Absolutely no complaints with this October weather.
October 2018
Tag: Sailing
Cruise to Studland Sept 2018
Sailing out of Swanage Bay in a dinghy is always a bit of adventure. Today was from Swanage to Studland beach and back, about a nine mile trip.
The video shows the calmest parts, it was pretty hairy at times out of the sheltered waters. The lesson learned today, get your angles right so you don’t have to tack in the middle of a tidal race.
June / July 2018 Sailing
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. Continue reading “June / July 2018 Sailing”
Coaching Session
I was fortunate to have a coaching session with Sam Whaley, British Sailing Team member this week. It was an enlightening experience and looking at my notes, I have a lot to work on and practise which is great. Thanks Sam.
I also used my new action camera for the first time, an Akaso EK7000. The recording (clips above) was at 1080p (60FPS), it stored two files; 4.6GB 25 mins, and 3.5GB 21 mins, the battery died after 46 minutes and some condensation appeared on the inside of the waterproof casing. This disappeared quickly on opening the case.
I think it’d make sense to dry the camera on a sunny window sill before using for the first time to clear out any residual moisture. For the money I think it’s fine.
RS Vareo Sailing Spring 2018
First Sail of 2018
At last I got out in my RS Vareo again today, the first sail of 2018. 🙂 Relatively light wind, good surfing conditions, good fun beating upwind through the waves and I got the kite up a good few times.
4th June Race
So this was a windy one and I didn’t fare too well. I was experiencing a lot of weather helm, couldn’t point highly and on the second lap capsized, couldn’t get the kite back in, ended up removing it and abandoning.
However, I did have two fantastic legs flying the kite up making up ground lost and learned a lot. The boat really is more stable in higher winds flying the spinnaker. At one point I caught a gust and the boat simply took off 🙂 Grin!
More RS Vareo sailing
I’ve raced RS Vareo 239 regularly so far this season and wanted to share some observations and experiences of the boat.
Thanks for the pics Gavin
I’m on the light side for the Vareo at around 11’5″ stone (~ 75kg) but so far that has been an advantage as winds have on average been lighter rather than stronger, and having a largish main and kite makes for pleasant sailing even on light wind days.
First race of the season
At last I got out for the first race of the season last night. The wind was very light but I still managed to get the kite up and came a respectable 4th in the handicap fleet. Considering I completely messed the start up being last over the line, made a few mistakes and that I’m pretty new to the boat, I’m happy with that.
I always do a mental post race analysis and it’s good to know where mistakes were made, plus there are plenty of things I need to practise such as roll tacks, tacking generally, starts and kite handling. There are a few tweaks incoming on the boat too.
I’m really liking the vareo and it having a kite means much more fun even in such light winds, downwind legs are fun too. I can’t wait for the next one and more wind.
First sail in the RS Vareo
I learned to sail in Picos, moved up to Lasers, had a Solo for a year and recently acquired an RS Vareo, a boat which I took for its first sail recently.
Klaus Harris 