The Plot Thickens

I think it is time for me to pay a visit to Neyland Yacht Club, the hosts for this years Spring series. I have been getting mixed reports as to my finishing positions for the first three races so far! Unfortunately the results haven't appeared on the web site yet, so will go over and see if they are posted on their notice board.

This weeks race was pretty un-eventfull. A severe lack of the windy stuff made it hard going and long. The highlight of the race being Merak firing a champagne cork into our direction for pinching his wind, what wind there was! I think a couple of super soakers will need to get stored aboard for future encounters.

Race Two

First off lets clear up last weekends result. 2nd, well pleased.

Now for this weeks report and boy was it full of drama! Light winds blowing straight down the Haven, so the more experienced were readying spinnakers at the start. I, however have declared no spinnaker for this series, due mainly to my spinnaker man having other commitments at the moment.The start went fairly well, but with the light winds we were loosing ground fast as we couldn't even get the genoa to fill so took the decision to pole it out opposite to the main. At last Jumbuck picked up speed and started to hold her own as the smallest yacht in the fleet. First mark was negotiated with out a hitch, on to the second. As we rounded the second mark a work boat passed to our port side, the following wake from it was nothing to concern me as it happens all the time in the Haven. On this occasion though the second wave caused the kicker mounting at the base of the mast to shear, with the whole kicker mechanism making a bid for freedom. Two half twists and a tucked pike later it cleared the guard wire and made a perfect entry into the Cleddau! ~*##***# was followed by some more #***#####. After some hastily improvisation with some spare sheet we lashed the boom down as best we could and decided to carry on racing. We struggled on the dead run down and lost a fair bit of time over the rest of the fleet, but I kept telling my crew we could make it up on the beat back up. This we did to some success but I still felt it wasn't enough. What a surprise we got in the clubhouse with another second place confirmed on adjusted time.

Please note all images in this blog Copyright BFG Media.

Next Saturday will see more on going maitanence and a new kicker being fitted ready for the third race. It's looking like my present crew member being unavailable and the two reserves are busy too so it's time to drag my 16 year old daughter back on board. Lets hope she brings good luck as last year we had a couple of firsts with her crewing for me!

The Spring Series Starts.

Well, last Sunday the 13th saw the first race of the spring series hosted by Neyland Yacht Club. A good fleet took to the waters for an 11 o'clock start and the course was announced over the radio. Start, No2 (P), Pennar Channel(S), Milford Middle(P), East Angle(P), Pennar Channel(P), Hazelbeach(S), Finish. The winds on the start were light and Jumbuck struggled to pick up speed amongst the larger yachts, but once clear air was found she started to heel over nicely. There were no real dramas with a new crew member on Genoa and we had a good little tussle with Picante and Hunters Moon, gaining on the beat but loosing out on the reach due to declaring no spinnaker for this series. Finishing in amongst the fleet I suspected we had done fairly well for first race of the year, and although still awaiting to see confirmation the rumour machine has reported back top three, maybe even first! Second race this coming Sunday, so hoping to confirm the position this weekend.

Time Flies!

Well lots of things have happened since my last blog, so this is going to be a dash through time to bring things up to date. Hopefully then I will be able to keep an up to date record of this years sailing, so here goes.

Back end of last year a few regattas were entered with differing results from dead last to a couple of wins. Experienced crew really do make a difference, especially when the skip, me, doesn't know the course! One thing that was established though was that when in the groove Jumbuck is a quick little yacht and holds her own against much bigger rivals. We even managed to lift a fin keeler of the start in one race, and Jumbuck being a bilge. It raised a smile amongst the crew.

October arrived all too quickly and it was time to get her lifted out on to hard standing for the winter, then the hard work was to begin. I already had an order in with Kemp sails for a nice new power main and the old hank up fore was to be replaced with a furling genoa. I know I shall sacrifice a little in performance, but as I will be doing a fair bit of solo cruising it seems the way to go.

The lift went well and she was demasted ready for the work to begin. Feeling a bit lazy at typing I shall let the pictures tell the story of her transformation. A picture paints a thousand words and all that.............




The sheep? Well it's a Jumbuck don't ya know. It now adorns the stern under the name.
Well as you can see she now has a new paint job for this year and the hull has been stripped of years and years of antifoul and been repainted black. I think she looks damn smart now, let's hope she will be just a quick this season, only time will tell.

She is now back on her mooring and already had a cruise down the haven, all seems well and I shall be taking her out again this weekend for a final check.