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.