GC all done and a win for Mitch.

Not many races completed but a tough last day for William and Oli drops them to 3rd overall a shame as they started so well, Grant gets a second overall with stand in crew after normal crew Robby Jon breaks his wrist the day before the reggatta but Mitch comes thorugh to steal the win.
Results -

1	AUS 285	MITCH BOOTH/MIGUEL PEREZ		6	4	1	1
2	GBR 1263	GRAND PIGGOTT/REA NIES		8	2	3	3
3	AUS 501	WILLIAN SUNNUCHS/OLI EGAN		12	1	2	9
4	GBR 22	STUART GUMMER/RYAN CRAWFORD		23	3	8	12
5	GER 183	JENS UWETONNE/MAXIMILIAN SAID		31	11	7	13
6	NOR 3	HANS-ULRIK GRÜNERT/EIRIK GRUDAL		40	6	12	22
7	GER 273	ROBERT SCHÜTZ/SEBASTIAN KLÄMER		41	7	16	17
8	NED 146	JORDEN VEENMAN/FRAK DE WAARD		42	10	DPG	11
9	NED 10	JOHN MORET/DANNY RADELAAR		43	5	17	20
10	BEL 888	CHRIS SPROA T/LEWIS CRAWFORD		48	DNC	5	2

Gran Canaria - Good start for the British F18 contingent !!

Well the lucky gits who are sunning them selves out in Las Palmas are doing us proud so far, Brits 1st,2nd and 3rd after the first day lets hope they keep it up !!!

Photos and Results  - http://www.rcngc.com/rcngc/webs_eventos/plantilla/index.php?idi=es&cod=sem_olimpica10

JW (Top F18 Sailor) report on his C class Experience - Ta Jon

During the cat open at Weston in early November, I was lucky enough to get a ride on the c class which you will be aware has a single wing instead of a sail.

The wind was around 12 knots with the usual Weston gusts. Paul helmed for the first part and we set off upwind straight away. Getting the camber and the twist right on the wing seemed weird initially, but it all started making some sense after 10 minutes or so. As crew I was playing the camber upwind which is comparable to the cunningham on a soft sailed cat. The speed of the thing was immediately apparent and the

PUTTING THE “C” IN THE WESTON CAT OPEN 2010

Full unedited account of Pauls Experiences sailing the C Class at weston, good write up Paul lets hope to see you at more of our events next year, id say the ECPR and Forts race weekends would give the boat a chance to show its true potential - Bring it on  !!!

Report  From Paul,

Photo from Helen Darvelid  

sent in From Carl @ NacraUK

Last weekend, we finally got to line our C-class INVICTUS up against perhaps the fastest beach cats in the world at the Weston Catamaran Open.

For us it was a chance to do some good racing, show the boat to an enthusiastic audience and get a measure of her performance against the state of the art of the soft sailed competition. It may well have been the first time that a winged craft had raced in UK waters(correct me if I’m wrong). We had a mixed bag of results for one reason or another but overall we came away pretty happy with what had been achieved. Weston did a great job and the event was a pleasure to attend.

We had a few little jobs to attend to before the racing began such as fitting one of our old 2004 dagger boards to make up for the one we lost in Newport RI during the last LAC. We rigged up the boat on Friday with a very bleak forecast suggesting winds of over 30 knots during the day. It didn’t look too bad out on Southampton water but there was a sense that
 there was wind out ‘there’ somewhere. We held back a bit not really wanting to test our luck... but still got as close to sailing as we could before making the final decision. We watched a small but quality fleet go out to race which included Will Sunnucks on his Texel winning Marstrom  M20 which has been souped up

 with a wider than normal beam and a bigger rig. Also out there were some F-18’s, Tornado Sports and even Phil Cotton’s Seacart 30 which  had been invited to play. We

C Class Pics - Enjoy

The "C" Factor !!!

Well last week we had the X factor with the shadows but having just attended the Weston Open the only letter on anyones lips was definately C after Paul Larsen turned up with his truly inspiring C Class cat "Invictus".

With a 3 day event for the 20ft plus cats it was great to see this beast in action, we missed fridays proceedings as for some reason the loft has just filled up with work and i couldnt escape but watching the c class on the water especially Sunday when there was a bit of breeze to get it going was just epic. Slender 25ft long hulls with a masive wing rig and a wide beam of some 14ft this thing really is the cat equivalent to the dogs doo dahs !!!

Paul was equally inspiring saturday afternoon as he took the time to give a talk on all things C class before the fireworks, i must say he was about as passionate as you can get on the subject and welcomed questions afterwards which he fielded with relish and for some (me included) the bit on the wedge sailed foils that only work above 55 knots was mind boggling, i managed to set my iphone voice recorder to listen and pray that it captured the best bits and hope to figure out how to load them on the site if you have the time it really is worth the listen. !!!

Shadows Get the "X" Factor

Press Release below From Olly Harris - Shadow Guru - Will be badgering him for a go this weekend at Westons Cat Open will keep you posted but first thoughts are that this could be a good move from the class -

A new, enlarged spinnaker has been developed to give the Shadow catamaran even faster downwind performance.
Over the summer, the Shadow Class Association has been trialling a larger 13.7 square metre spinnaker, developed by the boat’s designer Yves Loday and known as the “Shadow X”. The new spinnaker is 37% larger than the original version and with the addition of a bowsprit it helps to lift the bows. The result is that downwind sailing is faster and safer, particularly in waves and stronger winds. Downwind angles are now similar to high performance 2 man cats like the Spitfire and F18.
This has been achieved without compromising the cleanliness of the Shadow’s design or its fantastic upwind speed as the spinnaker still goes into the neat chute at the front beam for smooth hoists and drops. There is no need for a new chute and pole-mounted sock which would add weight and windage, both critical to the performance of a light single-hander. The Shadow has always been very easy to handle and the bigger spinnaker actually makes the boat easier to sail at full speed downwind.
One interesting aspect of the ”X” is that the forestay needs to be further aft, to make room for easy gybes. Yves has devised a clever solution for existing boats, with a central dyneema line pulling the forestay back towards the front beam. This means that fitting the X kit to any existing Shadow is very quick and easy, with 3 holes to be drilled and one eye to be riveted. Conversion kits are available to Class Association members from Loday White at a special price. New Shadows will now have the forestay attachment further aft and if desired, that modification can also be carried out on existing boats at the Loday White factory for a small additional cost. But there are expected to be no speed or handling differences between boats built as Shadow X and Shadows with the X kit added.
Despite being perceived as a boat for lighter sailors, helms of up to 95 Kg have proved to be very competitive when the wind blows. The X spinnaker should make them competitive across the wind range, whilst keeping the boat manageable for sailors as light as 65 Kg. Of course, the original spinnaker option remains available for those who want high performance with ultimate ease and simplicity.

In France, the Shadow X has been selling well and in the UK, several owners have already got the kit. Used boats get snapped up quickly and boats really hold their value thanks to the strict one design and fantastic Kevlar build quality. The class enjoys close one design class racing as well as being competitive on handicap. With a revised SCHRS rating of 1.061 (compared to 1.069 for the smaller spinnaker), this is set to continue. For 2011, Shadow events will be for both versions of the boat so there’s never been a better time to sail a Shadow

 

 

Cats in the loft :)

Well its been a proper busy week in the sail loft for cat stuff, following Grafham we always end up with a van load of cat sails etc to sort out and this time it was no exception -
In no particular order -
2 Tiger Mains to repair
1 Tiger Tramp to Repair
1 F16 Tramp to Repair
1 New F16 Tramp to make
1 F18 Edge Tramp to modify and a load of covers board bags etc for Williams new boat
1 full suit of F18 sails to make (these wont get done this week but we have some tweaks to the design to do before laser cutting)
1 Shockwave Spi to Repair


And finally 1 Shockwave Main to fix elbow size hole where the Catguru dived into the main after a particularly heavy pitch pole (yes Baby David you can end for end them but you have to be sending it downwind with the traveller to the stop trying to reach up for a gate your not allowed to go down into and get hit by a huge gust at the same time ! While I'm on the subject of pissing it in a certain sail maker from down south went in twice, once amazingly on Sunday in 3 knots whilst trying to perfect the new style of both crew down to leeward on the run holding hands - how sweet, i think the F18 GAP number plate on his van might be the subject of a caption competition in fact sod it i will start F18 Gay and Proud anyone care to contribute !!! )

All the above is on top of normal boring yottie shite so i best get of the blog and get my arse into gear as  i wont have it done by the next event Weston in a couple of weeks !!!

Natural Prawn Killer

Pond life

I've got a great pic I'm trying to upload but in the mean time below a brief race report, write up is a bit moany sorry but I'm right !!
well - not such a great day at grafham, sod all wind made for two races that can be called "challenging " at best, 1st race was fairly controversial after the lead F18s were sent round an extra lap after they had completed 2 laps in the target time of 50 mins, this decision cost Adam Piggott the title which was Pretty harsh as he had clearly been the most consistent on the day as he won the second race too, having said that I don't think we can call it a race really , when the wind goes as inside out as it did today I'm afraid there really was only answer and I'd be interested to see what conditions the abandonment flag is used for maybe they just didn't have it on board,
Some poor decisions really as the race committee had been fantastic on Saturday.

Results up here

Grafam Field Report

quick update - 1st day pretty gusty and shifty, all fleets completed 3 races in a fresh 15-20 knot day, sunny but cold as the wind chill factor kicks in.

F18 fleet led by Stuart Gummer / Crashley with David White / Jon sweet closest rival.

Spitfire fleet led by Henry White and Ed Redfearn.

a cats led by Chris Field.

fast fleet not sure who's leading but the favourite Chris Sproat and Georgie  had four attempts at shrimping (mind you we had one too :) )

today has dawned sunny but with a lot less breeze, let's hope we can get a full series in.   

Grafham for some Pond Sailing !

The UK cat fleet minus the shearwaters (unfortunately) head for Grafham this weekend for the annual Cat Open, this event has been staged in mid October for as long as i can remember, it is normal blowing old boots on one day and sod all the next but one thing is constant its never that warm up there although the Killer Shrimp seem to like it !!

You have to Pre-Enter this event by Thursday as if "your names not down your not coming in " (BTW Brother Olly and Myself actually managed the Door at a friend of ours sons 18th Birthday last Saturday night - i reckon we were the least intimidating bouncers you could find !!!)

You can still enter here and a list of Pre Entries already accepted is on the site - the turnout looks good already lets hope the barman isn't as miserable as he usually is though !!!

Memories of a Skinny Nipper - then not now !!!

My first Grafham open was in 1987 as a skinny teenager crewing on a Condor for a bit of a local legend Bill Partridge, we arrived and rigged up next to two the first two prototype Hurricane 5.9s that had been built by Reg and Robert White in Brightlingsea and Bill introduced me to Reg for the first time, this was their  Debut and they looked great, big powerful sails a modern hull shape subtly refined from the Tornado and with Twin Trapezes .
From Memory the first day was a bit windy and we had a swim or two and broke some bits so didn't sail the Sunday which was fine as we were able to watch these new boats absolutely flying round the course in an increasing breeze and really putting on a show until Robert did a spectacular pitch pole right in front of the watching spectators !!
Funnily enough i had only ever sailed with Bill the once until this year when i needed a crew for our clubs (Minnis Bay) 60th anniversary year race day, and so as his crew couldn't make it we teamed up again 23 years since that Grafham weekend and with Bill (who must be over 65 by now and is sailing Laser 2000s !!) at the front end of the shocker a somewhat different beast to the cat sailing he had done before we went and won the day in a fresh force 4 !!!!

Snippetts !!!

Magnus somes it up pretty well about why Team Origin are not playing ball in the AC - Here and scroll down a bit - http://www.rule69blog.com/

While at BSC the other weekend i took some shots of a pretty cool new A class built by Graham Eeles - will be doing a write up and posting some pics soon.

2011 - some dates already in for next years events, i will put a link to the google calendar when i get a chance !

F18 "The Edge" will have some pics and quotes about this design that has performed well all year - Watch this space.

Shadow - Plans for a Shadow X in the offing - bigger kite under trial will keep you posted.

Regfest Sunday - Enjoy !!!!

Well the team at TeamB4Ego have done it again- 2 more awesome vids here - Download it ,plug it in to your big screen tv turn the volume up and sit back to watch some great action from Brightlingsea !!

I especially like part one as firstly Fraz pisses it in big stylie and we get some cracking footage of the CatGuru sending it downwind !!!!

And guess what rumour has it there is a part three !!!!!

Regfest Video 1 - Saturday

Geoff has the first one up here - its awesome and shows some great Tornado / F18 Stuff - but guess what the second one according to him is even better, hurry up and get it uploaded mate i cant wait any longer !!!!!

Regfest Results and Views !!

All the results are up on the BSC website here -

As for my nationals predictions - for the fleets that raced , Tornado and Spitfires i can with a big head say i called it spot on !!!

Tornado Nats - Well done to Grant Piggott sailing with Robby Jon who won the T fleet, Grant had been trying to win this one for about 30 years so its about time the old boy got a win !!!

Henry White and Ed Redfearn won out in the Spitfires nats, after a tough saturday when they capsized in the 2nd race of the day while leading the fleet they didnt let the pressure get to them and took the next four race wins to deservedly become champions.

In the other fleets the Shadows failed to get a race in so will need to find another event to get their nationals in this year, id bet on the Grafham open weekend for that.

F18s - We won yes get in there !! my first open win in the F18 fleet but pushed extremely hard by the infusions of Tom/Trevor on the saturday and Fraz/Seb on Sunday.

Hurricanes - Toby Gray and James Suter won convincingly in this fleet which must be a nice feeling for Toby who is normally defending Queen and Country abroad and has just returned from a tour in Afghanistan !!!

Final Thought -
The atmosphere at BSC all weekend was fantastic, the sailing was competitive but more importantly it was just so much fun to be part of such a great event, well done to everyone involved you put so much effort into it - the prizegiving was an emotional one, it always was going to be with Reg passsing earlier this year- RIP Reg your family did you proud !!!

Regfest Photos

Photos taken by Sandy and Myself on my Flickr site here - Like the hats guys !!!

Pics and videos from Geoff here -

http://tb4e.com/news.html

Regfest so far

2 races completed today. - full on conditions a lot of boats chose not to race , those who did had some awesome racing though - plenty of capsized and a few more broken masts , getting round the track without too many dramas was the way to go . Tornado fleet currently led by Grant Piggott / Robby Garca . We had another great day with a first and second to stay on top off the leader board in the f18 fleet . Spitfires led by youth team Andy Sinclair / Gilly Sutcliff of Echo sailing. 5.9s led by Toby Gray . The singlehanded shadows decided before racing not to compete so they are yet to race. 3G reception poor here but will try to get some pics on the site later.

Reg Fest Preview

Well the Shocker is all loaded up and ready to go, just a few jobs here at the loft to finish up then on the road to Brightlingsea, a 3 hour road trip so should easily make the bar in time for a few beers. I'm planning on daily updates / results / pics on the blog and also the odd "Tweet" or two so bookmark this page or follow me on Twitter for some inside scoops !!



The forecast looks a windy one, so with a limit of 120 boats consisting of 5 different classes (Big T, F18, 5.9s. Spits and Shadows) the race course is going to be one interesting place.

Webcam



For the Tornado, Spifire and Shadow this is their main Uk event comprising the Nationals for the T and Shadow and the combined Nationals and Europeans for the Spitfire, with a few of the leading F18 sailors jumping onto Tornados and Spitfires and a few foreign entries expected the competition for the big titles will be hard fought.



Nationals Class by Class favourites -



Tornado - Well this is a close one call, Last years champion Kyle Stoneham will have his work cutout to repeat this, Grant Piggot who has been on good form all year on his Nacra returns to the fleet and will be looking to dish out some punishment on another favourite John Ready- these two had a battle Royal early on this year at the 5.9 Nationals with Ready winning on count back, there are a few German teams heading over and also Aussie Ryan Duffield who could be in with a shout - My bet is Piggott to take this one.



Spitfire - With the breeze forecast and on home turf Henry White (Regs Grandson) will be hard to beat this year, Gary Smith also likes the breeze , as does Adam Piggott (provided hes got a boat otherwise he will be F18ing) , also could be a return to the fleet of Sproaty and possibly David White (Baby David). My bet is a Title for Henry which would be apt !!



Shadows - id stick my neck out and say this one will be easier to call, Yves Loday, Olympic Gold Medalist class builder will surely have this sewn up, id say Ollie Harris would be the dark horse but it would have to be gear failure or maybe an OCS or two that will Rob Yves of this win - My Bet then Yves to win !!



Final thought - this weekend will be sure to bring out many memories and stories of Reg and i will share my last conversation i had with him here - Regs latest passion was sailing his Brightlingsea One Design and as he was always pushing boundaries in whichever class he sailed the BOD was no exception, he was chatting to me at this years dinghy show (we were on the Shocker stand) about how he had been having problems with the mainsail halyard stretching because of the distance from the cleat(at the base of the mast) to the head of the sail, Regs solution to this problem was a simple but ingenious . he went off to the spinlock stand and 5 minutes later came back with a new pxr cleat and calmly announced he would just simply screw it to the top of the mast and trip it with a small trip line run down the side of the mast !!! After a moment i said to him well thats fine Reg but what happens if the trip line breaks or gets caught up and you cant get the sail down - quick as a flash he replied "Well boy its on a Swinging mooring ill just leave the sails up till the next weekend then "



I never knew whether he fitted that cleat but it doesn't matter, Reg you will be missed by all, i will certainly be having a few jars in your honour this weekend, and as I'm sure you will be watching from above can you send some nice shifts my way !!!!

Reg Sailing the Tornado.

Thames Raiders !!

They are off again - no game plan other than sail the boats from Whitstable to Brightlingsea in time for next weekends massive tribute to uncle Reg at the Regfest !!

DNF !!

Well its been a long time since i DNF due to injury, luckily for me it was my crew who was injured - Nick Barnes (Normally a Cat Helm) my crew for Sunday after a startline collision with a couple of nippers in a spitfire , im amazed though we did the first 20 minutes of the beat at the forts race with poor old Nick just hanging there on the wire in pain untill we both realised it was more than just a bash !! So turned round and headed back in we got the attention of the committe boat (funny that 50 cats heading directly out to sea, 1 cat with a crew passing out on the tramp heading to shore !! ) anyway paramedics called by the club and after much prodding and poking and groaning the diagnosis was two broken Ribs and no more sailing for my old mucka for 6 weeks !!!

Forts Race 2010 in Brief - Bundock Wins

Olympian Darren Bundock with Jeroen Van Leuwen sailed an F18 C2 to victory in the main event and also won the round the cans racing on the saturday.

William Sunnucks and Oli Egan on the monstrous M20 Vampire took line honours by a huge margin but still couldnt do enough to win on H,Cap.

Stuart Gummer and Ryan Crawford on a Wildcat completed a great weekend with a 3rd in the Forts after sailing on saturday in the famous Round Sheppey race they smashed the record of the 40 mile course in just 1 hour 52 minutes taking line honours and the overall handicap win in the process !!!

Forts Results Here

F18 Nationals Pics

F18 Nationals 2010

Well a couple of weeks back we had the F18 Nats just round the corner from us at Whitstable Yacht Club, no real shock to see Hughie dominate the event after poor old Rob Wilson suffered gear failure in a big way again on the first day,

Rob must be rooing his luck after the same thing happened at last years nats at Parkstone so Mr Styles watch out for Rob in a years time at Yaverland (Confirmed Venue for the 2011 event) !!!

Another great performance was that of our Chairman Jon Worthington and Seb Greber (Pictured) who were the only team to take 2 races of Hughie and steamed round the courses in the big breezes of Saturday to take a well deserved 2nd Overall and 1st placed chaps that have a proper job aswell !!!

Full Results here -http://www.wyc.org.uk/results/F18_Nationals_August_1.htm

Cats are the new Black !!!

Well what a week to start a Cat Sailing Blog with the fan bloody tastic news that the 34th Americas Cup will be in catamarans- finally us cat sailors will be taken seriously in the club bars and boat parks in the uk, wanna have fun - sail cats, wanna go fast sail cats, wanna win an Americas cup yes pops you best get little Johnny a Spitfire or an F18 pretty damn soon !!!!!!!!!

Anyway welcome to my Cat Guru UK blog - i make no bones about it i love cats every single one of them i have ever sailed, from the humble dart 15 right through to the still should be "Olympic" Tornado.

So whats this blog all about then, well its my attempt to bring some news and views to the UK and the world about the UK cat sailing scene, if you have any cat articles, news, events , topics etc please feel free to send them in to me and i will post them along with my ramblings.

Please note there may be the odd shameless plug for Northrop Sails (i do have to make a living aswell) but if you dont like it then send a constructive letter in and i will file it in the marina opposite my loft !!!!