Tuesday, October 07, 2014

Sea Sail

Today at Minorca Sailing was the best day so far.

Sunny. High 70s. Force 4 to 5 winds in the morning, and force 4 in the afternoon.

In the morning, we had the legendary Sea Sail when the brave Laser sailors in their petites bateaux head out of the bay on to the wild and wooly Mediterranean Ocean for some wave sailing and informal racing.

Here are our intrepid sailors leaving the relative shelter of Fornells Bay as captured by Tillerwoman from her vantage point on the rocks.




And here is another Tillerwoman classic of 10 white dots in front of the Cap de Cavalleria, artistically framed by a cleft in the rocks. Can't you just feel how much fun we were having?


"Laser is love. Laser is LIFE!"



And then in the afternoon I did something I have never done in my life before… I had my first sail in an RS Aero.

I suppose I am going to have to write another blog post about that some time.



11 comments:

Baydog said...

Gorgeous. Looking forward to your first RS Aero impression. But, eh hem.......

Pandabonium said...

You cheated on your Laser and had an affair with an RS Aero? I'm shocked. Well, actually, as I sail a Lido 14, I should say, "Schocked".

Tillerman said...

Oh yea. I forgot the food again. I had melon and serrano ham and then the pizza italians. Tillerwoman had salmon tartare and half a pizza toscana.

Tillerman said...

I don't think I was really cheating Panda. More a case of exploring a polygamist life style.

Pandabonium said...

Too bad they don't do much sailing in Utah. ;)

Unknown said...

....and your impression of the Aero was....????

R1 said...

From a small boat things look large but the Mediterranean is a sea, not an ocean. I'll assume some local beverage and artistic license have been used there.

Don't leave us hanging like this though: How was it?! And none of that journalist talk about planing offwind, that's a given. We need it compared to a Laser.

Anonymous said...

Re the Aero:
Can an old guy (65+) really carry the Aero (with or without) the rig?

And how easy/hard would it be to right after an 'ugly' capsize. I have seen some video of a light wind capsize on a flat lake, but that's not how we do it. I am talking 'death roll'...
But don't miss your dinner practicing death rolls!

Wavedancer

Tillerman said...

I will write up my impression of the Aero all in good time. Have had a chance to try out both the 9 and 7 rigs and sail the boat on three days in very different wind conditions from 6-8 knots to 17-21 knots.

I haven't done any capsizes at all in it yet, ugly or otherwise. Do you real want me to do an ugly capsize deliberately so I can tell you how it goes?

I'm not even going to attempt to carry the boat around on my own as I don't intend to do that if I do get one. What are dollies for?

And yes, it does plane downwind. But I have seen no signs of the mythical planing upwind as reported by one of the Irish sailors who had a demo in one.

Short summary of my impressions…
a) They haven't repealed the laws of physics or hydrodynamics.
b) 40 years of experience and better technology do make a difference.
c) A hiking singlehander is a hiking singlehander.
d) Yes, Virginia, you do have to hike.

Anonymous said...

AnonymousOctober 20, 2014 at 2:43 PM
Tillerman and Anonymous are both right about ethics. And changing text in Day 4 blog, after the fact, to suit your purpose, as well as taking down all the day by day blogs altogether (so that others can't read it?) pretty much sums it up.

I am putting this in your column just in case Pam of Imp. Course deletes it.
Reply

Tillerman said...

Thanks Anonymous.

For those who are mystified by the previous comment it relates to a debate on the Improper Course blog about racing rules and the ethics of our sport. One commenter suggested that something that Doug reported in a post about a race at the Masters Worlds was a rules infringement, and I later joined the discussion questioning some items in a post by Pam about when it's OK to ignore possible rules infringements.

I think that such discussions can be helpful and healthy and I certainly encourage readers of this blog to challenge me on any issues whenever they like. I have learned a lot from such challenges in the past.

Unfortunately the discussion on Improper Course seems to have upset the owners of the blog and ended up with Pam and Doug deleting all of Doug's Masters Worlds journals from the blog, which is a shame.

Post a Comment