Tuesday 13 April 2010

Life at the extremes


We flew around the harbour last weekend, on a windward leeward course so tight that I was already planning my entry into the leeward mark at the same time as the windward bearaway. I had on my KA MSL10B and the soft mast which I used for several of the worlds races and it rocked.

I have to say I did enjoy the handicap racing on Sunday. It was good fun but there are too many variables to really take it seriously and only the mentally deliquent get worked up about it. Yet I do think I will do more, and last Sunday I managed to rediscover how to gybe, which had not been a strength of late. I ripped upwind double lapping i14's and the other boats and it's really only in this kind of racing that you get a sense of how fast these little boats go. At the Worlds we all go roughly the same speed and you dont seem to notice.

But on Friday I took some time out and motored to East Head on "Callisto" where I anchored, read a book and generally got away for a bit. Sometimes a change is as good as a rest and as I watched Moths flying past I wondered about the two extremes of the boats I owned. Specifically which one is "greener". Sure my Mach 2 won't degenerate in the same way as my yacht, it will probably last longer than me and you put together, but wooden boats aren't very geen either ar they? The great oak forests of England and the Teak forests of India are now long gone due to wooden boat production. If you doubt it, try to get hold of a piece of mahogany!

See I told you it was a relaxing afternoon.












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