To help us track what we have done. I might remember to fill this out….

Been a bit slack on keeping track of this, but EJ now has a serious number of water miles on the clock. In January we moved to a Hyde Main and have had alot of fun at Chew. Sadly the weed is rising and the water dropping, so we will not be playing at Chew again till the Autumn.

Paul Croote caught a bit of our last weed encounter at Chew on video. Please forgive the bow trim, if you look carefully you will be able to see the T-foil is in upside down and we are in “spoiler mode”.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WyOXi9HPDM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8oIGHlNZdQ&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

During the week we grafted a new tip onto the old mast and then went down for our first sail at the “Summer” sailing club. Lovely place, lovely people - we both felt truely at home.

Atum, E-Numbers and EJ went for a pleaseant evening ride on the escalator. Wind dropped as we launched and the promising 3 descended into a cunning drifter of boat vs tide. The racing was a sailing version of utlimate wipout - only those lucky enough to score a gust on their voyage from the shore shelter to the windward mark actually got around it, failure to round delivered the boat back to the start line. Great enterainment value to watch, a ba$%^rd to sail.

Atum fought gamely in conditons not entirely suited, but gave the Kirks a run for thier money retiring after one lap. We think E-Numbers retired after hitting the windward mark twice (turns took them past the gybe mark). EJ had a new mast and not enough uppers on, consequently had issues tacking (like 100m backwards in the tide at every tack trying to pop the main). After an hour we technically failed to reach the windard mark. EJ retired happy to have a new stick in place and being the only Cherub present to not capsize.

As we left the beach the mast became a two piece item. No drama or bang just folded at the top. Inspection of the break - looks a bit frayed at the joint, but nothing clear. This is very different to our last tip malfunction.

This mast was not new - first outing in Babbacoombe nationals last summer. Think the mast was simply too bendy and went in fatigue after one stress cycle too many.

BGM appears not to be deterred, on landing H was offered the choice of stop, buy a c-tech or get sticky. Made a new mast base tip on Sunday - 4 hours form start to turning the urn on. New mast tip mandrel will be ready and a tip off it by the end of the week. In the mean time we have a an old-style tip to graft into place on the current stump. This will be an OK spare, but we do not think it will last more than 30 outings.

Horray - it all works.

Went for a gentle evenign sail. Started the race behind the medium handicap (i.e. 2 satrts late) and by the end of the lap was past the Vortex and up with the 4000. Twinnign accross Chew chasing stationary boats was great until we hit the island. Luckily all the weed meant we were stationary before impact.

All systems used and work well. Roll on Poole.

A weekend of grinding sticking and generally enjoyable recouperation in the sun. Not too much wind here. Both helm nad crew physically unfit to sail ¹⁾. Items played with:

• Self tacker. New carbon support. A Z-shaped molded section that the track fits onto. Minimum radius 1500mm, but flatter in the centre.Mounted at 30(ish) degrees to horizontal, bogged into hull at centre and ends.

• ProGrip patches added

• Raised cleat support for kicker and cunno.

• New rudder stock started. This will give a twisty grip and the adility to launch at Thornbury.

Team EJ had a real shocker. We have done some running repairs on the bits rushed in order to leave the room of requirement, every one of them failed.

Day 1: Self tacker stopped tacking. Absolute farce involving crew having to force the car across. Kite got 3 more twists with every hoist, eventually with about 20 twists in the top it was not possible to set it. Helm got grumpy, we came in. 2 starts, no finishes.

Day 2: Slept, stripped the kite halyard and rigged the jib to set via the T-foil blocks. Kite run to start line everything felt fantastic. Boat sang along under kite down to the start.

Once the 5 minute gun went everything went wrong. T-Foil cleats not at a good enough angle to keep hold of the job on starboard, moved control to jib tower and started late. The port jib sheet went on strike shortly after, but we discovered that H could stand on it whilst trapezing and we made good ground on the fleet ahead.

When we hoisted the stripped halyard burnt through the pulley and jammed. After a swim to retrieve the kite it was Game over and we limped to shore.

List to sort before we sail next:

• Self tacker. This needs new geometry, with the mounting plate removed and re-fitted and the support ears replaced. We got the positioning of this badly wrong first time out.
• Pro grip patches. One on each side for the crew and one in the middle for the helm.
• Bungs.
• Kite system. New halyard required (another). 20 hoists and drops on shore to be completed without glitch before boat hits the water next.

Grumpy helm having to go to singapore in the evening made all smiles by a cheeky little sail. Wind was only a force 2-3 in every direction possible, but EJ picked up her heels and some fun was had by all.

Drops made easier by replacing the block on the top of the mast with any allen one (the only harken on the boat was burnt out!). Helm loosing a few kg's and being much fitter makes a big difference.

Only negative was the first noise ever made by the rig. Small pop and a small loss of tenstion. Think the mast foot settled, but a full examination needed on return to the uk.

No wind again for the Wednesday race - nice to be sailing after work though.

To celebrate being on holiday went for a session. Got truely munched.

In the post mortem we think it went like this. As R got into the boat H stood on the leward tiller extension. Being made of fishing rod it simly bent and went under the rack. It was blowing 4-6. Boat completely wild and as she sped up the tiller extension dragging in the water had more control of the boat than the one in R's hand.

After 4 swims we had a boat upright and could steer. But we were very cold and tired. Then the jib sheet parted from the jib and we descided EJ did not want to play.

A no wind. Feel a bit bad for tipping the balance for Atum and subjecting us both to a drifting farce. Paul finished the evening race - we had a bad start and when the lasers came past called it a day.

Hmmm. Not the best weekend for team Trim. Both shattered and felt a bit like we had run a marathon before we actually hit the water. After a slow start we got short, but tiring sail on both days, water was very cold. Communication on-board was a bit non-existant and a few swims followed. Some big grins heading upwind in the proper wind and an inkling that the boat will work when tamed.

Many thanks for Tom K. for putting his body on the line and taking a guest for a sail in EJ. Watching from the shore/rescue boat was entertaining and confirms the boat is actually very solidly built. Seeing a 6ft2 built 18ft skiffer bouncing on your board is strangely scary. Sadly they did eventually wear through the trap line lashings onto the mast and arrived back at shore a bit wet.

The weekend also confirms that the rig has a huge ammount of work needed. It is good in light, but there are a number of roping issues that need to be fixed. Watching the rig from not-on-board there is also suspicion that the Me-Tec ²⁾ is simply not stiff enough at the top.

Many thanks agian to Tom, and Digby for their guest slots on board.

There was no wind, but we thought we'd go say hello to Paul C. who was on rescue boat duty at Chew. After drinking some tea and playing with different self tacker options a zepher rippled the lake, so we went for a sail. Taking advantage of the coaching boat ³⁾ we swapped in and out of the rib for an enjoyable couple of hours.

• H needs to be sat in the chute to get the transom out of the water
• H liked having a helm who was competant (thanks Paul C)
• R crewed the boat for the first time and enjoyed just how stable the boat was.
• Limited single wiring, with a couple of seconds of twinning downhill for both P+H and P+R combinations.
• Paul slipped a couple of times, maybe some pro-grip will be needed afterall ⁴⁾.
• Self tacker appears to work a treat, will be removed and bent at first possible opportunity. The three point bending means it is almost straight at the extremities and most curved in the middle. This is the opposite of what is actually wanted.
• Sailing in zero wind is actually rewarding in this boat and we were still faster than the fireflys.
• It was very cold. When we lifted her out of the lake the droplets on the hull froze!

Am much happier about how she sails, the rig may actually work (although still needs alot of tweaking). Looking forward to two weeks time for our next outing.

EJ has sat in the rafters of my parent's garage since October. Hyaley and I have been stuck between London and Utrecht. Since our last sail we have sold our flat, moved into rental, bought a house in Bristol, joined Thornbury and are several kg's heavier than we should be. A mouse has taken a good deal of material away from H's sailing pants, but everthing else has survived the layup.

New self tacker appeared to work fantastically in light winds on Saturday and we had a nice gentle cruise around the lake. Sunday dawned with a complete mirror and then built to an almost fun force 2-3. We felt rusty, fat and not flexible as the boat took off. Unfortunately, the self tacker jammed again and another good day of playing was lost in a series of catapult capsizes. Track appears to be ok - pulleys are turning under load and causing friction…

Next outing we will deliberately practise water starting to get R into the boat. Even with the “make you look silly” Gill bouyancy aid R still can't fit between the racks and H is not heavy enough to conter balance an over th racks manouver.

NB. Paul now able to sail and be Bailey with a normal camera, this was life on Atum.

A lovely weekend at the friendly reservoir near Rugby. Lovely people and really good to bump into Mr Christi (although it appears that Tom has got all repectable and is a club sailing rear admiral or something).

Little to no wind on Saturday, so bimbled in the sun. Perfected a new method for making elasticated main-sheets and introduced the new kite to the boat. Went for a couple of gentle drifts including the first complete BMG three sail reach - this was very fun,but in a force 1-2!

Sunday as a perfect new cherub day. Started dreary with no wind and then built steadily to a full on 5-6 by teatime. Unfortunately we were on the trailer by then. Had two very similar outings. They followed the same script - shot across the lake stuffed in on a tack. Got her upright, got R in, shot across the lake stuffed it in on a tack. Got her upright, got R in, shot across the lake stuffed it in on a tack. Got her upright, got R in, shot across the lake stuffed it in on a tack.

Getting R back into the boat was hampered by a borrowed life jacket, this added the two inches needed for R to get stuck between rack and deck. Funny but not fast or elegant.His buoyancy aid was apparently being test sailed by an anonymous party, but we are very grateful they decided to return it to a hook in the changing room after use.

The good news is that we now understand why we bin it in on every tack. The not so good news is that we need either a new self tacking system or to build some more stiffness into the existing track. Under normal load the Allen track works a treat - it*s just not got enough support as fitted by us. The load on the car bends the track, the car locks and we go swimming.

This describes the first outing of a new boat. The author would seriously suggest to any new cherub sailor that one's first outing should not be attempted in restricted waters in 20+ knots of wind. We have sailed a couple of cherubs before and got a bit ahead of ourselves, the grins will last for longer than the bruises.

After spending 5 hours in traffic we arrived in Lymington on Friday night late and had to swap bimbling for dining. At 6am on Saturday morning it was blowing a stiff 4 in the marina and the ferry woke me up so I put on an extra fleece and tied the remaining fittings onto the hull. By 9am we were had relocated to the park adjacent to the yacht club and had the mast in place. The final bits needed (t-foil adjuster, actually putting the main on, battens, jib tack) took an age to complete and by the time we were ready the rest of the fleet had started race 2.

Dave and Lara kindly chose to arrive back to shore just when we were ready to leave, many thanks for helping us dodge the phone lines between the park and slipway. Maybe we should have followed their advice that it was “a bit narly out there”.

With Dave C. as a stabiliser we were released form the shore with not a small bit of trepidation. The boat leapt from the shore with no semblance of control, we missed the jetty, crossed the river and then had to bin it in to avoid a moored boat. Some choice words of encouragement were offered by my in-laws (attending in a tiny rib) and the source of the lack of steerage was traced to the rudder holding down rope no-longer being present.

After re-attaching the rudder, we righted the boat about 3 times and eventually I got in. The rest of the outing followed the following pattern:

 1) Boat sped up
 2) Nose went down
 3) Boat continued speeding up
 4) Nose went to "snorkelling baby", spray levels left both crew and helm struggling for air.
 5) Rudder cavitated
 6) Broach/capsize/both

We decided to drop the main and head in before we reached the mouth of the estuary. Arrived back to yacht club courtesy of my in-laws rib and a larger friendly rib.

After some significant de-briefing and a large dose of sleep we returned a little wary of our new green friend. We re-adjusted the T-foil to give a further 10 degrees more negative foil and raked the rig back 3 pins (a lot as our shroud plates are fairly chunky). After checking with the club that they were happy for us to try again we went for another swim

The first aborted launch attempt was to let a ferry pass, then we capsized righted and got settled. On the third attempt we left the slipway with both on-board. Unfortunately we misjudged how fast we would be and caught the ferry and had to follow it wobbling to stay upright for a minute or two to get to the point where there was enough free channel to overtake. Out in the main channel we got flat and twinning and headed upwind towards the race area. After 1/2 mile the main jammed in a block I had tied (not spliced) in place. So we twinned across the channel with using the rudder to keep the boat flat. Seriously fast, big grins from jumping the swell, more fun than I can describe. Then we tried to tack. Actually we tried about 8 times to tack, but with the main set in one position this proved a bit too much and eventually we went swimming to tape up the fitting. It took five attempts to get the boat upright and me in. After another two attempts we tacked. The dropped it in again avoiding a yacht (the main had jammed again). Lots more swimming and started to get tired. At this point we were within sight of people on the Island side.

After getting the boat upright and pointing in the mainland direction I was too tired to get over the rack - so hooked onto H's wire and stood on the side of the deck under the rack. H then pulled in enough main to pull me clear of the water. The following 2 sail death zone reach home will stay imprinted on my brain forever. The boat knife's through chop like it was not there, planes high and is a complete scream. H complains that she has serious bruising from the ride and in future would prefer to be on a wire rather than sat on the deck clinging on for dear life. Estimation of average speed across the channel is between 15-20 knots. The capsize that followed us running aground broke the tiller extension in 3 pieces across Hayley's bum. After removing the main and noddying back under jib the Harbour master gave us a ride to the yacht club (no way I was single sailing that trip with the ferries around).

Hayley has named our boat - “Exultant Jubilation”. Even in compromise mode she has already earnt her name.

Despite being bashed from pillar to post over the weekend (literally, we hit a couple of posts, a jetty and the mud) breakages were limited to a tiller extension and 3 of the lovely foot loops we were donated. In addition the trailing edge of the CB and the tip were too thin, but now appears to have found it's equilibrium point the expense of a few tears in my wetsuit. It appears that the sail material we used is also capable of taking a bit more of a flogging than we predicted - the jib still looks serviceable after two rides in on a rib!

The next outing will happen on a large reservoir, Grafham or Draycote are the favorites.