So went out for the first time this weekend. Wind was force 4-5 but steady, tide was about 5kn though which made things interesting. Due to a really long narrow slipway at Thorney Island, it is not really feasible to put the sails up before getting in the water. The idea was to get to the beach at Pilsey Island, and then put the sails up We initially tried to tow Atom behind my parents Wayfarer. Practically capsizing (without the sails) and the tide put paid to that idea so we went back in for a jib. Turns out you need both sails up in a cherub otherwise it has absolutely no steerage even though it went along pretty well. Once we got the sails on, chest deep in a 5kn tide next to a mud bank, we spent a lot of time flip flopping about going further and further away from where we wanted to be. I forgot to mention that this is in the middle of a 100 yd wide channel with boats moored every 50m in two lines. Anyway, after a minor collision with a Cornish Shrimper, we managed to achieve our first successful tack and made back a bit of the ground we had lost to the tide. Needless to say we went straight back in the drink again once we tried to tack again due to my eagerness to be facing in the other direction and not really waiting for my brother to unhook. Finally we managed to string some tacks together and Sam (my brother) got the hang of playing the main for balance and we were off. A few more tacks and we were out of the moored boats and away planing upwind
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I LOVE THIS BOAT. I can't honestly believe that it took me this long to upgrade from my Laser 2. After trying to do a twin wire fly by to my parents on the beach (unfortunately with cameras in hand), we took a spectacular nosedive (I personally blame the t-foil, or my lack of knowledge as to what the hell I am supposed to do with it).
Next it was time to take my sister (Charlie) out for a spin. Now having successfully learned to tack on the way up to the beach, I was in a slightly better position to teach Charlie what to do. The wind was starting to die a bit so we weren't both able to get out on the wires but it gave me a chance to work out which direction I was supposed to be pointing in. We hadn't been in the water for a while so decided the fastest way to do this was to put the kite up. As we were doing this I remembered a veritable gem of information that Paul had told me when he took me for a test sail. "Always pull up your kite on land first to check you have it attached right. " Long story short, I had forgotten that the sheets have to go round the fore-stay and we went for a swim. Whilst over I thought it would be sensible to try to remedy this situation. After 2 more "intentional" capsizes, and a lot of tied up spinnaker the only option was to head for the beach before going back to Thorney. It was well worth it. With the ropes finally sorted we had a fantastic downwind blast for 5 mins all the way back to the sailing club.
I am definitely not sure I'm ready for racing yet and I need to bring Sam up to speed with the kite, but we will be there and having fun at the Inlands at the beginning of October.
When we were out on the water we realized that almost all of the bungee had seen better days so a quick trip down to the chandlers and it is bedecked in shiny new shock cord. Also a problem with the end of one of the racks being cracked but until we can get some carbon to fix it with, a section of tube from a snapped laser boom fit inside exactly so hopefully that should hold it for the time being.
One thing that became very evident was that our 13 year old harnesses were not really up to the task. Does anyone have any suggestions as to a good way to go, bearing in mind we don't really know which of the three of us will be sailing it? I was thinking of the Gill trapeze harness, it is not too bad on the price front and was a good fit when I tried it on.
Sorry for such a long post, I'm pretty exited
