Post Dinghy Show Blast 2011

[roland_trim]

What a lovely weekend. Thanks to all for making it so very fun.

The ten boats arriving at sunny Draycote were sadly not  greeted by the wind. On Saturday there were puffs; these were caught admirably by Atum, Egbert and Shiny (the latter two sailed solo). Much bimbling and banter was enjoyed on the shore. In the evening we retired, well sunned and happy to a local curry hole. It was nice to be joined by local Cherubists Rich Taylor, Simon Roberts, Ian Christi and Tom V.

On Sunday there was almost some wind in the morning. Sadly this fell off towards midday leaving several boats sat completely mirrored, but happy. The highlight of the day was John H and the 12 year old crew of kokopelli flying about in Shiny.

Roll call:
Shiny
Badgers (Sa)
Riot Van (Sa)
Ellenor
Egbert
Loco
Atum (Sa)
EJ
Cheese (Su)
E-Numbers (Su)

[Tim Noyce]

Shame there was no wind on Sunday either. We didn't have much more luck down on the Solent... had a few knots of wind until the tide had gone out far enough to put us off bothering and then it filled in to a F3. Oh well, perhaps we'll have more luck in the coming weekends!

The Badger has been delivered to the garage for its Spring refurb and hope to have it back on the water soon. Many thanks to Roland and Hayley for Badger sitting all this time (How can it really have been 7 months since the nationals?!) Great to see everyone this weekend and look forward to seeing everyone who is attending the Grand Slam for a cheeky beer next weekend.

[pratn0]

Pity about the wind. Hope you guys got some interest in the class form non members.

Stu and I sat on the beach on Sat with no wind in Stone at the 18ft skiff GP.  But it did give us time to get the rig setup up correctly.

Sunday was alot better and built all day.  By the last race we were solid 3 stringing and had a max speed of 15knots down wind

Was a very nice learning curve day the the 18ft skiff.

[phil_kirk]

We had a lovely weekend despite the absense of much wind.

We tactically turned up for saturday evening and the excellent curry/ social obviously missing the bimbling.  After camping over at Draycote (many thanks to Tom V. for letting us in and opening the toilets) we woke to a light breeze and should have got sailing staright away.   Instead we did some bimbling of our own to try and improve mainsail shape.  While the time on the water did not include much wind it was possible to see the effect of the sail controls on the main sail shape from the fore deck.  If we ever end up racing in light airs such as these we found that the boat is much faster with Sarah helming and me on the foredeck and with the person on the foredeck doing the fine boat ballancing.

Sunday was also the first time i'd solo'ed a cherub.  Great fun!

[john_hamilton]

apart from turning up to find no sails in my boat, i enjoyed sunday, definately was fun to see joe and his face when he saw how skinny the e5 was!!!!
i must thank phil and sarah for taking me almost all the way home!!!

[jwlbrace]

sounds like a good weekend despite the wind... so cherubs sailing solo...

1) any assistance launching or if not how the **** did you got off the shore without capsizing?

2) any punters want to buy a boat... open to offers.

cheers

Jimbo

[Tim Noyce]

Well I didn't see Ben launch on Sat but I did watch Dave... he used to sail moths so made it look really quite easy! Heeled the boat to leeward quite a lot, jumped over the gunwhale and got into the middle asap... sheeted in and sailed off! There wasn't much wind at all though so would imagine it being a bit more difficult in 15knots.

[jwlbrace]

Cheers Tim

I'd have no issue rolling it to leeward, it seems to constantly be happy in a state rolled all the way to leeward!!!


I've invested in a couple of those Allen inflatable bags today... planning to strap them under the wide wings and give it another go after Easter when I get back from Cornwall.  A set of stabilisers seems like a less permanent solution in case there are any takers on the advert!

I'll keep you guys posted here, but I've taken the rogue skiff blog offline for a while to save a modicum of self respect...

Jimbo

[dave_ching]

In some ways I have always found it harder starting with no wind.
At least with wind you have something to balance.
The mistake that I have noticed most people make is that they think about getting in and then about sailing, this hould be the other way around.
Find the balance point fore and aft, get an unsheeted main in your hand and tiller ready. take the slack out of the main so as you hop in it pops batterns or gets sheeted slightly. Basically you are sailing the moment your feet leave the floor.
In a low rider moth I found 40knts the limit for this technique as I was overpowered holding the boat at that point.
Maybe we should of stayed ashore when it was apparent that keeping the windward wing under the water was the only way to move forward.
That was at Draycote funnily enough.
I am too tired to bother reading this again so I hope it scans ok.
Hope this helps but I guess if you are selling it doesn't matter.

[dave_ching]

Thanks for a really fun weekend.
ok no wind but what a great social.
The natives and veterans were friendly too.
Draycote is just about the perfect venue for a blast.

[simon_jones]

Just thought I'd add my thanks to all for a great weekend, despite the lack of wind I still had a blast,what a great evening.

[andy_peters]

If only where I am was closer (whilst still maintaining the same attributes) 32 degrees and 15-18 knots of wind in the afternoon.  I'm looking forward to the Easter Regatta, sailing an 11 meter leadmine rather than a Cherub but I supose you can't have it all.

www.pgyc.org

[jwlbrace]

Hope this helps but I guess if you are selling it doesn't matter.

yes, it helps a lot so thank you.  and yes it does matter... the boat is 'for sale', not 'sold'; therefore it should still see a bit of water under those wings, so any advice to make it more fun while I'm still sailing is very greatly appreciated!

[phil_kirk]

My launching techniques involved getting in between the hull and the racks.  I'm about 74kg.  This was doing the getting in and then thinking about the sailing bit that Dave was talking about. The boat was in a couple of feet of water.  Not elegant and i'm not sure if it would work in mopre wind.