muminator
New member
beat that, anyone?
We'd been out on France 3 on Friday - great winds, whizzing along at 13 knots. Skipper says, let's finish with a gybe in front of the quay, put the wind up the boss who is standing watching.
All went fine, we were really believing that the folks watching on the shore must be so impressed by the well oiled machine we have become in the last 90 minutes, this America's Cup stuff is actually a bit of a doddle.
I'm standing minding my own business on one of the winches, when a Bl**dy great block comes swinging majestically across the deck towards me. That shouldn't really be happening, I ponder as I duck to avoid it. The guys on the running backstay winches are still grinding away when the Skipper yells "For F**k's sake stop winching!!!"
Apparently one of the running backstays has got caught round a stern cleat, so we're winching nine tonnes of weight which has nowhere to go...until the rope snapped.
I can tell you - it's dramatic.
Still, we weren't aboard Mirabella V - there's always someone worse off, isn't there?
Sue
<hr width=100% size=1>Definition of an expert: An Ex is a has-been, and a Spurt is a drip under pressure...
We'd been out on France 3 on Friday - great winds, whizzing along at 13 knots. Skipper says, let's finish with a gybe in front of the quay, put the wind up the boss who is standing watching.
All went fine, we were really believing that the folks watching on the shore must be so impressed by the well oiled machine we have become in the last 90 minutes, this America's Cup stuff is actually a bit of a doddle.
I'm standing minding my own business on one of the winches, when a Bl**dy great block comes swinging majestically across the deck towards me. That shouldn't really be happening, I ponder as I duck to avoid it. The guys on the running backstay winches are still grinding away when the Skipper yells "For F**k's sake stop winching!!!"
Apparently one of the running backstays has got caught round a stern cleat, so we're winching nine tonnes of weight which has nowhere to go...until the rope snapped.
I can tell you - it's dramatic.
Still, we weren't aboard Mirabella V - there's always someone worse off, isn't there?
Sue
<hr width=100% size=1>Definition of an expert: An Ex is a has-been, and a Spurt is a drip under pressure...