Edna

I am sailing Edna. Edna is a Prowler design moth that Paul put together for me over winter 2024 – 2025.  As a Christmas treat I was to be allowed to help with the sanding of the boat as part of its transformation from a neglected, outdated foiler rescued from the South coast, to the fastest lowrider on the water*.  All credit for the boat preparation obviously goes to Paul and I understand how fortunate I am to be able to jump into a race ready boat and just try to sail it fast. (*As proven by my hot-wheels prize at the nationals given by Sam for the fastest (in his opinion) boat!) 

Preparation

We have known since the Inlands at Burton in October that the nationals this year would be early in the season.  Mid May is early for a lot of people but particularly in Scotland where our club (Loch Lomond) doesn’t start racing until the end of April.  This meant we had to be proactive about staying fit and getting on the water over winter. Paul did more sailing than me – representing the fleet at a couple of the Sailjuice events as well as sailing at Largs.  Edna was launched in February and the first sail was in very light winds where the boat felt very floaty, wobbly and gust responsive – and that is compared to my previous Skippy…   The following weekend we went out in stronger winds and I capsized on the first 10 or so tacks as I learned that it doesn’t behave quite like the Skippy did! Having taken 5 years to learn to sail the Skippy I was slightly worried how long it would take me to learn a new boat.  Going to Bartley I still hadn’t really figured out how to turn corners but needed to take all opportunities to practice and see how the boat compared to others. I was pleased with the hints of speed in the gusty shifty conditions even though corners were very stop-start  (apologies to anyone who was behind me at the windward mark!). We luckily had a few more weekends with decent weather at home to get out and I just focussed on tacking and started to feel like I was understanding Edna a lot better. And, of course, we practiced a good few blasting reaches when the wind came.  After another bit of racing practice at Bala in shifty gusty conditions we were “ready” for the nationals…

The Event

We had all day Thursday to unpack the boats, chat to other early arrivals and get worried about how windy it was…  Deciding we really should get out on the water we went out while club sailors were getting ready for an evening race.  With the water on the shingle (not mud) and a cross shore easterly launching was easy, no breaking waves to worry about, although maybe I should have been a bit concerned about how Paul, (who had gone out sightly before me) kept disappearing behind lumps of water.  Got out to find that 14 knot wind against tide makes the water quite bumpy – but I had 15 minutes of fun testing my t-foil before coming back in safe and happy.

The Racing

Friday.

We had three races back-to-back in forecasts that were generally 12-17 knots, although some said a bit more. We were sailing 3 laps of a short trapezoid course to give races of ~30 minutes and minimal waiting in between racing as slower boats were finished after 1 or 2 laps. This is all from very blurry memory with a bit of help from results and go-pro footage to try to put the right memory with the right race…

Race 1.

It felt pretty breezy to me – some holes but generally 14 knots gusting 18 although it felt like more at times. Luckily with the North – North-East wind and an incoming tide it was much flatter water than the previous evening!  It is always great sailing around prestart seeing the range of moths on the water from the relatively “normal” looking Mistral and Skol of division 3, the development through the increasingly narrow Magnums to the Narrow division 1 boats, and of course the very cool looking Scows. First start I wanted to be safe but knew I couldn’t hold back too much with a decent sized fleet (16 boats sailed this one I think?). I ended up with a safe enough but not spectacular start and sailed off trying to keep the boat moving and ignore what everyone else was doing to start with. After a while a was heading out left into a bit of space so kept going a bit further to keep myself in clear air. After winter practice my tacking is now safe but not fast, but somehow I ended up on a nice port layline to the windward mark and with tide taking me higher I could free off and sail fast (OK – I overstood) to get round the first mark just ahead of Kevin (Kevin Hope, Axeman 7) and having to try to chase a rapidly increasing gap to Paul (Paul Hignett, Prowler), Martin (Martin Harrison, Axeman 7) and Nigel (Nigel Williams, Prowler).  While Paul and Martin sailed off ahead, during three laps of blasting reaches, wobbly runs there were plenty of place changes between me Nigel, and Kevin. I lost a places by tacking up the middle of the last beat but held off Nigel to get a 4^th overall in the first race. 

Race 2.

The wind seemed about the same as the first race. In any other boat I would say too windy for me – but Edna likes a good breeze and we’d had a fair amount of breezy practice at home. I decided I needed to get a good start this time, at the committee boat end, and wanted to try to find the way up the left of the beat that had worked well for me in 2 out of 3 laps in the first race.  In a crowded looking start luckily a gap appeared as the elastic stretched between the Magnum 6s of Lyndon and Ian and I took advantage and went in to sneak through and cross the line at speed to get a nice boost up the first beat. Heading a bit further left again than most people left me following Russ (Russ Wheeler, Hungry Tiger) round the windward mark.  Halfway down the first reach Russ’ Tiger decided it needed a cooldown and went in to windward allowing me past. With the speedo hitting 15 knots on the top reaches I was wimping out and wearing round too many of the gybes allowing people to catch up and pass resulting in plenty of place changes. But equally I avoided swimming which slowed some other people down. Paul was ahead at some point, but I managed to get in front by the final reach and hold him off to cross the line in front for my first nationals race win.

Race 3.

Still Windy.  I wanted a good start again but was a bit keen this time!  I ended up sailing down the line at speed and hoping everyone else was hanging back… Sure enough there was a second hoot and I was pretty sure it was me, but Ian was heading back to clear the line having been caught capsized the wrong side of the line before the start.  I sailed on for a few boat lengths but as he cleared the flag stayed up so I headed back. Avoiding the late starting Skol (Henry – who tried to have a chat with me while I was returning) I dipped the line to start again and work my way back through the fleet. Somehow with Edna’s speed on the reaches and finding the left hand boost up the beat over the 3 laps I passed several boats, leaving me again up swapping places with Nigel and Kevin. The final run I was racing Nigel when we got hit by a big, but isolated gust with no option but to fly into the moorings at nearly 16 knots hanging out the back of our boats. I wasn’t in a position to attempt to gybe so wore round in the hope that Nigel would “struggle” on his gybe…  He made it round easily and stormed off on the reach with Edna unable to quite catch him.  Kevin and Martin had been caught on the edge of this shifting gust leaving me somehow able to finish in 3^rd.  

Saturday

Race 4.

Sitting in 2^nd overnight was great – but I fully, and as it turns out rightly, expected it to be all downhill from there.  Light shifty winds was going to make sailing across the tide tricky.  Having got stuck in the mud up to my knees launching, and then forgotten my watch (which turned out to be on my bouyancy aid all along) I sailed a bad race from the start!  A combination of overthinking shifts and tides, holes and gusts, and getting it mostly wrong meant I was way down the fleet even before I followed Paul to get caught the wrong side of a big shift which put us both well down. I then hit a huge clump of weed at the wing mark which brought me to a standstill. A capsize to clear it and I finished in 10^th.  At least with 4 races sailed that could hopefully be my discard…  No more races were sailed on Saturday as the sun came out and the wind switched off and we all got a ride in the tide back to the club to enjoy afternoon drinks in the sun.

Sunday

Race 5.

Feeling much less confident after Saturday in light and shifty conditions it was a pleasant surprised to have a fairly steady medium breeze for the first race.  With my watch on this time my start was OK, I managed to get away and although not pointing well there was enough wind to be hiking upwind so I had reasonable speed. Rounded the windward mark just ahead of Russ we chased down Nigel and Kevin on the first reach and in the medium wind I managed to gybe well enough to keep my distance ahead. I somehow got ahead of Paul at some point before he got me back at the end of the run. Nigel seemed to appear every beat, following me well past the layline on the 2^nd lap and then having to pinch up to it with me after I “over-corrected’ on the next lap!  I ended up finishing in 2^nd and Nigel 3^rd.  Overall, with Kevin, Nigel, Martin and I having a similar score line to count, I knew it was down to the final race…

Race 6.

The wind was dropping off a bit now, as forecast, but there it was still better than we had expected and a second race was on.  With a longer line than the first start I managed to end up kind of in the middle but with no speed and unable to point.  Although the Tru-Flo sail, (a 25-year-old original pocket-luff lowrider sail) should be good all round, I haven’t practiced with it very much and struggled for speed and pointing in the ever-softening winds. Trying to do both against the tide I was left ducking most of the fleet as they tacked off onto port, with boats behind and to windward of me and my slow tacking speed I didn’t think I had space to do the same so I had sailed hard left on a header to put me well down the fleet.  I was joined by the Magnum 7 of Graham Hughes and followed Henry in his Skol round the windward mark to chase the fleet.  With lighter winds I was relying on any puff to get some speed out of Edna to catch us up, unfortunately they were few and far between so progress seemed slow.  Somehow by the final lap I had overtaken a few boats to be chasing Russ in his Tiger down the final legs. While Martin had retired, Nigel had beaten Paul for his first first place and Kevin finished a consistent third. A 4^th was my only chance to still be competing for the podium.  Russ’s Tiger wasn’t going to let Enda past easily and after a few attempts and luffs we were quite high on the mark and ended up pointing at the line, we decided to avoid sailing though the line as neither of us had actually read the sailing instructions! This didn’t leave much room for me to get inside before the leeward mark. A perfectly timed gust enabled Edna to do her thing and we jumped past the Russ’ Tiger before he realised what was happening.  As I passed I made the mistake of saying “don’t worry, there’s still time for me to mess up…”   Leading him round the leeward mark there was a short 50 metre beat to go.  On some laps people had laid this on port but it usually required a tack for a starboard cross.  Knowing that I couldn’t point I sailed on watching Russ behind to check he couldn’t lay before I tacked in the shadow of the committee boat.  Now with Russ sailing under me at speed I was wallowing around sailing slowly pinching to try to get to the line.  At the same time, we were being rapidly headed and taken away from it.  Nearing the line, I attempted to tack onto port to shoot it but failed and a hoot for Russ was quickly followed by a hoot for Lyndon who had snuck up from somewhere and finally a hoot for me.