EXCEL London Boat Show battle of the Classes race

[phil_kirk]

Just to say that Sarah and i are sailing in the battle of the classes pursuit race at Excel on Sunday.

Race starts at midday but we will be in London Saturday and Sunday if anyone wants to catch up.
You can spectate the race without going into the boat show and see toppers to F18's race one another.  

given the location we are sailing the ent not the cherub.  The 49ers will be having their race on Saturday. this will give you the idea of how a cherub would go on that water.

It's going to be F4-F6 so should be entertaining.

[peter_barton]

Good luck Phil & Sarah.

High hopes for the Ent at that location. Dynamically reacting well to big shifts, gusts & lulls will be key. So hopefully a hiking, non trap, non spin boat will be favoured for you and hopefully the Ent is light enough with your featherweights to accel well in the gusts.

Potentially deduct 2 forces of wind due to the buildings? Deduct less if it is blowing straight down the length.

Dont forget to mention Cherubs in your speach.

[Tom K]

If anyone's interested I have a free ticket to the show going spare, got given it once inside last weekend!

[phil_kirk]

the race was quite breezy with the wind more or less blowing down the dock.
At the briefing we were reminded to be on our best behaviour.  It was also pointed out that the fleet included 13 national champions and 3 eroupean champs.  Sarah and I are neither so mid fleet would be fine for us.

We got a good start leading the second ent off the start and choosing to go up the middle of the beat. We also stayed in the middle going down the runs hoping for less turbulence and watching out for the gusts.  Sarah spent the whole race calling the other boats, calling when I couldn't tack and shouting starboard at any one who dared to get near us.

The national 12 started 1 minute after us and quickly closed the gap. We kept him at bay until he had a rig problem and had to get towed in.  The beats were best played by not banging the edges. When we were forced near the edges we had much more shifty unpredictable wind.  On one beat we nearly capsized in to windward in a 40+ degree header.  Sarah lept onto the other gunnel to save us and we only got a bit of water in. Up another beat we exchanged tacks with the b14 until we got a lift and crossed him on starboard.  One of the dart 18's also kept us occupied for a whole lap going much faster in a straight line but taking ages at the corners.  We caught most of the slower boats survived all the gybes at the leeward mark and all the bear aways at the windward end. We wee caught by a Phantom and the two fins.  The 505's past us just before the line but after the finish had been recorded.

Luckily for us they recorded boats positions on the water at the finish and not when we next sailed through the line.  From this we were given 9th overal from 51 starters (41 finishers).
A good day at the office and a lot warmer than the BM.  I don't know what all those national champions were doing!

We finished the day off with a visit to bethnal green marine and specifically to look at born Slippy's new carbon mast.  Very nice workshop, sail shop and mast.