Thursday 24 December 2009

Carry on Doctor

Ouch Ouch and fucking Ouch and Santa has bought me some crutches for Christmas. Only my medical records made me smile with the wonderfully ambiguous sentence "Damaged knee while constantly sailing for 25 years".

If only...About 6 hours is a good as it gets these day.

The general anaesthetic wasn't a pleasant experience and possibly, and in hindsight, was made worse by staggering in at one that morning having consumed a barrel of beer and a curry in lieu of a good nights sleep.

But help is at hand and my parents are up, and although my mum would ideally have put the vegetables on last Thursday, and is still eyeing the microwave with some suspicion, Christmas dinner will be great with the family.

But pleasant thoughts of sailing at Pro Vela, Dubai and Silvaplana without a damaged knee means that my campaign has started already, although admittedly in a hospital.

A wonderful Merry Christmas to all the guys I've raced against this year both at HISC and on the curcuit, and all my friends and fellow Moth sailors. May you put on loads of weight for a great, and hopefully lighter, 2010 ;-)

Cheers
Si

Saturday 5 December 2009

Mock the week

Saturday morning and I'm there with the guys, eagerly looking at the results, swapping war stories and kicking back in a sailings version of a post coital nap.

The only problem is they are in Sydney and I'm on skype.

Its SIRS regatta and I'm green with envy. I've not really thought about racing for a while but I knew it would come back. The Devil wears carbon.

Dave Lister is the man, winning the dash for cash and the first day of SIRS. He is showing exceptional downwind speed, the tricks of which he passed on to Little Dave who used it to win the Worlds. No twisting tiller for Big Dave, just a bit of rope and a tilting gantry (a al International 14's) married to a very small and symmetrical rudder horizontal.

John Harris '08 World Champ is picking up speed in his new Mach 2 in the same way the "Flying Scotsman" picks up speed. Slowly and puffing at first, yet when going almost impossible to stop.

The dash for cash saw 16 boats and Big Dave won whilst JH and Nathan came together in the same way tectonic plates come together and this leaves me wondering whether Colin Newmans "fired out of a circus cannon" helmeted look isn't more sensible than I thought.

Scotty, who would probably have been favorite, missed the dash for cash in favour of the office Christmas party, Swot.

This week saw the boys at McConaghy donate a new Mach 2 to the children's charity "Variety". A magnificent gesture from Mark and Jono, in possibly the most challenging economic times for many many years. The boat will be on eBay 21st of January if you fancy a bid.