Next time you are at the Welsh Harp, look for the Laser with sail number 156417. That’s mine! Yes, I bought a second hand Laser from the club, which was bought from the Laser Centre.<\/p>\n
I had sailed this boat last Wednesday and a rivet that holds the mainsheet block at the aft of the boom gave way before I even crossed the start line! The club has quite a few spars in the garage, so it was swapped with one of those, before I even decided to buy the boat. For the last few days I have been sailing both boats to decide which one to buy. The decision has been made.<\/p>\n
Today I sailed my boat and I realised that it’s missing some bits and some others need replacing. For starters the sail has no tell-tales, so sailing was more difficult than usual. In need to buy a windex, the mainsheet is quite worn, the traveler is worn too, I would like a low profile tiller, I would prefer a better tiller extension, I would like the XD kicker and controls, the sail has seen better days, but it’s all mine! I will have to put some money to make it better and it will take some time, but you have to see it as an ongoing project. As Steve told me “…if you buy all the bits you need now, you’ll have nothing to treat yourself with in a few months time<\/span>“. So I will prioritise any purchases according to importance and cost.<\/p>\n The race<\/span> Soon, I had two boats behind me. I have to admit that Robert is a 13 year old and I am 32! It might not be fair in terms of body strength, but it definitely is in terms of experience. He has been sailing much longer than me, so if every time I manage to finish further and further before him, it means I am improving. Norman on the other hand is much older than me, so he too might think that it’s not fair to make a direct comparison. But, even if he doesn’t progress at all, if I get better I should be able to leave him further and further behind. What I really want though, is everybody to progress and improve so I will always have someone to race against.<\/p>\n Anyway, Norman, this time missed a couple of marks and at some point I saw him much further forward. In the beginning I panicked, but then I realised what happened. Generally speaking I did quite well, considering I had no tell-tales and no wind indicator. The course went around all the marks of the Harp, which is quite unusual for a Wednesday evening race. It was quite nice, I enjoyed it.<\/p>\n I think that now that I have my own boat I can focus more, on my performance. I don’t need to worry about if there is going to be a boat available, which boat, what rigging and all that jazz. The next thing I am buying is tell-tales for my sail and I will try to improve the rigging a bit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Next time you are at the Welsh Harp, look for the Laser with sail number 156417. That’s mine! Yes, I bought a second hand Laser from the club, which was bought from the Laser Centre. I had sailed this boat last Wednesday and a rivet that holds the mainsheet block at the aft of the… <\/p>\n
I arrived to the club early and I started rigging straight away. I had plenty of time, but I wanted to make sure that everything works fine and that all the rigging works as expected. By the time I finished rigging, I was running late. I went to the start line around three minutes before our start gun, but that didn’t help me avoid a bad start. There was a nice breeze, but it was quite gusty and shifty. Hiking was not easy, for someone like me.<\/p>\n