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Highlights:
Getting out on the water in a bit of a blow, on somebody elses boat. Espionage is easy.
Downers:
Sore hands. Sore arms. Heavy winching work. I'm not used to this. I'm supposed to just helm. Others do this stuff. Lesley's useless at catching all the waves before they hit me.
Result:
2nd on PYR. First was Yella Belly - who's going to take some beating this year. Drat.
Lessons Learnt:
Smuggle myself aboard everyone else in turn. Learn. Listen. Plot and plan accordingly. Avoid winch duty (it's very hard on your hands).
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Yella Belly under new ownership: Sailing a bit too well for my liking!
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1st Winter Series - Medium Inshore. Friday 7th January
Wind 15 - 20 knots, later 20 - 25 north westerly.
An interesting day out indeed. A few days ago, Jim calls to say he's getting the 'flu' and won't be sailing. So that's three of us left. And at 8:30 this morning Andy phones with the same excuse. Now we're two, which is not enough muscle to actually raise the sails. So that's it. A day of maintenance instead.
As I'm up anyway I head down to the Club, arriving just before the briefing, and find myself pressganged into crewing on Kaos for this, the first race of a glorious year for TeamJackal. Here I am, reduced to a 'before the mast' position. But there's an up-side to all this. What better way to learn about the opposition? What better chance to discover their weaknesses, inadequecies...? A cunning plan forms in my mind....
Other crew turn up, so we leave the dock with five aboard, motor down to the start and turn to wind to raise the sails. Shock 1: All those lines leading aft through keys make raising, trimming and controlling a breeze. There's none of this luxury on Jackal. Here you don't even have to leave the cockpit to take in a reef. Absolute luxury. I borrow some bright yellow waterproof trousers, as I may find myself somewhat unusually up at the splashy end and knuckle down to taking, rather than dishing out, orders.
Shock 2: Kaos really likes these conditions. With two reefs and a smallish jib, she crashes along at a bloody good pace only occassionally lee-rail under. Of course we're all hiking hard to show willing. Lesley (Graham's wife) is bowman, all snugged up in sixteen layers of yellow oilskin, and utterly fearless around the foredeck. She reckons its safer up there as the cockpit is very small and Graham can't shout so much if she's well foreward. Shock 3: This stuff about Graham shouting all the time isn't true. He hardly even raises his voice above the wind and flying spume. I keep saying "sorry, say that again"...
Our course takes us up to Green and White Spar, a reach to Earth Station and a gybe around to broad reach to Pumphouse followed by a long run down to Shoal Spar. We surf on waves, goosewinged and poled out dead downwind (an angle that we can only dream about on Jackal) within about five metres from Yella Belly, neck and neck down to the mark, pulling ahead to round first and beat back to the Green and White. Shock 4: This boat points horribly well, as we squeeze past West Pole to Starboard and then get lifted, pinching furiously, to the top mark without tacking again. Bearing off around this for a final reach to East Bouy we gybe around again and return to Pumphouse. Another gybe around and we're heading back for a transit finish at West Pole, measuring our time at 13:19:50
It would be highly imprudent to divulge the massive amounts of raw data gleaned from today's outing. Suffice to say, TeamJackal will be meeting soon to analyse the race performance, helming, sail configuration and crew-work abourd Kaos. The results will be distributed to my crew in triplicate, with cross references, pictures, diagrams and even arrows.
My cunning plan has really worked. Just call me Bond.
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