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Well Uni has started again and… it is good to be back. Yes some of the work already has proven to be boring but the fact that we’re having fun as a class and are actually joined getting into the rules of Lloyd’s make it all ok.
With uni back underway life at home is getting some routine as well and all I can say is that it is good fun at home as well.
Yeah, life’s good!
Ciao

The weather upon arrival in France was absolutely stunning and luckily stayed very nice throughout the entire Class40 World Championship. Arriving in La Trinité sur Mer after a ferry trip meant getting 40Degrees sorted for their Worlds and practice race. Once that was all sorted I helped an other UK boat to get ready. A last minute change in crewnumber allowed them to actually offer me and another boatless person from the UK to go racing which was awesome.
I ended up doing bow on board Gusilliam (a Simon Rogers design) and had to learn all the stuff all over again; snuffers, furlers, clutches on the foredeck. We had some awesome timing in the first race of the day (timed speed runs), managed to go in every single lull. So we got our discard in the first race, hardly a good start to any event not least a Worlds. However we redeemed ourselves in race 2 (parcours coutiére) with a top10 place (which was the goal set by the team for overall finish place). Afterwards it was time for a joined dinner and music on shore.
On Saturday the French had set out a course around La Belle Ile (44 nautical miles) before another 20-odd mile course in the afternoon finishing at a very decent 19:30hr. Afterwards it was time for oysters and wine organised by the organisation. Then onwards on a quest for food we ended up in a bar on the property of the yachtclub for a quick bite when an amazing band started playing. This resulted in an awesome night with friends and fellow competitors and just a great laugh but made the 8 o’clock breakfast on Sunday not easier… However the results and great conditions really warranted a bit of a night. When Sunday came there was just enough breeze to get the 5th and final race underway. Again a round the cans-style course with plenty of distance. For us it was about 5th place (with a distant possibility of 4th) and when we were in a good position sailed conservatively and managed to secure 5th overall. By the end of the prizegiving the boat was almost ready to go and by 6 o’clock we had left the dock and with a gentle breeze and lovely sunset we left la Trinité sur Mer after a great few days.
The delivery itself was very nice with Fred and Miranda, both hugely experienced not least on 40Degrees. It gave me the opportunity to sail a very different boat to what I’m used to; Designed for shorthanded sailing, wide ass, ballast and dual rudders. We had whales on the way, beautiful sunshine and plenty of waves for fast sailing. However heavy weather was forecasted and good progress was important to be made before it hit us and with a good angle we set up with single reef and fractional spinnaker. With the wind increasing as forecasted but set up for it, it was great sailing at night. It was all good until the autopilot decided to engage and steer the boat through a jibe. Quick thinking of Fred resulted in Miranda and him being able to save the situation but it also meant that the autopilot was off-limits from that moment on since the cause of the autopilot failure could not be found. With the wind further increasing we decided to take the spinnaker down and set up for jib and single reef and putting in another reef later in the night. With the jib instead of spinnaker flying I dared to take the helm again and ended up doing most of the final hundred miles into Hamble all with a huge smile across my face!

Ciao!
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After prepping the Class40 “40-Degrees” over the past two weeks together with Fred (see earlier post) I’m leaving later today to join the boat in La Trinité sur Mer (France) where the Class40 Worlds are being held later this week. This event is basically the only event on the Class40 calendar that sees the boat racing fully crewed and with an inshore format. Speed runs, windward-leeward courses and parcours cotiére are all possibilities to decide who will be Class40 World Champion for 2008. For “40-Degrees” there is even more at stake as with a good result they can grab the overall prize for the ’08-season.
Afterwards I will be joining Fred to sail the boat back (dual handed) to the UK and I really, really am looking forward to that (even though it is just a delivery)!
Upon return Fresher’s Week will have started and focus will shift back to university life, another thing to actually look forward to.

In the mean time a lot of other stuff is going on in the world. Gerd-Jan Poortman (who taught me a lot about being on the bow), Jochem Visser (raced a lot with him the past year) and Bert Schandevyl (with whom I had the pleasure of racing the Commodores’ Cup) are competing to represent the Dutch sponsor on board one of the Volvo 70’s. They’ll be joining Ed Hill, who was my watchleader during the BSC. I’m looking forward to the Volvo starting again and wish all of them the best of luck! (also to Wouter, Naviguessor for the Russians)
But before that is going on there is the X35 worlds with “Cool Runnings” present and looking to better their result from last year (2nd). I’ve got my fingers crossed for them but conditions are not very promising based on the last update. Good luck anyway!
Then there are a couple of friends and mates trying to win some very impressive Matchrace events throughout Europe. All the best to them as well, obviously!

As you can read, it’s all good times.
Ciao!

Well it almost felt like it anyway. The past few days here on the South coast have been very pleasant indeed. Earlier in the week I have been helping out getting a Class40 ready for their worlds which will start in a few days time. And with the weather as it was it actually allowed for shorts and t-shirts during the day, quite scary but then again it could be expected with autumn just a few days away.
Helping Fred with the boat gave me the opportunity to learn more about a lot of differents facets of boatbuilding and maintenance. I also got to do more proper repairs and have again learned a lot. To from here another thanks to Fred for having me around.
This weekend was all about getting used to TP52 sailing. With the guys of the Farr45 Atomic I went out for two days sailing on board “Cutting Edge” (2005 design R/P, ‘Patches’). Although it is a sprit-boat the schedule of the two days made it all fairly challenging up front as well. Most credit of pulling of the 3 peels in no time at all has to go to the guy in the sewer, all I had to do was connect it up and maybe shuffle out to the end of the sprit. It was a great weekend and all the thank you’s have been said within the group; It was a great weekend.
What’s up next..? I guess I’ll see tomorrow.
Or the day after…

In the mean time I’d like to wish all the best to the crew of “Cool Runnings” with their attempt of bettering their result of 2nd last year during the X35 Worlds.

Ciao!

And here’s a vid taken of the back of the boat:
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It’s Sunday after a very relaxing week where I could help out getting a Class40 back into decent shape (when it was dry) there is not much on the agenda right now and so it is a waiting game now. And what am I waiting for?
Well there is still plenty of sailing going on before Uni starts again and there might be a possibility I’ll be involved with some of that so I am waiting for news on that.
Then there is obviously the start of a new year at Uni (still a good 3 weeks away).
Also summer, been waiting for that one here in the UK for quite some time now but haven’t lost hope.
And so I could continue… But in the mean time some of my housemates have started to return to Soton and thus there is some life back home. This also means things are starting to get sorted and stuff like internet, TV, power, gas and the rest are being sorted.

So not much news from here, I won’t bother you with my training schedule I’ve set up (out of boredom) or start complaining about things (because there is nothing I could complain about). The future looks bright I just wish it would arrive a bit sooner.

Ciao!

Well the weather did as promised and it was very lousy on Saturday. Big breeze, very wet and there I was sailing a Daring. It actually was quite a nice day except for the weather part. I could enjoy the very, very nice fluffy towels of the RYS changing room as well as enjoy a tea and fresh fruitcake on the deck after racing. As the racing was part of an Island Sailing Club organised weekend we then joined the rest of the fleet for more cream tea and cakes at the ISC. Very civilised and very nice.
However the weather hasn’t cleared up much and this resulted in the owner and some of his friends of the Farr45 to be unable to actually come down for Sunday’s racing. Instead I am inside, fairly nice and warm trying to recover from making the same stupid mistake of actually swallowing considerable amounts of Solent water…
I’m off again…
Ciao!

That have been the conditions here on the UK South Coast for the past couple of days. Dartmouth last weekend was slightly different with some sunny spells and a lot of waiting for breeze. With the Atomic team a lot of effort had to go in figuring out the new rig and sails after they had been lost to Alex Thompson, Ben Ainsley and Lewis Hamilton.
The event was interesting to do and again there was plenty of opportunity to learn. The boat started going faster and faster throughout the event but with a day lost to light conditions there was just not enough time to make good for the issues of the first day. And a fifth in the overall standings after Sunday was a decent result taking into account that a lot of work was required to get the rig-settings sorted.
On the way home on Sunday I stopped at Weymouth (location for the 2012 sailing events of the Olympics) to have dinner with a Dutch friend and her matchracing team. That was a really pleasent meal but 5 days of yachting myself and their 11 races that day made for an early evening. However the girls managed to have a great day on the Monday afterwards and went on to finish 5th at the UK Women’s Matchracing Nationals (and it was their first event!)
For me the past week was about trying to settle properly back in Southampton; a couple of visits to the gym and because of lack of interweb at home quite some time in the library (getting used to life in four weeks again…)
But it wasn’t to be like that… After failing to go see Batman on Wednesday (to long a line to get tickets) I got asked to be ballast on board a J80 during Matchracing practice of one of the English crews on Thursday. I still don’t really understand why I agreed to go with the forecast as it was but luckily it turned out to be quite a nice day out on the water. And not just a nice day out but for a novice great to have the opportunity to pick up some tricks and tips on matchracing.
Now it’s weekend again and the weather is still really poor. I went down to Hamble to help getting 40Degrees ready for some minor work to get her ready for the season finale. Today was supposed to be the first day of three days of the final F45 event on the Solent for the ’08 season. Bad weather and a busy agenda for everyone involved saw the day cancelled ahead of schedule. Saturday is off as well for Atomic as there are issues getting the crew down to the boat but Sunday is still on. This has given me the chance to accept an invite to go sailing on a Daring. Although the weather is still not very promising I really look forward to go sailing some smaller boat and be more involved in the general sailing side of things.

Life is good!
Ciao!

10 days in and the end of the Flatland-holiday-break is almost there. I must admit that it has been really nice to have so little to do each day, it really was a holiday without complaining about the past weeks (or months even). August isn’t over and there’s still some regattas that are waiting to kick off.

First there is the Breskens Sailing Weekend, three days of sailing on the Westerschelde in Holland where my former team will be present after missing out on all the action since the victory of the North Sea Regatta: http://sailing.eclectic.nl Also present is Seawolf2 with whom I had the pleasure of training two days in the Solent a couple of days ago. Unfortunately the guys from ROARK (with whom I was victorious in the Rolex Commodores’ Cup) have to miss out on the event due to a collision during Cowes Week, it’s even more of a shame as the team could have secured the year-trophee at the event. The event has grown significantly in the past couple of years and will probably see the strongest line-up of Dutch and Belgian big boats of the season (maybe second to the NSR).

Then there is Dartmouth Week (where I’ll be spending my time)… I’ve got no idea what to expect: an unknown venue, fairly unknown team and most of all the first outing for a boat that was a casualty to Ben Ainsly, Alex Tompson and Lewis Hamilton racing together and needed some serious repairs. However there should be plenty of sisterships around and the level racing should be good fun. As far as the venue goes, it has been promised to be good fun by someone who should be in the know (and if not I’ll be very anoying).

Life’s still pretty damn good!
Ciao!

After almost seven weeks of consecutive sailing (which does not mean I’m good at it, just that I enjoy it) and some boatwork before that the time has come to go on a short break…

11 days of sunny Flatland awaits and then it is really time to start thinking about semester 1, part 2. Then again there are also a couple of weeks still fairly empty (please read: I’ve got nothing to do in September) after I get back to the UK.

Looking forward to be among my fellow cloggies, have a good one.

Ciao!

EDIT: I’m there(here) and it’s pretty nice… Sun is out, got a set of wheels (open top) and managed to get some sort of educational thing fitted in (however the doors were closed).

With Cowes week over it was time to go home and start unpacking… finally

Getting all my stuff sorted in the new room, get the photos of all you guys back up on the wall and then a phone call asking if I wanted to go sailing on Sunday and Monday to help get a team up to speed with their new boat. Well it was quite a nice invitation from Jochem and I needed to speak to him anyway so why not.

It then turns out it’s the Lutra42 and I also get to sit at the back of the boat. On Sunday conditions weren’t all that nice, 30-odd knots and the tide running with the breeze to the east. With a reef and C4 up we tried our hand at going to windward but soon it was decided to change the C4 for a fractional spinnaker and off we went!

After everyone settled down we were flying down the Solent at a fairly steady 20-21 knots with the top speed at a reasonable 24 knots and it never really felt as if the boat was out of control. The beat back up the Solent wasn’t that exciting but did show the boat is not just a downwind flyer. Afterwards I talked to some guys who went for a practice on board a TP52 (so 10ft bigger) and they topped out that day at around 20 knots on the downwind leg. Very impressive. On Monday we managed to get some more manoeuvres in as the wind was down to 20-ish knots and the boat still felt nice and fast.
I sincerely hope the boat manages to perform well under IRC as it is so much more fun to sail and so much more rewarding and to be fair how many boats are actually used for going out with the family… As far as the corporate side of things, taking people out on a race boat is much more interesting for them!

Anyhow if all goes well you should be able to see a video from Sunday’s session right here:
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