Dinghy Racing - Long Distance Race

We had the long distance dinghy race last weekend; the Barman my usual crew was not able to make it due to work commitments but his very experienced father volunteered to replace him; Father of the Barman now known as FB.

I thought it was going to be a walk-over but 4 other boats did eventually enter into the long-distance dinghy race. End result we came 3rd and that includes with the handicap. The 2 boats we left way way back were a Wivenhoe One and a Mirror.

What was slightly disappointing was the margin by which we were beaten by another Wivenhoe One and a pesky Laser. We did expect to do much better and were slightly disappointed. FB did have some good sailing tips. The issue we have is that there is very little knowledge within the club about how to sail a boat like the Topper Xenon.

Being the observant helmsman and having had a few crew on board, I have noticed a couple of things where the manual differs (see http://zambezishark.blogspot.com/2009/07/how-to-sail-topper-xenon.html) from the habits of experienced crew used to sailing other types of boat.

These are (when going upwind)

• tension tight on jib
• lots tension on cunningham

I also notice that there are a number of opinions as to where the telltales should go. Some say both fly horizontally across, others having the inside flicking upwards (as per http://zambezishark.blogspot.com/2009/07/where-should-telltails-go.html)

We were a new team and areas that we could have improved were around handling of the spinnaker. We struggled at times and perhaps should have borne away from a straight run to build up speed on more of a reach angle. This will come with practice I am sure. What is not certain either is whether the jib should furl when the spinnaker is up? Marketing pictures from Topper all show it up - I'll have to check some more neutral snaps but I reckon the jib can stay up.

Finally disappointing as it was, there are a whole host of other reasons why we did not do as well...

• other helmsman was a previous national champion on Enterprises (apparently)
• there is a tidal channel through the course of River Colne which I don't know very well yet
• we grounded on the mud
• my first season
• luck

Anyway if there are other sailors of Topper Xenons please add your top tips in the comments section below.

How to Capsize a Topper Xenon

I finally capsized the Topper Xenon with the Barman!

Today was a damn good outing - HW was at approx 4pm and we launched at about 2:45pm from Wivenhoe Sailing Club. May be it was a little ominous but I botched the start again - need to get the rudder down faster so I get control of the boat before we get blown into the mud in front of the club house. Knee deep in mud we had a second launch and were much more successful.

The pic above shows how good the wind was - we were out on the peaks. It's on days like this you need a warm-up program as you get a proper workout as the invisible hand (called the wind) flicks the sails with its finger randomly. At 3:45pm we were opposite Bateman's Tower at Brightlingsea (took about 50min - remember we had a botched start). Hmm seems we were averaging 6 m.p.h. which is not too bad - feels faster!

There were a couple of skiers about and oddly enough the RNLI were attending a boat on the east shore.

We had turned and were heading back when it all happened. We tried to line the boat up for a mega down-the-river-gybe with the spinnaker up all the way. We were just about on the plain as it was but this was going to be even faster - sadly not. Only a couple of minutes after we had the spinnaker up, we were over powered by the wind and into the Colne River we went - salty yum.

So we are in the water. Initially puffing because of the cold. All of a sudden the boat is massive - only our heads are above the water and the boat towers high-up floating on its side. We have to right her. I swim round the back and the dagger board is above my head at the top of my arms reach. I get both hands on. Kicking my feet and hauling myself up I get laid across feet still in the water. Nothing happens. Slowly it starts to move towards me and we shout at each other as it comes up straight. Sails up and wind blowing it starts to race off and blows over again. This time worse. The mast starts to sink and she begins to turtle. This is not good. Our arms are aching as we try to haul ourselves out of the water and right the boat. It starts again but blows over. We keep going and getting tired fast curse not going to the gym enough. A speedboat approaches and offers help. They haven't a clue what to do. We need to get the nose to the wind when we right her. A rope is tied to the front and it hauls the nose towards the wind. Another young guy pitches up in a speedboat but he is on his own and useless. We start again. Tired, it's getting harder and I understand how people get too exhausted to do anything. It works though and I try to get over the side. It's too difficult now and I go over the transom at the back instead. I bring down all the sails. The Barman needs hauling on board, he's tired out as well. We re-organise the sails. Thank the speedboat people and get on our way. We are knackered.

It's not over though as we have a few miles to do.

However this is when the good bit happens. All the time I thought I had been on the plain previously were mistaken. We were hurtling along when all of a sudden the boat lifted up above the water and we had a significant turn of speed - WOW it made it all worth it.

There are many lessons learned here - see my coming blog about gennakers (!) - but I would recommend if you are going to do daring things with dinghies and they are 10ft+ it is well worth getting a mast float. Next time I go out, I need to take the mast down and wash the top where it scooped mud from the bottom of the River Colne (meconium style [er....look it up]).

Navy visit the River Colne

That is of course the Romford Navy!

During the warm-summer weekends, the Romford Navy invade the River Colne. They are generally not popular with the Sailing Set as they don't have any appreciation of the sea, go too fast in 5mph areas, create huge wakes and come too close to us little guys in dinghies. Oh yes, they all seem to have a jet ski in tow which don't seem to have any point except make noise.

Okay, okay!.... being the owner of a sailing craft I am a little bias. Actually I don't mind our Navy friends as it makes for interesting sailing going past to see what they are doing on board.

The expression Romford Navy made me chuckle when I first heard it - blame the Bar Man. The expression can be found by doing a Google search or looking at a site called Urbandictionary. The definition is far too rude for me to link to with all my family readers. :)

To all the none-UK readers of this blog, Romford Navy is a degenerative term for uncouth Londoners who have more money than sense and drive big boats - slang!

East Coast Sailing Clubs

It has been said that the Essex & Suffolk Coast with the River Colne, River Crouch, River Blackwater, River Stour, River Orwell and River Deben offer some of the most interesting sailing in the UK. From the preponderance of sailing clubs in this area, one might agree. The map below highlights locations where some of these can be found.

On the map above at 'B', is a marina and the Bradwell Outdoor Centre. Here Essex County Council run an Outdoor Centre for 'yoofs' and adults alike and is where last year, I completed my RYA 1 & 2 dinghy sailing course. Slightly disconcerting is a disused nuclear power plant which over looks the area.

Another interesting place is of course 'H', Wivenhoe Sailing Club out of which I launch the Zambezi Shark (aka Topper Xenon). I am told we all become very good sailors here as we deal with the shifting and frequently light winds, the shallow water, tides and narrow channel.

Finally at Tollsbury there is again also a marina and sailing/yacht club combo. This place has special memories for me as when Mrs Hook and I reconnoitered sailing clubs to to park my new big boat (it was a before the recession) I parked the new BMW on a road near the marina office to return 40 minutes later to find it in fast rising 6 inches of sea water.

I am not the only one who this happens to. Visitors to West Mersea (very smart website) will frequently see cars parked too close to the rising sea and owners too ensconced in fine dinning or too new to the sea to realise what is about to happen.

Where should the Telltails go?

It is some time since I completed my RYA 1 & 2 dinghy sailing course. It is on these courses that you learn and prompty forget what things like the telltales should be doing to get you going as fast as possible. To prove my point, when last out on the River Colne, just short of Bateman Tower, even the Bar Man, my experienced crew could not remember.

After a few months of sailing I have now mastered the ability to look up at my sails and make a vague judgement as to their worth. Having spotted the telltales I felt it was the next thing to master in my quest to beat the Lasers.

Once you have the jib trimmed correctly, you can start steering the boat, using the telltales as guides. If the outside telltale "piddles," this means the sail is overtrimmed for the direction of the wind on the boat. You don't want to let the sail out, so you must head up. This, in effect, retrims the sails, except instead of bringing the sails in, you "brought the whole boat in."

If the inside telltale piddles constantly, or if the sail luffs (actual luffing, or just an inversion at the front edge of the sail), the jib is undertrimmed. You don't want to crank in more on the sheet, so you must retrim by bearing off.

Your goal is to make the outside tale flow straight back and the inside tale "lift" occasionally, meaning some air is getting to it, but not all the time. If you don't know how often the inside tale should be lifting, err on the side of too often. It's better to have too much air flowing along the inside edge of the sail, than not enough.

So Lasers, with this and the Roll Tack, you had better watch out.

The next intreguing issue about the sails is to understand what the telltales on the leech-edge of the mainsail are meant to do...

Video - Colne Estuary

I found some more clips on YouTube and think they are great. They show where I sail, all thanks to Dylan Winter (dylan.winter@virgin.net) - no I don't know him, but just giving credit where it's due!

Video - Wivenhoe to Colchester

Blimey - the water where I sail is famous and appears on YouTube!!

I found this video on YouTube which pretty much follows last Sunday's race. I reckon it was taken one of those weeks where I was unable to race - some of the boats are in the pictures Mrs Hook took on Sunday.

I am now blessed with a wealth of new facts about where I live; Mrs Hook's parents will not be pleased that Britain's largest recorded earth quake took place where they live and I also know why I described the turning at the buoy 'the arse of Colchester' - you'll have to watch the video to see why. Finally looks like I might need to move to Rowhedge!!

First Ever Sail

As we launched from Wivenhoe into the Colne River, the tide was in the last 1hr of ebbing, the wind was with us gusting maybe F4-5 so I put a reef in the main sail and we furled the jib. With all that it was the fastest I have ever gone down the river - in 20 min we had covered at least 4km toward the open sea, it was exhilarating. My crew member was slightly less enthusiatic, this not being his boat, at buoy 18 grateful for his work and commitment I turned back.

Going back was fine and easy until we hit the final bend in the river towards the slipway. With 500 yards to go the river became extremely shallow and narrow where we could actually sail. Additionally we had the wind blowing straight at us from between the gates of the flood barriers. Very hard work to follow; the centre board was up and down as we touched the bottom at the end of each tack; we subsequently were having to deal with being blown backwards and sideways. We came very close to having the nose being blow back and finding ourselves on a reach or a run - charging down stream not by our own volition!!!

Nose to wind we finally go to 30 yards from the slipway on the otherside of the river. We were able to beach here and walk her up - then a simple glide across.

Sounds simple, but it was not yet over yet. We were below the bottom of the slipway because the tide was so low. This meant there was 4m of thick uphill mud to get through before we reached the paving This was infact another obstacle as the lip was a foot higher than the mud. We were more wet inside our wetsuits.

Lesson learned!!

At low tide there is no way I can pull the boat up myself....and that was the most difficult part today, the low tide.

To all the future crew members reading this we will be launching and recovering at more favourable tides )I go through all this so you don't have to!!)