Bad call, missed a perfect day.
Tue, 4 Oct 11 18:03
As I sit here now, an absolutely perfect sailing day is going completely to waste outside. It makes me feel sick.
I simply made a bad call and we missed it.
The day was building very slowly and I decided to make a call on it by 4p.m.
At that stage we were only getting gusts to 18 knots and it wasn't building. I decided to take the windsurfer across and get a feel for speed-spot.
We don't really need to go out on the marginal days anymore as we are aiming higher up the wind and speed range now. It really needs to be at least averaging 22 knots to be worthwhile now. That means gusts to 25. They day started late and just didn't feel like it was going to build.
I was struggling a little with the 5.7 meter sail so figured it was on the light side. It stayed that way for an hour... but then it started to get punchy. Now it was too late to get VSR2 tooled up and over. I began to feel bad knowing that we should have been across there waiting for the last hour of the day.
It was windy as I blasted back across the lagoon to the Yacht Club and I got the guys to go and take some wind readings. Sure enough, gusting to 26 knots!!!
We haven't made a bad weather call in a long time but that is no excuse. Here we sit, a foreign team that has made all the effort to bring ourselves and this boat to this spot for exactly these conditions, we are only 500 meters away and have no other purpose other than to be on standby for exactly this... and we missed it. These days are priceless. Yep... sick!
We should be sick from drinking champagne.
So, it was my call and I got it wrong. Apologies to everyone. It won't happen again. We will be sitting over there, rig up in drysuits at any chance.
Damn it!!!
Paul
Gettuppa!!
Submitted by Macca on Mon, 10/10/2011 - 07:09.Hey Lars,
What's going on over there, didn't get my normal Monday morning smoko read? Hope all's well mate, been an interesting couple of weeks of reading. I'm sure the wind will gettuppa in time for you to sort everything out, take it to it's limits and smash the record. Bad calls, don't make me laugh, if none of us made any, we'd all be sitting on a beach watching you trying to break a world record or ya neck, like the old days!! Good luck mate, will be watching in anticipation.
Macca
Updates wanted
Submitted by orca99 on Mon, 10/10/2011 - 02:36.Come-on Paul
Please give us a couple of lines in your blog every day; there are many of us who tries to follow your efforts from far away, but there has been no updates for over a week.
Simply standing by...
Submitted by Paul on Mon, 10/10/2011 - 06:53.Hi Orca, the last week has consisted of mostly light winds unsuitable for sailing. VSR2 sits ready and waiting to go when conditions allow. It looks like this will be today. When wehave these periods we get on with the joblist. A new front planing surface will be added to assist initial acceleration. When it is fitted we will show pictures. The wood has been bought to erect the new filming platform. Alex has worked his way through a host of electrical issues... but we aren't there yet. I've fitted the cockpit seats back..... you know what, you're right. I'll do a blog.
Cheers, Paul
Bloody Hell Paul, I been
Submitted by monomuncher on Wed, 10/05/2011 - 06:05.Bloody Hell Paul, I been hanging here, checking your web site like every 5 minutes, (smiley face)
Sail it like you stole it! I do....
keep swinging for the fences
Submitted by Vd0gg1t on Wed, 10/05/2011 - 05:02.Babe Ruth held the record for most home runs AND strike outs. Keep swingin' you'll touch 'em all soon enough. (baseball playoffs in the U. S.)
if only
Submitted by Paolo Manganelli on Tue, 10/04/2011 - 23:50.Kudos to you Paul for what you just wrote
If only a fraction of all the leaders/CEOs/politicians/skippers/etc. were this frank when they think they screwed up, planet earth would be an even better place to live in
Bad Call
Submitted by johnk on Tue, 10/04/2011 - 20:17.It might well be worth going out in less strong winds to try and maximise the ratio of boat speed to wind speed. This could help in settings when the wind does blow.
Hey, no sweat!
Submitted by Christian Breitung on Wed, 10/05/2011 - 00:40.Paul,
as we all know, hindsight is always 20/20. Missing ONE sailing day (actually a couple of hours towards darkness) is much better than erring on the other side and breaking the boat in adverse conditions, isn't it?
Sailing is a WIND sport, after all - who is a fickle friend. How many times in your career have you brought the wrong equipment, rigged the wrong sails, chosen the unfavorable course?
It will come - we keep crossing as many fingers as we can!
Don't worry, it's something
Submitted by jurop88 on Tue, 10/04/2011 - 18:43.Don't worry, it's something that could happen to everybody! We know next time you'll be there... Go VSR2, go!!!