Hi its been a while since I last blogged but that doesn't mean that nothings been happening with Smoky and my Tera. I have been planning some more rigging videos but after a couple hours out sailing the main plan is to get de-rigged and warmed up and not stand around the dinghy park in the cold. Lets have some warm sunny weather and i will get videoing. Hayling Island put on their inaugrual Perisher Pursuit Race and Smoky headed on down it was a great race with over 70 boats . The wind for the the first 40 mins of the start was very light and it was the flooding tide that gave the most advantage.All the boats starting from plus 40mins caught wind from their start.I did the Stig challenge at Hill Head in my Tera in a F5 with some healthy waves the time is up on the board and waiting for the RO to sort the corrected time out to see if it was competitive. A SSE is the best wind angle for this and it was more like SSW but hey it was great fun surfing in my Tera out in a deserted Solent.
I have been to a couple more weekend sessions at HISC with the Feva Squad and thats been going well.
The RYA Dinghy Show was held at Alexandra Palace with every major company there. I spent most of the two days helping out on the RS Stand. At LDC they had a man who acted as a mannequin. There were times when somebody walked past and he would be frozen and then he would jump out and scare somebody. While I was there I took a liking to the brand new RS 700 which has a brand new hull colour of black, which one day I hope to sail in. The new colours of the Roto molded RS Boats are great. I also thought that the A Class Catamaran which is made of pure carbon was cool too.If you didnt get to go this year really try next year as there is so much to do and see.
Matt McGover did a great talk about the exercise that you can do at home and at the gym to get you ready for the sailing season. There was also a Win a RS Tera competition which was won by Blythe Berry with her starry design.She is from Emsworth so I expect we shall see her out sometime soon.
The RS Feva Squads weekend took place at HISC this weekend gone and it was a great weekend, about 70 boats turned up some struggling through Snow to get to Hayling. The Race Commitee's brains were tested as conditions were not ideal for going out into the bay and with neap lows a course for 70 boats in the harbour was a juggle. Saturday we squeezed in some training and then 5 1 lap races which was hectic but great experience. Sunday looked like higher winds and might have to be cancelled. We turned up and the wind floated around 18-20 but with a Easterley wind chill of -3 so less than perfect conditions. We launched at about 11:30 did some drills and then managed just 1 race before it spiked to 25 knots and the decision to head back was taken.
