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Racing - Wednesday Evening
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Further Confessions ( see below) - 1 year on

It was one of those days! An enormous tide rushed out leaving us hard aground on the pontoon by race time. By the time we had winched ourselves off we were late for the start and still rigging the boat as we crossed the line. Worst of all the skipper was on the bow. Do we never learn?

A decision was made to do a reach to reach gybe at the second mark . Considering the tightness of the second reach and the fact that someone had pulled the plug out of the Solent and left very little water to leeward, it was probably not the best decision we had ever made . In fact it HAD to be a good gybe - so Ben was hurriedly evicted from the helm to make sure that all went well on the bow. Now that at least WAS a good decision and by and large it went fairly well.

But we couldnt hold our course and the shallows were rapidly approaching. No problem - up genoa. OOps - the halyard was wrapped. No problem , we will drop the kite , OOPs , the spi halyard was wrapped as well ! OK , SMALL problem! So with red faces it was engine on , flag the spi head to wind and send Ben up the mast to spike the halyard and undo his parents cock-up ( there is the merest suspicion that Lynda may have helped me rig / knot the gear!).

The second lap was uneventful and we retirned to the clubhouse enjoying warm fuzzy felings that we had given enjoyment and pleasure to our friends and thereby improved the lot of our fellow creatures imeasurably .

And if you believe that you will believe anything!

CONFESSIONS OF AN OCCASIONAL BOWMAN - Spring 2006

Wednesday evening being a social sail, we have a tradition of swapping jobs and so last night found the skipper on the foredeck backed up by Jamie at mast. With about 80 years of combined experience that should be job sorted - right?

Wrong!

The first hoist was great - but the genoa wouldn't come down. The afterguard swore blind that the halyard was free their end so it was slightly embarrassing to find that I had a halyard wrap ! OK, OK, so I forgot to check - an easy mistake and luckily I'm still pretty strong , so I wrestled the genoa to the deck by main force.

Unfortunately I used too much strength and pulled the luff out of the headfoil, thus jamming it irretievably - and the leeward mark was aproaching fast. The No 2 was plugged into the outside foil and hoisted in a jiffy. It gets worse . I forgot to use the pre-feed and in my haste tore the luff. So thats two jammed headsails, no more foils and the leeward mark is 2 boatlengths away. I then proceeded to spike the guy, not the sheet , and Jamie was nearly pulled overboard - but being the tough, capable man that he is, he held on tight til reinforcements came, and the kite was pulled down in time to save me from total embarassment.

So while we sailed upwind under main, (and the opposition sailed by) Jamie and I dismantled the headfoi, unjammed the No 1, put it all back together and rehoisted. I would like to say it was done in a flash - but I would be fibbing.

I would also like to report that despite this minor (!) set back we still won - but we didnt.

Apart from that, I thought it all went rather well!

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