So Saturday was fun, spent some top time with the family and then went to catch the last bit of the Draycote Enterprise Open... Richie Adams won.. with Stevie crewing, Jon/Alex 2nd and Youngy 3rd... but there were only 5 boats entered... really not good for the Ent fleet and I think next year they have now been forced into sharing the open with another fleet, such a shame, with so much good water and usually good breezes and always well run racing that they didn't get more boats... so such is life, good to catch up afterwards with a few of them for a beer, checked the Miracle was ok and generally chilled...
Sunday dawned, did the usual family activities through the morning and then jetted off to Draycote in the afternoon with the kids to see if it wasnt toooo windy to sail, got there and it was great, nice force 2, enough to actually move and really try her out and for the kids to get to grips with the boat properly...
Bought some proper sailing footgear for the kids, nice and warm and comfy, rigged up and we all went out...
I did all the helming this week, kids "played" with the jib sheets and leaning out etc, I have to admit, I'm pretty impressed with how they have picked up the process of tacking and gybing... spinnakers are a little more tricky, but will come with practice, hopefully!
So we had a good sail got the kite up and after a little faffing about, got the bugger flying nicely... not sure I would be quite as calm in a race situation, but if I'm gonna keep my kids interested in crewing me, I'll have to bite my lip...very hard!
So after a while, youngest was getting cold, so we dumped him in at the shore and me and the eldest went out for another 20 mins sail... slotted in behind the lead Miracle in the afternoon race for a few mins, just to get a vague view as to our boat speed and stuff, all looked good. certainly wasn't loosing out so happy with that (so why did I decide to fiddle with the boat set-up when I got in???), then we beat up to the North east shore, tacked around and popped up the kite for a nice broad reach back to the club, eldest had the chance to have a proper go at the spinnaker, without his brother getting in the way etc, went well, he understood what I was explaining, I think, and seemed to be enjoying himself...
So after a good sail, we popped the boat back in and, once in it's berth, I started to check the boat set-up... rig-tension and mast rake being what I was gonna worry about for the moment... spreaders etc can be fiddled with "over-winter" when I take it home...
So mast rake was out (from what I could tell) by about an inch and a half and tension was very light as I suspected.. dropped the rig back on the shrouds a hole to see what that difference made...better but not perfect... oh and then came the question do you measure it to the highest point of the transom or the bottom of the "dip", about 2 or so inches difference...hmmm I was measuring to the top, a local guy thought it was to the top..arse.. now I'm confused.. also fiddling with the rake knackered the "rope and pulley" system the previous owner had for whopping on the rig-tension... it was a system I didn't like and promptly started trying to re-think and re-implement.. but it was getting late and cold, I was getting stressed and not really getting anywhere, so I gave up went to the bar, chilled and went home for Sunday dinner with the wife and kids and dog...
Great weekend...
So convinced the kids are into sailing (for the moment) and after trying a 3mm wetsuit on my eldest which was too good a fit (no growing space) and I think too thin for our winters; they really need 5mm steamers to sail during the winter and be "comfortable" and enjoy the experience... my dad reminded me that the wetsuits he made me as a child (nice black neoprene and yellow tapes!) were 5mm... so we said no thanks to the 3mm wetsuits and I've ordered two Tiki steamers off the Internet, hopefully be arriving in the next few days!!
So, this week / weekend I need to get the boat "re-tuned".... forecast looks not so good for sailing with the kids - 8 degrees C and 13mph-17mph, so we shall see - may sail, may not, but come the following weekend, we'll have steamers... a highly-tuned boat and bags of enthusiasm... I hope!
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