We’ve got a Tasar!

Dan had been thinking about getting a Tasar for us to sail for a while as apparently I am learning quite fast and he wanted a boat that was a little more suitable for us than the 12. I still love the 12, it’s been a labour of love over the past 3 years to get it transformed from the rotten mess it was to what it is now, but oh how I do like this boat!

We have sailed the Tasar twice since we bought it on the 6th June, once on the 7th June, and then again on the 11th June.

I will talk about our first outing first. I really enjoyed this sail, when we first went out though, the water was like a mirror it was so calm. I think it took us about 10 minutes to drift out to the start line at what felt like a snails pace, but not long after we got out there, the wind did start to pick up. All of a sudden, it came from one direction and then another, it almost caused us to go over and did cause a couple of others to go. We soon got the hang of it though and it was a great race, and we came 2nd! I think it is all down to Dan to be honest as he knows what he is doing. Something I have realised I really need to get to grips with is the theory behind sailing, everything to do with the wind and the tides. Wind is obvious, but I haven’t really figured out how it affects where you have the sails, and I still get muddled about what is upwind and what is downwind, and when you do a tack and when you do a gybe. And then you have the tides, which contribute a lot to deciding what direction you want to point the boat. I noticed this a lot when we first took the Tasar out, this is because we need to go right around the bouey, but Dan had the boat very far to the wrong side because he assured me that the tide would have pushed us to the right side before we reach the bouey. I haven’t been sailing for very long but I feel like I ought to know all of this by now, so I think I will get Dan to explain it when we aren’t on the water, and then I’ll do a post around it to help my brain absorb all the information 🙂

Stokes Bay Photographer!

We are seriously lagging behind in writing up our posts, sorry about that! Although Dan is worse than me… I will nag him to write up his windsurfing and B14 Nationals post tonight/tomorrow.

Anyway, on the 29th -31st May, it was the B14 Nationals at Stokes Bay, and I was able to get out on the rescue boat on the Saturday to take pictures! It was my first time out on one of the rescue boats, although the organisers thought I had done it before so I had to let them know that I don’t actually have a power boat licence… It was great fun though, I was taken out to the committee boat at around 10.30am where I watched them co-ordinate setting up the course by dropping the boueys in very specific places in the water. They had various gadgets (old and new) to make sure they placed them in the correct places, I think I will need to watch it done a few more times to get more of an understanding of how it is done. The race began at 11.30am, and I was eventually able to get out on the second RIB about 20 minutes later, as a passenger of course. I got some great photos, although I was very biased towards Dan and Dan C… If I get a chance to go out on one of the boats again, I will try and get a wider range of photos for the class as I hadn’t realised they were relying on me for some photos as well! I only went out with the aim of getting photos for this blog. There were a few they must have like though as they made it onto yachtsandyachting.com.

In the Vision again

We had avoided taking the RS Vision out again, but a few weeks ago on the 24th May, we thought what the hell and went out in it again as the National 12 still wasn’t fixed and we are impatient people.

We aimed to get down to the club early so Dan could do some bimbling to try and improve the spinnaker, only we both overslept so weren’t quite as early as we would have liked. He still got a chance to bimble though and re-rigged the spinnaker and sprayed the kite with some silicone spray to try and make it easier for me to pull it in and out. This made such a difference! And I must say that the Vision has somewhat redeemed itself in my view. It is still a ridiculously heavy boat, but I am now able to successfully get the spinnaker in and out!

All of this paid off as we managed to achieve 3rd place on handicap among 12-14 boats :-D. I was very happy with that. We did have a few other problems though which meant we could possibly have done even better… The cleat which holds the spinnaker when up has worn through and does not hold the rope at the bottom anymore, we had to pull the kite all the way up, then ever so slightly let it down again so I could lightly pull the rope up in the cleat to allow it to hold, tedious or what? There is also a metal hoop part way up the mast where the jib halliard threads through, but somehow, and we have no idea how, the spinnaker sheet also got caught through this so we were unable to pull it up as high as it could go. I don’t think it had a huge impact, but it along with the cleat are yet two more things that need to be fixed on the club boat.

It was great fun though, and I am thrilled that we came 3rd!