So, What’s Been Going On?

It’s probably time for a bit of an update. Nervous Tension‘s slowly but surely getting there and yes, my F18 is for sale. I’m sad to see her go, but we just haven’t had the use out of her this season for one reason or another and I’m making a concerted effort to reduce the number of boats and junk that I hoard.

All’s not lost in dinghy sailing though, a friend has recently acquired two National 12s and wants me to show him the ropes as he’s only used to big boats that don’t fall over quite as easily. Bring it on before the summer disappears in a total lack of sailing.

Nacra Inter 18 For Sale

I’m so bummed out about this, but circumstances change and needs must, so she’s got to go. Take a look at the for sale ad on the F18 website and drop me an email if you’re interested.

Back On The Water

Deja Vu's new kite sock and cover

The weather’s been really bad here the past couple of weekends. Gale force winds aren’t very good for relatively novice sailors in a powerful boat. We had a good sail yesterday though – despite the chaos on the water in the second race. Marks had to be rounded to Starboard, with all the good wind on the port side of the course. Cue a lot of crossovers at either end of the course and a several near misses. We seemed to be permanently plagued by a rather unsporting chap in an RS400, but that wasn’t going to spoil a great day on the water.

Deja Vu is sporting her new kite sock and tramp cover, courtesy of Stu at Alverbank Sails. Top work, the kite slides in and out like a dream.

Fingers Crossed

I’m sat at work keeping my fingers crossed that my new kite sock arrives today. A bunch of the Cherub guys might be coming up to Grafham at the weekend and it’d be nice to have a working kite for some blasting. Couple more knots on the wind forecast would be good too!

Just so this isn’t the dullest blog post ever, here’s a picture of my friend Ben’s Rebel 41 at anchor on a glorious summer’s day. Remember summer? All those nice warm days… and here I am wrapped up in a jumper with the heating on.

Mutineer - Van De Stadt Rebel 41

Incidentally, she’s for sale. He’s going to grow up and buy a house instead – don’t do it, Ben!

Windy Weekend & Deja Vu Goes Racing Again

Saturday (carnage)

Had a bit of a sail on Saturday with Stu from Alverbanks in the breezy weather as he had a new cover for Deja Vu and a new jib for one of the National 12 guys. Actually, breezy weather is quite an understatement. It was a force 6 with some savage force 8 gusts – the tannoy announcement said “It’s a lot worse out there than it looks” and they weren’t wrong.

Beating up was ok, almost entertaining trying to keep her pitched nicely in the chop, but it was the inevitable run back down that needed nerves of steel. Enough was enough after having to bear off onto a near dead run with a massive gust and losing the crew round the front of the boat to avoid a couple of windsurfers casually swimming around. Probably best to enjoy this weather from the comfort of the wet bar.

Happily though Deja Vu seemed to be as tough as anything and could put up with the battering which is more than can be said for Dead Cat Bounce who snapped her mast on a particularly bad leeward mark capsize. Oops!

Sunday (racing)

Sunday was far more reserved. A beautiful force 3-4 with some sunshine as we headed for the start line. Had an excellent race in the morning, despite a few mishaps.

The kite sock disintegrated and Rich (my crew) spent the last windward leg clinging to the crossbeam with the kite bundled in his arms.

We aimed for the wrong mark one leg and ended up dropping the kite at the handicap fleet’s wing mark rather than our leeward mark.

I forgot just how wide the cat actually is and posted her between the committee boat and a very disgruntled Flying Fifteen. Wouldn’t have been so bad but we were going full pelt, flying a hull and Rich had to duck to avoid a collision with the flagpole on the committee boat. Needless to say we aimed squarely for the middle of the line nowhere near any slow moving keelboats for the next leg.

Oh, and I forgot to sign on for the race. What a dunce.

We’re really getting into racing at Grafham now, just a shame there aren’t more fast cats actively racing in the fleet.

Fairing The Rudders

Although in pretty good shape, the rudders on my Inter 18 needed a bit of a clean up. One of them had been filled and faired previously, but the filler was standing proud and quite rough. The other had some nasty tar-like substance caked onto it. Not fast!

Inter 18 Rudders

The factory gelcoat on the rudders is tough stuff and despite some chips and these bits stuck to it was still quite smooth; they definitely didn’t need rubbing down and repainting so out comes the trusty steel knife to shave off the muck. Sandpaper never really works for these jobs – it’s hard to get it flat without rubbing down the gelcoat as well. Besides, the gelcoat is smooth enough that nothing ever really sticks to it properly. The filler and the tar muck scraped off easily enough.

I’m not really sure what the filler was covering, aside from a few small scratches there aren’t any depressions or repairs to be seen underneath. Maybe someone ended up spilling a bit on there by mistake and tried to sand it back off. Who knows.

So aside from a couple of chips we’re good to go. Doesn’t seem much point in getting out the filler for such a small job so they can stay as they are until the hulls get a good fairing over the winter I think.