707 Edinburgh Cup

After taking a step back from my sailing campaign to re-focus on my career in communications I thought it fitting to revisit some writing for a competition I raced in at the end of April with team Crhu. 

17 boats hit the water of the Firth of Forth for a seven race shoot out in the 707 Edinburgh Cup over two days.

The weekend was a few degrees off champagne sailing conditions with 15-20 knots of breeze and sunshine all weekend.

Our race area was Inverkiething Bay, a short sail from Port Edgar Marina under the Forth bridges. The first of four races on day one saw us battle at the front of the fleet. It was five time reigning national champions, Seaword, who ultimately came out on top. We finished behind them in second.

Race two was a similar one. This time a battle with both Seaword and Hartlepool based boat, Sharky. Sharky showed their blistering pace in the heavy winds and took a convincing win with us behind in second place. Seaword followed in third.

Race three was made easier for us with the fleet staying timid on the start line. We punched ahead at the start-gun and it payed. We extended for the rest of the race and finished in first place.

Race four was one of the closest of the weekend with the experienced crew of local legends, Mojito showing the fleet some finesse in their upwind sailing style. It came down to the very last leg where we etched even with them. We made a final push at the right moment to take first place by a matter of inches on the line. One to remember and a great way to finish day one. Leading overnight with a nine point cushion.

Day two left three races remaining in yet more sunshine and punchy breeze. Race five saw another two boat battle with Seaword. It was nip and tuck all race and even on the second to last leg. Eventually it was Seaword who took line honours after a well executed, inch perfect cross in front of our bow at the bottom mark. We took second place.

The remaining two races were the windiest of the regatta. A few mistakes in the form of a lost winch handle and a twisted spinnaker made things tough. 

However, the crew managed it well - ultimately keeping us upright in the breeze and our sails intact. The same can’t be said for the rest of the fleet… some seriously impressive wipeouts.

The calm and cautious approach to the two remaining races saw us finish the event with two more race wins. 

A great way to end the event. 

An even better way to start the season.

BRITISH KEELBOAT LEAGUE FINALS

Last weekend Miles Jones, James Holmes, Ross Slater and myself travelled down to Cowes on the Isle of Wight to race against some of the top keelboat sailors in Britain at the RYA British Keelboat League Finals.

It is a relatively new race format, with a number of qualification events taking place across the UK throughout the year. All of which lead to the final in Cowes.

The Edinburgh team had placed an entry for one of the qualification events held in Scarborough earlier on in the year, which was unfortunately cancelled. Due to the cancelation, and being unable to attend the other qualification events, the team were lucky to be offered a wild card entry for the final. This opportunity was not to be turned down and I was very grateful to be asked to be a part of the team.

The event consisted of 18 teams, 3 days of racing, and 36 races. The Royal Thames Yacht Club hosted the event with 8 extremely well looked after J70 sports boats. This meant that a round robin was in order to ensure that all 18 teams had the chance to sail against one another. The logistics of the team change overs were slick and allowed each team to sail a total of 16 races, creating a perfectly even series across the weekend.

We kicked off the event with a bang, finishing 2nd in our first race. Bearing in mind that only one of us had sailed a J70 before, and it was our first sail together as a team, we were pretty happy! We continued the day with a 7th, 2nd, 6th, 1st, and a 7th, a pretty mixed day to say the least. However, we were happy with our form and the mistakes that led to our poorer results were easily rectified for the following days.

Day 2 was a frustrating day for the race committee, with fickle winds in the morning. We were held under a postponement on the water for a short while until the breeze filled in to around 7/8 knots from the North East. The way the round robin worked out, our team had a 7 race gap until our first race of the day, which equates to around 2 hours. We used this time wisely to have a short nap on the change over boat and re-energise ourselves from our 6am wake up for the first race. We had 4 races on day 2 with us scoring 4, 4, 1, 8. We were slightly more consistent than the previous day which was good, and our crew work was far better than the day prior, a big improvement in that! However the lighter winds and tidal conditions proved difficult for us and drastically reduced the margin for error - there were still some nuggets to work on for the final day.

The last day of racing was a great day for us, we had a moderate breeze in the morning building substantially throughout the day to a nice 15 knots. Our team had completed 10 races so far which left us with 6 to race on day three. We scored a 2nd, 4th, 6th, 2nd, 4th, and finished the event off with a 1st - a lovely way to end the regatta. Our final day was our best day yet, jumping us from 8th overall to 6th; and although there was still room for development we had all improved drastically compared to the first day.

All in all we were extremely happy with our performance, finishing 6th overall. We went into the regatta with little expectations; which, in hindsight, probably helped us a lot. The regatta was superbly run, the other teams were great to be around, and it was a pleasure spending time with such great lads!

Credit to Sportography for all the photos!

Thanks for reading,

Lewis

SCOTTISH KEELBOAT ACADEMY

After a busy week toing and froing from Edinburgh to Glasgow for a few workshops it was time to get back on the water.  What a weekend it was!  We had two full days of sailing in glamour conditions, the sun was shinning and we had a moderate breeze that was perfect for working on what I wanted.

On the Saturday I was focusing on my role as bowman on the Sonar, I was working on my communication and the timing of the processes involved.  Bow is the role I am least familiar with and it’s great to see some progress from when I started with the Keelboat academy.

Sunday, again with amazing conditions, brought a day with me helming the Sonar – a role that I am much more comfortable with.  Similar to the Bow role I was working on my ability to communicate with the rest of the crew, this is something I’m not used to in a single hander!  I didn’t sail my best, but there was still lots of positive takeaways in terms of my goals I was working on.

Next up is the Youth National Championships at Hayling Island Sailing Club!

Lewis