Team Photo in our new Zhik gear
Sitting in the deserted crew house, (yes I have the whole house to myself woo hoo!) eating my way through a mound of Fajitas (serves 4) it’s time to reflect on my little excursion away from the Figaro and single handed sailing and my ever so quick foray back into fully crewed sports boat racing.
Spi Ouest saw 118 other J80 team’s come to do battle on what was by far the most competitive fleet of France’s Cowes Week equivalent. For Team Baltic it was our first event with THE crew, Ryan Gerrish (trim), Henry Bagnall (tactics) and Ashley Bower (bow), which will compete in the J80 World Championships being held in our home port of Dartmouth later this year. With a local sponsor in Baltic Wharf Boatyard, a local boat and with local sailors all originating from the area, all under the age of 25, it’s a pretty cool programme to be involved in.
Repairs well underway for Ar…mis 37
A few mishaps early in the week, including kite halyards failing and ‘that black flag’ put pay to us getting a top result, but as a ‘training regatta’ goes it went very well. We tried out our new sails which require a slightly different, straighter rig, set up and seemed fast throughout the week, finishing up 20th out of 118 boats.
It appears I wasn’t the only ‘Figaroer’ indulging in extracurricular activities at Spi Ouest as I bumped into numerous guys on the dock and around the town. In fact 4 other Figaro’s skippers were also skippering in the J80 fleet as well which was good fun and made me feel like, just maybe, this was good training for a Solitaire after all…
Popping by the yard in Lorient today on my way back to the crew house, work is well underway on Artemis 37, she’s looking in a bit of a bad state bless her but she is in good hands and will be back out on the water soon. In the mean time I am training on Ollie’s boat 43 while he is away. Nick and Sam arrive back later this week as the final build up to their epic double handed Transat gets underway, peace and quite at Artemis HQ couldn’t last for ever!
A plus,
H
