I went to Baltimore Friday night to see a small Bluegrass gig in the Glebe gardens which was brilliant then headed back down first thing on Saturday morning.
First job was to launch the skiff and take her on her maiden voyage around the pier head to sign up for the weekend. Very very pleased with it. Its very light and very stable. I can stand in the bow or sit to one side or on the back seat without any problem, this is were the apple pie suffers as it has to be treated more like a kayak. With two on board, one sat on the back seat I was able to row from the front seat which is quite a nice high rowing position and helped reduce the slamming in a good chop, something which it certainly does with one on board. It is quite confidence insiring and it will work a treat for carrying the family about. Great value for money really as I reckon it cost me about 250 euros. If someone wanted to build a really slap dash one it could be done for half that but as the end result is surprizing nice its worth making a nice job of it.
Next was to get the new mainsail bent on on Teal, Took me a while but got it sorted. I put the cords on the side panel doors as well so it was great to finally be able to put food and bit and pieces away in the cupboards and have a nice little work top to make sandwiches and cups of coffee etc. It means a lot to have a place for everything on a small boat.
The sailing went great. A few friends made a spur of the moment trip from Galway and made up my crew for Saturday. The wind was perfect giving us just about the limit of full sail including the big jib so we had a great blast around the course for the first sail of the season . Sunday the conditions started lighter and variable but we had some great racing and after a confusing start which we almost missed we were 3rd round the first mark. As it progressed the bigger boats over took us and we concentrated on picking on people our own size. We had a great finish and on the beat across the line managed to regain two places on a Galway hooker and a Lobster boat which had overtaken us on the previous run.
We came away with a 2nd place. I think in cruising boat class ( I missed most of the prize giving and just walked in as they were calling out Teal's name and position) I think we were 3rd or 4th in the group we started with, Hard to tell which boats were in which category. Either way I was very pleased to come home with one this years hand painted plaques.
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