After realising last week that my numbers were absolutely wrong I approached Luka and called in a favour.

Thursday night became setup night and we went over everything on the boat and when I say everything I mean everything.

Saturday rolls around and it was time to head out a few hours before the race with John Gilmour. John’s boat is identical to mine except he is running a Fastacraft gen 2 main foil whereas I am running my own.

Well the boat was transformed. Sailing from the shore it wasn’t quite right and it needed some rudder trimming but after that it felt like a rocket ship (but probably isn’t … but until Dave or Luka crushes me, I can live in hope). I was just as fast or faster than John in any direction although to be fair he was having a couple of issues himself.

I was out for an hour and a half or so then my control rod broke. Bugger. I headed in and bolted home to fix it. I made it back just in time to be 30 secs late for the start.

The breeze had kicked up at this point to 20kts in the gusts (according to the airport). I have altered my upwind technique this season and I was much faster upwind. Phil who started on time was not pulling away and I caught and passed a 16″ skiff and Bruce Gault in his 16″ foiler.

Then the rudder exploded. I went to tack and when I threw the rudder over the tiller wasn’t attached to the top of the foil. After an hour drifting ashore to the river club I walked home then got the trailer and recovered myself back home.

So the setup has been sorted and it’s all up to me now. Hopefully I have used all up my bad luck ready for the season start proper next week, once I put it all back together again. But I am still smiling.