An unsolicited observation : "You should stop sailing that g*y boat and start sailing a Finn"

The clocks have changed, and evening sailing is now a reality.  There is no better way to break up the working week, and for the past two evenings I've been out sailing 300s with Matt.

Matt is still prevaricating about what singlehander to buy - D1, Finn or 300.  I sense a leaning toward the Finn as he thinks it suits his build, but there is a little 300 scene in the harbour now, and class racing is attractive.  A rather unexpected intervention into the selection process took place on the water tonight - we came across a couple of X boats in the Itchenor channel as we were beating to Rockwood, the leading X gave Matt an unsolicited observation : "You should stop sailing that gay boat and start sailing a Finn".  Both Matt and I were somewhat taken aback, not so much by the comment, but the fact that an X boat appeared to understand he was on port tack and kept clear. Highly unusual!

As to the sailing, we had two evenings of F4 warm winds, maybe up to F5 in the gusts tonight (looking at Cambermet I see there is now 31 knots off TISC, that would have been exciting).  Wind over tide, so some nice short chop to play with offwind.

Matt is getting used to the whole by-the-lee thing, but still looks terrified sailing downwind.  Upwind he is rather quick and I will discourage further practice lest he improves further.

Some observations from my sailing:
- I forgot to put the wind indicator on the boat tonight, and so sailed without one.  The result of this was that I spent far more time looking at waves outside the boat than a wind indicator inside it.  Speed downwind was good, planing most of the time.
- Lots of chop in the channel going upwind, with the bow of the boat underwater in the steepest of chop.  Even with weight back in the boat it felt slow, Matt seemed to be punching through with more speed and momentum, but that might be down to weight difference I think.
- Have started to mess round with outhaul upwind, letting a little outhaul off as the vang comes on seems to keep power in the lower sail.  It seems to me that putting vang on naturally reduces camber in the lower sail and less outhaul is required to maintain the same depth off the boom.

I've sailed 6 of the last 7 days, legs are tired, and need a day or two off I think.  That said, good practice for Minorca!