliament, Buckingham, Hyde Park and Oxford Street in Christmas lights. luckily for us the trip home wasn’t as easy and took twice as long due to maintenance… But hey, good times!

Tomorrow an early start, need to get the 7.45hr ferry to Cowes for a double race-day in the winter series. I’ll be out on the Ker 31 Sanguma again and looking forward to it! (prediction as it stands at 22.45hr local time: cloudy, 12-ish degrees and around 20 knots of breeze-decreasing during the day)

Anyhow, it’s going to be an early night and as soon as I get some photos I’ll put them online… It’s just that I’m dependent on others.

Ciao!!!

-EDIT-
Some photos from the trip:

Just a quick update: I’m going to London for a bit of fun with some friends!

Ciao!

that’s what I thought when my cousin was walking down the isle on Saturday… The wedding was dignified and fun and I had a great time. Thank you once again Renske and Arthur and keep having fun!

The weekend started good on Friday already, the trip between Southampton and Amsterdam was exactly on schedule and as a result I walked out on to the train platform ten minutes after my official arrival time. The trip back on Sunday was slightly less impressive (with over an hour of delays) but the transfer back home only took 25 minutes between touchdown of the plane and the touchdown at home.

Well, I’m off to the lectures.

Ciao

off to the Netherlands. Attending a wedding, visiting my grandma for her birthday and also celebrating the one of my sister. The week was one of the toughest so far, but I still enjoy both the study and the living over here very much so I don’t think it will be a big problem.

Not much news from here, I’ll go and pack the rest of my stuff.

Ciao,

Wow!

A special day today: predicted 15-ish knots of breeze, real world between 25 and 35. And for those conditions to be on a new boat… About the boat: A Ker 31 (I suppose it’s a bit like a Mumm30), so 31 feet, carbon stick, fun sails, symmetrick spi and very very wet. The team consisted of a couple of good sailors and some had sailed on Dutch boats (Formidable and Charisma). The conditions were challenging, except for the breeze the Solent was a mix of chop and actual waves combined with rain all day long. Even though we broke a block at the bottom of the mast and had to lower the jib several times before we could continue racing I had a great time and look forward to race with them again.

Anyway, the coming week is all been covered as has the rest of this weekend. So that’s it.

Ciao!

But now I actually am online from home which is nice after 10 days. I needed to go to the library for internet, but with the amount of work I have to do during the week that couldn’t even result in more studying.

Anyway, the week itself wasn’t all that interesting. Just a lot of work and mostly pretty boring stuff. But that all changed Friday when I came across one of my American friends (Myles)…
He invited me along to IoW (Isle of Wight) to go to a talk by Sir Robin Knox Johnston, have some drinks and just see where things end. They had arranged for a place to stay and we just were to meet each other at 3-ish.

So after drawing lessons I packed my toothbrush and met up with the group. We went down to Cowes and when we arrived Tim called the guy he had made arrangements with and guess what: same guy that arranged for the housing this summer with Team Eclectic. So we met up at the same place and we dropped our stuff before going to the Yacht Haven.

RKJ was an impressive combination of an old-fashioned British Yachtsmen and a temporary ocean racer. Very well aware of the situation today and not avers to it, but with a hang towards old style and flair. After the talk we met up with another Ship Science grad-student (and a Cowes-native) for a small beer. But we had plans and decided to go back to our place for the night.

With supplies waiting and chilled Jenga was introduced to get some extra fun and laughter going. With the biggest tower I have ever seen (all layers except for the top two consisted of either one or two required stones) it really became hilarious. Unfortunately the week had left some marks and I fell asleep quite early, but slept great after that.

Today (Saturday) we wandered around the Cowes High Street before I took the fast ferry home to So’ton. Tomorrow should be a fun day, breeze and racing on a Ker 31 (one-off). A couple of my friends however had a slightly less nice day today… In the prestart to one of the races of the Big Boat Series a Ker 11.3 (Moonraker) ducked too late and couldn’t avoid one of the Farr 40’s (Farrfalina) resulting in serious damage for both parties involved. Always a shame when two boats collide.

Than there is of course the coming week. Standard day on Monday, another long day on Tuesday (with my fourth Maths test and hopefully I’ll pass this one as well). Wednesday should be okay, Thursday starts with a three hour lab and there is a party in the evening for some people and I’m invited too. Friday is all about drawing lessons again and directly after that of course departure for Holland! Looking forward to that, mostly because of the lovely schedule!

Ciao!

And I am in the library…

Tomorrow I’ll have my regular 9am start and I’ll finish -as usual- at six. No worries though since I had a pretty good weekend and am almost finished with everything I planned to have done before the day starts.

About the Autumn Championships, the boat wasn’t too bad, the crew was fun and conditions were very easy for the front. Rig the spinnaker as soon as we were over the start, a spinnakersize on this 30 footer wasn’t too big either and with fairly little breeze: no worries. I did the foredeck together with a Kiwi and had a good time. Got burned as well, the sun was out all weekend and it still got some power left in it.

Don’t think there’s much more to say. Watching the rugby final was fun, kept my Boks-shirt at home since I was a guest in an other house. I must admit my cheering for the boks was slightly adjusted to the company around me…

Look forward to tomorrow and I am still looking for a nice big boat for the upcoming weekend of racing, so if you know anyone…

Ciao,