Friday, June 15, 2007
Second Fastnet Qualifying Race
It’s all very, very exciting here this morning. The first crews of the Fastnet Teams are beginning to filter in to Shamrock Quay and things are a hive of activity as last minute jobs are finished up, sails and food is loaded on and we all get set to go.
The weather looks to be a little breezy and typically, of course (this is sailing!!) from the SW… perfectly on the nose for a race to Jersey!! The Morgan’s Cup Race starts this evening at 1930 and looks likely to take us into tomorrow afternoon before we reach the finish.
This means that we don’t get to spend any time on Jersey as we will have to turn round and head straight back again to get home on Sunday!!
Philippe is looking fairly relaxed today with everything under control, perhaps that’s because he is quietly confident about racing to his home port… Only one thing is for certain though, all the skippers and mates are competitive and absolutely no one is complacent!!
Good luck to all the teams, have a great and safe race.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Team Logic Training Camp
It’s been another full on week for Sailing Logic and Team Logic have just finished their five-day training camp. It proved to be an intensive week for everyone. Day One was spent getting back into the swing of things and working together as a team. Everyone has swapped roles again for the rest of the campaign, (except of course, Philippe, who will have to suffer the chafe to his fingertips a bit longer!!) so we were each getting to know new positions on board. This is a fantastic way to improve all round skills as well, since a great racing team is made up of people who can all work together and think one step ahead for each other.
The rest of the week was spent building on these news skills with classroom sessions on weather and tactics, as well as time on the water. Despite the forecasted lack of wind we managed to pick our way round the Solent and Southampton Water and find enough breeze to get some superb sailing in each day- it certainly put our pressure spotting skills to the test!!
There was only one day that there was so little wind that we anchored for lunch, after which Bol managed to end up a bit muddy. All in all it was a great week, assisted by our coach, Peter Conway, and of course Philippe and Sara. Everyone learnt loads and by the end of the week we were all working together really cohesively, with all our spinnaker hoists and drops improving each time!! (Ref: Craig the Bowman in the photo!!) Hopefully we now have the foundations for a great team for the rest of the season!
Team Logic is now looking forward to meeting again for the Round the Island Race in a couple of weeks time and this is followed by the IRC Nationals the week after. Sailing Logic also has Jaguar, Lion, Bongani and Sidney entered in the RTI race so there should be plenty of competition amongst the crews!!
For the moment though, there is barely a chance to stop and think as we get the boats ready to go again for the next Fastnet Qualifying race this weekend.
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
Eddystone Race Blog
As the sunset on Thursday evening, the Sailing Logic Team and their Fastnet teams were still beavering away to get the boats in top racing condition for the coming weekend. It looked set to be an interesting race with generally light winds forecast for the weekend, meaning that the tactics would play a very important part.
The teams left Southampton to head down to the start line off Cowes. The race began with a very light South Westerly Breeze and an interesting decision whether to choose to tack down the island shore, with the last of the favourable tide, or the mainland shore, where the wind would be more likely to be increase first. Most of the Sailing Logic Teams chose the latter option. Only Puma and Jaguar chose to stay on the island side and after a tussle with each other all the way out of the Solent, Jags was last boat out.
The next tactical decision was to stay inshore or head offshore. Jaguar Logic took the decision to head out early on which proved to be a good decision and they held their lead over the other Reflexes round Eddystone, with Bongani, Lion and Puma hot on their heels.
On the way back Puma clawed their way back overtaking Lion and Bongani and Philippe was working his crew hard with sail changes, to gain every last bit of speed possible as they tried to catch up with Jaguar too, eventually gaining back over twelve miles on them.
The last of the wind petered out almost everywhere and on the turn of the tide much of the fleet chose to anchor, as they realised how quickly they would they would drift backwards!!
With the end in sight but so little wind, the frustrated crews all put in a fantastic effort to keep the boats going, realising the importance of weight distribution and moving slowly and gently round the yacht.
The last few miles were slow going for all the fleet but eventually Jaguar Logic was the first Reflex to cross the line and took 4th place in IRC 1. Puma, Lion and Sidney were not far behind (7th, 12th and 15th respectively) and Bongani took 9th in IRC 2.
It was a very interesting race but a complete change for all the teams from the training weekend with lots of wind, but everyone again went away with lots more to think about, and the difference that such light wind conditions make. Congratulation to everyone for a superb effort all round. There were certainly lots of exhausted faces on Sunday!!
We are looking forward to the next race, the Morgan’s Cup, on Friday 15th June.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Manches Cup Victory for Sailing Logic BoatFor the third consecutive year the Manches Cup provided all the competitors with testing conditions in over thirty knots of wind. Ras Turner was hosting Shearman & Sterling Solicitors aboard Lion, one of our Reflex 38s.
Lion had a great first race finishing 2nd followed by a fantastic 1st place in the 2nd race. This secured victory for Shearman and Sterling in class 2b of the Manches Cup.
The legendary Manches Cup party took place on Saturday night in the Cowes Yacht Haven. Some of our racing skippers and mates were spotted out and photographs will be posted here later in the week.
RORC 'Sailing School Boat of the Year' 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012