Kipper Sailing
| Vessel Name: | Kipper of London |
18 November 2010
White Boats
Sailing schools are commercial enterprises and margins are extremely tight, so they typically buy training boats that provide sufficient accommodation for the maximum of 5 students and one instructor at the lowest possible price. These are usually European (as opposed to British) built and on large production [...]
18 November 2010
Jet Skis
I positively hate jet skis, the people who use them and everything to do with them. As far as I'm concerned they're ridden by men with small willies and without the balls to ride a motorbike. And I mean MEN. When did you ever hear of a woman stupid enough to buy a jet ski? Am I being unfair. No. Do I have an issue with other powered recreational vessels (motor-yachts, ribs, ski boats)? No. The problem with jet-skis is that the idiots who ride them will ride round and round and round what, should have been, a quiet anchorage. This is akin to somebody riding a noisy motorbike round and round a park where everybody else is trying to enjoy a quiet, whatever you do in a park (I wouldn't know). If I could legally buy a bazooka, I'd buy one and blast all the jet skiers to kingdom come.
18 November 2010
Big Boats , Small Boats
Once upon a time, maybe 25+ years ago, a typical first boat was a Mirror Dinghy, then a Wayfarer, then a small Westerly, then a Contessa 32, then a 40 footer. All this over a lifetime of sailing. Experience was gained slowly. Nowadays too many people go out and buy (yes you've guessed it) a shiny new [...]
18 July 2010 | Lymington
Back to Work
Back to the day (and sometimes night) job after the (excitement) of the 2-handed RB&I race. And guess what? I'm enjoying myself more working than I was, supposedly, taking some R&R. It's one Hell of a lot more varied and stimulating.
06 July 2010 | On our way bsck to Lymington
Final thoughts on the race
Now it's all over, I've had time to reflect on the experience and to report on what worked and what didn't.
We've got it up!
Total spinnaker hours to this point, about 8, over 1,555 miles and 16 days. Three of those are over the last 3 hours.
I bought this kite, 2ndhand, especially for the race. Together with sheets, guys and a jockey pole it has cost me over £150 per hour so far. Even worse, we'd have been better of with a non-spinnaker rating. Ah well.
Mind you, I've made worse investments. My pension fund for example, which, last time I looked, was worth somewhat less than the sum of all my contributions over 30 years. Kipper on the other hand has been a good investment, well that's what I kid myself, mainly because we bought her in January 2008 and, if I'd, instead, invested in shares, I'd be much worse off. And she helps me generate a living, of sorts.
The kite isn't perfect. It's a little too long in the foot. As a result the leech tends to collapse under the main and we get one of those infuriating scenarios where, if we sheet in to stop the luff collapsing, the leech collapses and visa versa. It's not too bad in a breeze but, in lights airs, it's a bit of a nightmare.
Anyway, it's an absolutely gorgeous morning. The sun had real heat in it by 0530 and we're now ghosting towards the north Norfolk shore which is 15 miles off our starboard bow. About 55 miles to Lowestoft but, right now our boat speed is only 2.2kts, although with the tide under us, we're making 4.3 over the ground. Of course the tide is going to turn and, when it does, we'll be lucky if we can make any progress at all. We might even have to drop the hook and wat out a tide.
Just coming up on a humongous conglomeration of tugs and a barge carrying an oil or gas rig. It might be at anchor, it might be underway making very, very slow progress against the tide. We'll see. Either way, we'll have to keep clear, although unlike the oil and gas rigs, it doesn't have an exclusion zone so we can pass quite close. If we're close enough, I take a few snaps.
Recipe of the day. Mix on bag of Tesco luxury mixed fruit with one bag of Tesco unsalted mixed nuts and raisins. Serve on its own or, for an extra special treat, combine a portion with a caton of Ambrosia rice-pudding. Food of the Gods.
