Flying Fifteen Insurance - More Data Points....

Probably most of us have now settled our Flying Fifteen insurance quotes for the 2011 season, but we just had a message come into datchetman@flyingfifteen.com from someone who has shopped around pretty thoroughly....

He has a two year old FF which he values at around £17k for insurance purposes. He tried Towergate and got a quote for £500, and Biffa's Cobra Brokers offered £375 a year ago. Our correspondent has settled though to go with Navigator and General this year at £206. Of course, bear in mind all of Keith Jamieson's good advice about checking the small print and policy features, but lets face it - that's quite a big difference. But here's the rub...

Our correspondent says that Navigator and General are the Underwriter for Cobra.... it's the same insurer... I checked and by golly, he's right.... More and more mysterious - we have a year now to figure it out for the next time around...

Winter Warm Up Starts February 6th - Breeze Forecast...

Smashing breeze forecast for Racing on Sunday - yeee haaa !!! At last, a bit of breeze - positively balmy too at 11 degrees!

See you there.....

The VC's Dream?...

This is the kind of thing that makes the VC's heart leap .....

http://thetroublewitholdboats.blogspot.com/2011/02/guess-what-we-found-in-coal-store.html

FF Midwinter Championship Results at Burton....

The MidWinters Results from Burton last weekend have just come up in my mail. It seems they had good breeze on the Saturday, but a bit of a windless time on Sunday. Nonetheless, they got a good set of results in. Our frequent winter guests (and National Measurer!), Chris Swallow and Arthur George bagged two firsts, and took the event overall. Mike Kilbee came second and Malcolm Hall was third in 2984 - who said these boats don't have a long racing life !!!! Fantastic !!

You can read the full report on the Yachts and Yachting Flying Fifteen page at
http://www.yachtsandyachting.com/news/?article=155588

Blogs Gone Mad....

Good News, Fleet - Big day on Datchetman.... 180 views on our site today....a new daily record....

Bad News - I've no idea why...... :-)

FF World Youth Championship...??

Datchetman is pretty reliant on having Google automatically scan the world wide web each day looking to see what is going on in the Flying Fifteen Class. Tonight, Google has turned up a page on the ISAF website which suggests that that Hayling this year will hold an FF Youth Championship alongside the Worlds. A mistake do you think??....

Here is the link:-

http://www.sailing.org/regattainfo.php?rgtaid=13093

Grafham Inlands....

For those of us who are keen circuit racers, and indeed who want to qualify for the Hayling Worlds,... the date for the Inland Championship is 16/17 April and the venue is Grafham.... GWSC's website have just started posting information about it. The event is concurrent with a Larks Open.

Winter Warm Up - Application Reminder....

As my wife would say, "just in case you forgot".....

The Winter Warm Up Series starts at Datchet this weekend. It is free to Club Members, and the Club would appreciate it if you could email them your completed application form in advance. (See download under "Interesting Links") Takes about two minutes, or three if you are slow.....

If you are a visitor and joining us for the series, it would be a good idea if you emailed Philip in advance asking about the best parking spaces to use. You can contact him via VC@flyingfifteen.co.uk

See you there!!

Flying Fifteen - Hayling Worlds Qualifier's Table...

Have you seen the Worlds Qualifier Table as we enter the Year of the Hayling Worlds? Makes quite interesting reading...

First thing that is interesting is that there are 110 boats in the table - presumably the total of all boats who entered qualifier events in 2010. That's a pretty healthy total for the class, I'd say. The next thing is about the Top 6 and whose sails they use (I'm not wholly sure, but think there's a bit of a skew...). Way out front are Steve Goacher and Phil Evans - very dominant players in 2010 (3pts). Then Dave McKee, author of the excellent tuning article in our download links, on the right of this screen. Then we have Mike Hart, Simon Kneller (A previous Datchet Midwinters winner), Graham Vials - and then "our" Charles (18 pts) in the amazing new carbon boat from Composite Craft....

Other interesting rankings - Alan Bax is at 10, and former coaching guru at Datchet, Greg Wells, is at 11. Brett Dingwall is at 13 and still gives his Club as Datchet - Hurrah, Hurrah!!

Ian Linder, currently gracing our Winter Series in 3851, is at 19. Another Datchet Winter Member, Matt Glasgow (in my old boat!) is at 43, Tom Hall yet another previous Datchet Winter Member is at 44. Adam and Emma are at 58 and Andy and Nadia are at 61 - "Hip Hip...." for both our stars!!! ...

You can see the full table at

http://www.flying15.org.uk/racereports/results2010/F15_world_qualifiers_2011.htm

Rig Gauges - Superspar and Loos, the Merits...

Richard Stenson borrowed my rig tension meter last week to try on 3632 .... It was interesting for the both of us to figure out what was going on. My gauge is one of those fancy Loos PT-1 jobs....

Probably the most popular gauge in our fleet is the Superspar model. Well, it is a more reasonable price for a start. You need to know though that the VC and I lined up about 6 of them last year to see how they compared. The result was hysterically funny - the same shroud read everything between 24 and 36 depending which gauge you used. Mine, of 1995 vintage was kind of in the middle of the pack, but I immediately just threw it away. Pointless... Wish I'd done something constructive with it - like give it to Mark and Tony as a present - ha ha ha ha !!

We've now tried a similar trial on a handful of Loos gauges - we used one of those on the Dragon as well. The consistency result was much, much better, but I would say they can still get a bit tired or are just not built as consistently as you might think for the money. Basically you can expect plus or minus one variation in the readout. Mine reads plus one above the official Goacher Sails gauge, for example.

Next thing that I noticed Richard S doing was measuring the tension too low near the shroud plate. You get an end-error effect on the wire. The recommendation from Alan Bax is to measure about a metre up. I know you're not all as tall as the VC, but putting the gauge on upside down helps. The tuning guides from P&B, Goacher, Speed Sails etc I think all give their rig tensions assuming you are using the Superspar. Well - a new Superspar, and not the worn out used-1000-times one that lived my toolbox. (I should have kept it to loan to new members!!!....) The accepted standard rig-ten number on FFs, if I recall correctly, is the magic "28.5 on a Superspar". (This assumes you know what sort of shroud wire you have...)

Have you thought about whether 28.5 is the same on a Loos as on a Superspar?? If you go to the North Sails 470 tuning page (ha ha ha - I know, I know - the evenings have been long...) at http://www.northsails.co.jp/products/470/pdf/470_tuning_guide_e.pdf you will see on the first page a little table which compares Superspar and Loos gauges. There are two Loos gauge types there, but I think the critical thing is that
28-29 on Superspar equals 25-26 on the Loos PT-1......

Comments please to datchetman@flyingfifteen.com

Race Report - Sunday 30th January....

A crisp but blue sky morning greeted an eager fleet of eight FF teams, all snug in their drysuits.... but sort of glowing.... with a good 10mph North Easterly. The racing was coincident with the Topper Midwinters, (220 entrants) but there seemed plenty of room and no toddlers were mown down (as far as we know....). The starboard handed course though was a shade windward/leeward - the first reach being a bit too tight for spinnakers and the other downwind legs being a tad blunt.... The wing mark was tucked behind the pier which was unusual - I thought at one point from the Clubhouse that Ian/Kevin were tempted to go under it, but sadly they chickened out. I've always wondered if an FF would fit.... Eight boats as a fleet was was pretty good - Howard/Richard cried off with Sunday working excuses, and the VC didn't make the promised appearance in 3888 because of the cold bringing on his Jordan problem again ("Trouble with my Chest" is what he actually said when I phoned him....!!). No sign of Andy as I think Nadia is travelling. The Admiral though has been in touch by text today from Namibia where he is trying to convert the locals to Datchetman.... (must check the stats...)

The first race split quickly into two groups with a clear gap by the second windward mark. Ian/Kevin opened up a good lead from Mark/Tony, then followed by The Millars and John/Helen. The second group slipped back a little but Mervyn was leading it just ahead of The Stensons, then Steve/Simon and Roger/Kathryn. As the fleet came up to the Clubhouse mark for the final time, the first reach was too tight for spinnakers at the outset, with Ian/Kevin leading Mark/Tony by a good margin. John/Helen had managed to get past The Millars on the beat and rounded just ahead - getting the Vice Cap'n on the podium yet again!! Mervyn tells me his boat was on the speed today, but had hilarious tales of pointing the thing the wrong way, mark altercations and so on. I reckon though they are getting in the groove now.

From where I was standing over a hot tea in the lounge, the damned steam was clouding up the binos. Race two seemed to get away cleanly, with everyone streaming around the committee boat end on what looked a very starboard biased line. The fleet looked dauntingly close going up the initial beat - and the first three teams were very closely stacked at the top mark. This time it was Mark/Tony out front with Ian/Kevin really close on their heels. John/Helen rounded third. Then a small gap and it was The Stensons around 4th, followed by Steve/Simon who seem to be stepping up the speed in 3827 now. They were followed by Mervyn and The Millars. Midnight Rog managed to run over his spinnaker, so he was busy cutting things off trying to sort it out. The second time at the Clubhouse, the fleet was still close but the fleet order I think was settled. DM looked around to see that Kathryn had parted company with Midnight Rog, who was sharpening up his FF singlehanded skills - obviously not their day - ho ho!! Then we got pretty busy on jettyboy-duty trying to get The Midnight Team safely shore, which rather took the eye off the final lap. The PRO team have not yet posted the final results, but I think it was Mark/Tony (Hurrah!), Ian/Kevin then John/Helen.