Spinnaker trimming made easy

After our little mishap in the swinge at the weekend, Martin has very helpfully sent through this guide to the successful flying of a spinnaker.


Looks easy doesn't it? Can't understand how we got it so wrong.

Carey Olsen race to Alderney

Less said the better really, it chucked it down with rain and we came ninth or something. Then we went to the Divers.

We had been doing alright, max speed 10 knots, wind on the beam the whole way up and then a spinnaker run to the finish. Hmmm, spinnaker run. It's traditional to hoist a spinnaker, and attach it to a pole like device on the front of the boat. If you don't do that, it flaps around quite a lot, and generally looks a bit embarrassing. Needless to say Spike owes us all a few beers.

We probably would have been third!


Here's a shot of the skipper enjoying the nice weather...

More photos are online here: www.samfieldphotography.com

Tour des Ports - Chilly Snr's round up...

The mighty Jade is back in Guernsey now, so we spoke to Chilly Snr about the crews performance in the Tour, winning a stage and generally showing the frenchies how this sailing lark is done...

Blue Jade Blog:“So, let me get this straight - we sailed to Carteret to race straight back to Guernsey

Chilly Snr: “Yup”

“Did they feed all 800 of us that nice rotisserie chicken and chips, lots of wine and calvados and sing that loud sailing song”

“Yup – and a Russian marching band”

“A Russian marching band?”

“Yup”

“OK – then what”

“Then we raced to Guernsey and came 4^th in our class”

“Any race highlights?”

“Charlie puked on a dolphin”

“Oh poor thing”

“Yeah – the dolphin was none too happy either”

“OK – then what?”

“Then we raced from Guernsey to Granville and came first in class and first overall”

“Wow – great result !”

“Yup – hard work but a great team effort and nice paella at midnight as a reward”

“Race highlights?”

“Singing the theme from Dambusters, complete with goggles actions as the RAF boat ‘attempted ‘ to pass us”

“Great – then what?”

“Then we raced from Granville to Jersey around Les Iles de Chausey – very beautiful – 9^th place”

“Good result ! - Race highlights?”

“Gusts to 29 knots with the No 1 up – Mick trawling with the spinnaker – finding Blue Jade in the middle of Jersey harbour at midnight with a random Frenchman steering – just the usual really”

“ Hmmm – I see – then what”

“Race cancelled so a casual relaxed cruise to Dielette, chicken chute up 10.9 knots surfing – yeehah…..”

“Good party in Dielette I hear?”

“Oh yes”

“Any details?”

“No”

“Oh go on"

“ Well I could relate Spike stealing a 6ft flag on a pole and getting collared, or hoisting flowers up the committee boat masts, or the French kid with the bowel problem or the…….”

“Yes, yes – we get the picture – then what”

“Bailed out back to Guernsey due to a bad weather forecast – as we missed a race dropped to 9th place overall”

“Any new boat names this year?”

“Forward aka fwd aka Fair Weather Dave, Phil as in Phil the Dishwasher (courtesy of Ron’s exploits on Liana), Findus aka Mick following his trawling exploits (Findus the fisherman), and the all time crew favourite - Little Chief Pukes on Dolphins”

“Do it again?”

“Oh – yes”

Impi Shield - thar she blows (chunks)...

Heavy seas, freezing cold rain and fog - exactly what you'd expect for a summery jaunt to France and back. The Impi shield, a new race (for money - not sure what we think about that yet), was to the Roches Douvres and back - and coincided with some pretty rotten weather.

Here's a pic just after the start, before I had to hunker down and try to keep warm and relatively dry!

Alice leading - followed by Moojo

Suffice to say, a pretty glum time was had on the long reach into the wind, huge swells of St Martin's point took their toll on one member of our crew, who spent the remainder of the race looking a very pale green.

Downwind was more fun, as we made the most of good winds and big waves to surf our way to 11.2 knots!

Third over the line, 4th overall as a Sadler 25, finishing 3 hours behind us (and 4 behind the leaders) came through on handicap to win the race.

Never again? Depends on the weather...

Update from le Tour

Stage two is complete, and whilst some of us have to work, the Blue J'Ade crew are out tireleslly showing the frenchies how to sail.

Race update came in this morning from Chilly Snr.

Results

Carteret to Guernsey - 4th place.
Guernsey to Grainville - 1st place.

The J'Ade is currently sitting pretty in 1st overall, out of 108 boats. 106 of which are French.

Chilly Snr also said something about the French plumbing system in Grainville taking a hammering after a crew outing to the curry house, but details are (mercifully) unconfirmed.

More on le Tour des Ports...

Sunset photos

From the Dinard race - thanks very much Richard Evans..

Jersey skippers eh?

This is the Knight Star (from Jersey) after an 'embarrassing misjudgement'.

'Half the fleet had cleared the rocks, but we clearly got too close to them'

Read more here...