I had a rather dramatic equipment failure in my RS Vareo during a windy race mid June with my boom snapping in half. It was corroded around mainsheet pulley clip in any case, the kicker was too loose, a gust must have pulled the boom out of the gooseneck, it hit the hull and snapped. Fortunately a safety boat was close by to get me back and the sail was ok.

I borrowed a boom till the new one was sorted out then got back into the groove, with some success; third and fourth in two cup races. The third position race was a really light wind day and valuable lessons were learned about finding clean air and good practice was had of minimising body movements and rudder.

Boat handling practice will be ever ongoing, I’m working on tactics, using tide and wind shifts better and strength / endurance; a 90 minute race half of which is a beat is hard work.

Apart from that I’ve played around in a pico with the kids 

and we went camping in Cornwall directly at St. Stithians lake which gave me an excuse to play with my RC boat. It was quite interesting lake sailing compared to sea sailing.

RC boat Zen

Sadly I’m abroad at the time of the RS Vareo nationals in Weymouth coming up in August 2018 and I definitely want to take part next year.