Racing Bruinisse

It seems that each year I visit Bruinisse conditions are the same, with winds somewhere between 10 and 20 knots, some chop, and some sunshine to top it off. Yes, this is an invite for you UK guys to get your ass on the ferry next year, and come sail with us!

After some years of silence for Mothies in the lowlands we had a whopping 9 entries for the regatta. They all showed up, and they all sailed. Good stuff. We got some help from Sven (who came all the way from Hamburg, on the way to training at Garda) . Fantastic to get some good racing in your own country. Together with all other skiffs, that made a nice fleet.

I wasn’t quite sure what to weekend would bring for me, hoping that working myself to swet on my new house would have given me good fitness for mothing. Dream on. I wasn’t even sure how my moth was looking, after weeks (or was it months?) of neglect on the boat park. All ok there though, and on friday night (so, where shall we sleep?) all was sorted on the beach, and ready to race (the boat, that is).

The wind was a bit on and off on the day, ranging from marginal foiling, to some 15 knots. Most were foiling upwind, which did them good. I decided to stick to lowriding upwind, as I hadn’t figured out my upwind problem yet, and I knew I would be slower by trying to foil. I was slow anyway, but having good fun racing and changing places with Chris and Rob. Chris was flying well, but not making a lot of height, I had the height, but not a lot of speed. I didn’t have a lot of idea what was going on at the front, as Eelco, Sven and the others were lapping us may times.

On the second race the wind picked up: woop. I stuck to lowriding at first, then downwind the fun started. Foiling was good, confirming my thoughts that my settings are still ok. These are  not changed since I bought the boat at Garda, and carefully photographed: the improvements are to be made on my skills.

I remember quite easily sliding along downwind at 18 knots, pondering whether to pass that 29-er to leewind or to windward. I’d read those stories (ok, most of the time that was about 49-ers, and 18 foot skiffs), but now I was doing something similar. At least, the 29-er was looking like they were going fast, and they didn’t hear me coming. [Big grin]

But, as a skiff sailor you can be put back down to earth pretty quickly. Eelco passed me to leeward, sailing 40 centrimetres of my wing (confirming my thoughts that my depth downwind is good). It took a bit of time, but I did crash. The rest of the race was crash and burn until the finish. I was dead, and needed some 20 minutes to get some of my breath back. Cramps were beginning to set in on many places (that’s what you get when you don’t train), and I thought the only way I could get to the finish was by no more capsizing.

So it was back to good old lowriding in the third race. Upwind was easy and comfy, and not so much slower then the foiling boats. Downwinds were fun, with the good-old splashing of water in your face thing. Rob and me were having a bit of a battle, with Rob (on Sven’s old GER 1040) foiling on and off, and me just plodding along. Glad I made it round, I was even recovering a bit during the race, starting to think about foiling again.

We had a comfy Dutch and Belgian members meet in the evening, planning some stuff for next year, since we are near the sea, it seems like great fun to race from Scheveningen, but were do we find the rescue boats? Hope to get that sorted…

The next day brought more on and off wind, albeit a bit more then the saturday. I even managed to sneak in a second place when half of the fleet wasn’t awake yet, and late to the line. I had a good start in some 5-6 knots of wind, and I was using my agressive sailing-on-crappy-german-small-lake-pond-without-wind-and-loads-of-trees-and-building-on-shore style. Near the end of the first beat I thought I was rounding first, but Sven had found a patch to foil, so he got there first, with me 40 metres off. Down it went, straight down, pushing out the boom to get the sail out to the max.Great fun trying to make Sven nervous, looking for a puff to pass. He held me off, but I starting thinking about how nice it’d be to get my first place ever in on a regatta leg.

I unclipped the foil to get some more speed, and we hussled for the next upwind too. In the meantime Giovianni was flying all over the place, but I had no idea whether he was flying upwind or down. It turned out he did rather well, since he started late, and still got third in.

We were doing three rounds, and we got some more wind rolling in, so clip on the foils again, and there we go, all or nothing. Downwind was good, I managed to get a reasonable gybe in, and was back foiling pretty soon (surprising what motivation does for you). It seemed a second place was doable, foiling towards the finish at a good angle. A bit of trouble started when I started overtaking a Musto Skiff just before the finish, how on earth do you slow this boat down when foiling? I didn’t know, and apparantly though a bit too much about it, so back swimming it was. Unlcipped again, and cruise in to finish second. A sneaky second, but the grin on my face wasn’t any less for it.

The wind was there to stay, and grew into a great 12-14 knots. Ideal to try out whether the changes Constantijn suggested made any sense. My clew band (the connection between the sail and end of the boom) had quite some play in it, causing my vang to be less effective. I noticed in Hellevoetsluis I didn’t have any height upwind and this was the cause, not my foil settings. Also Constantijn was nice enough to sail a bit upwind with me, and give some tips. After another decent start it was time to try this, and it seemed to work, I had the idea I was more or less keeping up with the front runners. That didn’t last long, but it was good to notice (check that clew band!).

The rest of the race grew into carnage. The wind stepped it up a notch and it got hairy for me at the upwind mark, I hit it and while going fast downwind I didn’t have any clue how to stop that boat, and do a penalty turn. Then it was time to gybe, and I joing a company of other skiffs all merrily swimming around and trying to right their boats. We exchanged some niceties, while waiting for the wind to lessen a bit, enjoying the scenery of spinning out, and nosediving skiffs, with Eelco and Sven thundering through the fleet, what a sight!

I tried to do something as a lowrider, but I’d gotten to slow to react, and I had big problems righting to boat, even getting back to shore seemed quite a problem.I was neat the downwind mark, and tried to make it round (upwind is normally easy, then we’ll see what happens for the downwind bit). But even with the foils unclipped I couldn’t help to start flying, and it didn’t stop lifting, and I had a huge crash straight next to the downwind mark. Great. Public apology to the 49-er who missed the mark while avoiding me. After getting out of the way, I was spent. So, some more rest, water, and power bars, and time to head in while I was still having fun.

It was getting more quiet on the water with Giovanni breaking a stay, Constantijn breaking a stay adjuster, Juryk breaking his sail, and Rob breaking himself as well. The remaining four Hans, Sven, Eelco, and Chris kept on merrily foiling their rounds. I was hugely impressed with Hans (2 months since he moved from a lowrider to a foiler now) pulling off a foiling gybe at 40 metres for the finish. Good stuff.

I wasn’t really aware what was going on at the front, but upwind-Eelco was doing great, and took the win, Sven was very consistent in 2nd, and Hans is getting to grips with the foiler to take 3rd. Chris did very well to keep sailing in big winds (Axiom looking good on the water). Giovanni and Constantijn were umlucky break stuff, Rob is getting there on an older Moth (flying very much nose-up), and Juryk was unlucky to break his sail (and his foils, while not able to get a replacement).

Mothing in the lowlands feels very much alive. And I’m sore.

Pics here

PS didn’t realise this post has gotten so long, seems I’ve missed mothing!