Last weekend Lucy and I attended our first competitive regatta, The purpose of attending the event was to get some experience in a racing situation but also to highlight areas that need to be worked on over the winter training period. That said we also wanted to do as well as possible.
In the days leading up to the Weston cat open we had organised to get out on the water training. one of the days lucy was unable to make it so I sailed with Richard Glover a long time friend and good cat sailor. We had a good day on the water in Weymouth the conditions were light and we were sailing with John and Pip. The following day was the relocation day, we packed the boats up in Weymouth and drove up to Weston sc in Southampton. Lucy arrived and we then did 2 days training in the build up to the weekend, this was particularly focused on starts.
Day one of the Weston cat open, the breeze was fairly strong to start but forecast to moderate. In race 1 we had a fantastic start and rolled alot of the fleet off the line. We were racing in the F18 and F20 fleet so technically we were the slowest boats there, however at the first windward mark some good decisions and sailing the boat well saw us go around just behind the F20s. A tricky 2nd lap meant we dropped back some what, but were still in amongst it eventually finishing in 5th on correct time.
in the next two races we were much more on the ball, and our boat speed semmed really good. As the breze dropped off, it became harder to compete with the bigger boats, but we managed to fire in some good results scoring a 1 and 2.
Day 2, woke up to some very strong winds. But a very interesting forecast suggested the wind would calm down around mid day and that it did. By the time we started racing we weren't even double trapezeing. Again it was hard to compete against the bigger boats in the down pressure conditions, but good tactical calls puts us at the front of the fleet. in race 4 we scored 2nd and race 5 a 3rd.
Overall lucy and I finished 2nd on corrected points, just beaten by and F18. This is a great start to the campaign, the viper was brilliantly competitive against the bigger boats and i think surprised alot of people to be out in front in the lighter conditions.
I am back to weymouth this weekend for a squad camp followe dby 3 days of training next week, so check back soon to see how we are progressing.
Cheers TP