Family-Sailing-Team

IMG_7005.JPG
Originally uploaded by robbersdog

Cruzin' Along

Well it's been too long since my last post, but the distinct lack of BIG events for me this year (See Open Meeting Vs. Club Racing) means that I'm just Cruzin Along, going sailing when I want to, care to, have time to....

So what have I been upto...?

1. Boat Tuning
2. Work
3. Family Time (Baby girl is growing fast, smiling, laughing developing her beautiful personality)
4. Sailing

I won't bore you with the work stuff, basically I've been "strategising"! Family time has been great...

So, sailing, well me and Steve-O Graham from Pinnel & Bax rocked upto the club, two weeks ago to give "Miracle or Jedi Mind Trick?" a bit of a speed boost and make some fundamental changes I felt were necessary:

• A new Selden boom, he just brough the "tube" so we had to rig it there and then, but it work a treat, stiff and responsive! (although it has now meant the kickers crap and I need to re-do the kicker-rigging to get the right level of purchase...)
• New Rudder Stock - a decent CV stock, had to pad the crappy rudder to fit, but man having a proper stock and tiller has made a world of difference to the feel of the boat...
• Stuff for SoulSailorCrew:
  New jib sheets (blue and white), actually they were Chessie-babes sheets from Steve's old Ent, they worked for her, they'll work my boyz....
  Added new Spinny Blocks - Put rollers on the shrouds and added a well positioned cleat inboard for positioning the windward kite-sheet (we can both do it now) + when I grab the sheets for a gybe or drop, it uncleats...wicked!
  Spinnaker Pole Triggers - Steve's fixed Triggers to the ends of the pole which means my SoulSailorCrew just grabs the end of the pole to attach to the sheet or mast and the end opens automatically... it works a treat!

So now the sail-shape and responses are great with the new proper boom, the boat is responsive and feels "proper" with the new stock and extension, and SoulSailorCrew is much happier with the spinnaker system changes! Yay! Thanks V Much Steve-O

So sailing, been out a few times, last week we did the 3rd race @ Draycote, unfortunately we were the only Miracle out, fortunately the wind was awesome, a great F3-F4, perfect for trying out the new kit... it's a mast start and we held the Solo's and most of the rest of the fleet well up the beat, downwind things were good, we had a problem with the kite with a little minor "jamming", but got it sorted, my dad was out in his Solo and for the first lap we stayed ahead, he passed later on in the second lap and then retired! But it was a great race, with some quick blasting with the kite up and close reaching without it... we came 9th out of 18... happy with that...

Then tonight me and youngest crew (5 year old self named Kamikazee-Crew) legged it after tea, got our wetsuits on at home and drove (wet)suited and booted to Draycote to have a quick sail and maybe race a bit... there was a nice decent F2, pleasantly warm and a decent amount of boats getting ready to race... in fact no less than 9 Miracles joined the Wednesday night race!!

So we rigged up as fast as we could and by about 6:45pm we were on the water...Soulsailor-Kamikazee-Crew had a bit of a helm out towards the race start area, winding me up by holding her steady and then hardening up to windward fast to make the boat heel! Then I took over and he sat straddled around the mast watching the waves and boats roll by.... once in the race area he started to shout jovially at all the boats that dared come near us, it made me smile to see him having so much fun... so while he messed around I checked out who was out... one of the Huett brothers (the guy we bought our boat from), Marthy Lewis (Fireballer and current Miracle Midland Area Champ) and a few other rock-solid club Miracle yachters...this was gonna be a good test of our speed!

So we had a good start, port biased and we were port-side of middle, clear wind and right on the line, Soulsailor-Kamikazee-Crew really worked hard in getting the jib in tight and away we went.. good boat speed, port tack, smiling... the fleet split 50%-50% heading for the port and starboard lay-lines... we made our way port, had a couple of headers and tacked across to starboard, on our own, but the boat feeling good and Soulsailor-Kamikazee-Crew still enjoying himself! We crossed the leader of the starboard pack by about 5-10 boat-lengths..all good... continued across to the starboard lay-line, tacked and got a decent breeze upto the windward mark...looking agood and we ended up first Miracle round the mark, Soulsailor-Kamikazee-Crew was really pleased, although dissapointed that we weren't allowed to hit the mark as we went round! So tight reach down to 'J' infront of the fishing-lodge, bore-off to a run and popped the kite up, passed the tiller extension to Soulsailor-Kamikazee-Crew to steer while I popped the pole spinnaker pole on and set the kite... he did a great job.. so, Soulsailor-Kamikazee-Crew sat admiring the sailing-life and running his hand through the water while dad stood in the boat, playing the main-sheet and spinnaker (just like the old 420 days!) managed to gybe the kite, Soulsailor-Kamikazee-Crew doing a bit more helming while I swopped pole-ends and suprisingly we were still in a decent position, in first Miracle place... the rest of the downwind legs were uneventful, except for a quick impromptu water-fight for a few seconds and other general fun-stuff, the last reach of the lap was fairly close, we dropped the kite, but the next Miracle didn't.... we held them off to complete the lap in first place, I was so pleased that the boat performed so well, we hardened up and headed for shore... time for Soulsailor-Kamikazee-Crew bed, it's a school night don't forget!!

So back to shore Soulsailor-Kamikazee-Crew jumped into the water and had a little swim, he was cold, but seemingly very happy... boat packed away with my dads help, double-quick time...smiling, sailing done, first time I'd sailed with Soulsailor-Kamikazee-Crew this year and he did awesome... Happy days, great evening, great boat....bed...goodnight...

 

Think we'll (me and SoulsailorCrew) do the pursuit race on Bank Holiday Monday and maybe me and Soulsailor-Kamikazee-Crew might sail again next Wednesday... we shall see!

;-)

Technorati Tags: Soulsailor,sailing,Miracle,Draycote

Fish on Fridays

SoulCrew Speaks...!

Dear world,

I am SoulCrew and i am 8 years old, Ant/Soulsailor is my dad this is about my time crewing dad.

Last Sunday I crewed my dad in force 2-3.

I enjoyed it because it was pretty fast for me.

I like miracles because they are slow but fast enough!

I like sailing with the kite up but I don't like gybing with it up.

My funniest sailing moment was on new years day

I was sailing along a gust came I leaned out with no toestraps and fell out still holding the jibsheet, dad hoiked me back into the boat! I got very wet and cold!!!

and that is it for today from SoulCrew  :-)

Technorati Tags: sailing,soulsailor,soulcrew,crew

Open Meeting Vs. Club Racing

My Dilemma.... I love racing, I love socialising after racing, I love competition, I love doing well... but I don't sail an Ent anymore, I sail a Miracle with my kids...

Option 1

Do I jump into the deep-end with my 8 year old son/crew and go to a load of Miracle Open Meetings in the UK, hardly any of them local...mostly in northern England and mostly a couple of hours away... not that many of them (compared to the Ents) and all seemingly on bad dates for the family!

Option 2

Do I sail regularly at Draycote Water...Great club, great water, less than 10 mins from my house, racing whenever we get the chance be that a Wednesday evening, or any of the  races on a Sunday or just out for fun on a Saturday afternoon, or maybe go for one of the Pursuit races on the Bank Holidays...

It's a bit of a challenge getting the right balance between what I like:

• Open Meetings
• Competition
• Hard racing etc

..and what my keen, young, novice crew/son wants and needs:

• Sailing for the sake of sailing
• fun
• confidence building
• learning...

So, lets think about it... at an Open Meeting you get to race against a range of sailing abilities... we both learn about racing Miracles...he learns about tactics (and how arsey his dad can be on the race-course!).... good stuff

Racing at Draycote we get to sail against last years National Champion, his brother and a decent number of other part-time Miracle sailors who are bloody good yachters in other classes....

So, I *think* but welcome the opinions of the masses....

Focus on time on the water at Draycote, get the boat sorted (new boom, rudder, re-vamp the control-lines etc)... get the on the water practice in, build the confidence up in my son's sailing abilities, his sailing knowledge etc... plan to do an event or two closer to the Nationals in Brixham later this year, maybe they'll be a few pop up in the Midlands...

Then in 2009 we'll be ready to hit the Racing Event scene properly...!

Technorati Tags: Soulsailor,sailing,Miracle

Times They Are A Changin' ?

It used to be that I had to win, or at least come in the chocolates.. the last year and I guess some of the proceeding year things weren't gelling right and the results weren't happening like I know they should have... so results became more and more frustratingly hard to come by...

It was always a worry, sailing with my eldest son, that I would be soooo competitive that I would put him off sailing for life! So far that hasn't happened, although we've only sailed at Draycote and done no "proper events"...

That may changes or at least get proved/disproved in the next month or so as I plan to do an event or two if:

• The bloke i've asked to shove a tow-bar on the car turns up
• Steve (P&B) does the magic and gets me an undercover, new boom and a load of other "bits" for the boat
• Or
• The guys from Evolution sailing (makers of the shiny-plastic-Mk4-Miracle) do me any favours and can get me the bits I need quickly...?
• ..oh yeh and of course if my eldest wants to do an event or 3 and the rest of the family don't mind..

Actually Sailing
I had a great sail at Draycote yesterday afternoon...decent breeze light F2 when we launched upto a decent top-end F3 maybe just F4 by the peak of the race... Son crewed well, wasn't freaked by going fast with the kite-up so I was really please, nay proud of his crewing-ability... Spinnaker launching is still our problem area, takes far too long, but he's trying his best..and the way the spinny is set-up makes dropping a pain, the halyard keeps re-cleating, need to sort that out soon.

It was Race 3 we did, a mass-start handicap race.. the wind shifted just before the start making the pin-end very favoured, with a very busy line we were just pin-side of mid-way, good boat speed at go and with the rest of the fleet at the committe-boat end tacking off we had clear space to do a good tack and head off on port... boat speed seemed fine (against the other two Miracles), although I noticed after racing that I'd got one notch too much rig-tension on doh!

So we had a good beat, stayed with the rest of the fleet, in amongst the solo's some tail-end Fireballs/FF15's etc etc, both of us enjoying the sail.. the reach was little tight and under the lee of the club-house, breeze twisting and turning all over the place so we didint bother with the kite, gybed round and "popped" it up and had a fairly good reach in decent breeze boat tripping across the chop nicely in the slightly increased breeze... my son holding up well, staying calm  in the gusts and I think, starting to trust me in the boat! Did a crap gybe... I kept the kite flying ok but then didn't force the boom over, so it was a little rough round the edges and son twonked his head on the boom, probably because of the delayed gybe.. still he coped, just, got the kite sorted on the new side and down the run we went... uneventful... next beat was "ok" we did a great mark rounding and took about 10 boat lengths at least on the leading Miracle... had a good beat, some close racing got into 1st Miracle slot and lots of enjoyment (including son's shout of "now this is what i call sailing!")

Rounded with a big fat Flying-Fifteen behind us who drifted very slowly past us, giving us crap wind and no-where to run...back to my first paragraph, in the olden days I would have defended that clear air like it was the last breath of wind, but I just sat there, chatting to my son, the other Miracle closed right up behind us... gybed clear ahead of them, but their spinnaker raise was a lot cleaner than ours; still it went up and we hammered off on a decent gust (but also a heading breeze), planing nicely, son/crew seemingly happy... then I realised we were way off the mark, dropped the kite a little late and ended up having to hitch back up to the mark ;-( other Miracle had dropped the kite a lot earlier and passed us again... bugger...

So the rest of the race was enjoyable, if not a little "slow", the breeze dropped and we sailed along happily, son doing some great spinny flying down the run enabling us to catch-up some of the lost ground...

Anyway we ended up about 14th out of 18/19 or so which my son wasn't disappointed at...so neither was I..

So boat packed away, just as the monsoon hit, showered, bar for a quick beer and a bag of dry-roasted, chat to my lad about life etc etc and then home.... all good...

 

Old Stomping Ground....
I kinda miss the Enterprises... they had their Midland Areas this weekend @ Barnt Green, an hour north of here, and a club that me and Claire were members of in our Uni days; I was planning to go up and say hi but never managed to free up enough time... Looks like (unconfirmed) Richie Adams and James (Holmes of course) may well have won the event

http://www.sailingbarntgreen.com/enterprise.htm

..which is wicked, Richie is really sailing well at the moment and I'm pleased for him..

So how do I feel about it all...crap...a little, kinda funny in the stomach feeling! Sort of I should have been there, well maybe, but I guess between all the family-stuff on both our parts, me and 'J' we drifted apart, and I made the decision to go yachting with the boys more, bought the Miracle, happy with that (especially  once i've updated a few things on her), but still kinda miss the Ents, and get the "I should've been there" feelings from time to time....

Conclusion..
I guess I thought Family & Work & Enterprises & Miracles would all co-exist nicely, do a bit of each, stayb in the Ent fleet, do some events, do lots of sailing with the kids and some events and keep the rest of the family happy and keep down my job....doesn't look like it's all possible though..shame...<sigh>

So...Who is Soulsailor now? What have I become? Where am I going? What's important?

[Note to self, not sure if these long rambling posts are actually of any bloody interest to anyone...?]

 

Technorati Tags: sailing,soulsailor,"Miracle Dinghy",Draycote

No Sailing, Just Rambling...

This is what my eldest thinks we sail... wonder whether having the jib aft and the main fore is a good idea? The tell-tails seem to be streaming forwards as well, think I may be doing my backwards sailing!

So I didn't sail Sunday...I went all nostalgic, but we'll come to that later..

So Saturday we had an informal "Miracle training session" at Draycote Paul Huett the current Miracle National Champ, minus his young crew (11yrs old) turned up shore-side on a windy, cold Saturday afternoon to impart some knowledge, help people with their boat set-up etc etc.

Me and eldest son rocked up, well actually as the flyer had said "Training day" we rocked up at 11am..found noone was there and that it didn't start until 2pm, so re-rocked-up then ;-)

Anyway, about 8 or so Miracle yachters turned up and we got to grips with the basics, went through checking/demonstrating setting up the mast, checking it was straight, spreader position, length etc, this all seemed well received by most people, albeit the majority of stuff wasn't news to me.. but was stuff that needed at least checking on "Miracle or Jedi Mind Trick?"...

The interesting stuff came when Paul started talking more about how and his "small crew" worked together and how the boat was set-up to minimise the effort the crew had to do... this was good stuff and has prompted me to start to schedule a bit of an over-haul on a few of the aspects of the boat that are of significant concern to me when sailing with my eldest son in any futures competitions...namely spinnaker handling/work...

So with our fill of ideas (Thanbks very much Paul) for changes to the boat and also on the water techniques we departed to the clubhouse, pint and a bag of roasted peanuts with my parents and both my sons, watching RS200's blasting and a couple of 12 Foot Skiffs practicing for next weeks mega event at Rutland...SPLAT... then home to my wife and new daughter...good times...

Anyway back to nostalgia, Sunday dawned, usual family activities and then afternoon emptying of our loft, found old box of scraps/cuttings and some photo's of my early sailing career, including old "sailing related" homework from eons ago... a "project" about sailing in general and some technology coursework where I designed, manufactured, tested and had reviewed a titanium-telescopic-tiller-extension! So in that box were a lot of memories and a lot of names I need to try and locate and hook-up with and a heap of stories, pictures and stuff to blog-about, so you may find the next few months being a mix of now and then!

Technorati Tags: Soulsailor,Sailing,Miracle,Tuning

Predator!

This looks like a freakin awesome waterproof "action-video-cam".. It's the Predator VX360 and it'll be out in a couple of months...

I definitely want to try this baby-out, anyone seen it in the wild yet??

Golden Globes / Golden Balls...?

Well probably, but the pictures taken don't reveal those intimacies, no matter how much you zoom!

Anyway, our Olympic hopefuls were showing off their best angles recently with a promotional photo-shoot!

 

Skandia Team GBR Sailors Bryony Shaw, Women’s RS:X class / Iain Percy MBE, Star Class / Saskia Clark & Christina Bassadone, Women’s 470 class / Leigh McMillan, Tornado class.

Wind blown moth

Great video, although I personally don't think the higher wind section 20+knts seemed so good (I wouldnt even keep the think upright) - it seemed very jerky, there seemed to be a lack of height (compared to the first section)... wonder whether more power in the main, rather than dumping it would have been better in the long run?? I guess I'll probably never know!

All hail the hydrofoil-moth-sailor!

Sailing isn't Black & White...

_JK11571
Originally uploaded by go4image.com

Old Man Soulsailor

Sunday Sailing 0022
Originally uploaded by robbersdog

...well my Dad, and he's not *that* old...!

Speaking Freely

"Hi this is Ant. This is just testing SpinVox. Might be a useful little Ap for Life Blogging Sailing Events. Saving Bartus(?) in general unruliness of the UK Sailing Scene. So it's about 11:55. So that's it's from me. Let's see whether this worked. Cool. Cheers. Bye."

spoken through SpinVox

The Best Pic of 2008

Young Mr Clay and younger Mr Clay
Originally uploaded by robbersdog

Groovers, we are sooo stoked that Chris got this shot...Perfect!

White Lines Blow Your Mind!

NSW Moth States
Originally uploaded by foilr

I just love the foiling moth!

There's an air of simplicity and beauty that hides the complexity and technology behind these beast...

I sooooooooo want to get my hands on one of these to kinda offset the slow, kid-friendly Miracle sailing I'm doing with a bit of passion at the other end of the scale!

Any offers?

Brain Freeze can Dull the Senses..

Following yesterday's post Tillerman made an excellent observation in his comment:

"..A word of caution though about getting your kids too accustomed to prize-givings. I've seen kids get so used to receiving a prize every time they sailed with their superstar father that when they started sailing on their own they got upset when they discovered that they didn't win a prize at every regatta any more.."

This has been something I have at the back of my mind, whilst its great that the club offers "a glass or two" for the classes that don't get in the running for the main prizes at the pursuit races and that are part of "emerging fleets", their is very much the problem that those people (especially the young) can become accustomed to winning.

My kids, well my eldest who I actually race with, does have a sensible head on his shoulders and the two prizes he has won have made him very happy and boosted his sailing confidence..But these prizes, if they happen every time, could make him think that (a) winning is everything and (b) its easy...

My hope is that as the season starts to kick-off properly (and it stops snowing) we will get a decent number of Miracles racing, like I witnessed at the tail end of last years season, 10+ boats out, and at that point, being first Miracle will be a major challenge and balance will be restored, I hope...

There is a fine line between encouragement and expectations management....I shall try to balance things well!

Technorati Tags: sailing,soulsailor,Draycote

Brain-Freeze...!

So after a few weeks off sailing for important "having a baby" type activities I managed tog et back on the water today.... and what a day to pick...

Spring decided to vacate and leave winter to reside over the reservoir... me and the eldest legged it over to Draycote after lunch to do the pursuit race in the Miracle.

When we got there it was chilly, sub 5 degrees I think with a northerly breeze around 10mph... we rigged the boat quickly, got changed, sorted the course out and got out the start-area...

It was a good breeze for us, we had a quick practice on the beat and checked the kite was rigged up OK then got into the groove for the race...there wasn't  huge turn-out, about 35 or so from a good range of classes. Before us was a Topper with a good bit of distance on us, there were two Miracles on our start, the line was biased towards the pin-end and we managed to get a good start down the pin end and tacked across onto starboard ahead of the other Miracle and on our way.

So we had a good beat, my son was sailing well and we were enjoying a good breeze we were catching the Topper and the Solo's (the next start), the next leg was a long, long reach....but it was too tight to fly the kite, major bummer... so we sailed and chatted as the Solo caught us, quick gybe and then kite-up... another boat passed us and we carried on up the second beat in good spirits, cold but happy.... then back out came the kite, son was doing really well after not sailing for a while and we had a good reach...that was until...

...from the north the skies darkened, the breeze started increasing, very slightly and a little snow cam in the air... then I could see some large gusts and a snow storm coming over the water...oh crap! We got the spinnaker down as the gust was almost approaching us and then sheeted in and planed really nicely towards the next mark... it was a little scary for my son, snowing fairly hard, breezy and extremely cold with the gybe mark fast approaching...obviously not wanting to freak him out completely we bore round and despite having brain freeze from the snow and biting wind, we carried on for the rest of the race, sailing pretty well and, apart from the cold, having a good sail...

So we ended up about 21st out of 35 or so....happy that we'd got out on the water and sailed our best without too many issues...At the prize-giving we got a DWSC glass each for being "first Miracle" which was awesome and made my eldest son's day, he was stoked.. I let the youngest go up with him to get the prizes which he loved... may as well get them both used to prize-givings for when they become yachting superstars!!

Technorati Tags: Sailing,soulsailor,"pursuit race",Draycote

...And the winner is....?

Well, despite valiant efforts from across the pond from Tillerman and Peter Mello the winner is:

  

Tom Durham says..."um well... it can't make us worse can it?"

Now I'm not sure whether Tom and Alex, pictured above at the Tiger Trophy are causing mayhem or executing an extremely impressive slow-down manoeuvre so they can duck to port of the blue boat and grab an inside line for the next gybe mark.... I fear that they were wiping out big-stylee and that the air matched the colour of the blue boat!

Well done guys, send me your address and I'll get the book to you ASAP...hope it helps, let us know ;-)

Competition so far...

So, the number of entrants is still well piss poor really, but thankfully two trusty followers and experts in their own sailing-fields have entered and their pictures are below:

So come on get your entries in NOW, I've extended the time-limit to the end of this Sunday...no more entries means the book is off to the USA...

[UPDATE]

New last minute entry, from the UK:

....1 day to go :-)

Last Chance 2 Win a Copy of "Be Your Own Sailing Coach" by Jon Emmett

So this is the LAST chance for you guys to get your hands on your own copy of the book,  "Be Your Own Sailing Coach" by Jon Emmett courtesy of Wiley Nautical and myself...

So, in order to get your hands on this great book as it hits the bookshelf around the world...all you have to do is enter the competition:

Competition:

• Submit the funniest photo of you sailing that you can get your hands on.

And

• Write a 15 word slogan for "..why you need a coach..".

Best photo-and-slogan wins the book, simple...

All entries to be in to soulsailor 'at' gmail.com by Friday 21st March 2008.

Currently my great friend-from-a-distance the "ExPat-Old-Fart-Laser-Sailing-Blog-God" is the only person who has even expressed an interest to me about the blog, that's gotta be crap, you all need to read the book (review in the next few weeks) and you all love competitions and freebies, so come on, otherwise come the weekend I'm gonna have to start planning to send him the damn book across  the pond to the states :-)