It got off to a good start when Geert, Joanna and David arrived on the Sunday. They had been travelling for many many hours, were thirsty and David mentioned he liked Bass. No doubt he actually meant an occasional gentle drink of Bass, but his mistake was saying it in Wales and saying it to Porky; either one of these two circumstances might have saved them, but together they were fatal and the activities for the rest of the day were in no doubt.

The rowing club happened to have a new barrel of Bass on and happened to be open for lunch, so we all strolled down for some ale. Six hours later (lunch opening hours kinda stretched a little) and many pints/songs later our dazed guests staggered home via The Salt for a meal curtesy of Porky (thanks). By this time they were all wondering where on earth they had landed and whether or not the Welsh are actually sane - and the rest is history. Geert moved to Strongbow as his favoured tipple during the course of the event (the sailing event as a whole that is), David stuck to Bass and Jo went all girly on us and drank water...

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

I'd like to also commend Mumbles on their race organisation and rescue. When I went in, it was a quick one and I ended up about 20m from the boat, I think I also bounced off the daggerboard and ruddder on the way out the back of the bus (I still have the bruises to show for it) and Colin (sailwave) was with me within about 60 seconds.

Race organisation was very slick and the next race sequence was started very quickly after the last finisher.

Top Job all round.

Indeed, congratulations John !

It is good to see that the fleet is catching up with John's level of sailing skills. Slowly but surely we are all getting there ! Again a real pitty about Sproat.

Wouter

Everyone at Mumbles was GREAT!!!
Colin, Porky, Alyson, and the gang did make us feel right at home as soon as we arrived. (I did have 1/2 of a 1/2 pint of Bass-but the Mumbles water is some of the best I ever had!!)
Race committee did an excellent job all the way around.
And thank you Geert for chauffeuring and taking a chance on me as crew! The racing was great and I felt privileged to be with some of the best sailors in the world.

PS-I have come home 30C and rain <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Congratulations! Well done.

The report MarkP did and the photos "Sailwave" submitted to Y&Y have been accepted and published on their website. Just hope their work also makes it into the magazine. Excellent work Mark and Simon (are there anybody else who deserves credit for the report?).

Ref: http://www.yachtsandyachting.com/news/?article=142961

This is great PR for the class, more like this <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Rolf, I cannot take any credit for the report. All MarkP's work.
Finally feeling a bit better, should be sailing next weekend. More Video to come. What I captured from Mumbles in not that good and I did not get my wipeout on video (I've fixed the damage I did to the trailing edge of the plate I did not know I'd done.... <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> )

The other Simon <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Any video is better than no video. There must have been at least three video cams there?

started to upload a few snippets to Youtube

Out to the start

Start and first beat

Second lap (sorry about the title at the beginning)

Last upwind and run for the line

In the "Start and first Beat" video you have a nice long stretch of video seeing the T-foil rudder in action, piercing the surface.

From 3 min onwards.

Best video of the first three uploaded Simon. Also good to be able to see where the others are on this beat.

Wouter

Hi Simon, that is just great. Those small videos together with the reports, posts here and pictures gives us a really good impression on how the GC 2008 at Mumbles was. If you thought that was no good, I look forward to seeing what you think is good. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Did any other teams go out with cameras?

I already learnt a lot from watching you in those videos. Thanks!

Rolf, what did you learn?

I learned that I need to lean back more in my harness as I was not flat - difficult in lumps, but needs to be done and to also get the kite up quicker.

Over the coming weeks I'm going to play around with the location of the camera. I think mounted on the Mast spanner may give something interesting as on one tack, the camera will be pointing at the sailor and the other tack might be pointing forward. Will also try mounting it on the front of the boom looking up the sail so I can see what is happening to the top / Leach.

Nice report Mark, covers it pretty well.

We had a very good time at Mumbles, enjoyed the racing and the hospitality (tks. Colin/Sheena/Alyson).
It was just 2 days racing, but the time we had was used very well, with 9 races. A good thing was that we hardly had to wait in between races. Also 3 resque boats on the water meant they were there when you need it. And I did need it, stuffed the bow already before Joannna was secured by footstrap/chicken wire. And over we went. Got even separated from the boat after we righted it. Happily all happened just before the first start. But after that we decided to ease it a bit on the downwinds. First couple of downwinds without kite and later on things were more in control.
For some reason we had very good speed, a bit more than I'm used to. Must have been either the crew or the Strongbow's

The second day was better, a little less gusty and we came very close to JohnP in the results. But the last downwind decided the game, John was quicker (again) on the downwind and won the race. He didn't even give us the change to give him bad air.

Lots of fun with enough changes in positions, throughout the complete fleet.

Geert
Blade 9

Geert - you gave me the wrong key back... <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Simon:
Nice videos!
One question, why are your boards so far up when going upwind?
How much more do/can you raise them going downwind?

Tony,

My boards are much longer than others so I raise them this much for upwind when it's windy. I don't change them sailing downwind any more as the boat feels well balanced with the same place up and down wind; it way be due to the fact that I usually wire downwind, but it was very shifty at Mumbles and the waves were also coming from unpredictable angles. I spoke to JohnP after the first race ande he confirmed he was not wiring down wind for the same reason.