something a little different

Over the last summer i had the opportunity to go back to my sailing roots, as they say...the Skate Nationals were being held at my old home club down on Botany Bay...so i thought, that could be fun, 19 crazy Skate sailors all zooming around the confines of Woolooware Bay and Georges River...for the uninitiated, the Skate class goes back along way, this was the 55th running of the class Nationals...and these boats are a little bit different...with 2 leaning planks hanging over the side, the crew on an extended version so his feet are nearly a metre off the sides...basically a very high powered, high leverage, lite weight speed machine...why so fast?? well the hull weight for one thing is only 55kgs, and the hull shape can best be described as a "coffin"...slab sides with hard chines all the way to the bow...so they "Skate" across the water...very short at only 14feet long and less than a metre wide

over the past years the Skate class has modified its rules and stayed with modern sailing trends...carbon rigs and square top sails and of course a bow pole...so a bit different from when i first sailed Skates many moons ago

so i found a boat with built in crew, and so the story of my first Skate Nationals in over 20 years begins...watch the vid for highlites of Race 1...im on a yellow hulled boat sail no.983 with white kite, red around edges...and wow what a week i was in for...breeze, breeze and more breeze...would i be ready for 7 races???
lets see what happens hey...any guesses??? yes involves some crashes and some great rides..all on video
more to follow in next few day...enjoy the vid of this classic Australian sailing dinghy

what i will say about Race1...we had planned some training days before the week long Nationals, sadly didnt happen, then too fresh to sail on Invitation Race...so it came down to Race 1 and im thinking, ye ok i sort of remember how to do this, hope its a lite wind day to get things going...oh no its NOT...day 1 on the beach and breeze is building from the south and hitting around 18knts...and im shitting myself...this, i was thinking is not what i signed up for

at least i didnt have a massive wipe out like some...see vid at 5.13 for one of the best crashes filmed...my crashes come later in the week
as allways, comments welcome