JP spotted sailing claims challenged

G'day all! Buff Staysail here, Buff by name and Buff by nature!!

Ol' JP pointed me towards the above video, claiming it shows him sailing in the Square Metre Rule Centenary Jubilee Regatta in Saltsjobaden, Sweden back in 2008.

Says him! I mean, seriously, do you believe it? I have searched the video carefully and ok there is one shot where there is someone a bit like JP but is he actually sailing? More like standing in the foredeck hatch doing nothing if you ask me.

Not convinced JP, not convinced!

This is Buff Staysail, sceptic, over and out!

"Not bad" sailing at the Fowey Regatta

You are a bit constrained in the language you use to describe race positions in an English Classics Regatta.

It's quite all right to say something like "made a total mess of that one" or "had time enough to make and drink a cup of tea". If you come a bit further up the fleet then phrases like "could have done that a bit better" come in handy. Bragging is an absolute no-no: none of that American talk of ass-kicking here if you don't mind.

So I'm a bit stuck, and will simply say we were not bad three times in a row and go make myself a nice cuppa and possibly down on a Pimms or two later on.

The Rope Coil Aesthetic

Inspired by some other's rope coiling I turned my hand to it at Fowey..... and it did indeed look rather nice against the wood deck.

Updated: thanks to a bit of O' Docker magic the shadow line has vanished!

Photographing the Sailing Experience

Once when sailing someone mentioned how most photos are taken under circumstances that don't reflect the true nature of life out at sea. All too often they are in sunny weather with light winds, when hands search for something to do. There are, we agreed, not enough pictures of the many times when the winds blow and seas and skies are grey

So we snapped some pictures of each other as we raced for home in rather rough weather, all enclosed in full wet weather gear complete with safety harness.

But since then I've looked for pics to take that bring back memories of life on-board, such as the one above. It's the bowman's workplace on Aeolus, little spinnaker packed (rather roughly) and wired up ready for the hoist, with the larger one in the background, ready to be swapped in if called for. There is not much room, just crawling space, and packing during tacks is an interesting exercise.

Another key pic for memories is of the sails themselves. Think of all the time you spend staring upwards, looking at its shape and the tell-tales, eyes continuing up to check the windex at the top

And if you're lucky you'll have a memory a bit like this, looking back at the fleet....

Fowey Classics 2010 Race 2 Photos

It appears that the Fowey Classics web site is back on line, but it hasn't been updated with news from the regatta.

Anyhow, here are some photos from the parade of sail (for which there wasn't much wind so rather a lot of the parading was done under power) and preparation for the second race.

Fowey Classics 2010 Race 1 Results

The official Fowey Classics 2010 web site still seems to be down so there might be some who are interested in the results, starting with the Triangulation Race.

The course, you won't be surprised to learn, was a triangle. What was surprising was that we didn't race in classes but groups, which were basically the list of boats split into four roughly equal sized collections.

So you raced against boats completely different to you. Just to make things more complex the different classes had different courses though all within the same group started at the same time.

I think this was something to do with the "ethos" of the event, though we couldn't understand how sailing Aeolus against dinghies having to go a fraction of the distance plus adjusting the time would give comparable numbers.

Anyhow here are the other scorecards (mostly tweaked iThing pics apart from the last where the output was blurred so used the proper camera which blasted a bit with its flash):

Fowey Classics 2010 Race 1 Photos

During each race there was a short period during the pre-start when could poke my head out of the hatch (keeping it low to avoid the boom of course) and take a few photos of some of the other classic yachts.

As you can see it was a bit of a wet and wild day. We were told F5 gusting F6 but it was more like F6 with the odd lull of F5 - a lot of fun!

Fowey Classics Organisation

Must give a good word for the organisers of the Fowey Classics 2010 who did a very good job.

From welcome packs, to (cough) checking insurance, to welcome drinks, to brass bands on the water, to quizzes, cross-words, caption contests, parades of sail and..... there was something else..... oh yes, racing (see below).

At the heart was Roy - and every regatta needs a Roy: full of energy whether rowing around the boats with welcome packs, conducting the briefings or the brass band, or sailing out in the seas outside.

Very well done to all involved.

Update: corrected Fowey spelling (weird) - note pronounced "Foy"

Booms hurt

Though to be rather literal, booms don't feel a thing, it's people that get hurt.

Up till then everything had gone rather well - a week's sailing in which every manoeuvre, every hoist or drop, had gone to plan. On the final day we had blasted home upwind at over 7 - 8 knots most of the way. The mooring buoy was almost in sight and the week's sail was coming to an end, when we had to do what turned out to be the penultimate tack of the week.

"Ready about?" asks I, "ready" they respond, so "tacking" I say, pushing the tiller to one side.

Maybe I was leaning a little forward because then there was a bang to the side of my head, an "ow!" and I was on the floor of the cockpit with my glasses despatched to Davy Jones's locker.

Everyone was rather concerned, not the least me.

"Did you see stars?" asks the skipper.

"No" I say, "just the boom, very close up"

"Do you feel nauseousness?"

"No, rather hungry actually"

I may have got away with that one. However be on the look our for strange behaviour - inventing Australian journalists with unlikely initials springs to mind.

It might be a good time to quote Sergeant Phil Esterhaus from the Hill Street Blues:

     "Let's be careful out there"

Overheard at the Fowey Classics

While I was wandering around the Royal Fowey Yacht Club I overheard half of a conversation.

Said one sailor about an unknown boat "their handicap is far too low - they were right up there with Aeolus!"

As the bowman of Aeolus that was a conversation I was happy to share with my skipper and fellow crew over dinner last night.

To be honest Aeolus is rather fast and we are working pretty well as a team: all those races in Sweden for the Square Metre Rule Centenary really helped. As Tillerman recently posted, you have to work at this racing business.

With hindsight we should have flown the big spinnaker which would have put our winning margin into double figures (see above). However that might not quite have been in line with the "ethos" of the regatta.

Fowey and Frenchman's Creek

Another day, another race at the Fowey Classics but will leave posts on that for when photos are available and we know the results on corrected time (in real time we did rather well).

In the mean time enjoy this rather elegant two master which reminds you that this is the home of Daphne du Maurier (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daphne_du_Maurier) author of works including Frenchman's Creek.

Technology and the Fowey Classics

The Fowey Classics is not about technology - or at least nothing more complicated than varnish. But a short post is needed to explain the lack of photos.

The problem is the iPad has no USB or SD interface, which is not helped by my camera being CF based. The only way to upload one is to take it on the iPhone and then email them to myself.

The iPhone is of course kept a long way from water hence the above is a rare exception. I understand the RFYC web site has been down due to web master holiday, but no doubt both it and this blog will have more in days to come.

However the iThings have shown their worth when we almost didn't get registered as the organisers wanted to see our insurance but we didn't have the relevant papers. Doom!

In the end we got the insurance company to email them to me, then I could download it as a PDF to my iPhone using the clubs Wifi. Cue a game of pinch and zoom with the race committee to find the relevant dates, numbers and inclusions.

Hurrah! So today we raced and we weren't bad at all.

More later.....

Sailing to Fowey

This is the view from the Royal Fowey Yacht Club where have just arrived for a week of Classic Yachts (see http://www.foweyclassics.org/)

I am relying on iThings to post so will a bit scrappy, but hopefully will be pics at a latter stage.

Square Metre Rule in the Media

Last month's sailing regatta in Saltsjobaden, Sweden, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Square Metre Rule has been written up in Classic Boat.

This month's edition has a short report including photo of the boats lined up in the marina (on p10 if you want to find it quickly while browsing at the news agents).

Its a shame there it isn't given more space, but if you want a final fix from this year's race check out the photos on the sites here, here, and here.

Special bonus to who ever spots the photo with my ankle!

Square Metre Rule Range

I've previously posted pictures of examples of the 22 square metre and 30 square metre boats, but at the Jubilee regatta there were also some examples of the much larger 95 square metre boats racing - and don't they look good!

Click here for a background on the rule and permitted range of sail sizes (and other constraints).

Two Square Metre Rule Jubilee Photos

I love this picture. It was taken by M. on our boat as we raced for the downwind mark - he has a good eye for sailing photos and had his digital SLR with him.

The time when going around the marks were pretty hectic so usually didn't get a chance to look at what was going on. But at moments like this half way up or down the course had chances like the other foredeckers here to crouch in the hatch or lie along the deck and watch the other boats.

And so here we were, five 30 square metre rule boats in a line, all with white hulls and wood decks, spinnakers flying, crews willing the boat to go faster, to get to the mark first.

And from memory we just got on the inside and was first to round!

The photo below is from the upwind leg - look at the mast bend on G-71!

It's smashing on the foredeck

This is the foredeck of the 30 square metre rule boat we sailed last week in Saltsjobaden

It was smashing in three ways:
1) Had a great time
2) Got bashed about a lot
3) Still feel rather tired

I've needed a holiday to recover from that one!

Saltsjobaden Big Boat 1: VOR 70 Ericsson

Also in Saltsjobaden while we were there for the Square Metre Rule Jubilee Regatta - or at least for a few days - was the Volvo 70 Ericsson from the previous race. Its been supporting the new two boat campaign to tune up for this autumns start. Apparently the two new boats are blowing it away, which is just as well as it didn't do that well against the old ABN Amro One. This boat is now called Ericsson 2 and is part of the four boat campaign - they are taking this very seriously!

On the principle that if you don't ask you don't get asked the skipper if could have a look around and he was kind enough to say yes. Having just got off the Volvo 60 Pindar / News Corp it was noticeable how much bigger it was - in particular beamier, even though it was less beamy than the ABN boats.

One of the problems we had when sailing Pindar was whoever was trimming bumping elbows with whoever was grinding, and it is clear that having a larger working area on these later boats can only help, especially when everything gets busy and the seas are large.

However below deck it remains as spartan as ever:

More from Ericsson Racing Team here.

Saltsjobaden Big Boat 2: Royal Blue

This is the second offshore racer we saw in Saltsjobaden while there for the Square Metre Rule Jubilee regatta. Its the 80 foot maxi racer Royal Blue, formerly known as Nicorette, under which name it won races such as the Fastnet and Sydney to Hobart.

Behind you can see the Saltsjobaden Observatory.

If you want to charter this boat click here.

Saltsjobaden Big Boat 3: Spirit of Titan

This is the first of the three big racers that were moored in Saltsjobaden while we were there for the Square Metre Rule Regatta. Its the ORMA 60 trimaran Spirit of Titan.

Very cool piece of kit. We did wonder if anyone would notice if we just took her out for a spin and then spent the next ten minutes wondering which rope to start pulling first, and how to get her off the quay against the wind.

While it looked black carbon fibre state of the art we couldn't help but noticing the seats for whoever is helming were more basic, looking like standard office plastic:

Wonder if they need seat-belts?

Boat web site here.