eastcoastbernie
Well-Known Member
Home at last after Burnham Week and feeling very tired.
Johnny Windrush and I sailed Beyond Reason down on the Thursday before Burnham Week. Just as well as the wind got up the following day and I don't think we would have wanted to sail. Little did we know Beyond Reason would be battling strong winds all week long.
The first three days were pretty windy, but thanks to stalwart efforts by Johnny and my old mate Kockup we managed to get round the course on all three days getting a 2nd and two 1sts, successfully defending last year's bank holiday honours. We would be the first to admit our handicap was beginning to look a bit dodgy so we weren't at all surprised when our rating was lowered to bring us into line with Seven Isles and Salto.
After the prizegiving, Johnny had to leave us to go to work, to be replaced by Moodysabre the following day.
Tuesday the Navtex threatened gale force eight but windguru was talking less than 20 knots. So we set off with full main, the working jib hanked on and the genoa ready to go should we be underpowered on the downwind legs. As it turned out, lack of power was not a feature of this race. No wind instrument to back this up, but I am willing to bet we had 35-40 knots at times. I wouldn't normally go out cruising in winds that strong, let alone racing. Halfway up the beat we managed to get a reef in. By this time I didn't care whether we got a result or not, I just wanted to get back to base with my little boat in one piece. We crossed the finish line and I went to turn the engine on so we could take the sails down. Was startled to find the key went round and round instead of starting the engine. Fortunately it was easy to reach behind and tighten up the barrel and the engine burst into life. I bundled the jib and genoa back into their bags thinking I didn't much care if I never saw them again.
Wednesday the Navtex was saying severe gale force nine and I wasn't listening to windguru. However, the course looked very short and very easy so we had another go and were back on our mooring early in the afternoon. 'Can I see how this Navtex thing works? ' asks Roger and reads 'blah blah blah, storm force 10'. Naturally I think he is having me on, but no, that's what the Navtex says. 'Right', says I, 'I'm not staying on a mooring in a force 10, I'm off to Burnham Yacht Harbour for the night!'
After a very pleasant meal in the Thai restaurant, Roger left on Wednesday night and we waited for another of my old mates, Dave, to turn up. I had more or less decided that if the Navtex was still saying force 10, Burnham could keep their racing, but sanity reigned and Thursday's racing was very sensibly abandoned. Kockup left for home around lunchtime and Dave and I caught up with one another's news and did a few boat jobs. Steph joined us Thursday evening.
Friday it was still blowing old boots but Burnham is Burnham and two races were scheduled. As soon as we left the fairway and entered the mainstream in the river I could see the conditions were going to be too much for us. The pull on the rudder made it very difficult to steer and we hadn't even got any sails up yet! Apart from a few class ones and twos and a single class three, we couldn't see any other boats, so I thought we might as well give up as there was no-one else to race. Then, up pops Seven Isles. I hoped they had just come to look at the start line and would decide, like I had, that it was too windy. But they were soon putting up their mainsail and we had to respond. We hoisted and fully-reefed our main then went for the working jib. Unfortunately, somebody (that would be me) had neglected to tie figure of eights in the ends of the jib sheets. The jib flapped wildly and the sheets whipped around while I tried for several minutes to get the whole lot back in control. Then the quick-release jib sheets (for speedy racing sail changing) quickly released and sunk to the bottom of the Crouch. Game over for us as the only way to get things under control was to put the engine on forcing us to retire.
Friday afternoon it seemed to be just as windy as Friday morning so we didn't even attempt the start line on that one. Later, one of the Class One crews told us they'd recorded 40 knots of wind during the day's racing.
By Saturday I was already beginning to worry about the trip home to Levington as I was aware that plucky little Beyond Reason had been tested in conditions she had never encountered before. I was especially anxious knowing that Salto had been dismasted earlier in the week. So Steph and I spent quite a large part of Saturday carefully checking everything we could, all the clevis pins at the base of the shrouds, the forestay and backstay fittings, the shackles at the ends of the halyards, the outhaul, the kicker, anything we could think of that we could examine and replace relatively easily. We found the pin on the shackle holding the outhaul in place was distorted so that was replaced. The various blocks and shackles that make up the kicker were all very distorted so we bought a whole load of new bits and made up a new kicker.
On Saturday evening, we learned that in spite of missing a couple of races, our earlier results (2, 1, 1, 1, 1 ) had been good enough to earn us the trophy for the weeks points with Seven Isles the runner up.
Patrick and his friend Sean joined Steph and me on Sunday morning to help us get Beyond Reason back home. When hanking on the working jib, Patrick noticed a six inch tear in the jib which he fixed with sail repair tape. Ironically the winds got lighter and lighter and we motored a lot of the way home.
Beyond Reason is now safely back in her berth and I am back at home. I still can't believe we went out and actually raced in that stuff. I think I'm rather glad it's all over!
Johnny Windrush and I sailed Beyond Reason down on the Thursday before Burnham Week. Just as well as the wind got up the following day and I don't think we would have wanted to sail. Little did we know Beyond Reason would be battling strong winds all week long.
The first three days were pretty windy, but thanks to stalwart efforts by Johnny and my old mate Kockup we managed to get round the course on all three days getting a 2nd and two 1sts, successfully defending last year's bank holiday honours. We would be the first to admit our handicap was beginning to look a bit dodgy so we weren't at all surprised when our rating was lowered to bring us into line with Seven Isles and Salto.
After the prizegiving, Johnny had to leave us to go to work, to be replaced by Moodysabre the following day.
Tuesday the Navtex threatened gale force eight but windguru was talking less than 20 knots. So we set off with full main, the working jib hanked on and the genoa ready to go should we be underpowered on the downwind legs. As it turned out, lack of power was not a feature of this race. No wind instrument to back this up, but I am willing to bet we had 35-40 knots at times. I wouldn't normally go out cruising in winds that strong, let alone racing. Halfway up the beat we managed to get a reef in. By this time I didn't care whether we got a result or not, I just wanted to get back to base with my little boat in one piece. We crossed the finish line and I went to turn the engine on so we could take the sails down. Was startled to find the key went round and round instead of starting the engine. Fortunately it was easy to reach behind and tighten up the barrel and the engine burst into life. I bundled the jib and genoa back into their bags thinking I didn't much care if I never saw them again.
Wednesday the Navtex was saying severe gale force nine and I wasn't listening to windguru. However, the course looked very short and very easy so we had another go and were back on our mooring early in the afternoon. 'Can I see how this Navtex thing works? ' asks Roger and reads 'blah blah blah, storm force 10'. Naturally I think he is having me on, but no, that's what the Navtex says. 'Right', says I, 'I'm not staying on a mooring in a force 10, I'm off to Burnham Yacht Harbour for the night!'
After a very pleasant meal in the Thai restaurant, Roger left on Wednesday night and we waited for another of my old mates, Dave, to turn up. I had more or less decided that if the Navtex was still saying force 10, Burnham could keep their racing, but sanity reigned and Thursday's racing was very sensibly abandoned. Kockup left for home around lunchtime and Dave and I caught up with one another's news and did a few boat jobs. Steph joined us Thursday evening.
Friday it was still blowing old boots but Burnham is Burnham and two races were scheduled. As soon as we left the fairway and entered the mainstream in the river I could see the conditions were going to be too much for us. The pull on the rudder made it very difficult to steer and we hadn't even got any sails up yet! Apart from a few class ones and twos and a single class three, we couldn't see any other boats, so I thought we might as well give up as there was no-one else to race. Then, up pops Seven Isles. I hoped they had just come to look at the start line and would decide, like I had, that it was too windy. But they were soon putting up their mainsail and we had to respond. We hoisted and fully-reefed our main then went for the working jib. Unfortunately, somebody (that would be me) had neglected to tie figure of eights in the ends of the jib sheets. The jib flapped wildly and the sheets whipped around while I tried for several minutes to get the whole lot back in control. Then the quick-release jib sheets (for speedy racing sail changing) quickly released and sunk to the bottom of the Crouch. Game over for us as the only way to get things under control was to put the engine on forcing us to retire.
Friday afternoon it seemed to be just as windy as Friday morning so we didn't even attempt the start line on that one. Later, one of the Class One crews told us they'd recorded 40 knots of wind during the day's racing.
By Saturday I was already beginning to worry about the trip home to Levington as I was aware that plucky little Beyond Reason had been tested in conditions she had never encountered before. I was especially anxious knowing that Salto had been dismasted earlier in the week. So Steph and I spent quite a large part of Saturday carefully checking everything we could, all the clevis pins at the base of the shrouds, the forestay and backstay fittings, the shackles at the ends of the halyards, the outhaul, the kicker, anything we could think of that we could examine and replace relatively easily. We found the pin on the shackle holding the outhaul in place was distorted so that was replaced. The various blocks and shackles that make up the kicker were all very distorted so we bought a whole load of new bits and made up a new kicker.
On Saturday evening, we learned that in spite of missing a couple of races, our earlier results (2, 1, 1, 1, 1 ) had been good enough to earn us the trophy for the weeks points with Seven Isles the runner up.
Patrick and his friend Sean joined Steph and me on Sunday morning to help us get Beyond Reason back home. When hanking on the working jib, Patrick noticed a six inch tear in the jib which he fixed with sail repair tape. Ironically the winds got lighter and lighter and we motored a lot of the way home.
Beyond Reason is now safely back in her berth and I am back at home. I still can't believe we went out and actually raced in that stuff. I think I'm rather glad it's all over!
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Excellent stuff - enjoy the trophies.
