Blow, blow, thou winter wind ....

"Blow, blow, thou winter wind
Thou art not so unkind
As man's ingratitude;
Thy tooth is not so keen,
Because thou art not seen,
Although thy breath be rude."

 

 

That's right, you come to this blog and you get a taste of the gentler arts, as well as some ramblings about sailing.  It's poetry for this post, but next time I might post a video of my free-form-jazz-exploratory-dance.  And the Shakespeare is appropriate because despite it being May, we still seem to be getting the cold winds associated with earlier months in the year.

 

Business as usual at Slipper today, with 20 boats on the water for a local harbour handicap race.   F4/5 SW, and a 1 hour round the cans.  Some performances to report:

- In the battle of the ISOs, Andy and Ed edge Mike and Emma.  Andy made the brave decision hoist at the final mark, and managed to shave the corner of Thorney Island without going aground.  I have to say that I lost concentration at that point in the race, as I was so convinced that Ed was going to be making a trip around the forestay.  But he didn't and they went on the win the race by a good margin.  Slightly disappointed not to see any luffing into mud banks etc.
- Now then, is that a Laser Radial in third place, ahead of Merlins and 200s?  Excellent result for Sam Tweedle, first Laser variant and a fine display of sailing skills.  After I finished I decided on a bit of practice and caught up with Sam as he was running down to the finish line - he was absolutely on it, planing down the short chop and showing great boat speed.  So Lasers can win at the club, but it takes time and perseverance to succeed.
- Great to see Gareth and Abi back in their 200, albeit with a little dip before the start.  But that's forgivable, the wind piped up to a F6 for a short while.  Lots of smiles after the race.

That's it for club racing for me for a while, because it is only 5 days to Minorca!