Practice race

A fantastic race in windy wavey conditions. We could only manage an apalling start 100 yds behind after we took on water just before. But we got to the windward mark mid fleet but we retired when we filled up again at the busy leward mk. Ah well thats what a practice race is for. Dave and betty finished first - and only - RSC boat.

Ready for the off

We sailed two more races of falmouth week today in strong breeze and big tides bringing our total to four wins from four... Cheeky. Peter and dawn still leading the fleet...good onya guys, go B2! Met a sailor from tenby. His local sailing tip was "if you can smell the sheep poo, head left." excellent! Kong packed and ready for the long trip tomorrow. Thanks to andrew pool for the loan of undercover. Ben

Flying with red wings

A beautiful day for the beginning of falmouth week. Two races in handicap fleets, mixing it up with the Redwings who are here in force for their nationals this week. These beautiful boats with their distinctive red sails were designed by Uffa Fox for Looe Sailing Club back in the day. For anyone wanting to see one up close, we have a brand new Redwing on display in the Museum for a couple of weeks.

Only one other firefly out to test our speed (Peter & Dawn Langdon) but Kong was flying today. Still waiting for the results

Warm-up to Tenby

Only a week until we hit the road to Tenby! But Falmouth week is our warm-up to the National Championships and racing begins on Sunday. We'll be competing in a mixed class of dinghies: lasers, solos, wayfarers etc, but we're expecting several Fireflies to make it good racing.

Final Day

It blew old boots for the final day racing with strong winds from the SW around 25-30 knots. The famous Solent short chop played its part during a day of capsizes and exhilerating sailing.

The first race, we got off to a good early start through the gate, with Stuart Hudsun and Chrstian Guy to leward of us. With a strong tide running left to right this feels like the right place to be. But very quickly we find ourselves sagging badly off to leward. We are sailing sideways and slower than the boats around us. Within a few minutes it has cost us more than 50 yards on Stuart and Christian who are able to tack and begin crossing boats to the right. We are dead. Arrving at the windward mark well down the fleet, we bare away onto a chaotic reach. Getting any sense of control downwind was like trying to tame a wild beast - Kong is rabid.

The second race goes in a similar fashion, ending the series with a 27th and 23rd.

When we get ashore, a quick check over the boat reveals the cause of Kong's rabies. The painted surface of the centreboard has spent the day peeling off in sheets,like a huge brake causing horrible drag upwind and wreaking havoc downwind.

The Museum Crew get the last laugh here because they will remember baiting me for my search for more kong-speed during the lunchtime hours I spent applying this finish. Oh the irony!



How we managed to remain upright I really don't know - thanks Liz for your manic efforts to keep us flat.

Despite the bad timing and the disssapointment we feel much better knowing the cause.

Our final two results drop our position from 8th to 15th, but all in all we are stoked with the series and we have reachhed our target to finish in the top 15 - just. Phew!

We were not the only ones to have a less than perfect day. Some boats broke kit and many capsized, including Ben and Jenny Vines who had a real chance to win the series but ended 7th after swimming in each race.

That's the Championships! Stuart Hudson sailed a brilliant final day to finish 3rd overall, Steavie Greaves sailed a very consistent series to go into the final race in 1st place, but was match-raced off the start line by his closest rival Nigel Wakefield who went on to win the series with a 2nd in the final race. The overall results can be seen by clicking the link on the right.

Next year the Nationals will be held at Tenby from 14th August.

Thanks very much for following the blog and leaving your comments. The winner of the brand-new used sponge is Museum Crew with their particularly in-joke caption "Where is Graham when you need him?".
Cheers, Ben

Calling Pippa and Charlie....

Your Mum and Dad say "Hello kids, Saskia is having a great time celebrating her 50th birthday with all her friends, but is looking forward to getting to Roadford to play with all the other classic boats too!"



Now get off Grandad's computer and go and play outside!
XX

Racing abandoned...

Considering the amount of Pimms consumed by the fleet at last night's fancy dress extravaganza, there was some visible relief at this morning's news that racing was abandoned due to strong winds. An extra race is planned for tomorrow giving us a 2-race final day. The championship is still open, especially since the guy in pole position, Steve Tylecote, will not be showing tomorrow due to a badly timed prior commitment to be best man at a wedding. Considering the groom is none other than long-serving member of the Firefly committee Simon Spolton you could be forgiven for thinking its a fix. Simon you will be receiving an extra-big wedding prezzie from the fleet if we get our two races in tomorrow! Here's some piccies from last night's fancy dress. The theme was "Racing marks of the Solent"..can you guess the marks? Air Canada Corporate Finance Lymington Bank - A walking talking dancing ATM! Marine Track Trinity House


Needles Lighthouse - winner of the fancy dress!
And last but not least, the winners of yesterday's buddy prize, me (Billy (William) the Kid), Liz (West Brambles), Callum and Peter (Aquaspecs)

The Gore – Race 5/8

Hello to everyone sailing at Fowey today. You'll see below we got rather better weather today, but I hear you're having great racing all the same. Enjoy the inevitable shout this evening and the Red Arrows tomorow!

Today the fleet’s results were split into two – the gold fleet racing for the Sir Ralph Gore Trophy, one of the oldest and most prized trophies in dinghy racing, and the silver fleet racing for the Marlow Trophy.


Exeter Uni sailors Tom mallindine and Jamie Dick celebrate their GlOREious victory!

It's a marathon of a race. If you add together the race and the distance to and from the start line, we have sailed Dover to calais, or Lands End to Scilly today - in a Firefly! And hell it was hard work. After the first lap my arms were killing, and we still had another FIVE beats to go!!

If you followed last year’s blog you will remember how Peter and Dawn Langdon from Restronguet, veterans of the Firefly fleet, lead the Gore for about 12 miles before slipping to a heroic 2nd place on the final beat.

The sun shone all day long – ahh summer at last, we can leave our beanies at home for a change – with the wind blowing out of the SE gap between IOW and the shore. The big question was whether the sea breeze would overhaul the wind to a SW direction, and when. Otherwise it was the effect of the tides that was key to the day’s racing.

Thanks again to Hamish & Diana, who sail their XOD in the Solent, for the tidal book. Our Caravan members studied it last night and planned which way we wanted to go. Left, left, left, until around 14:20, then right. So we set our watch alarms, and sometime around 14:20 today, 3 boats in different areas of the course, tacked.



To an extent, it was all about the start. The boats that got to the left first and under the shore and out the tide, did best. We managed a spot-on pin-end start, got right over to the shore, tacked just before hitting it, and for a brief moment were leading the entire fleet to the windward mark. We arrived there a close 3rd with Steve Tylecote behind, Roger Morris just ahead of us and Tom Mallindine in the lead.



We kept Tylecote behind for a lap or so, and then clung on to 4th place for the rest of the marathon race. Meanwhile, Stevie Greaves and Alex Davey had an almighty battle up the final beat to finish 5th and 6th respectively.


Hey a bottle of champers for coming 4th can'nt be bad eh - i could get used to this!

It’s a big fleet, full of goals and dreams in each boat. The Marlow winners had a terrific battle today; our Buddies from last year Lucy and Rachael were rightly stoked with their 2nd place Marlow result, while our Buddies this year took 6th and might give us a chance for a buddy prize.

So, can we stay on target to finish the series in the top quarter? There are 3 races left, but it is forecasted to get very windy tomorrow, so we might struggle.

Check the Overall results on the NFA link at the top-right of this page.
Phew - gotta go and get my Billy the Kid outfit on now...
Why? Find out tomorrow.

Ben

Race 4/8; the half way mark.

The fact that the dinghy park seemed to be empty at 11 this morning may have been something to do with the success of the Crew’s Union entertainments last night. Helms were punctually lined up beside their boats awaiting the arrival of the bleary-eyed, with alka-selzer at the ready. Nb. Guy English recommends duck tape as a more effective hangover cure for crews.

Their evening’s entertainment included a game where teams vie to create the longest ‘rope’ of clothes. If you are struggling to imagine the chaos, let me introduce you to Penny, pictured here in the Duckhams dress today. She won the honour of wearing the Duckhams dress for managing to tear her bra in two. When quizzed today Penny said “it was an old bra, and they were tugging very hard”.

The Duckhams award is presented each evening for the day’s most egregious acts of gross under-achievement. Originally Duckhams winners were presented a ‘Duckhams Oil’ cap to wear, but this has evolved to the lovely dress & wig.

The fleet finally and tenderly made their way to the start area for Race 4. The sun is shining with a hangover-friendly force 2-3 breeze. Finally we are beginning to understand some of the complexities of the Solent tides – thanks to Hamish & Diana for the tides-book by the way – and manage to go more or less the right way up the beat. Yet again, Steve Tylecote ekes out a lead on the fleet with Nigel Wakefield in close pursuit. Behind them, the pack gets stuck together along the reaches, allowing them to stretch an insurmountable lead. We are banging away in the top 10 for the majority of the race and flying upwind, eventually getting a 5th place at the end.

Our caravan pals, Guy English and his crew Ben, and Rupert & Kathryn Whelan also had a good day. If only there was a performance-rated caravan prize.

Tomorrow the race results are split into two fleets. The top half race for the Sir Ralph Gore trophy while the second half fight it out for the Marlow. The course is set at a minimum of 13 nautical miles or minimum 3 hours, whichever comes first. Add to this the 5 mile sail to the start line and it’s set to be a long day.

Right now, the caravan Sheila’s are creating some cardboard bramble-bushes for tomorrow night’s fancy dress evening. The theme is ‘Marks of the Solent’, which include Brambles East and Brambles West. There’s another called ‘Spanker’; Shame my old mate Paul Hass isn’t here.

Guy Davidson’s quote of the day:
“I could just go in a pair of swimming trunks and a bald head”

Hope its all going well at the Maritime Museum this week. The fleet sends its regards to Fe (Firefly No1).
Ben

Yeeha

A beautiful day's sailing today in light winds and sunshine. We came 5th - our best nationals result so far. More on this later - we gotta run back to the caravan for Ultimate Frisbee.

Ben