As Paul Johnson said at the golf club I think outside the square, and even though the boat sails good I will continue to work and experiment to see if there is anything I can improve and develop to help me be more competitive.
I feel I have come a long way in my short 10 months. I started with a DF65 which was part built when supplied, then decided to get the DF 95 which I bought in parts and assembled totally from scratch. This gave me a great understanding of how to put a boat together and make it reliable. That boat is not class legal as I have since added some weight to gain better upwind performance with little downwind sacrifice against the IOM boats and a better balance.
I decided to get an IOM boat and particularly a D4 as it is not a Vickers; most people at the club have or are buying and building V10’s, and nothing will drive me on more than me developing my skills and the boat to compete and finish in front of their more expensive boats; also I don’t like a sport where money buys you wins, eg F1 cars, go karting, etc. I have promised to put up a $50 prize for the next ranking regatta we run for the IOM, for the first non-Vickers boat, as an incentive!
I have just about finished refurbishing the boat have been through everything now including winch out; cleaned and reset the travel for my radio etc., just a little work to do on the B rig; will fit a jack line in the mainsail and a wire luff in the jib and then will work on tuning and adjustments to suit my style.
Last week did some tuning on mine and Gary’s 56 boat and they matched Paul Johnson’s V10 for speed in A rig conditions.
Personally, I feel that my limited knowledge can be a help rather than hindering me, as I need to learn quickly and evaluate what is good and bad regarding advice, and I tend to read a lot on the internet and look at pictures of good practice etc. This really helped with the little boats as they are big in Europe so loads of info there.
Having had the boat a month now, I now need more stick time to tune and improve my sailing skills.
The no sailing background is good and bad; good because I experiment and make mistakes and learn quickly from them; bad as I am having to learn how to read the wind and water, lines and where, and where not, to put the boat to gain or lose.
I got great satisfaction from the 4th place in the last race of the S.I. Champs, as it proves I’ve done similarly in club races. If I put together the whole race package, good start, good choices and sensible sailing, to hold my place, etc, with more practice to become consistent, I will develop and advance in the sport and enjoy it more.
Look forward to catching up again as I will definitely contest some more ranking events in the future. Will not be as nervous next time and should have improved my starting techniques re holding the boat on the line etc.
Kind regards
Colin Clark