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Boating chit chat thread.

1679111266

Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 64 ✭✭cricalix


    We do, we just try to not use it (speaking for Tuesdays).


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 29,528 ✭✭✭✭HeidiHeidi


    neris wrote: »
    do you not have an abandoned flag over there? someone in howth found one in the last 2 years and i had more abandoned races in two years then in 15 years

    We do, but they're sticklers for sticking it out in the hut.

    Apart from anything, having gone to the trouble of bringing the 8 people, 2 cars, 2 guns, and all other associated paraphernalia down the pier, the last thing they want to do is pack it all up again half an hour later. What about the poker and the cuppa tea, apart from anything else???

    Anyway, as I've discovered to my cost, you'll never please all of the people all of the time - in fact, you'll never please even half of the people all of the time - so at least if they keep the race running, it's the skipper's decision to abandon if (s)he's so sure the wind is gone for the evening. If the committee abandons, they're the worst in the world, and OF COURSE the wind would have come back up again, but THEY ABANDONED, THE (insert term of abuse of choice here) :D


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,957 ✭✭✭miss no stars


    HeidiHeidi wrote: »
    We do, but they're sticklers for sticking it out in the hut.

    Apart from anything, having gone to the trouble of bringing the 8 people, 2 cars, 2 guns, and all other associated paraphernalia down the pier, the last thing they want to do is pack it all up again half an hour later. What about the poker and the cuppa tea, apart from anything else???

    Anyway, as I've discovered to my cost, you'll never please all of the people all of the time - in fact, you'll never please even half of the people all of the time - so at least if they keep the race running, it's the skipper's decision to abandon if (s)he's so sure the wind is gone for the evening. If the committee abandons, they're the worst in the world, and OF COURSE the wind would have come back up again, but THEY ABANDONED, THE (insert term of abuse of choice here) :D


    Totes agree when it comes to weeknights, but when it comes to multiple day drinkingracing events, I often wish they'd just blow it up when there's clearly no wind. Sitting in swell, racing fuel (measured by the ml) in the engine so can't turn it on, no wind to even the boat out, hung over, no wind so you can hear everyone else, gear still damp from the previous day so uncomfortable, boat rolling around and then someone, on some boat pukes and sets the whole fleet off. Those are the days when we will kneel at your feet and thank you for abandoning :D


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 29,528 ✭✭✭✭HeidiHeidi


    Totes agree when it comes to weeknights, but when it comes to multiple day drinkingracing events, I often wish they'd just blow it up when there's clearly no wind. Sitting in swell, racing fuel (measured by the ml) in the engine so can't turn it on, no wind to even the boat out, hung over, no wind so you can hear everyone else, gear still damp from the previous day so uncomfortable, boat rolling around and then someone, on some boat pukes and sets the whole fleet off. Those are the days when we will kneel at your feet and thank you for abandoning :D

    Oh I sooooo agree! I haven't reached the dizzy heights of on-the-water race officering yet (hoping to do a bit of training this year since I hear the Hut may be for the high jump soon, although that's been talked of for years), so you can't blame me for the above - but I've been on your end of it more than once!

    To that I would add the endless pernicketyness of ROs who insist on spending HOURS setting the line, then the wind shifts by 5 degrees so they reset it, then the wind goes back so they reset it again, and then the wind shifts the other way.... rinse and repeat ad nauseum

    Just get the feckin' race off ffs!!! We're amateurs, in a handicap class - does it REALLY matter? (I'm sure it probably does to some, but for all the reasons outlined by missnostars above, to us not so much :D)


  • Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 51,688 Mod ✭✭✭✭Stheno


    cricalix wrote: »

    I raced for the last two seasons on a Ruffian; told my skipper that having put two winters worth of time and a chunk of money into my boat, I'm spending most of my weekends sailing instead of racing. He understands :) Thursdays may be spoken for by work, and Tuesdays I make the guns go bang at the hut.

    Clocked about 60 miles this weekend, and introduced 3 people to the fun of sailing.

    Ta for the welcome :)

    Welcome from here also.

    I think I have volunteered for manning the flags? Is that the right terms? On Tuesdays :D So you may encounter me

    /Makes note to check if I have indeed volunteered


  • Registered Users Posts: 64 ✭✭cricalix


    Stheno wrote: »
    I think I have volunteered for manning the flags? Is that the right terms? On Tuesdays :D So you may encounter me
    As good a term as any. Tip: When the time hits 1 second, start hauling so that the flags are flying at 0 seconds :)


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 961 ✭✭✭Conchir


    Sitting around on a start line waiting for wind to fill in is an agonising experience! In dinghies, at least underage events like the Interschools, people tend to find their friends and make big rafts with their boats, and either enjoy the sun or hide from the cold. I've never experienced it on big boats, so I don't know what usually happens, but at least in dinghies you can have a bit of fun while you're waiting. It usually descends into pirates of some sort, with rescue crews going mental.


    When I was competing in the Interschools I could never really understand the rescue crews getting so uptight. Having now been a driver in the same event, I understand completely :P


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 961 ✭✭✭Conchir


    cricalix wrote: »
    As good a term as any. Tip: When the time hits 1 second, start hauling so that the flags are flying at 0 seconds :)

    My dad was on the balcony at a club I was racing in once, which they were using as a race office. Someone there shoved a flag in his hands and told him to hang onto it for a moment. Cue my non-sailor father standing right beside the starting sequence flags, holding perfectly upright the Abandonment flag for all to see :D


    In fairness he didn't have a clue and whoever handed it to him was probably in the wrong, it was still very embarrassing though :D


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,957 ✭✭✭miss no stars


    Conchir wrote: »
    Sitting around on a start line waiting for wind to fill in is an agonising experience! In dinghies, at least underage events like the Interschools, people tend to find their friends and make big rafts with their boats, and either enjoy the sun or hide from the cold. I've never experienced it on big boats, so I don't know what usually happens, but at least in dinghies you can have a bit of fun while you're waiting. It usually descends into pirates of some sort, with rescue crews going mental.


    When I was competing in the Interschools I could never really understand the rescue crews getting so uptight. Having now been a driver in the same event, I understand completely :P

    Things I do while waiting for wind:

    1. Curse the committee boat for not arranging decent wind.
    2. Curse the person who decided to go out despite poor forecast (even if it's me).
    3. Snooze.
    4. Rummage around for food and/or drink.
    5. Go on facebook.
    6. Play with the camera.

    Rafting up in bigger boats doesn't work so nicely. Tends to cause more trouble and damage than fun. Pirates is a less than successful game when capsize causes sinking, tbh.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 961 ✭✭✭Conchir


    Rafting up in bigger boats doesn't work so nicely. Tends to cause more trouble and damage than fun. Pirates is a less than successful game when capsize causes sinking, tbh.


    That's what I thought, oh well. Would be some sight, the Dun Laoghaire regatta in a lull, and one big raft with people running all over the place. One can dream :D


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 29,528 ✭✭✭✭HeidiHeidi


    Things I do while waiting for wind:

    1. Curse the committee boat for not arranging decent wind.
    2. Curse the person who decided to go out despite poor forecast (even if it's me).
    3. Snooze.
    4. Rummage around for food and/or drink.
    5. Go on facebook.
    6. Play with the camera.

    Rafting up in bigger boats doesn't work so nicely. Tends to cause more trouble and damage than fun. Pirates is a less than successful game when capsize causes sinking, tbh.

    Oh I dunno!

    First DL Regatta (the floater - no wind all weekend) all the Sonatas lined up and tethered together. (We were coming resoundingly and magnificently last in the previous race, and were still floating gently towards the finish line, and could see all the fun developing away from the race course, much to our annoyance!).

    I think we got 13 of them rafted up in the end, someone struck up the CanCan on a stereo and dancing started on the foredecks, and then we fired up all the outboards and tried to drive the raft around the place.

    It was great fun!

    (We were VERY bored! and sunburned!)


  • Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 51,688 Mod ✭✭✭✭Stheno


    Conchir wrote: »
    My dad was on the balcony at a club I was racing in once, which they were using as a race office. Someone there shoved a flag in his hands and told him to hang onto it for a moment. Cue my non-sailor father standing right beside the starting sequence flags, holding perfectly upright the Abandonment flag for all to see :D


    In fairness he didn't have a clue and whoever handed it to him was probably in the wrong, it was still very embarrassing though :D

    Lol, that's hilarious!
    cricalix wrote: »
    As good a term as any. Tip: When the time hits 1 second, start hauling so that the flags are flying at 0 seconds :)

    Ah this is different from the hut in Howth so, there they use giant wooden boards painted with the appropriate colours/symbols, on the boat starts they do use flags
    Things I do while waiting for wind:

    1. Curse the committee boat for not arranging decent wind.
    2. Curse the person who decided to go out despite poor forecast (even if it's me).
    3. Snooze.
    4. Rummage around for food and/or drink.
    5. Go on facebook.
    6. Play with the camera.

    Rafting up in bigger boats doesn't work so nicely. Tends to cause more trouble and damage than fun. Pirates is a less than successful game when capsize causes sinking, tbh.

    What is this pirates game of which you speak?

    If I'm sitting around, I tend to

    1. Listen to the RO continually procrastinate about whether or not to start, change course, send out the class 1 boats and make everyone else wait
    2. Moan with fellow crew
    3. Try with rest of crew to keep an eye out for potential accidental collisions due to no propulsion and lots of boats milling about
    4. Try to estimate how long it will take to get over the start
    5. Start considering how long before the thing is actually cancelled while mid course :)


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,957 ✭✭✭miss no stars


    HeidiHeidi wrote: »
    Oh I dunno!

    First DL Regatta (the floater - no wind all weekend) all the Sonatas lined up and tethered together. (We were coming resoundingly and magnificently last in the race, and were still floating gently towards the finish line, and could see all the fun developing away from the race course, much to our annoyance!).

    I think we got 13 of them rafted up in the end, someone struck up the CanCan on a stereo and dancing started on the foredecks, and then we fired up all the outboards and tried to drive the raft around the place.

    It was great fun!

    (We were VERY bored! and sunburned!)

    Sounds like great fun! I always find that anything bigger than a dinghy lurches violently enough to dislocate my shoulders :( If you're planning a repeat bring me along! Sounds like a much more fun way of passing the time.
    Stheno wrote: »
    What is this pirates game of which you speak?

    Known to every child to ever have sailed with SDC... And to any I've taught to sail... Pirates involves the crew boarding the vessel to be taken, removing their dagger board (optional) and fecking it as far away as it can be thrown, then capsizing them. Meanwhile the helm circles around, waits on the boat to be capsized and then picks their crew up from their position (hopefully) standing on the turtled hull of some open course pico.
    Stheno wrote: »
    If I'm sitting around, I tend to

    1. Listen to the RO continually procrastinate about whether or not to start, change course, send out the class 1 boats and make everyone else wait
    2. Moan with fellow crew
    3. Try with rest of crew to keep an eye out for potential accidental collisions due to no propulsion and lots of boats milling about
    4. Try to estimate how long it will take to get over the start
    5. Start considering how long before the thing is actually cancelled while mid course :)

    Working far too hard. Chill. Work on the tan :P


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 29,528 ✭✭✭✭HeidiHeidi


    Sounds like great fun! I always find that anything bigger than a dinghy lurches violently enough to dislocate my shoulders :( If you're planning a repeat bring me along! Sounds like a much more fun way of passing the time.



    There was literally NO wind that time - so no lurching whatsoever :D

    Sadly the days of those numbers of Sonatas getting together (outside of NI) are long gone - we missed our chance when we had it, if we'd pushed for our own start we might have kept the class going. As it is, there's 2 out all the time, with a 3rd sometimes in C3..... battling it out against bloody 34-footers :mad:

    If we knew then what we know now.......


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 961 ✭✭✭Conchir



    Known to every child to ever have sailed with SDC... And to any I've taught to sail... Pirates involves the crew boarding the vessel to be taken, removing their dagger board (optional) and fecking it as far away as it can be thrown, then capsizing them. Meanwhile the helm circles around, waits on the boat to be capsized and then picks their crew up from their position (hopefully) standing on the turtled hull of some open course pico.

    SDC is the only place I've played it, but surely it happens in other clubs? Don't tell me kids in other clubs are deprived of this great sport? :P


  • Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 51,688 Mod ✭✭✭✭Stheno


    Known to every child to ever have sailed with SDC... And to any I've taught to sail... Pirates involves the crew boarding the vessel to be taken, removing their dagger board (optional) and fecking it as far away as it can be thrown, then capsizing them. Meanwhile the helm circles around, waits on the boat to be capsized and then picks their crew up from their position (hopefully) standing on the turtled hull of some open course pico.



    Working far too hard. Chill. Work on the tan :P

    Ah I've seen this being done in Malahide, couldn't for the life of me figure out what was going on, usually kids in Optimists! It d,id appear to drive the rescue ribs crazy and only happened in very low wind

    I plaster myself with factor 50 to avoid any possibility of sunburn :D


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,957 ✭✭✭miss no stars


    HeidiHeidi wrote: »
    There was literally NO wind that time - so no lurching whatsoever :D

    Sadly the days of those numbers of Sonatas getting together (outside of NI) are long gone - we missed our chance when we had it, if we'd pushed for our own start we might have kept the class going. As it is, there's 2 out all the time, with a 3rd sometimes in C3..... battling it out against bloody 34-footers :mad:

    If we knew then what we know now.......

    Mmmm sometimes classes just die though, for no apparent reason. Like the Etchells fleet over here. Almost overnight it just disappeared and it had its own start. I'm gonna go ahead and blame money. Some people got more money than sense and moved into thoroughbred racers, others bought newer cruiser-racers that rate stupidly well for what they are. The crew went where the action was and owners traded into different boats. Hard for a 1970s boat designed with a young family's daytripping needs in mind to compete with a 2012 rigid as feck boat designed with all the latest technology with the needs of a racer in mind. ECHO should be the solution to those problems, but who wants to win on ECHO and be last on IRC?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 29,528 ✭✭✭✭HeidiHeidi


    Mmmm sometimes classes just die though, for no apparent reason. Like the Etchells fleet over here. Almost overnight it just disappeared and it had its own start. I'm gonna go ahead and blame money. Some people got more money than sense and moved into thoroughbred racers, others bought newer cruiser-racers that rate stupidly well for what they are. The crew went where the action was and owners traded into different boats. Hard for a 1970s boat designed with a young family's daytripping needs in mind to compete with a 2012 rigid as feck boat designed with all the latest technology with the needs of a racer in mind. ECHO should be the solution to those problems, but who wants to win on ECHO and be last on IRC?

    Oh, you can sing ALL of that!

    Since I started sailing (which isn't all that long ago), I've seen Sigmas be "THE" boat/class of the day, then the 31.7's appeared and everyone seemed to be getting one, then the SB3's were next when the boom died and recession moved in what with being cheap, cheerful, and eminently transportable. Now (defying all logic), J109's seem to be the next big thing. Until the next, next big thing, obviously.

    So maybe we wouldn't have kept the Sonatas going. But we had a good core of 6 or 7 at one point, so even within C3 we had our own race within a race, which was fantastic. Now it's us against the other one, who are so far ahead of us in racing skills that we can just watch (and learn, hopefully!)

    We brought ours up to Strangford one year for a championships - five of us travelled from DL - and oh my goodness, they completely blew us out of the water! 21 Sonatas on the start line - 16 of them being basically dinghy-sailed, the rest of us trailing around the place like the cruisers we are in Dublin Bay - what a sailing/racing lesson that was!!!


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,957 ✭✭✭miss no stars


    HeidiHeidi wrote: »
    Oh, you can sing ALL of that!

    Since I started sailing (which isn't all that long ago), I've seen Sigmas be "THE" boat/class of the day, then the 31.7's appeared and everyone seemed to be getting one, then the SB3's were next when the boom died and recession moved in what with being cheap, cheerful, and eminently transportable. Now (defying all logic), J109's seem to be the next big thing. Until the next, next big thing, obviously.

    So maybe we wouldn't have kept the Sonatas going. But we had a good core of 6 or 7 at one point, so even within C3 we had our own race within a race, which was fantastic. Now it's us against the other one, who are so far ahead of us in racing skills that we can just watch (and learn, hopefully!)

    We brought ours up to Strangford one year for a championships - five of us travelled from DL - and oh my goodness, they completely blew us out of the water! 21 Sonatas on the start line - 16 of them being basically dinghy-sailed, the rest of us trailing around the place like the cruisers we are in Dublin Bay - what a sailing/racing lesson that was!!!


    Out of interest, what do they sail like? They're only small like, and given that hunter made a nice transatlantic boat out of a squib I can imagine some of the same design thinking went into the Sonata.

    I haven't raced against the northerners but everything I hear is that they're in a league of their own generally. I wonder what they're doing differently, then I remember that it costs feck all to moor your boat and your racing fee is included in that. I think I hear a figure around 200-300 GBP being bandied about. That's how. They get numbers. It's hard to build a fleet when it costs
    more than a grand just to get in the water and signed up for racing :mad:

    Which means that those who are left are those who really like their little boats and don't want to move to something else, and those who can splash the cash and go modern, so to speak. Need a new handicapping system!


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 29,528 ✭✭✭✭HeidiHeidi


    Out of interest, what do they sail like? They're only small like, and given that hunter made a nice transatlantic boat out of a squib I can imagine some of the same design thinking went into the Sonata.

    I haven't raced against the northerners but everything I hear is that they're in a league of their own generally. I wonder what they're doing differently, then I remember that it costs feck all to moor your boat and your racing fee is included in that. I think I hear a figure around 200-300 GBP being bandied about. That's how. They get numbers. It's hard to build a fleet when it costs
    more than a grand just to get in the water and signed up for racing :mad:

    Which means that those who are left are those who really like their little boats and don't want to move to something else, and those who can splash the cash and go modern, so to speak. Need a new handicapping system!

    <given that hunter made a nice transatlantic boat out of a squib>

    Do tell??!!

    Sonatas are great little boats! Light as a feather, you'd turn them on a sixpence - and that's where the northerners completely ran rings around us - they were all either dinghy or FF sailors, and treated the Sonatas like dinghies - roll-tacking them, and throwing them around the place on the start line, which is exactly how they should be raced. Trouble is, when you're the smallest boat in a handicap fleet, it's very hard not to behave a bit like the bigger boats, so we tend to treat them more like heavy keelboats - when in fact there's no need to at all.

    The cost thing might well be a big factor - maybe they can all afford to have/race dinghies/FFs as well as their Sonatas! But from what I saw that weekend, it was all in the mentality - the way they treated their boats.

    If we had more Sonatas to compete against, I'm sure that behaviour would come more naturally to us.

    Or maybe not!

    But I really do agree with your overall point - I don't know how you'd go about handicapping for it - but I do know that C3 in events these days is a joke (DBSC has at least made an effort to split us up, although that ain't perfect either) - there's the sportsboats, and then there's the rest of us - I really wonder sometimes why we waste the entry fee, since we're NEVER going to compete against those boats. Even the other Sonata can't - and if they can't, what hope have us mere mortals??? :D


  • Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 51,688 Mod ✭✭✭✭Stheno


    Out of interest, what do they sail like? They're only small like, and given that hunter made a nice transatlantic boat out of a squib I can imagine some of the same design thinking went into the Sonata.

    I haven't raced against the northerners but everything I hear is that they're in a league of their own generally. I wonder what they're doing differently, then I remember that it costs feck all to moor your boat and your racing fee is included in that. I think I hear a figure around 200-300 GBP being bandied about. That's how. They get numbers. It's hard to build a fleet when it costs
    more than a grand just to get in the water and signed up for racing :mad:

    Which means that those who are left are those who really like their little boats and don't want to move to something else, and those who can splash the cash and go modern, so to speak. Need a new handicapping system!


    I sailed very briefly with a J24 crew from the North last year, and whilst they weren't the best boat in the world, they took it incredibly seriously.

    To be considered for crew, you had to agree to the training schedule which was done up six months in advance and included one weekend in four for training, along with racing, and training the other weekend day of a racing week etc.

    Don't know if that's the norm though?

    Actually just thinking about it, in multihulls a lot of the leading sailors in this island are also from the North, one of them represents Ireland


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,957 ✭✭✭miss no stars


    HeidiHeidi wrote: »
    <given that hunter made a nice transatlantic boat out of a squib>

    Do tell??!!

    Sonatas are great little boats! Light as a feather, you'd turn them on a sixpence - and that's where the northerners completely ran rings around us - they were all either dinghy or FF sailors, and treated the Sonatas like dinghies - roll-tacking them, and throwing them around the place on the start line, which is exactly how they should be raced. Trouble is, when you're the smallest boat in a handicap fleet, it's very hard not to behave a bit like the bigger boats, so we tend to treat them more like heavy keelboats - when in fact there's no need to at all.

    The cost thing might well be a big factor - maybe they can all afford to have/race dinghies/FFs as well as their Sonatas! But from what I saw that weekend, it was all in the mentality - the way they treated their boats.

    If we had more Sonatas to compete against, I'm sure that behaviour would come more naturally to us.

    Or maybe not!

    But I really do agree with your overall point - I don't know how you'd go about handicapping for it - but I do know that C3 in events these days is a joke (DBSC has at least made an effort to split us up, although that ain't perfect either) - there's the sportsboats, and then there's the rest of us - I really wonder sometimes why we waste the entry fee, since we're NEVER going to compete against those boats. Even the other Sonata can't - and if they can't, what hope have us mere mortals??? :D

    Guy called David Blagden liked his squib so much he wanted to put a lid on it and race across the atlantic. Takes all sorts :eek:.

    http://www.britishhunter.co.uk/page6.html


    Actually, Stheno, I think I may have mentioned when I was crawling around under the deck trying to take the jib down that some mad yoke had gone across the atlantic with one :P I'm reminded of the madness of attempting it every single time I put the sails up on it hehe.

    And as for the bit I bolded.... That's the kind of attitude that keeps nice older boats going :)


  • Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 51,688 Mod ✭✭✭✭Stheno


    Guy called David Blagden liked his squib so much he wanted to put a lid on it and race across the atlantic. Takes all sorts :eek:.

    http://www.britishhunter.co.uk/page6.html


    Actually, Stheno, I think I may have mentioned when I was crawling around under the deck trying to take the jib down that some mad yoke had gone across the atlantic with one :P I'm reminded of the madness of attempting it every single time I put the sails up on it hehe.

    And as for the bit I bolded.... That's the kind of attitude that keeps nice older boats going :)


    You did :eek: everytime I was out on your boat I thought about it :)


  • Registered Users Posts: 64 ✭✭cricalix


    Squib with a lid.. wasn't that the Hunter 19?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,775 ✭✭✭JamesM


    Stheno wrote: »
    Actually just thinking about it, in multihulls a lot of the leading sailors in this island are also from the North, one of them represents Ireland

    In the North almost all the Multihull sailors sailed as kids and were very competitive in other classes and had no hang ups about trying something new. Mono-hull sailors in the South are more conservative and rarely move over to cats. Very many of the Southern Multihull sailors started their sailing in cats at an older age and had no junior sail training. Annalise Murphy's parents did make the move to cats and were top multihull sailors for many years.
    After some quiet years in the cat fleet, there is a good bit of hype at the moment because the Formula 18 Worlds are being hosted in Ballyholme in July this year.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,957 ✭✭✭miss no stars


    cricalix wrote: »
    Squib with a lid.. wasn't that the Hunter 19?

    Bingo.

    Willing Griffin was the one that sailed the Atlantic. Just about to start reading a copy of "Very Willing Griffin" I found in the house that tells the story of its crossing.

    There's a Hunter 19 in Howth actually, blue hull iirc.


  • Registered Users Posts: 64 ✭✭cricalix


    Bingo.

    Willing Griffin was the one that sailed the Atlantic. Just about to start reading a copy of "Very Willing Griffin" I found in the house that tells the story of its crossing.

    There's a Hunter 19 in Howth actually, blue hull iirc.
    Went to the Lake District once with the parents and grandparents. Took my sailing gear with me, because there was a promise of being able to go sailing on Windermere. Convinced the folks at the rental company that we knew what we were doing, and snagged their Hunter 19 for a few hours. Coming back up from the south end of the lake, we passed what looked like a 21.1, perhaps a bit bigger. They were going the same way, and seemed to be trying to go fast. They didn't realise I was racing them, but the 19, with crap sails and a good crew... well, they were somewhere behind us after 5 minutes :)

    That experience nudged me to go boat hunting. While it's great for my sanity, it's a good thing I'm a bachelor and have no other expenditures :D


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 29,528 ✭✭✭✭HeidiHeidi


    And off we go again - Happy New (racing) Season everyone :)

    Stay well clear of, and be extra nice to, little red boats out there :D:D


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 20,066 ✭✭✭✭neris


    that training event in the irish this weekends been cancelled.

    Fellow Sailors,

    After several hours trying to find a weather forecast that would be suitable to hold the coaching regatta this weekend I’m sorry to say that we have come to the conclusion that it is in the best interest of the boats attending that we postpone.

    As of 2030hrs the forecast for Dublin Bay is ESE 22 knots gusting 33Knots.
    It is perfect conditions for a good race in Dublin bay to check out if your oilskins have survived the winter months stuffed into a bag covered in salt under the stairs!

    Unfortunately, these same conditions pose concerns for me and the coaches including;
    As a participant;
    It will be near impossible for you to hear direction/advice from a coach in an adjacent coach boat.
    Videoing of the day would not be possible in those sea conditions
    You will be more concerned with safety onboard than coaching to gain anything from the day.
    As an organiser;
    I really don’t want my committee boat out there with volunteers in a SE 25-30 knots. It is not nice.
    I don’t believe you will gain anything from it and I will feel guilty for charging you for it.

    If it is flat calm with perfect conditions on Saturday I will buy you a pint .
    Sorry again but we had to make a call tonight as we had visitors travelling that needed prior notice.

    I also have a duty of care to the coaches and our team. It is my call.

    We hope to re-schedule prior to ICRA, early may, but if re-fund is required please advise and I will arrange soonest.

    Apologies again for late notice, I had hoped it the weather system may have passed through in time.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 29,528 ✭✭✭✭HeidiHeidi


    Hah, good decision of ours to chicken out then :D

    Would you be so good to post any notice of a re-run of it on here, in case I miss it? I usually see Prof's stuff on FB, but they obviously only notified those who had entered of the cancellation (which isn't unreasonable) - we were winging it to the last minute before deciding if we could/would do it.

    Gawjus night out there tonight - we were a bit rusty and had a few feck-ups, but pleased with how it went overall. Anyone else get sent out into that eerie purple fog out at Asgard? 'Twas spoooooky :eek:


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 22,584 ✭✭✭✭Steve


    HeidiHeidi wrote: »
    Anyone else get sent out into that eerie purple fog out at Asgard? 'Twas spoooooky :eek:
    Horror movie stuff!
    And the temperature really dropped when it hit.. I was expecting a barnacle encrusted pirate ship to appear at any moment!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,921 ✭✭✭Vexorg


    Yes was strange one, we expected rain and gusts as we entered it, but it seemed to clear very quickly, there was a similar ground hugging cloud over poolbeg, would have made a nice pic with the sun going down and the chimneys poking out.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 20,066 ✭✭✭✭neris


    poxy bloody weather. no sailing this weekend :mad: RIYC cancelled and now my 2nd option of the coastal race has chickened out coz its to early in the season to get wet cold and pounded. Now im going to have to work on my own boat and hang around waiting for kid in the youth champs :mad: then if its raining theres no point working on my boat so poor me i,ll have just have to stay in the bar :(


  • Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 51,688 Mod ✭✭✭✭Stheno


    My first night as tactician in training.

    Lads, it was a disaster.

    Packed all my "normal" sailing gear the night before to take into work, but forgot the charts/polars, compass maps etc.

    Then I decided after the start I didn't need to have the radio along with the sat nav and stop watch around my neck, so got it stowed in the cockpit bags.

    All was fine, we'd a great start, and marks one and two were grand.

    Fell apart at mark three when everyone went past the supposed mark.

    Cue much discussion about the course, and following everyone else.

    Turns out the course was changed and due to where the portable radio was, it got bashed by the "rest of the " crew and reset the channel so we missed it.

    It was however a good learning experience, so much so that now I've a checklist of stuff to do before the start etc.

    It was a beautiful night to go out sailing, even that purple fog was mesmerising

    edit: I forgot to add on top of the rest of my sins, that I managed to catch the rear guardrail in my lifejacket and disconnect it :D


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 29,528 ✭✭✭✭HeidiHeidi


    Early days! We fecked up a bit as well, but considering we had one crew who's never been on the boat before, and the others (bar me) haven't been near a boat since last August, it wasn't so bad. Just as well it wasn't very windy though!

    I'm impressed with your range of techie stuff! Polars? Compass maps??? What's them then :confused:

    I thought we'd hit the bigtime when we got a handheld gps.......

    Don't remember hearing course changes over the radio, but we're divils for forgetting to listen in once our gun has gone. And chatting on the spinnaker run - I'm going to get gags for everyone one of these days - including myself!

    Tomorrow looking like a rude awakening :eek:


  • Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 51,688 Mod ✭✭✭✭Stheno


    HeidiHeidi wrote: »
    Early days! We fecked up a bit as well, but considering we had one crew who's never been on the boat before, and the others (bar me) haven't been near a boat since last August, it wasn't so bad. Just as well it wasn't very windy though!

    I'm impressed with your range of techie stuff! Polars? Compass maps??? What's them then :confused:

    I thought we'd hit the bigtime when we got a handheld gps.......

    Don't remember hearing course changes over the radio, but we're divils for forgetting to listen in once our gun has gone. And chatting on the spinnaker run - I'm going to get gags for everyone one of these days - including myself!

    Tomorrow looking like a rude awakening :eek:

    Polars are what we term as the charts that tell us what speed we should be doing at a certain wind direction (I'm still learning by the way, not full of knowledge)

    Compass charts, we use a chart with a 360 compass to understand where we are, and where we are going to to gauge direction.

    I've a 270 page manual to read about our plotter so I can automate all this stuff, apart from the polars, and two North U books that I am slowly ploughing through.

    I'm looking forward to tomorrow, looks like normal Howth conditions from last Autumn :) I've not had any rough days out in DL at all compared to Howth last year.

    edit: Our skipper is iirc a qualified commerical Yachtmaster so into all the techie/maths stuff, hence all the maps/polar stuff

    It is useful for reference so that you understand what speed you should be at given wind speed and direction, but a pain in the ass as you are constantly looking stuff up. Thankfully I've a good memory, which I have decided to use memorising mark positions, polars etc. I'm looking forward in a few weeks to reciting the stuff from memory and freaking him out (Vexorg, you didn't read this post!)


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 20,066 ✭✭✭✭neris


    hate that mister millionaire. total bummer. Can feel your pain and my mast is still up for now,

    https://www.facebook.com/quentin.derosny/posts/10152348413133984


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 29,528 ✭✭✭✭HeidiHeidi


    neris wrote: »
    hate that mister millionaire. total bummer. Can feel your pain and my mast is still up for now,

    https://www.facebook.com/quentin.derosny/posts/10152348413133984

    Been there, done that (ours didn't have quite so far to fall, mind you :D)

    Love the 4th pic, lots of finger-pointing going on!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 20,066 ✭✭✭✭neris


    Stheno I think your owner/skipper needs to take a serious chill pill if hes going on plotters and polars for white sails or even just bay sailing. Getting into that kind of racing is serious and more akin to what some guys in class 0 were up to in the naughtys when they were spending serious money campaigning in the uk, ireland and commodores cup or forking out hundreds of Ks on a new corby or kerr.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 29,528 ✭✭✭✭HeidiHeidi


    neris wrote: »
    Stheno I think your owner/skipper needs to take a serious chill pill if hes going on plotters and polars for white sails or even just bay sailing. Getting into that kind of racing is serious and more akin to what some guys in class 0 were up to in the naughtys when they were spending serious money campaigning in the uk, ireland and commodores cup or forking out hundreds of Ks on a new corby or kerr.

    Would tend to agree with this. Keeping an eye on the figures of course is sensible, as is knowing your boat's capabilities, but I wouldn't get too bogged down in them for short course, club-based round the cans stuff.

    Don't forget the fun and the actual sailing bit! ;)


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  • Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 51,688 Mod ✭✭✭✭Stheno


    neris wrote: »
    Stheno I think your owner/skipper needs to take a serious chill pill if hes going on plotters and polars for white sails or even just bay sailing. Getting into that kind of racing is serious and more akin to what some guys in class 0 were up to in the naughtys when they were spending serious money campaigning in the uk, ireland and commodores cup or forking out hundreds of Ks on a new corby or kerr.

    I think his long term plan is such racing :)

    We're looking to go into class one and then ISORAs

    He is a very driven person, and personally I find it very educational, and to be honest I like the maths side of it, and am learning loads, regardless

    Yes he is overqualified for bay sailing, and yes he is demanding, and overqualified for it, but I consider it a pleasure to learn from someone like that.

    It's down to my background, I work as a trainer in my field and as someone said to me this week, "better to learn from someone with experience than someone with knowledge"

    My skipper/helm has the experience, so I'm not going to question that, and tbh, I really enjoy learning from him, while still taking lessons in sailing.

    Long term I'd love to be considered someone most people would want as crew, and what I'm learning now I reckon will stand to me.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 20,066 ✭✭✭✭neris


    HeidiHeidi wrote: »
    Been there, done that (ours didn't have quite so far to fall, mind you :D)

    Love the 4th pic, lots of finger-pointing going on!

    Ive broken 2 (not mine yet) My 1st was memorable. 1/2 ton cup in 2007 just of howth we hit a wave and down came the needle that had been built for an Italian lake in 1987.

    Me: helm, your pinching,
    Person next to me on rail: eh look behind you.
    Me: oh, eh yeah mmm,
    main trimmer/co-owner: some one get the cutters,
    jib trimmer: but thats a brand new main
    main trimmer/co-owner: cut the f***ing thing away

    we were just off Howth at the back of Irelands eye after been sent on a mini offshore from Dun Laoghaire for 1/2 ton cup. We had 1 crew who we had gotten from Dun Laoghaire for the event who was stranded when we decided we,d just head back to our berth and the bar in Howth. 3 hours a few pints and alot of phone calls later a lift and kit bag arrived.

    2nd was funny, I was trimming the main the D1 popped and could just see the mast bending to leeward b4 shouting masts coming down as the boat slammed to a stop. was the 2nd mast in a year that boat had lost


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 20,066 ✭✭✭✭neris


    Stheno wrote: »
    I think his long term plan is such racing :)

    We're looking to go into class one and then ISORAs

    He is a very driven person, and personally I find it very educational, and to be honest I like the maths side of it, and am learning loads, regardless

    Yes he is overqualified for bay sailing, and yes he is demanding, and overqualified for it, but I consider it a pleasure to learn from someone like that.

    It's down to my background, I work as a trainer in my field and as someone said to me this week, "better to learn from someone with experience than someone with knowledge"

    My skipper/helm has the experience, so I'm not going to question that, and tbh, I really enjoy learning from him, while still taking lessons in sailing.

    Long term I'd love to be considered someone most people would want as crew, and what I'm learning now I reckon will stand to me.

    If you want to do class 1 just get a kite up. Most boat owners wouldnt even know what the polars are for their boats and polars are never 100% right either. If you want to go ISORA racing just get a decent navigator or some one who can read a chart and compass.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 29,528 ✭✭✭✭HeidiHeidi


    neris wrote: »
    Ive broken 2 (not mine yet) My 1st was memorable. 1/2 ton cup in 2007 just of howth we hit a wave and down came the needle that had been built for an Italian lake in 1987.

    Me: helm, your pinching,
    Person next to me on rail: eh look behind you.
    Me: oh, eh yeah mmm,
    main trimmer/co-owner: some one get the cutters,
    jib trimmer: but thats a brand new main
    main trimmer/co-owner: cut the f***ing thing away

    2nd was funny, I was trimming the main the D1 popped and could just see the mast bending to leeward b4 shouting masts coming down as the boat slammed to a stop. was the 2nd mast in a year that boat had lost

    When ours came down, we had just tacked, and the main kept going :D

    I didn't even realise what had happened - I was going under the boom and was facing backwards, and it was completely silent - you'd imagine a mast would crash down, but there was no sound. Well, there probably was, but it was windy as **** and I heard nothing over that!

    We had a girl new to the boat going around the front of the mast who managed to hang on, and when the training kicked in and the call went up for the cutters, she dived under all the sails and managed to find it. When it came up, we grabbed it - and then thought "feck, what do we cut???" Turned out we didn't need to cut anything away - the mast had come down in once piece from the foot, and was hanging nicely alongside.

    Not an experience that I'd care to repeat :D


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 20,066 ✭✭✭✭neris


    this was pre americas cup with russell coutts in 2012, Interesting interview. Love the clip at 18:20



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 20,066 ✭✭✭✭neris


    further to talk of masts breaking came across this purpose mast break



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 29,528 ✭✭✭✭HeidiHeidi


    neris wrote: »
    this was pre americas cup with russell coutts in 2012, Interesting interview. Love the clip at 18:20


    Just watched that through.... he'd hardly knock you over with charisma, would he?

    Seems like a nice guy - although a bit media/product obsessed. I was disappointed to hear him say that basically monohulls will NEVER feature in AC again because the media don't like them. What about the sailors/sailor viewers?

    (The multihulls do provide for fairly spectacular capsizes though, I will have to admit that :D)


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,957 ✭✭✭miss no stars


    HeidiHeidi wrote: »
    (The multihulls do provide for fairly spectacular capsizes though, I will have to admit that :D)

    And deaths


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 29,528 ✭✭✭✭HeidiHeidi


    And deaths

    True. But people have died off monohulls as well.

    It's just that the slavish bowing to media interests and technology over the integrity of the sport makes me a bit sad. I may be turning into a dinosaur, though, and would appear to be in a minority (possibly of one!) on that.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 29,528 ✭✭✭✭HeidiHeidi


    Saw this on the coastgaurd report of incidents yesterday.

    <Dublin CG heli and Dun Laoghaire lifeboat tasked to yacht in difficulty with 10 pob. RTB when yacht made its way in escorted by another yacht.>

    I wonder was that one of the ISORA boats? Or a C1 doing DBSC? (Four went out, two finished according to the results)

    Hope all OK whatever/whoever it was - not an easy day to be out on the water yesterday!


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