Race 1/8 and Flat-Pack Ferries

Hurra! Lighter winds today. Or so it was until about 11am when the breeze picked up to a decent force 4+. Urgggg!

Still, there's much more to racing here in the solent...like the Ikea Ferry, made 90% from mdf, and inside you have to walk about 2 miles to get to where you want to go, by which time you have arrived.




Now sitting in the bar of HRSC with a hard-earned pint.

Once again today the first start is abandoned, but the second gets away without incident. Unlike poor Barny Smith, who is full of incident during both starts. Evidently his halyard had broken and he deperately tries to fix the mainsail to the top of the mast while capsized, but fails to get it done and upright in time to start. Barny from HRSC has been the cheif organiser of this championship, and deserves better luck, having missed the practice race yesterday to keep everything run smoothly. Ah there he goes now past the window of the bar carrying his mast...repaired I hope.

Race One is a long one. Triangle, sausage, triangle, sausage, beat to finish. We have mixed fortunes, suffering up the beats but regaining places on the reaches. We just don't seem to be getting the speed on the beats that we need. Whether it's the chop, the wind, or us, we don't know, but all three no doubt. The last beat is the worst, losing 4 boats to finish 20th after nearly 2.5 hours. Then again, last year we would have been delighted with a result like that in these conditions, and there are some terrific sailors trying to keep ahead of us so we cant complain.

Besides, the sun is shining and the beer is cold, so all's well in the Hamble!

Speedy Steve Tylecote wins the race ahead of Stuart Hudson. Clink on the NFA link on the right to see the overall results.

Fingers crossed for lighter winds.
Ben

Best buddies with the Commodore!

After racing we collapse in our caravan for an hour before the 'Commodore's reception' at HRSC. During the evening we find out who our buddies are. The buddy system matches up boats from opposite ends of the fleet as a kind of way to pass on experience through the fleet, and make new friends of course. There are prizes each day for the best combined buddy result.

Well our buddy turns out to be none other than the Commodore himself, Peter Slimming. Peter has sailed in over 25 Firefly National Championships and is still going well now and what he doesn't know about the Hamble conditions probably aint worth knowing! So I think we might just profit most from this relationship. He's also a regular visitor to Falmouth and the SW Championships at Restronguet, and as it happens, old mates with my Dad. Small world.

RSC Sailors Guy and Catherine English, pictured here with Fate (F8) missed the practice race due to their commitments organising Falmouth Dinghy Week. Guy is the only other RSC boat here this year, and scores a terrific buddy in Stuart Hudson, winner of the Practice Race.

Practice Race - a slog in the solent

The traffic beating out of Hamble River was like the A303 yesterday - Busy! Lots of yachts motoring out of the River, but they are respectful of our little craft. From Hamble River SC you have to sail out the river and turn left, out along So'ton Water to the rac area in the Solent. It took the fleet about an hour to reach the start area located in the Solent with a good force 4-5 blowing and everyone planing hard.

The first start was abandoned for some incident that happened along the line – but the second start gets everyone off fairly. We are second through the gate, so going up the left of the beat hoping for an early wind shift. But there aint none, and we’re not going particularly fast in the nasty chop which also makes tacking very costly. We try to wriggle our way right, where it seems to be favoured, but too many tacks leaves us about 15 at the first mark.

We don't seem to be matching the top boats for speed upwind in this windy weather, but we can catch a few on the reaches. We finish in the mid teens, but a few boats ahead fail to finish and hand us a 12th. The boats ahead that didn't finish were all trying to avoid being 10th - the reason being that the 10th boat becomes the 'pathfinder' for the gate start in the next race which will be the first to count in the series. Stuart Hudson wins the race.

The results can e found through the HRSC website - click on the link on the right.

Lets get ready to RUMBLE…

Like every good fight, it starts with the weigh-in. Lets get ready to RUMBLE…in the Hamble! Each Firefly is hoisted by the fork-lift and weighed. Minimum weight of the stripped hull is 163llb or 74kg. Then the centreboard and the rudder are checked they meet the minimum weights and jib poles are checked for length. All very official, but it gets the championship off to a fair and level start. Curiously lots of boats have seemed to lose a few pounds weight over the year and need to add lead.

The lightest is 10 lbs underweight, and the heaviest - the oldest boat in the fleet as it happens, so we shouldn't blame the old girl's Fate - is 17 lbs overweight.