A 22-mile Islands course, began with fine little breeze 8-10 knots, a short beat to the wing mark, reach to the gate, beat up round the top island, then up with the A1 kite, in fine fettle and looking good three hours into the race, till we fall into a huge hole a couple of miles to the finish, the wind dying completely, bobbing round with zero knots boat speed. So while we were looking good for an opening win, the end result not so happy for us: the Swan 68 Titania of Cowes first on corrected; Baby Tonga second, the biggest in the fleet, the 82' Swan Chao Ren third and us in fourth, with the other of the twelve boats in the fleet still to finish.
Correction: the above done before all boats in, and now we're fifth behind Resolution of Whitby, coming in 30 minutes later pips us on corrected time. Grrrr.
In our debrief we didn't find much we'd done wrong, just bitten by the wind gods.
Six, hopefully, races to go....
Later: forgot to mention: the morning started off with a Sail Past for the King's Birthday. 100 boats sail past three Thai Navy ships with sailors to attention, while our crew stands to attention on the starboard side and salutes a large portrait of the King, today his 85th birthday. Planes fly overhead and drop ticker tape. Fun, and rather charming..
Party at the Boathouse, the usual wonderful King's Cup event, fireworks and unlimited food and drink on the beach, with candles handed out to salute the King, as a choir sings the national anthem, and songs to the King, hundreds of sailors raise their candles in salute. Again, fun, and rather charming... A number of people say we were "dead unlucky", as we were doing so well. But again, "that's sailing". Heartache shared with the joys.
Screenshot of results, below the fold:
Correction: the above done before all boats in, and now we're fifth behind Resolution of Whitby, coming in 30 minutes later pips us on corrected time. Grrrr.
In our debrief we didn't find much we'd done wrong, just bitten by the wind gods.
Six, hopefully, races to go....
Later: forgot to mention: the morning started off with a Sail Past for the King's Birthday. 100 boats sail past three Thai Navy ships with sailors to attention, while our crew stands to attention on the starboard side and salutes a large portrait of the King, today his 85th birthday. Planes fly overhead and drop ticker tape. Fun, and rather charming..
Party at the Boathouse, the usual wonderful King's Cup event, fireworks and unlimited food and drink on the beach, with candles handed out to salute the King, as a choir sings the national anthem, and songs to the King, hundreds of sailors raise their candles in salute. Again, fun, and rather charming... A number of people say we were "dead unlucky", as we were doing so well. But again, "that's sailing". Heartache shared with the joys.
Screenshot of results, below the fold:
oh well I've missed saying good luck then. You'll be sailing now, aka "as I write this". We've just had a weekend down in the Bega Valley visiting Nink and Woody -- haven't been down there in absolutely ages. It's looking beaudiful, so lushly green and rolling hills.
ReplyDeletehave fun
Anne
xx
Goodness Peter, that looks a bit serious!!!!
ReplyDeleteGood Luck
Annette