On the water at last

So first day on the water, probably the best way of describing the conditions is “Glamour Sailing”, but as expected not particularly what we’re used to, so lots to learn!!!!

Launched around 3pm, so towards the end of the normal sea breeze. As a result wind was a little unsettled, and got less stable as the afternoon became evening. There was also a variable, but large, slightly side-on chop for the sailors to contend with. We needed lots of practice in this, so spent most of the session working on upwind technique!

Also managed to work out a few more boat prep things to do, including daggerboard tie in’s and using our own “nice” bailers.

Sunburn avoided so far, largely due to Tim and Carla’s repetitive nagging. That is except for Tim who got burnt this weekend out in Newport, Rhode Island!

Lots more work to do… so planning a long afternoon session at normal race time tomorrow! 

Photos up !!

Arrival and Thursday's Shenanigans

We arrived on time with out incident, with our sails, in time for dinner at our hotel about 9pm last night. Unless you count Dan having all his wash bag being confiscated at the airport ( for the second time when travelling with Carla and Tim!) and Mr Voller leaving the swop T shirts on the sofa at his house … and Mimi leaving her toothbrush behind..

Today after an early start we found the ferry and crossed the river from our hotel to the sailing club on the otherside.. We found our Blue Blue charter boats and set about getting through measurement. We got the 12 noon slot and as Josh had left the boat papers for his new sail in his hotel room we needed all of the two hours. Blue Blue wanted a v large amount of cash for the deposit but on hearing the name Stanley and Saxton decided that it was not as critical as it might be to have all the money before handing over the boats.

We got through all except Georgia’s rudder 20 gms too light and I shan’t explain how optiparts sorted it with stones and sikaflex but they did and the three light boats which Blue Blue added another layer of paint to the daggerboard cases.No problems with sails, numbers or taking off stickers this year.

Tim and Carla secured the RIB still with no damage deposit and were able to return to the hotel so the sailors could get changed to go sailing...

It was very hot today up to 30C and Georgia’s parents Angela and Martin successfully found us a gazebo at the first supermarket that they went to and 12 litres of water as well. The Hotel they are is in a sister hotel to ours and there is a bus between the two and the ferries that run from town. We were able to prepare our boats in the shade of the measurement tent the only shade

After a return from sailing the sailors came back for a swim and debrief before supper. There seemed to be every type of food anyone could want and plenty of it though we note that the free soft drinks have disappeared since last night and its water only for sailors.

Tomorrow we are moving continental time and have a later breakfast and going to the boat park at 12 noon for a 1pm start. We can’t register until Saturday although Mimi, the Portuguese chairman is trying to bring it forward so there is no queue.

European Team prepare to leave

Tomorrow the British Optimist Team 2011 to fly to Portugal for their pre-event preparation . We have been warned that it is very hot and there are lots of mosquitoes. We hope to keep all our followers updated with our news on this blog as much as we can .

Finish up

The team is all now home... we had a long frustrating day yesterday... On arrival at the boat park the AP was up because of thunderstorms. After a lot of hanging about in the marquee where we grabbed a table and did a big debrief on what the team members had learnt form the event including Carla and Tim and things they needed to bring/work on for Portugal before the race committee cancelled the racing for the day. Tim and Carla made a dash for the Rib to get it put only to find a log jam in a funnel to the slipway similar to the measurement queue we experienced on our first day and lots of frustrated and shouting coaches... There were two slipways and a rib driver decided to back his trailer down the slip then get out and lock his car so it could not be moved and insist his RIB at the back of the log jam came out first. He was not popular and he held up one slip way for forty minutes because various RIB drivers had tied their Ribs to each other while they went to get their trailers and he could not get through. We now understand how hostilities break out . The best was the French woman who would not co-operate with Tim because she said she could not understand him so Tim turned around and repeated everything to her in perfect not so polite French!!

By the time we got the RIB out an hour and half later Georgia and Jemima arrived to the slipway to pack their boats on the RIB. We then went back to pretty deserted boat park to find the rest of the team struggling to pack the trailer... Although they had the keys they took quite a long time to open it and then work out where everything went so only two boats had been loaded in two hours and the van needed to be loaded and Dans boat got on the roof..We think we needed Josh to sort it out.  Tim and Carla were a bit short with the team because they were already soaked and cross about the RIB fiasco and then it started to really rain. Sailors were still in the sailing kit but Carla and Tim's waterproofs were defeated by the Dutch rain. In fact Carla had only just dried out by the time she reached Calais. Then there was an announcement about a Dyke flooding and we had to check is not the way we were going home.

In the end we left in convoy it had taken us two and half hours in the pouring rain to do what should have taken an hour.  It took six hours to Calais and we arrived to have just missed the earlier Ferry so we sorted out the van and the paperwork and Carla read more of Dan's book. We had our only meal out on the ferry and the sailors were shocked at the cost. Carla gave them the Euros so they could get their own. A captive market...

After reaching Dover at 11.15 we had a slow hour and half's drive in the pouring rain to Murray's house to unload Will, Mimi. Georgia, Jemima and Murray and some boats and kit and Dan and Carla finally reached Oxford at 3am to find the night shift painter still finishing off quietly in the peace of the early hours before the builders came today. Not sure who was more surprised?  At 8.15 Dan and Carla swopped the van for a car and set off to get Dan on the fast train from Milton Keynes to Bangor a first train trip for him. At the same time Brooke was driving Georgia and hour and half across London to St |Pancras to get her train to Yorkshire...

It was a worthwhile trip as things these things always are best summed up by Will on the ferry  ”I have learnt more on this trip than I would have in four national squad weekends" We recommend it to all.

We leave for Portugal in just over three weeks and there are lots of things to be practiced, bought and sorted out before then ..

Saturday's Racing

Sailing today felt a little like yesterday, same great sunshine, same direction wind, similar strength (11-16kts). Lessons learnt on the earlier days were certainly useful! However by no means was it easy! The wind was shifting backwards and forwards, so a good start and a clear plan were essential to keep your options open, and be able to take the shifts! This is perhaps why results were still fairly mixed up!

Apologies for the lack of tracker devices today, Georgia, Josh, Mimi and Jemima were scheduled to have them, but the officials were running late, so they were not used!

So... to bring you up to speed, GBR’s highlights of today included two second places for Dan, two top ten’s for Josh, and several top twenties shared between Murray, Will and Mimi.

Tomorrow morning, fleets are split into Gold, Silver, Bronze and Emerald for the day’s two races. However the extremely high quality of racing has meant that racing will be hard in all of these fleets, and each will contain top sailors from a wide range of countries! We will update you further when we know which fleets our sailors are in... But you will not see any more of Josh, he has flown home early for a GCSE Maths exam on Monday! Good luck to him!

Tomorrow evening will be somewhat of a mad scramble to catch the ferry in Calais for Carla and the sailors, so apologies in advance for the potential lack of blogging after racing tomorrow!

tonights challenge

can we get our trailer out of here tonight to  load Josh's boat without upsetting anyone ?

more news

Gone sailing 

No trackers today .. the fleets are redrawn every day and the organisers did not give the tracking people enough time to label all the trackers and get them out before launchingso they abandoned them today
ET the IOCA RIB as Tim and Carla discovered has no funnel to fill the inbuilt fuel tank.. a cut off drinks bottle works quite well but both of them are avoiding anyone with a cigarette for a few hours.

Mimi had to replace her worn frayed mainsheet yesterday at a cost of 45 euros I am not sure how much they are in the UK now but it is a pretty yellow colour.

Dan ready for launching

The great DSQ debate :after the Jury decided that the SI's gave them no choice but to DSQ Dan for his measurement infringement he went for redress on an action of the race committee for not stating what infringements could be penalised and what the penalty would be. Still they could not bring themselves to change the SI's although they have already done so for the Benjamin fleet and then had to cancel a race because of it. . The chief measurer is not very happy as he can only DSQ sailors for measurement infringments and he would liketo have a variety of options and asked for an amendment a month ago.   Apparently its up to the Dutch Optimist class and they have not done anything about it or maybe they have not been asked . The general Dutch view is that measurement is measurement.. We told Dan it was a little like the Emperor's new clothes , small english boy tells Dutch organsing committee they have made a mistake .

Benno our only Benjamin has put in an request about his DNS as it was 13th and will push him up quite a bit. 

Benno

Wind had dropped a bit but is now picking up and Carla is going to the supermaket.. Murray got his 5 euros flipflops which were cheaper and less flowery and girly than anything he had seen in the UK.. Real men obviously wear flipflops here,