New sail!!

Well it's been a while but I have the excuse of being busy!!!

Finally got some time to go out and tinker with the new sail. It looks sweet and although slightly different from my Norths I think has potential. Just need to get the sail maker to make a very minor alteration it will be bang on. Not bad considering he didn't have the mast!! Thanks to Andy for the design/ needle work and I look forward to using it.  

mayday nightmare!!!

So I only managed one day sailing over the bank holiday. Due to winning a pot the club did some funky sums on the PY and came up with 1009! To say I was a little shocked at the 33 or drop was an understatement. Every time I have gone out this year it has been at least force 4 as this is when the boat feels great and with no other Farr's in the club why bother. Issue is that when I'm powered up everyone else is over powered and so the boat performs well. When there is less than 15 ings I'm too fat!!! So conclusion. I have got the bike out to shed some pounds. I will tinker with the lowers and see if I can get a bit more stiffness in the mast. Then go sailing in light breeze to try to amend the handicap back a bit. I think I'm not too far of at 1045 but cutting it to 1037 would challenge me by still make it within my grasp. I'll keep you posted. 

I must. have made it!!!!

So looking throug the other blogs and found me in Y&Y online magazine on Dave Barkers Farr. This must mean I surely made it!!!! Good picture Daryl. 

Check it out
http://ukfarr37.blogspot.co.uk/ 

Proof the Farr is a winner

So finally I have had some luck! It seems wind, racing, me being around and the boat being really to sail all came together. I managed 2 days of racing over Easter and both days we had breeze! Brilliant sail on the Saturday with 18 to 25 knots = 2 bullets then on the Monday I was 1 point away from 1st in the 1 St race and due to being OCS and the breeze dropping a 7 th!!!! (must do better next time!!!).

Below are the final results.

Medium Handicap Easter Series 2014

Blackwater SC

Results are provisional as of 20:26 on April 25, 2014

Overall

Sailed: 7, Discards: 3, To count: 4, Rating system: PY, Entries: 26, Scoring system: Appendix A

Rank	Boat	Class	SailNo	HelmName	CrewName	PY	E1 18/04/14	E2 18/04/14	E3 19/04/14	E4 19/04/14	E5 20/04/14	E7 21/04/14	E8 21/04/14	Total	Nett
1st		FARR 3.7	384	Ewan Harris		1045	(27.0 DNC)	(27.0 DNC)	1.0	1.0	(27.0 DNC)	2.0	7.0	92.0	11.0
2nd		PHANTOM	1174	Scott Jaycock		1002	1.0	(27.0 DNF)	(9.0)	2.0	(27.0 DNC)	5.0	3.0	74.0	11.0
3rd		BLAZE	810	Terry Crook		992	(8.0)	3.0	(27.0 DNC)	(27.0 DNC)	2.0	1.0	5.0	73.0	11.0

So even more reason for the boat to be developed in the UK. If you have been thinking about it, now's the time to get involved. I don't mind handicap racing but Im really interested to see how the boat is against other Farr's.

Farr too good!!

Well Saturday was the first real chance this year to sail the Farr against a number of different boats from Snipes, 420's phantom's, supernova, the new Hartley wayfarer, Solo's and streaker's. The wind was blowing 18 to 22 knots perfected Farr weather. I managed to get on the line and driving which allowed me to pull out from leeward of the Hartley boat to be 1st to the windward mark. The course suited the Farr with lost of fetches which were free enough to get the bow down and go and nearer the mark the angled freed up to really get the boat rocking. To give you some indication of speed I managed to pass a K6 which was catching the main fast handicap fleet up. Admittedly this was the worst angle for the K6 but they did look slightly surprised to see me rock past. After that the boat just performed. It was fairly Roy stable wand I even managed the bear away without a swim although a change kicker cleat position would help. By the end of the race I was about 10 boat lengths  ahead of the next boat. Bullet in the bag. 

Second race saw a drop in the wind by about 2 knots which meant I really had to work to get up and go. The decrease in the wind allowed the Phantom to power up and he managed to catch me on every down wind leg. But once past me he didn't disappear in fact I managed to catch it up when the wind came back on the nose. Final result was I managed to clean up the second as well. This proves my theory my ctec is great in a breeze. I now need to find a set up for light and intermediate conditions. 

I am in talks with ardspars to build a mast which is slightly different mast set up. I'll update the blog with my progress as and when. 

Evaluation. The boat is very quick in breeze when your fat and have a good course. It's just a shame I couldn't do the whole Easter series as we have had a range of wind conditions which would make handicap calculations easier. 

1st Farr race of 2014 Season

So finally got a bit of downtime from the cruiser conversion to get the boat back out the box and go for a blast. Well I say blast more of a plod round the cans. Let's just say I was a bit rusty!! Poor start and light winds = not a chance. I still have to tweek the rig and I am now looking into a light wind stiff mast for light to medium conditions verse more tweeks to the ctec. I think for my weight the mast option might be the best one. 

As the cruiser comes to near completion I can look forward to Farr tweaking. Not a bad way to waste time!!!

GoPro Got!

So I bit the bullet and bought one. What a cleaver bit of kit for such a small bit of kit! You have many different settings 1080p down to 720, stacks of frame rates and even recording in raw!! So lots of different things to play with. Looking online it seems most used setting is 1080p so I will go with that and shot some films and go from there.

Looking forward getting some video's skiing in a couple of weeks and then some Farr sailing video's during the summer for the UK website and my blog.

It would be great o hear from people who have any tips so I can get quality films 1st time.