Thursday 16 August 2018

Chelmarsh: British Moth Nationals 2018


Stuart Hutchinson has shared a video on YouTube that he shot on the first day at the recent British Moth Nationals in Chelmarsh. It covers the briefing and the Practice Race that followed.


If you want to skip the briefing and get straight to the action, the race itself starts at 10 minutes in, where you get to see me (sail number 829) completely bungle the start by getting shut out at the committee boat end. In my defence, not that I'm feeling defensive, I was being very cautious. I was in an unfamiliar, borrowed boat after all. And I have previous form for shunting committee boats.

And I recover. I struggle my way back through the close fleet of over 30 boats to reach fourth place before the end of that first lap, the closest I got to the front over the entire event; and then throw it all away with my one capsize of the week as we round the leeward mark (at 15:06 minutes in).

It was a great week. Reminded me of just how tricky these little boats can be to sail, how close the racing is and what a brilliant fleet they are to both sail and socialise with.

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