Swimming

The title says it all I am afraid! But, let’s start from the beginning.

I arrived nice and early this morning at the club and I checked if anyone wanted to sail with me. You see, during the week, there were couple of emails from people saying that they wanted to sail with someone else (helm/crew) and I made myself available. Since here was only John who was looking for someone and he ended up crewing fro someone else, I decided to sail a Laser. I wasn’t the only one, so I ended up in old(ish) boat with the old fittings and not the new XD ones.

A few years ago there were some changes in the Laser class. Under the new rules the old-style pulleys and ropes were replaced by new XD ones. This means that you can set and trim the sails easier, quicker and more accurately.

At the first race I wasn’t last. There was someone behind me and he finished further back than I did. For me, that’s a progress. Not very eventful race, but still OK.

At the second race, I started really well. I was with the leading pack, I was going strong until a gust came and I capsized! The reason was that I was sitting on the boat and not out of the boat because the wind was not too strong. When the gust came I leaned back, but it wasn’t enough. If you sit on the boat and the boat goes over the 45 degree angle you are actually pushing it downwards instead of keeping it flat. I let the sail out, but it was too late. When the boat was completely on the said I aimed between the hull and let myself slide in the gap. The water was cold. I hadn’t done a proper capsize drill, but only the one on dry land. I went to the other side of the boat, got hold of the daggerboard and pulled in down towards me until I got grab the side of the hull. By pulling that somehow the boat doesn’t come on top of you but you are just at the right place next to the boat when it comes upright. The cockpit of the Laser has a grab-rail on each side and if you hold that you can pull yourself into the boat. It’s actually easier than I expected. I got in sorted out my sail and of I went.

Obviously by that time all the other Lasers were gone and I had no chance to catch-up with them. A bit later I saw one of them capsizing and as I sailed passed him I thought that there is some hope. Unfortunately when going round mark 1, my mainsheet got tangled on the buoy. I thought that the best think to do would be to undo the knot at the end of the mainsheet and pull it all the way out until it would get un-tangled from the buoy. While I was doing that, an another gust of wind came and I capsized for a second time! This time though the RS200s had caught up with me and they were not happy at all. And did I hear it? Anyway I was in the water again, when a wave came I drunk some of the water (not very clean really), I un-tangled the mainsheet from around the buoy and once again pulled the daggerboard downwards to turn the boat upright. Needless to say that by the time I was in the boat I had been cursing in 2 languages! Off I went, and I had two more laps.

On the next lap at the same spot, mark 1, while I was gybing nicely, under a nice breeze, and in my own time I was sorting out my mainsheet and tiller, another gust came, the boom hit me straight on the side of my head and in no time I was airborne facing the water. That was too much! Three times, in one day? As soon as I hit the water, It felt quite cold. I thought “That’s it. I am out”. By the time I turned the boat upright and got on it, I thought I should finish the race. I had to do one more lap and I was the second boat from ALL classes. When I got on the boat I received an applause from the committee boat. I guess they thought it was quite amusing! Anyway, I set to do my lap and this time, David came alongside me in the committee boat and gave me some really good advice on trimming my sail according to the wind. He told me how much I should pull the sail in, the cunningham, the downhaul, the kicker. It was a crash course on sail trimming within 5-10 minutes. It was quite good and I finished the race. Later on I found out that 4 people didn’t finish, so that puts me quite high up the rank! I wasn’t first, but I certainly wasn’t last either!

More racing on Wednesday. See you then!