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10 July
Dart Weather?
Email from Graham Maxwell to me, after seeing how breezy it was yesterday:
"Take it Speddo bottled at staying on the Ark today??"
My response:
Re yesterday - Speddo doesn't leave the Ark before the sailors! Peter Hannon and I agreed the conditions were too much to be safe and for him to be enjoying life on Animal, so we returned to the beach - at some speed, directly downwind... By the time we'd dropped the jib, Ali had capsized and then all the remaining Fast Cats joined us at the water's edge. It was definitely "Dart weather". Except I had no intention of putting Animal away, having been somewhat inspired by these Tybee 500 types that go out and deal with whatever they find. Mark E was up for a challenge as well, so once he'd put Wild Cat away on the lawn he was (easily) persuaded to come out with me on Animal, probably the cat least suited to reaching in 30 knots of wind that we have in the club - he helmed, so we could get some power on, and it was probably easier for me to crew as I know the new bits of string and not having a dodgy knee I can be quick about the boat - we had a blast, reaching along the shoreline at speed. The 40hp rib tried to give chase but couldn't make ground on us. The spray was like bullets - painful, especially in the eyes. We capsized early on, and had to right the beast with the mast pointing into the wind, so it then flipped, and we were then able to rotate it so that the mast was across the wind, at which point she was easy to right without flipping. Thereafter we just blasted away with Mark sat at the back and me on trapeze standing behind him gripping his harness for security every now and then - so the bows lifted and it felt like we were planing our way out of trouble. You could feel it surge forward when the big gusts hit - immense fun. Kate and Peter were watching from the clifftops and told us they'd recorded over 41mph gusts on her wind meter. COBS was a bit more moderate but well into the 30 knot range.
Mark was not easily persuaded to gybe in those conditions, but having just explained to Kate that all she had to do was throw herself across her helm's lap and hold on tight (which for some reason she didn't fully accept as a sailing technique), I felt we had to prove it could be done. Mark didn't seem too keen for me to be laid across his lap in his final moments, so we pulled it off with both of us at the rear beam.
To be honest, it felt entirely controllable throughout and I think we could have gone faster by pulling the downhaul on further from the wire, getting Mark on the trapeze all the time and using the mast rotation and outhaul... next time!
So when it is declared to be "Dart weather" there's no longer any excuses for boats staying on the shore!
Cheers
Simon
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