So my preparation for the NSW State titles was far from ideal, adding insult to injury I damaged my man foils T-join just as I was coming to shore on the final day of practice. This necessitated an evening session with the grinder and a boatload of carbon on one side of the join to put the whole thing back together.

Friday afternoon produced what were interesting conditions, with 20Kt winds and 1.5-2m waves. I rigged up whilst the invitation race was happening with the intention to head out for heat 1. As I was at the shoreline both Les (who was in with a destroyed gantry on his borrowed Bladerider), and Grant both advised that I shouldn’t be heading out given my lack of foiling experience.

So I rolled the boat back up the beach, to be greeted by Dave who had sheared a 1/4″ gantry bolt clean in half, and had jogged the 5KM back along the beach to get his trolley. Luka decided to sit the whole afternoon out, not wanting to destroy his borrowed main foil as it wouldn’t be covered by insurance.

It seemed like all the scows that went out for the invitation race came in, just as Kylie went out for heat 1, to chock up a win as the fastest scow.

Saturday saw the first day where I actually hit the water. The swell had reduced to 1.5M, with the wind still gusting to 20 Knots. After a deliberate late start in heat one I headed upwind, much happier with my pointing ability whilst foiling now I can pull on a lot more vang. Note to self, correct vang setting equals correct upwind VMG.

I started out trying to keep the boat as flat as possible, and that didn’t work. The best results I had was to keep a lot of nose up attitude, hence a lot of main foil AOA, then point as high as required to get the hiking balance right. That worked a lot better and I started making places upwind, only to throw it all away when I rounded the top mark and capsized.

Heat 3 was more of the same, and I must say that overall I was quite happy with my results as I managed to survive with a minimum of capsizes I think only one per race, although I was deliberately trying to sail as slowly as possible whilst foiling downwind.

My downwind angles still suck, especially on the “square runs”. I keep finding myself in this can’t foil, sitting in the middle of the boat position. I obviously am still sailing too low, and I guess that downwind speed will only come with more practice.

The breeze died for the afternoon heats, and with essentially no results on the board, I decided to go for a high risk, all or nothing move off to the shore looking for a lift and more pressure as the wind funnelled through the point. This worked and whilst Phil was leading, I managed to round the top mark as the second St. George sailor ahead of Luka, Dave, Grant. I slowly lost places downwind (as I always seem to do in the light stuff), but was still pretty happy with the result as I was ahead of Luka on merit when he decided he had had enough.

I tried the same trick twice again in heat 4, however there was not enough pressure compared to the middle and I ended up last of the finishers.

That was the end of the regatta for me, as I didn’t head out on Sunday.

Over the last year or so I started putting together a how-to for building a moth using a male mould, foam and carbon. I have decided that this needs to be shared with the world, and here is part 1.

Home building a carbon moth Part 1.pdf

So I thought that blisters were going to be the biggest problem for me in preparation for the states. Apparently I was wrong !

Whilst building some shelves this afternoon I was the innocent victim when someone tripped over the power cord of the drill I was using to countersink some screws into the new shelves. This trip caused a screw to embed itself into my hand, right where I need to hold the mainsheet.

A quick trip to the medical centre for a tetanus injection and things look ok, I will have to see how it shapes up tomorrow.

Sung To Dire Straits “Money for Nothing”.

Now look at them yo-yos thats the way you do it
They sail the foiler with some VMG
When you’re workin thats the way you do it
Plenty of vang and pointing for free
Now when you’re workin thats the way you do it
Lemme tell ya them guys aint dumb
I’ll get another blister on my finger
I’ll get another blister on my thumb

I’ve gotta increase my vang tension
If I’m gonna compete
I’ve gotta move this leech
I’ve gotta get some pointing ability

Yesterday conditions were perfect with a forecast 15-20K (although actual winds were a bit less than that). I hand good speed across the water, managing to clock a top speed of 18.9 knots the 20 knot barrier is getting closer each time I go out. My upwind VMG however is horrible. I can’t get anywhere near the required vang tension and the whole leech is falling off and I can’t point at all whilst foiling upwind.

Of bigger concern however is the state of my hands. They are severely blistered and with only 3 days to recover before 5 days of extensive sailing I think that I will be ditching the Zhik 202’s in favour of some old school Ronstan leather gloves for the states.