MIDLANDS POSSE

[JP233]

This weeks on the water entertainment saw only banshee ambulance hit the water as most of the fleet is focusing on exams (why, i dont know)..... Anyway....

BA has been suffering from leperacy recently (especialy in the bottom area) this time noting fell off.
Brave Sir robin appointed Mr Pearson control of the which way stick.
Robin is in denial about t foils currently, he is adamant that they are slow. to prove this we tapped on my speed puck and went for a play. upwind was quick, it felt quick, we were going about 8-12 knots, i know shiny paces upwind at around 8-10 knots but there is a more gradual speed rather than the 'pedal to the floor - breaks on' feeling with the standard blade.

Downwind quick jumpy, we only have little waves at draycote but still there was some board showing.
we both struggled to gybe BA, not 100% sure why. on one of the occasions we capsized with the main and jib on the water but the kite out, we proceeded to fly the kite from the dagger board, this amused the rescue staff and those on shore.

robin then took over the helm and more fun and games ensued along with him Langing it (he doesnt rate it highly)
Spoons that night was a quiet one with only 2 of the usually hungry sailors there but it didn't matter as the many hours sailing had pretty much destroyed us causing us to call it a night at 21:30

Sunday dawned and there were a lot of cherub sailors past and present milling about on the patio, Iain C, Tom V, Simon R, some bloke that owned strangely brown and one point.

Brave Sir Robin tried to turn one of his laser sailor friend (EWW) to the dark side (i think it worked) this left me crewles, so i took out the lowrider... Man that things good.

I will leave it to robin to tell tales on Sunday.

[RobinJones]

I don't necessarily think the straight foil is faster than the T, I just find it far more fun! really makes the boat feel a lot more lively.

Sunday showed a nice force 3/4, more at times, with Isaac and I taking cheese out for a good blast. After a couple of little swimming sessions, he was getting the hang of flat upwind and I was getting used to helming a cherub, both coming off the water grinning after some good blasting and a brilliant kite race with a 49er.

Hopefully Isaac and I will be sailing again next week!

[Rosie Williamson]

Last Saturday was open day for Draycote, and although the wind was forecast for a steady and acceptable 14-ish kts the white caps on the water proved it was consistently more. That didn't put off the mass of beginners and visitors, or the three cherubs that ventured down: Banshee Ambulance (Robin found Isaac as a crew for the weekend), Abi and Tom took Norfolk In Chance for her first spin on Draycote with her new owner, and Jamie and Rosie in Shiny B. Jamie and Rosie helped Abi and Tom rig Norfolk until Robin and Isaac arrived.

In the morning Banshee hit the water first, soon followed by Shiny and Norfolk. While it was gusty, (which caught all the cherubs by surprise a few times) the good wind allowed twin wiring, and the wind direction meant for good long legs (while occasionally having to avoid spearing the windsurfers and wayfarers). All the cherubs got a decent morning sail although Norfolk had to head in early as sailing with battens falling out the back of the sail didn't seem to be working too well. After a lunch break in the sun Banshee and Shiny headed back out for a similar afternoon session, although the wind had eased a little by that time. Jamie and Rosie decided to swap Shiny's t-foil for the standard rudder blade in the afternoon, and managed to break top speed and maxed out at 17.5 kts! Banshee managed sail all day with with no breakages so congratulations to Robin and Isaac! It was a great sailing day.

[Tim Noyce]

Good work team. Keep it up!

[ibmarsh95]

Hello, does anyone down at draycotte need a crew for this weekend?

[ade white]

Fuzzy's new mods completed in time for Weston. taking some carbon - just in case.

[RobinJones]

So, for the first time since the nationals this weekend, more than 1 cherub turned up at Draycote - after months out of action due to further gantry problems, a broken board, and the addition of a stump, banshee ambulance finally turned up for some testing on Thursday, Robin controlling the which way stick, and Josh doing just about everything else, and on Saturday, she was joined by shiny.

Upon arriving at Draycote however, it was hard to ignore the 4 inches of deflection in each of banshees wings as soon as rig tension was pulled on - at this point Josh wisely refused to sail in the gusty force 5 winds, and the duo left to think through what was going wrong, and how to sort it. With the help of Isaac, a bond film, and a load of cider, a plan was drawn up to take some bending load off the wings, and direct it into the compression struts.

The long and short of it is that by Saturday, the duo were confident that the Ambulance was once again sailable, and though the wind was light and shifty, they went for it, experiencing no loss of tension or deflection. Yet to be seen how she handles more wind. Though Jamie, Joe and Shiny turned up, they decided that the shore was more appealing than the extremely light/non existant winds, so remained dry - the day wasn't wasted though, with Jamie finally finishing his new jib, which is looking fantastic, and seems powerful already!

Though Jamie, Josh and Robin turned up at Draycote on Sunday morning, the wind never really did, and as such, Jamie ensured the jib fitted, along with testing sheeting angles, and Josh and Robin packed Banshee up so she could be taken home for a few final mods. With a bit of luck, a couple of boats will be out on the water next weekend.

With Ade and Joe implementing some exciting new developments on Fuzzy, Robin and assorted different crews trying to solve banshee ambulance's tendencies of falling apart, Jamie and Rosie set for a winter of hard training, and Josh who's a very able crew and looking to buy a boat and join us, its set to be a fantastic winter of sailing at Draycote water!

[JP233]

Four inches, hardly worth talking about.

Was good to get the gang back together! Shines new jib is powerful, thanks Dave and Nick!
It's a copy of the one Nick made many moons ago for the 2010 nationals. Even in less than 5 knots it was trying to pull out my hand. Sometime it did.
Anyway, next weekend should be good. All we need is a little more wind!

[JoshHaynes]

Four inches is still too much for me to handle

[Sven]

With the weather being Armageddon these past couple weeks we were desperate to get sailing no matter what the weather. Saturday saw me and Robin Jones take banshee ambulance out for a quick fly, however with the direction being a southerly at Draycote, that meant things were shifty and gusty and with me and Robin having a boring break from sailing we felt a little intimidated by the 30 knot forecast however we were relived when we arrived and looked on the water to find that the forecast was unsurprising wrong, however it was still very breezy! So we made some fine tuning to banshees kite system, added some plexus onto the mast foot , put on the small sails, straight blade(God help us) and got the most suitable clothing on for the Antarctic wet patch that lay at Warwickshire. We went for what turned out to be a swimming session as we got to the top of the lake it was near impossible for us to bear away in the 25knots of gusts due to our poorly called rig set up, however we got 1 amazingly sketchy and thrilling kite run that ended badly as soon as Robin shouted "GET THE KITE DOWN". In the end we tried to stay out of the water as the air was 10x warmer and got rescued. We were amazed when we broke before banshee did. Safe to say Robin has done good work with the new king post and space frame.

We puffed out for the day and headed to Jamie's house where we were welcomed to him having a very chronic case of "man-flu", however he brushed it away by dinner time and was ready for a good trip to spoons (as is tradition). That night Jamie and Robin pulled me a blond for the night however it's name was Leffe and I was told stories about their Leffe experiences and how everyone has had at least one "good" night of the Belgian beverage.

Sunday dawned on us and we remembered not a lot of action happening the night before as I did not approve of the Leffe and lefft it half full (yes that was a appalling pun). Jamie, Robin and I set off to Draycote for a good day ahead of us as all the questions would be answered about squid, yes that's right squid, as its new owner Jimmy Ruddiman and Jamie would be taking it for a spin for the first time in over 10 years. We arrived and it was Champagne sailing (almost) as Jamie and James fitted the new jib track on squid, me and Robin set up banshee properly this time with a big jib, tiny main and plus foil and swept away the fears and trouble we had the day before. Me and Robin launched banshee as the wind was picking up and had a amazing sail out on the water and dusted away the cobwebs that lay on our muscles. Safe to say we both fell in love with the new banshee dispite it tea-bagging us a lot in the shifty and gusty conditions but as usual we came in with a huge smile on our face. After we came in it was time to get squids sails on and set the purple beast afloat in the hands of Jamie and Jimmy. From where me and Robin were standing it was pretty enevitable to see that squid looked hard to sail flat upwind but downwind it seemed to go well and hats off to Jimmy for keeping her upright, however it was short lived as they went for a swim and the newly fitted, jib track snapped in half.... OOPS!
Overall it was a good to see a new cherub on the water and I couldn't ask for a better sail to finish off 2015.
Merry Christmas to all and we shall see you all soon in the new year!

[RobinJones]

A real weekend of 2 halves for the only boat to head out this weekend at Draycote, Banshee ambulance, under the Destruction Duo of Josh and Robin.

Very early Saturday morning Josh and Robin Rolled up to Draycote, pretty much immediately rigging the ambulance with no messing about, hoping to make the most of a good force 4, gusting more and warmth - a welcome contrast to the force 6 and rain forecast for most of the weekend. A great morning session about 2 and a half hours long saw huge improvements in both crew members sailing, miraculously with no swims, predominantly due to Josh's cat like ninja reflexes. In the afternoon, the Duo donned a straight blade rather than the + foil for a bit of fun, and hopefully to sharpen both crew further. This and a slight increase in the wind with a couple of great little squalls saw some fantastic downwind legs for most of the length of Draycote and 2 swims. After a few really messy hoists and drops the pair headed in to look for the issues. Turns out the outer had worn through on the tack line of the kite, causing it to bind terribly.

Jamie graciously allowed us to crash at his. Naturally after an exhausting days sailing, the correct course of action is a few drinks, a couple of films (Pulp Fiction isn't half odd) and staying up til half 1. As such the Sunday morning dawned a little more slowly for the Duo, not arriving at Draycote til 10.30 or so. With both keen to demonstrate that they can sail in a fair bit of wind, the squally, shifty offshore breeze looked very appealing, so once again banshee was rigged up swiftly, and the Duo changed, however on getting the last few bits of the boat ready to go sailing, a very little bit of cracking on one of the compression struts was noticed. Maybe the wall thickness wasn't enough after all. It was decided that although it looks minor, it could have been worse than it looked, and we didn't want to risk damaging the rest of the boat if one strut went pop. The pair derigged swiftly and called it quits for the weekend, towing banshee back for a little reworking.

Altogether, Saturday was fantastic, and made up for the loss of Sunday. The squalls coming through as we were hitching the boat to the car also told us maybe it was a good thing we weren't on the water. And better to damage on the shore when just training than at an event or on the water.

Plan is hopefully to have Banshee back sailing in 2 weeks time, though with a bit of luck other cherubs might hit Draycote next weekend.

[JP233]

Today was good. EJ and Shiny on the water. We tried the mk1 new jib with repairs. Seemed to go nicely. New rudder (riot vans original) was causing some issues, it kept over rotating. Also, doest seem as fast/fun, but the speed puck died so I can't be sure, probably just haven't found the sweet spot/skill levels are low.

Anyway, very glad to get floating again!

[roland_trim]

Sat at my desk after a slow morning that included a Cone Beam scan. The guy pulling the trigger asked why I have such big grin on my face, he looked confused as I managed to mumble two letters from between the cotton bud he'd just rammed into my mouth.

 "E" and  "J".

Thanks to Jay for putting up with my lack of fitness and the biting cold. Rosie and Jamie for helping to pack up Loco and BS for their trip back south. Sending the pretty blue boat the length of Draycote will keep my serotonin levels high for the next few weeks. If anyone wants to borrow a weapon - it's parked at Draycote till April, it's an E5 and in  the wrong hands it really is a weapon of mass distraction.

[JP233]

A late write up, but hopefully worth it.

Sunday was the day to float, team shiny arrived and opted to use the biggest foil they could find to dampen rolling.
With the added tell tails and repairs to the Ching mk.2 all was looking peachy for a lovely sail.
Team banshee of robin and josh got on the water first, keeping clear of the 29er fleet and club racer.
Shiny launched in her usual fashion, foils down, crew on the daggerboard and yelps from the helm as he reaches 'critical depth', once out of the mines they popped the kite and sailed around the back of the 29er fleet to see what was going on.

After some abysmal trials to cross paths, both teams decided on a top corner and a bottom corner, yeeeee haaaa! Single stringing upwind, and still single stringing downwind.
A few laps and it was time to head in.

[RobinJones]

What a weekend! 2 cherubs on the water Saturday, which was a lovely 18 or so gusting a little over 20. Robin and Josh were the first to hit the water, in banshee. Close behind was Jamie and Rosie in Shiny, who were testing their fancy new worm drive foil adjustment system, and running their recently homemade jib, which seems on the pace. Both made a good number of runs up and down Draycote, with few swims - only one per boat. After a while, both headed in for lunch, the afternoon seeing Rosie going out for a quick blast in banshee with Robin.

Sunday was a tad lighter, but still a little fruity. With Rosie not sailing (happy birthday!) Jamie re-elasticated shiny, whilst the destruction duo spent most of the morning burning up and down Draycote. Sadly Joshes harness randomly quick-releasing cut the morning a little short, and the pair had to head in, though soon Banshee was back out for one final blast this weekend, this time with Eleanor Craig rapidly learning how to crew in the building wind.

Banshee now home to tidy up all the recent work, but both boats seemed to go well! Cant wait to get back on the water after the dinghy show!