Frank delivered us a good start. He brought Winsome out of the Medina by steering her very close to the orange inflatable buoy. Right after we got the confirmation that we had a clear start, spinaker II was hoisted. Wind 18-22 knots.

Until about Sconce Buoy we could keep pace with the new Salvo of Peter Morton. At noon Salvo managed to be 0,6 Nm ahead of us; at 1800 about 4,7 Nm.

We raced well and kept good speed though the waves prevented Winsome from keeping pace with the lighter boats.

Until the second virtual waypoint, where we met Ultreia! again without her AIS switched on, we were leading our Class but on the leg of about 40 Nm to Owers we made a tactical mistake as a result of miscommunication on board. I will keep this a secret knowing other boats are reading our webpage. We have discussed it already on Sunday after the race. I have made a complaint to RORC that not all boats in our class did use their AIS, which is unfair considering the obligation for all boats to have it on.

Also Foggy Dew was long in sight, so we are somewhat disappointed not having been able to maintain our lead and scored only a poor 5th position.

Most of the time we had Swan Valhalla in sight, a beautifull Swan 55 Yawl beloning to Sam van Holthe crewed by Manfred Schepers. If I am not mistaken it is also a S&S design. She had problems with a broken spinaker boom and that must have been the reason why so finished only a couple of minutes ahead of us instead of an hour or so.

Boathandling and speed were satisfactorily. Our instruments are not yet calibrated perfectly.

We are looking forward to the next race on Friday 1st of June to Deauville of about 100 Nm.

After the race we had a look at Peter Morton’s new Salvo and we noticed how good Peter can clean a boat. We need to keep that in mind when he will helm Winsome again.

We are content with this training and looking forward to the RORC Morgan Cup, starting Saturday the 5th of May.

Winsome’s Cottage was also in order, close to perfect.

Cooking was excellent, as usual.

2012 RORC Easter Challenge IRC Four A
Entries: 9 Races Sailed: 6

Provisional Results

Luna was carefully prepared, cleaned, topped up and equipped with a Garmin GPS 451. Everything worked, also Channel 16 but please turn your head when looking at the below photograph. I am unable to rotate the photograph by 180 degrees.

Winsome looked nice, clean and proper upon our arrival with Luna at Berthon Boat Yard. We motored her to East Cowes Marina and enjoyed only good weather and sunshine during the entire period. Not a drop of rain.

Unfortunately we could not be satisfied with the steering. It just went a little bit too stiff, not like we were used to. So on Monday 26th of March she was motored back by Brian of Berthon Boat Yard. It was just too late for us to do considering the tide was against us and the decision to take her back was taken too late.

This week John of Berthon Boat Yard has been working on the steering gear, by taking out the bearing once again and easing it. At the same time new rose joints have been fitted [only God knows (and Leen perhaps) what they mean with that.

Later today we will meet at my house for our yearly Winsome party. See you then.

As well as being the first fixture in the RORC’s UK racing calendar, the RORC Easter Challenge doubles as a start of season training event, with on the water coaches providing immediate advice followed by expert post-race video debriefs in the Events Centre in Cowes Yacht Haven. In fact the coaching element of the regatta is taken so seriously that the Racing Rules of Sailing are modified for the event permitting coaches or sailmakers to climb on board during racing if, for example, a crew requests some expert assistance with their sail trim or rig set-up.
Last year we were all ferrets of the ’sailing couch’ Jim Saltonstall. This year the coaching is being spearheaded by Barry Dunning.  Every race day they will do their coaching out on the water, come back and then do a debrief, with video of the starting and answering any questions. This year they will even organise practice starts, have they been looking at the J22’s? A class which has a couple of restarts and black flags, adds to the excitement. Last year we missed judgement of the line, our last race in Cowes. Harry bought Floris a pair of glasses and fed him some fibres and proteins to make him grow another foot or so. Regretfully, Floris didn’t grow in height…….. Anyway, with more practice starts, more bang for Harry’s buck and practice for us. For us, we are looking forward to coming season. We will be sailing in the same configuration as last year, promising to say the least.

Aside from being the first RORC race of the year in the UK, plus the coaching opportunity, the long range forecast is also suggesting sun and a light to moderate breeze, so the RORC Easter Challenge is lining up to be a perfect way to ease into the sailing season. We will keep you posted!

Joost

http://youtu.be/sbfvGkbuC3o

Celebrate with us WINSOME’s 40st birthday on 1 APRIL 2012, 4:00 pm at PHL 5, AMSTERDAM.

Boj

So what does one give a lady, 40 years of age? She already is suited up with the best kevlar clothing UK-De Vries has to offer. She is crewed by a loving and devoted crew and owned by Harry, a Dutchman with a blue heart with a white stripe on it. Unlike humans, Winsome ages gracefully and remains a yacht which turns heads as she passes. Like women in general, you have to invest in her (not only time wise…) to keep her happy and satisfied. Relationships remain a difficult thing. Despite this, Harry really understands her and knows what to give her.

So this year, being a special year, Winsome is, as we write, undergoing plastic therapy, a nip and tuck. In yacht terms this means removing the antifouling, smoothing off the epoxy to make a level finish. Then she will be primed, a kind of botox treatment, before a new coating of antifouling can be applied. Furthermore, the rudder has been sanded, shaped and coated.  So now, the lady is looking fine again, but of course, she still is not happy. Despite her extensive wardrobe, she claims she has nothing to wear! What do men get women at this stage? Earrings, lingerie or basically anything as long as it costs some money. So Harry went out and got her a new spinnaker three, which is really something as the old red, white and blue spinnaker and the boom, are probably the most authentic parts of the yacht. Furthermore, he got her a new downhaul and a new genoa III, the latter I hope we will not need this Cowes week.

Leen has in the meantime flown to the UK to visit Berthon and supervise the work done. Till now, everything has been on schedule, which by itself is a great achievement. Credits to Berthon for this but also to Harry.

The first Races will be at Easter, 6-8th of April. Before that, some of the crew will go to the UK to berth Winsome on the medina and get her ready for the beginning of the season. It won’t be long now!   

The concept race agenda is now on the site. For further inquiries and questions please contact Boj. He will sort all our wishes and make the definitive planning.  

This year Winsome will celebrate her 40th birthday. Now it is not the kind of thing you do, to ask a lady her age, but some things in life can not pass unnoticed. It is quite an achievement for a lady of this age, not only to compete at inshores and offshores at a regular basis, but till this day she even manages to win races, on both hemispheres. An exceptional achievement. This is all thanks to the dedication of Harry, keeping this lady in ’ship shape’ year after year. Thank you Harry, you and Winsome make it possible for a lot of enthusiastic sailors to experience and enjoy great moments on the water.

In 2012, Winsome once again will berth in the Medina at East Cowes. After her winter, staying at Berthon Boatyard, she will once again be ready to take us all out on the Solent, Channel and who knows where our next adventures will take us. The 2012 concept agenda will soon be posted on the site, please all look at your agenda’s and contact Boj to let him know what your intentions are for 2012. Some events may have several feeder races incorporated which are compulsory to sail the events (i.e. Cowes week), Boj can tell you all about it. Furthermore, some of you may have outdated pictures of yourself on the site or addresses or phone numbers which have expired. Please let me know if  these need to be changed.

Looking forward to another great season, let’s not forget to bring balloons, a birthday cake and some champagne the next time we’re on board.

Bon Vents!

Our two stowaways scrolling through Lisbon

direction France…

bye bye Portugal

hello France (Normandie)

On both trips some God wanted to show us that it is already winter in Europe. Bad weather, icing, outside temperature at FL260 minus 43 degrees Celcius. We could not even have used our boots at these temperatures (one of my forgotten ground school lessons, refreshed by Urs on the flight to Cherbourg) in order to avoid the destruction of our boots.

The boots are situated on the leading edges of the wings and they are blown up (like bicycle tubes), at temperatures not colder than minus 40 degrees Celcius, each minute or each three minutes to get rid of the ice formed. This would otherwise influence the airflow over the wings and thus finally reduce the lift creating by the winds going over the top of the wings. All technical stuff, but knowledge badly needed in these circumstances.

Strong hail greeted us at Cherbourg. Pilatypus was the only aircraft that day. Two smaller aircraft were parked on the ramp. Finally, finally, finally we landed at an airport where we were not only not the smallest aircraft, but at the same time the largest.

In Sophie’s house in Morsalines, near to Cherbourg, Margharita gave signs of being frozen. Urs and I made quickly a large fire, whilst Sophie hurried to open a bottle of red wine. Margharita had to admit that she did exaggerate, whilst shifting her chair backwards three times because of extreme heat. In spite of the heat created, she insisted to go into a hotel. This is exactly the reason why you should never allow stowaways on an aircraft. Only problems, though in this particular case the stowaways made excellent choices of hotels in Marrakesh and Lisboa. Let us call it a draw.

The next day, 18 November, I made my last trip to Budel where I disembarked. Urs continued with the two stowaways to Locarno to have Pilatypus in position for another 100 hours service with Pilatus in Buochs, starting 2 January 2012.

18.222 Nm on two Qt of oil (plus a neglectable quantity of Jet A-1 fuel) with an engine we can fully trust.

Thanks to everyone who has been able and willing to read my blogs. I hope you have enjoyed them as much as we have enjoyed our trip.

Next year plans: either Round-the-World via Kazachstan, Mongolia, South Korea, Japan, Aleutian Islands, British Columbia Canada and USA or to Egypt, East Africa, Madagascar and South Africa.

finally at Sophie’s fire place…