A very one design, the rebuild..

[The Q]

Ok no work on BM done this week as Keeping SWMBO happy is most important.
A decision has been made on the new mainsail, I'm going to get an off the shelf Wayfarer main (CL16) it's within 3 inches the same luff as a Kestrel main, but will require a Wayfarer boom as the sail is about a foot longer on the foot, the sail area needs to move aft somewhat. Buying an off the shelf main will be much cheaper than a made to measure. a wayfarer Main also doesn't have the full length top batten of the Kestrel, so that also moves the sail area aft as well.

So the race on Sunday.
In the rescue Boat, my sailing companion not being well enough for a six hour race..
The Tri Icicle Race run by Snowflake Sailing club. It's a passage race you go from Horning down the river Bure to a buoy near Acle, up the river Thurne to Womack, then back to the club.

Bacon butties were a huge favourite before the race.. good they were too..

The forecast was 23 rising to 30mph winds scattered showers and heavy rain later..
We got, not a lot of wind to start rising to 15mph later and it rained for the first 4 hours... In fact the rain started just as everyone bailed out of the club, after the race officers briefing.

Boats start at 5 minute intervals, dinghies first, 40ft sailing cruisers last, there were 9 groups this year. 56 entries, 46 started, 8 retired soggy..

The race was started at the club due to the expected wind, however it soon became apparent the wind was not going to arrive, so the down river mark was brought back by a couple of miles and the finish moved down river by about 3 miles to Horning waterworks..

Solo's came first and third on their Broads Handicap of taking 20% off their finishing time, between them was Storm a 35ft broads sailing cruiser with mast of something like 50ft, her handicap is 18% added to her finishing time. Handicap racing can work!!!


There was a massive traffic jam at the end of the village, (about a mile after the start) where there was enough wind to keep boats tacking across the river, but not to make headway down river against the incoming tide, occasionally a boat would escape the jam and disappear down river, some boats spent 45 minutes there before the tide slackened enough to escape.

We spent the race following the last of the falling over boats, dinghies, Norfolk punts etc, for most of the race that was a Wivenhoe one design and a Farr 3.7 (that had come up from Kent for the race.).
the full results.

 

[The Q]

No work on the boat again this weekend, a major shop was required, the Landrover went in for its MOT, and annual service. Also work was required on the electric spinning wheel I've built for SWMBO.

So today's sailing, forecast 20 to 30mph southerly dry...
We got 5 to 15 mph chuckinitdarn with rain for the first two races and half of the 3rd.. enough rain to flood some roads on the way home from side to side 3 to 6 inches deep.

It was the Yeoman winter championship on Black Horse Broad, after racing today, the broad is closed for the winter.

Race one, the line slightly favoured a port start... The course was effectively a figure 8, with the first leg the short bottom of the 8. We were clear of our class on the crossovers. But the next class had to be picked through at times.
Started in 4th place, the first 3 started on starboard we crossed behind them on port.

Towards the first buoy, the first three got into the position where the lead boat had number two slightly behind and above , and number 2 boat had number 3 behind and above. So number three pushed the other two beyond their optimum tacking point and held it longer than normal. Meanwhile we had a very good first leg in clear air, and arrived at the top buoy on the best tack, arriving in first place with an easy half turn to port. The others arrived needing a 180, hence came out slowly..

We held first for a lap and a half, till the eventual winner of the winter championship got past us.
We held second place till the finish fairly easily...

Race 2 started in 4th again and finished in 4th a case of playing follow the leader .

Race 3, wind shifted slightly favouring a starboard start, but we couldn't get there as the third place boat started on port and held it, we'd intended tacking onto starboard by the committee boat as the horn went.
We arrived at the top buoy in fourth. During the next leg a reach at the first buoy but due to the bending wind a run by the 2nd buoy, we over took one boat on the way, and were tight behind number two at the buoy. On the next windward leg us four boats all took slightly different routes . We arrived in 3rd again but behind a different boat as 4 and 2 had swapped positions. During this race the lead boat got way leaving us three fighting for places.. on the second lap from buoy 2 to buoy 3, 4 and 2 swapped positions again.. we all stayed in the same places for the rest of the race, sometimes we were fighting the second position boat. Some times we were defending against the 4th position boat...

Overall we finished 3rd, and got an engraved club flag glass tumbler each as a prize.
Over all we went well, my sailing companion had a little difficulty in moving around the boat, and was showing rustiness in the recovery after rounding the buoys, he was a little erratic settling on a new course.
I'm sure we will improve as he gets back into sailing...

 

[The Q]

No boat building work again as I spent Saturday at a big model railway show, very good it was too.

Sunday, slight rain puddles a couple of inches deep, on journey to club.
Got rescue boats out, put buoys out, had bacon butty and coffee on return.

Then the heavens opened, big time, wind died, and it's still doing that 4 hours later.
A few dinghies have gone out, but most of us said no chance...
There rain water was flowing over the gravel club carpark to a couple of inches deep of water, then flowing into the dyke leaving a big yellow trail into the river..
Journey home and in one place that two inch puddle was over a hundred yards long and a foot deep.

Now lying on my bed straightening my back, glass of malt whisky in paw.. will be studying 3D design shortly as I've been given a 3D plastic printer as a retirement present, though I don't retire actually until Christmas ish.

 

[The Q]

I meant to say last week I collected a new mainsail for BM, designed for a wayfarer, it's over a foot longer on the foot, and doesn't have a full length top batten. both of which conspire to move the centre of effort aft of a Kestrel mainsai!, Which is definitely needed.

Finally got some work on the boat done,

Ropes removed from transporting her,
Rear hatch removed,
Steering gear removed,
Rudder dropped, which included putting my shoulder to the hull to hold her clear of the trailer arms so the rudder would drop to the floor..

Measured for new rudder.
From 2 inches in front of the rudder shaft to aft edge of the hull is 19inches.
Draft is a maximum of 30inches .
So that is the box in which the rudder must fit.
Having studied many more articles on rudder design since the last rudder was built I know she needs approximately 2sqft of plan area.

We have severe weed problems, so the rudder must have a swept back leading edge.
It looks like a 12 inch chord at the top, the rudder swept back and down, till the bottom six inches is clipped by the box. Work still required to finalise that though.

Also measured for seat move, due to hull frames and steering gear, the maximum move to aft is 23.5 inches.. so that's what it will be.

Boat covered up again, but with individual straps so I only need to undo what ever section there is to be worked on.

 

[The Q]

The mist had mostly cleared by the time I reached the sailing club, but there was no wind.

I lowered the club flags for the 2 minute silence, everything was quite, even the juniors shut up and stood.

Racing was supposed to start 15minutes later, but was delayed by a half hour till some sort of breeze turned up.
The passage race upriver to go round Salhouse Island was cancelled, due to lack of wind, so we had a course set of Y, 1, 2, Twice, which is just a longer course than normal.

We started on a very broad reach up river the wind just having only slightly more effect than the incoming tide. We were in a good position for the start, but sailed into a hole in the wind, and were rapidly second to last. However, by the end of the first straight we were no more than 50ft behind the leader. The last boat got swallowed by the next start, and only escaped when that start turned at a different buoy.

After the first bend we changed sides of the river, behind the main fleet, this paid off as we came along side the main body of the fleet. At around this point the leader escaped, and got away.
As we drifted up to the top mark. We changed side of the river again in a hope to turn inside the mark on the way out from the buoy however we got a sight puff of wind which gave us an overlap on the outside which meant going the long way round.

Going back was short tacking, across the river, we slowly worked our way up the fleet, one of the opposition who is a very good sailor, suddenly slowed and lost speed. We can only assume they caught weed on rudder or keel.

Just before we returned to the first bend, the second place boat got a good lift along the bank, whereas we had to tack across the river.
But when we tacked back we got the lift for much longer, and overtook them before we crossed.. We stayed that way till about 100yards from the finish, when another boat came up the left while the boat we'd overtaken came up the right. . We just kept our nose in front though and finished in second place...

Yep just up the river and back, we never made it down river to 1 and 2. Normally that would take 15 minutes but it took over 2 hours in the light winds. Going to 1 would have taken another hour, and with the late start we were getting hungry..

 

[The Q]

Well, i had planned to start carving the rudder blank this weekend , but when I went to the shed I found I'd forgotten I'd used the last sheet of foam. So I'll have to get another one this week.
Meanwhile I've reviewed and revised the rudder design, minor changes have been made..

So today's sailing,
Forecast south Easterly, moving to westerly, 15 mph , gusting 25mph.
High tide 09:30.
What we got was 1.5 to 2.5mph south Westerly, moving to westerly , but often switching between the two and the occasional north Westerly.
This made it difficult on a river where the main first leg is heading south west...

First race
I'll admit we were still coming out of the moorings when the starting buzzer went. So we were last over the line, we eventually reached second place after 3 legs of the course, and then.....

We tacked of the bank and when started to try to head up slightly after regaining speed nothing happened.. we couldn't steer, and just drifted rapidly down river.. no matter what we did nothing happened.. it didn't take long to be last again. We eventually gave up and sort of steered back to the club.
Once we'd moored I stood on the bow while the owner peered under the stern... Then a huge piece of weed floated out....

During the day the club was raided by the police....

And the lifeboat crew...
We sold a lot of coffee and bacon rolls, they were on exercise and the club is an alternative launch point for the inshore lifeboat.

Race two,
We started second and finished second we just couldn't keep up with the winners even though we normally beat them.. more weed down below?

Race three after didn't happen for us, the others got so frustrated at the lack of wind they went home. Even most of the dinghy fleet went home.

 

[The Q]

Friday,
Took print outs of NACA0012 aerofoil, stuck to stiff card and cut out.

Obtained a sheet of foam,, cut out a blank,
Drew round card cut outs on end of foam,
And a line down the middle of the leading an trailing edges of the board.
Used a surform to carve shape of airfoil at both ends.
Used a knife set to the depth of the airfoil at any point to cut lines down the foil then cut parallel to the foil but leaving a safe margin, till a very rough blank.
Surformed, the foil to a smoother shape. Using the cut outs to check the shape,
Unfortunately I broke a piece of the trailing edge, so I cut that to a regular shape and glued in a section of spare foam.

Saturday,
The glue (PVA) hadn't set, workshop probably too cold, so I wiped that off and used polyurethane glue, and taped the piece back on. So sadly I was unable to finish the male mould this weekend.
The board had slightly warped over night so it was weighted down.

The rest of the day was spent making a 4mm to the foot scale jig to make jubilee track.

After which I checked the board it had flattened and the section glued in is ok, but I've left it weighted till next week.

Sunday,
Damp and soggy morning, as the predicted wind didn't come out to play... The forecast being 10 to 25mph, The lack of wind reducing as the race went on.

It was supposed to be a passage race, but with a lack of wind, it was just round the buoys near the club over a mile and half of course.

So we started in 6th or 7th place but 3 boats were over the line, we ducked the stern of one of those, but that only slowed us slightly and we got the starboard end if the line just few seconds late. Most of the other boats were at the port end of the line.

We then tacked up river, at the first crossing, a port starboard, meant we got up to third.. continuing tacking and us 4 boats broke away from the rest of the fleet.
After the first bend to the right, it was very close hauled generally up the right hand bank, though we tried to keep out, to get more of the tide in the light wind. But the more left you went the less wind you got, it was an interesting challenge finding the balance.

After the following left hand bend, there were less trees on the left hand bank, so slightly more wind, it was one very long tack on port followed by a short one on starboard. Did that twice before the top mark. (4)

On rounding it we dived down to port, to get out of the now against us tide. The fourth placed boat then started catching us at first, but made the mistake of staying out in the middle.

When we took the first bend to our right, they started loosing wind and really slowed down. As the trees slowed the lack of wind.

It was then follow the leader all the way down, to the bottom buoy, the first 4 all slowly getting further spread apart, we did get slightly worried as several boats further behind put up their spinnakers and started catching up.

The wind was very light from the bottom buoy (1) to buoy (2) outside the club. We gained a lot on the first two boats, and then started tacking after the port tack round the buoy. We exchanged position with the second place boat several times as we tacked up the river. One particular tack favouring the other.

We looked back and the 4th boat had had a terrible leg from buoy 1 to buoy 2 and was now 800 yards behind.

After the bend to the right it was back to the familiar 1,2,3 boat positions but we were on the heels of boat 2.

On rounding the top buoy (4) our trip down to the first bend wasn't so good, we lost distance to boat 2 and boat 4 started catching us along with the most of the rest of the fleet that had caught them.

On rounding the bend we kept left out of the tide, but the fleet behind were busy fighting for positions and ended out in the middle of the river the tide slowing them.

At the optimum point we crossed the river balancing speed and tide, but the first two boats were fighting for position themselves, and took the corner wide slowing in the tide, which can be 2 or 3 mph incoming as the width of the river squeezes down, we caught up massively as we rounded the corner tight to the bank out of the tide.
Then the port rounding of the mark (1) in trying to keep the second place boat out, cut the bouy (1) too tightly, and hit the buoy, not just hit it they were held onto it by the tide. The second place boat went round, and we took a long safe way around the pinned boat.

So we finished second a few feet behind the previously second place boat.

The leader for almost all of the race was still trying to do his 360 degree penalty turn as we crossed the line.

We were tied up, sails down and away, when the last boats were trailing in over the line.

So generally we had a slow but good race, once the race was over the drizzle / rain stopped

 

[The Q]

Friday and Saturday I did some sanding on the rudder mould, a little more filling of dents was required too.
Other work reduced time available
I did manage to make an 009 section of Decauville/ Jubilee track, a second section was a disaster, the jig i made needs improvement..


Race one,
At the two minutes to the start buzzer we unfurled the jib to find it wouldn't full open, it stayed furled at the bottom by about 2 turns distorting the sail....
Started in the right place , leeward end of the line, close to the river bank, out of the tide, with a wind from astern with a slight port bias.

Most boats popped their spinnakers as soon as the starting buzzer went, with my sailing compatriots dodgy leg, we've decided to go for the non spinnaker trophy this year as he stands to handle the spinnaker..

The choice was right as the others didn't get that much in front.
At the first bend we transferred to the left hand side of the river as now the wind and a starboard bias.
On reaching buoy 4 we tacked round and sailed back.. Unfortunately with a twisted jib we just couldn't catch up.. and basically it was follow the leader for the rest of the race. We finished 5th but at least there were others behind us.

Race two,
Jib sorted, we managed to be late for our preferred position at the start, we got trapped the wrong side of the river by other boats, very soon we were last...
It wasn't till the first bend we got to where we wanted, but we were then last..

In front of us, as we approached buoy 4, the outer boat at the buoy left one space inside.... Unfortunately there were two boats inside.! So all three got stuck on the buoy, only freeing themselves as we got close.
We were already inside one boat before the buoy, one boat drifted up river with the wind, two managed to turn round the buoy but drifted wide..

We didn't need to be asked, we rounded the buoy on the inside at faster speed. Overtaking in all 4 boats..
Tacking back the wind started getting up, requiring sitting out, unfortunately with him having a dodgy leg and me with a duff knee our tacking was not the best. We couldn't catch up with those ahead, and lost a place to one of the boats from behind.
Eventually we finished 4th...

Race 3 didn't happen, the evil easterly was very cold, and slowly it has been moving to an even colder northerly. We were left with no competition, in the dinghies, a fleet of 25 boats was down to 4 boats for the third race. We had an extended lunch with added extras left over from the summer clubs Christmas dinner last night. There was cake!!

 

[Blue One]

I saw the pics of the party on the club fb page . It looked great .

 

[The Q]

I'd not even caught up with that myself.. it's an event aimed of course at the children. So it's parents and grandparents plus them. We don't have any so didn't go.
The large guy in the middle with a red waist coat, is actually a maths teacher so he's good at keeping the kids amused.

 

[The Q]

Went to the workshop on Friday sanded the trailing edge of the rudder foam to about 2mm thick. Then coated that with glassfibre tissue to stop it breaking.
Had the fan heater on on the workshop it rose to 10C after 2 hours...
left the fan blowing on the rudder for an hour to get it to set..

Saturday, turned rudder over, a bit more sanding, decided that needed more filling so did so.. Once the sun was on the boat removed the covers , mopped out any water (less than half a bucket).

Cut the frame that's in the way, that ran from cockpit edge to cockpit edge, moved seat back.
Climbed in to check that all was ok.. Then measured up for a centre console, which has now been roughly drawn up.

The site of the former frame, needs tidying up, the seat needs lowering and it's mountings moving.
Boat wrapped up again.

Sunday, went to the Sailing club, got a rescue boat out, ran the boat round the moorings twice to break up the ice. Didn't put the buoys out.

Went to the club house -99.99919v oops typed that in the wrong place.

Had a bacon butty and muggocoffee. and waited. Racing postponed for an hour to see if there was any wind...
An hour later.. Racing abandoned..
An hour later as I left, still no wind.. Water still shiny smooth..

Back to measuring -200mV..
2.5 working days not including today, till I retire..

 

[Xeon]

I'd not even caught up with that myself.. it's an event aimed of course at the children. So it's parents and grandparents plus them. We don't have any so didn't go.
The large guy in the middle with a red waist coat, is actually a maths teacher so he's good at keeping the kids amused.

My clubs Christmas party is more of a adult orientated type of thing

Ps. We did manage to get a race in yesterday ( only four of us were silly enough to take part ) It does help not having any flow on the water you are sailing on though. I learned to sail on a river and remember what it’s like .

 

[The Q]

Yesterday we'd have had an incoming tide of 2mph, or 3mph in the narrows outside the pub. The forecast wind was 2 mph to 5 mph, which was not enough and it didn't turn up anyway.

 

[The Q]

Due to the very cold for us temperatures, there has been little work on the rudder, yesterday -10 overnight, forecast overnight tonight? +11
It's been taking 3hours to get the workshop up to fibreglassing temperatures..

Slow trip to the sailing club driving over ice this mooring, got there, opened up, turned on heaters, water boiler, etc
Put up flags.. while doing that observed someone on the village quay having an extremely bad day.. There was another man doing compressions on his chest, was about to grab the club defibrillator when a ambulance arrived, followed by a paramedic car.
Eventually after much milling around, he was loaded into the ambulance, the blue lights were switched off and it didn't move. While this was going on, a ambulance incident van turned up, as did the police and coast guard..
After more standing around the Ambulance moved off slowly without lights..

Back to the club quay, I got the normal rescue boat out, well tried to, the battery isolation switch lever had been dropped in a puddle of water and required chipping out. Then tried to connect the fuel tank, only to find the connection end was frozen in another puddle of on board water.. more chipping out.
Sorted that, used the boat to go ice breaking round the moorings.. ice over two inches thick in places, just got back to starting position when the engine died. After much faffing around discovered the O ring seal in the fuel line connector was missing, so it was drawing in air.

Retired to club house to warm up.
Discovered others were trying to find out why the club had no drinking water .
When they found they couldn't unfreeze the pipes, there were discussing giving up for the day, as we need water for the showers should someone go in.
So I went out and put the broken boat away.

On return they said what did you do? The waters come on... "Not me gov!!"
So back out again and get rescue boat number two out. Drive that round the moorings again and put out the buoys.
Back to our boat and my sailing compatriot is getting it ready, I joined in, but as we attempted to clear the ice floes the buzzer went off for the start of race one.
We got out and we're behind a hundred yards behind 4 boats, and alongside another that had fought it's way out.
Race one, depleted numbers due to the cold and ice.. course L shaped, 1, down river, 2 back at the club, three up river.
Up to buoy 1,
Just playing follow the leader. Just manage to out tack the boat along side round buoy start catching the lead group, kept holding off trailing boat on the run, round buoy two back at the club house, kept in the middle of the river, the 4 leading boats went down to the leeward bank, we kept in the middle it paid off, when they got a header they couldn't drop down anymore and lost speed. So we were right behind at buoy 3, on rounding bouy 3 it was almost close hauled again. We were forced down towards the bank and the boat behind got a lift and went over the top..
It was basically follow the leader for the next 2 laps with the real leader getting away.
Then as we headed back to the club there was a shortened course signal. We had observed the tide changing to going out, so we held out in the middle and in the last hundred yards passed two boats who were on the leeward bank....

After a warming muggacoffee,
Race 2,
on time on the start line, a perfect start all boats behind us as we tacked up to buoy 1,
rounded buoy 1 in the lead, then we had the run with 5 boats behind blocking the wind, you can't cover all the River and two boats got along side at buoy 2 .
On the close hauled to buoy three we kept slightly more out in the river than the lead two and over took one of them.
We held that position till the corner where we head up to buoy 1, a header turned us down and a boat got past us on the inside, then in tacking up to buoy one a 40 foot hire motor boat was out in the river and forced us to tack early. Another boat got past us at that point.

Just before the buoy is a side dyke, use for small rowing boat and dories. It was on the quayside corner of that, the casualty had been lying. A small dory came out with a very tearful lady on board being comforted by others it went off to some permanent moorings just down river..

Round bouy 3 and follow the leader to the finish, where we were close behind boats 2 and 3 at the finish.

Every one was putting their boats away. Even the dinghy fleet.
So we did.
Then to the clubhouse for baked potato and beans and a muggacoffee.

Then home on the roads had mostly defrosted.

 

[The Q]

We didn't get the 30mph forecast, but we did get 20mph winds at times.

A good turnout, plus some visitors for the event, including a firefly dinghy and a solo dinghy.

Although there is but one trophy, due to numbers there was a split start. Keel boats then 5 minutes later, dinghies.

One problem, no watch, several days ago I got something between watch and wrist, it's gone a bit nasty, so I've not been wearing it for a couple of days and I forgot it this morning.

The helm had the problem his watch kept disappearing beneath waterproofs and gloves.



Course, 4,2,1 both races

Start line upwind of buoy 2, sail upriver south west to the bend at bouy 3,

West to bouy 4.

Sail back to corner near buoy 2, south east to bouy 1, then back to buoy 2 and then over the line.

line.

Wind from the west , low tide was 09:00 so coming in all day.. and a surprise... Sunny clear skies all day..


Race one,

Knew where we wanted to be, but timing was the problem, we were late by about 15 seconds so still heading to the starboard end when the buzzer went as everyone else set off.


So on the first tack everyone was in front of us at the first tack off the port bank.

At the tack on the starboard bank, we curved round behind the next to last boat coming out higher, by the end of that tack we had a good over lap. A good next tack had us clear ahead of the previous second to last boat.


Continued tacking and we're catching the group of three boats ahead by the top buoy 4.

Rounding that several boats pop their spinnakers, just two of us don't have them rigged.

Slowly we drop back, even the other non spinnaker boat pulls ahead.

By the bottom buoy we were a fair way back, on the second leg it was follow the leader, we did catch up a fair amount upwind, but lost again down wind..


Observations of the dinghy fleet, the solo dinghy was up with the lead lasers, so was by far the winner of that fleet.., it was a loooooooooooooooooooong way back through lasers , splashes, toppers. To the last optimist.

Then it was time for rum punch, mince pies and sausage rolls..



Race two,

Got it right, on the start line on time at the starboard end, just the port end boat managed to be ahead of us at the first tack..

Tacking our way up to buoy 4, we held up close behind the leader, on rounding that buoy, they pulled a spinnaker and left us behind. We held 2nd place easily all the rest of the way round to lap 2. Tacking up wind on the second lap, we were catching the lead boat but no where near enough.

On rounding buoy 4 as we approached buoy 3 the others behind us were blocking our wind they were catching, one boat got along side as we reached the bend and crossed from the port bank to starboard bank.

We basically squeezed them out, as the wind came more on our port side, we then moved into the bank out of the tide. They attempted to over take on the port side, but although they were blocking the wind a little, the tide held them back... A shortened course meant it was straight over the line to finish, we got second place be just a few feet..


The solo that won the first race, didn't compete in the second. A pin on his rudder fell out on the way to the start line and he had no steering...



Overall I suspect a laser has won the trophy, which is a giant wooden fork and spoon.

 

[The Q]

I've now retired, so I'm spending a few hours when I can on boat work rather than rushing it at weekends.
So what I'm going to is do occasional reports on progress when there's enough to report.

The latest on the rudder, is that one side of the foam mould was entirely covered in fibreglass tissue to hold its shape.
The rudder shaft was drilled to accept cross rods, 4 were cut and made to the right length and fixed in place.

Then the rudder was turned over, the shaft and rods placed on top and drawn around.
Space for the rods and shaft was then cut out of the foam.
After placing the shaft and rod in place. It was checked several times to check that it was straight.

Then thickened resin was used the block the shaft opening before liquid resin was poured in around the cross rods and inner shaft.
Lots of prodding to make sure the resin got in properly, and no air bubbles were trapped.

Inspection of it once set, seems good, but I can go no further, until I can order some more resin in a week or so .

 

[The Q]

Some sanding of the rudder was done, but I await more resin being delivered.

The weekends racing,
Once per season you are expected to do a duty, so my crewmate did OOD, and I ran a rescue boat.
It was a singlehanded open, with a secondary race for others.
The day went well, no rescues needed.

We started with a long ( for us) course. The problem being the main straight we need to use had the worst wind. The best wind was up river beyond that..
Later the wind moved more round to the north, and got lighter. We had to set a mini course, with more laps, using an area in front of the club and down river.

Today I've started working on the centre console, the two sides, were cut from a sheet of ply, one is now on the work bench with basic framing installed, glued and weighted .
I must get round to doing some photos of the work so far...

 

[Xeon]

Saw this on my fb page . Though people might be interested where Q sails .

 

[Bored Stiff]

No wind, no room, strong currents. It’s pretty, but it looks a terrible place to sail.

 

[JimC]

No wind, no room, strong currents. It’s pretty, but it looks a terrible place to sail.

It just depends what suits you. You probably get more manoeuvres, boat for boat incidents and tactical decisions in a week on the rivers than in a year on the sea, but if your idea of the perfect race is pick the right side, 20 knots to the rhumb line, tack, 20 knots to the mark then you're going to hate it. I haven't raced on the Northern rivers, but I've done a pretty fair amount of recreational sailing, and its never dull. And if you can get upwind on a winding river that's maybe three boat lengths wide in the narrow parts I think you can call yourself a sailor.