Thanks to everyone at Eastbourne for a great weekend - great weather, excellent food and a very friendly club.

That weather on Sunday was perfect, although i'm not sure Ann would agree with you about those waves downwind. I eventually got the hang of sailing down them without stuffing the bows, but Ann picked up some good bruises whilst I figured it out <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Paul

ok not my department but as soon as they are on the club site I will let you know

thanks for your kind comments, we try hard to please on the water and off! (yes the food is good)
re downwind, I find keeping one hull up then bearing away down the wave and gripping the tramp with your bum cheeks helps <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />

gary

aha they are now up at

http://www.sailing-at-eastbourne.co.uk/results/EMG.htm

gary

Thanks Gary...

Hi Paul,

how about a report on the racing, it looks like a few of the F16's where a no show, but you kicked butt on the Blade. But with all off one start you must have lined up some of the others, did you all sail same course?

Regards Gary. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Indeed; would be good to hear. Did the Blade (and you of course) just go faster than the rest, or did you call every shift spot on ?

Sounds like a good weekend.

LOL - have you ever seen me sail? Far more luck than judgement! <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> On the first upwind leg we got a rubbish start, and in a desperate search for clean air tacked immediately. I was cursing all the way up that beat until I realised that we'd stumbled on the fast side of the course and were right up there at the first mark with the leading Spitfires and ahead of one of the Caps. People quickly learnt that there was a strong bias towards going inshore upwind, and a little more slowly that inshore won downwind too, despite the tide.

Generally we were placing mid-fleetish with the Spitfires, which I was pretty pleased with as they had some good sailors there. The conditions were generally F3-4, with a bit of 2 on Sat and a bit of 5 on Sunday, and there was some very close racing amongst the F16s - I think it was race 4 that Mark, John and I were 3 abreast on the final rounding of the windward mark.

The Blade did seem to go well 2-up in the conditions, which was good after the frustrating time we had in the light stuff at the ECPR.

I'm not quite sure why so few finishes were recorded for the F16s. Some people didn't race on the Sunday, but I expected to see some more finishes on the Saturday (although the race officer specifically reminded us of the importance of going through the gate upwind on the Sunday briefing, and I think this could be related...)

Paul

Yes indeed a number of us due to too many beers on the Friday night missed the important bit at the briefing / didn't read the race note and didn't go through the start gate each lap on the Saturday, basic dumb thing to do but I did it. Sunday was pretty much on the limits for me so after a couple of splashes and the forecast to get stronger winds, retired to the bar. Single handing was difficult.

Interesting to compete against both the Spitfire and Shadow, very fast boats and I think the F16's are pretty well matched, at the end of the day I think it would be down to the quality of the sailors. Makes their handicap seem pretty good to me, maybe thats why they win so many events or is it they are a very competative fleet with quality sailors ?

On the Stealths it felt the really short chop was killing the boat speed, at times the boat would really start flying and then hit about 6 short sharp waves which would almost stop the boat. Maybe I could do with a few hints on how to overcome this. Talking to one of the Spitfire owners afterwards he felt the conditions suited the extra weight of the Spitfires as they tended to plough through the chop. Interesting to see on the Saturday how far up the beams the Spitfires can go without pitch poling.

Good event though and enjoyable weekend

spoken to the race officer and it was indeed missing out the upwind gate both on Sat and Sun that clobbered some F16 boats results. The Sun briefing was held partly for that reason.
It was interesting to finally race F16 against Spitfire in numbers boat for boat.(although for sep class prizes)
I think it would be fair to say that the Spitfire sailors easily had the best of it particularly on the Sunday.
How much is boat and how much is sailor, everyone will have their own opinion but mine is that the Spitfire fleet in the UK seems to attract the keenest and some of the best 16 foot cat sailors in the country.The boat is very good and the fleet continues to get better (blast and "^**^)
The Spitfire handicap is fair compared to F18 but there is more speed to come out of the F16's before they reach F18 rating.

Which boat is best? why the catamaran of course!

Hope to see more of you next year
Gary

That one is easy,

The spitfire crews are significantly better. They have ranked several times in teh top 20 at events like Texel. F16 crews have not yet reached the upper 100 I believe.

Besides, their is really not alot of difference between the two boats. Rig dimensions are very very similar, so too platform dimensions. Only the Spitfire is 25-30 kg heavier. These differences can never result in such great differences in overall speed so it must be the crew skill.

Wouter

The Spitfires did have the edge for numerous reasons but Paul was very modest in his report. A part from a couple of Starting hick-ups Paul and Ann sailed extremely well and Fast. I know I was single handed and I was over-powered 50% of the time but the other F16's didn't have much of a look in. A major problem was the tide running at 5+ knots which made tactical racing impossible, there was one way up and one way downwind which I found abit disappionting and boring after 5 races. The ony thing which kept my enthusiasm up was the wind strength and sunshine. Paul sailed off into the distance in most races leaving the Stealths to jostle amongst themselves (I hope the Blade doesn't make them too anti-social in the future) Anyway, lets hope Paul and Wayne can sort out the Datchet event as I'm really looking forward to some CLOSE tactical racing.