A warm Saturday morning dawned for me, Ellie and the Squid and on arrival to draycote more breeze than forecast greeted us. A quick rig and we set off, sadly the wind decided that once we were half way up the lake IT would also set off, and was never seen again. A very slow kite run back to the shore proved the kite mods had worked, going up and down nice and easy. Saturday afternoon was spent in the sun adjusting strops, running take ups, fiddling with control lines, and some general bimbling. Highlight of the day was Ellie falling backwards out the boat in next to no wind, during a tack..... Apparently the water is "very refreshing".
Arrival on Sunday and there was a nice 8 knot breeze, forecast to build. Today I was sailing with Jay in EJ, with Jamie and Rosie in Shiny as battle partners. EJ needed some tinkering before hitting the water, but by lunch time we were all ready to go, and the breeze was a nice 12knots, though reportedly shifty. After a few silly swims, mainly due to slipping and sliding in EJ, and a small communication breakdown in a tack/hardening up confusion, we lined up with the Shiny, and set a fairly lengthy course using most of the lake to play with. With the breeze steadily building Rosie and Jamie were twinning a lot of the time, whilst we were twinning some of the time. Turns out my 80kg's make a difference. Tacks were crossed, gybes were matched and some great dog fighting was had, though clearly EJ was not a slick team with a few more interesting moments.
As we approached the bottom after a number of good flying laps, the 3rd draycote race (windward/leeward) was ligning up, so we decided to join in. Shiny was hoping for a cheeky port flyer but we tacked on to them at the last moment and forced them to tack. We got away well, but with FF's and Solos, getting clear breeze and room was tricky. Shiny tacked off early and came in to the windward mark in a good spot, and shot off down the lake only to go round the committee boat rather than the gate.... We went to drop having got clear of most things and the kite jammed. The downhaul line had caught around the bow, and that was it, time for a other swim.
After a slow recovery, both getting tired, we decided to swap over for me to helm, which was fine, until an 800 bore away at us for reasons no one is sure of, and out of concern for killing them a safety capsize was implemented. After another slow recovery we decided we were knackered, so headed ashore and Rosie kindly made some brews.
Another great weekend at Draycote, come along and play sometime, we have a lot of fun
