Mayday!

At last I have a UK spec trailer hitch, thanks to Andy at Mayday Boats for fitting the hitch today.

Spoiler...

 

Just a quick rough cut video of the Y&Y Test Sail. Just enough to give you a taste of what I am sure Tom Gruitt will surpass with his Hi Def video kit.

As for the way the boat is performing. There is no main sail flogging and the boat is lively, fast but manageable. Yes it's true Pete is at the top of ( what I think is ) the weight range for the boat (75kg).  And a lighter helm would be de-powering and easing sheet more. But is this is in a lot of wind. I personally measured the wind at 30mph on a hand held anemometer and there were definitely bigger gusts. That having been said there were lulls down to 10/12 knts with the average  being around the 20's. So I think someone lighter could cope with these conditions in a manageable way. Only time will tell. Any willing lightweights out there please form an orderly que.

Wow...

 

Well that was a test sail and a half. Gusting 32knts and dropping as low as 10knts at times. Pete Barton rang the little 3.7's neck! At times making it hard for the RIB to keep up. This made the ride in the RIB almost as wet as the ride on the 3.7.

Pete had to deal with a few patches of weed, making for one quite spectacular stall out of the rudder. And the odd 3 point turn to remove the garden attached to the foils. But I think a great success. Certainly everyone was smiling.

I can't write too much as Pete needs to write his review and then it needs to be published. But from my point of view, the boat looked FAST, well balanced and manageable even in the extreme conditions we faced today.

I'll post a little video later when I've edited it.

Photo credit: Tom Gruitt

Hurrican warning?

Monday's test sail could be very windy. Watching the weather news just now even the forecasters aren't sure of the wind strengh. As the Hurrican changes into an Atlantic Storm pretty much anything could happen! I'm hoping it won't blow the day out.

Test sail back on!

We are go! Everything now rearranged for Monday 12th at Burghfield Sailing Club. With back up days on the Tuesday and Thursday. Even the forecast is looking good, a little gusty ( understatement )  but I'm sure Pete Barton will handle it. Look out for some video of the test sail as I'll be putting a camera on board and shooting from the RIB.

 

Distacted...

I've been a little distracted from sailing the Farr lately. I have been refurbishing my Class 5 landyacht. A superb machine capable of 60mph!

The season has started again at my landyachting club at Brean near Weston-Super-Mare. We have a mid season break during the summer as the beach is full of bikini and budgie smuggler wearing sun seekers,  which we find make for to many obstacles on the beach :-). So I was keen to get my new purchase sorted and ready to go for the start date. Hence not much Farr 3.7 sailing. It's not very windy on video, but it still worth a watch. If I'm going that fast in 6 to 10 mph what is it going to be like in 20! :-0

Test sail postponed

Pete Barton seems to have gone AWOL and Tom's run out of batteries for his camera or something so the test sail is postponed for this week. Which may be a good thing, as the later in the year we do this the better conditions we are likely to have. Less weed and more wind. So keep watching this space. The test sail is imminent.