bournmouth race 3rd july 2010

wind was forcast wsw and 14knts or more

race started at 2.30pm with the tide going out . we planned that it would be a broad reach and a beat back. the wind did get up as usual before the race started making the sea choppy. i made a bad start and got into irons in the last minute of the count down, when i did start i was near the back. getting to the wind ward mark was lively and rounding was ok going onto a long run direct to bournmouth. we went under the cliffs  at ballard and then headed out to sea to make a mark off old harry, spotting the bournmouth eye we worked out that we could indeed head directly.

we overtook many boats in doing so and including greg ??

when we spotted the mark at  bournmouth we prepared for what was going to be a tough return trip beating into every wave we surfed in on. indeed it was a nightmare, the boat hit one wave cut the next and cut stopped by the next, boat speed seemed very  slow. the waves came off the winward hull right across the boat straight into my face. we tacked when we thought we could make the odm but soon realised that we were being headed by the tide. we chanegd tack and carried on and then tacked much later, we gained back all the time we lost to greg who tacked too early. we then got overtook my martin who had a tough time with pleasure boats. we almost got took out by a speedboat that was fishing and didnt know we were there, we shouted and then he avoided what would have been a severe collision. we then made the odm and then headed back to swanage bay this time keeping out and coping the wave a little better. we heaed in when we neared pevrill and then to tack a final time to finnsh off the old pier. the race was a back breaker and i suffered after.

thanks to john russ for crewing and for being a good tactician on the day.

after a good clean up and several pints of stoford press cider i retired to my pit for some well earned rest. we broke our record for 2009 by finishing in about 1h50 mins

the times for the race were messed up for some unknown reason.