Last weekend I went to Grafham Water or the 29er inlands crewing for Crispin Beaumont. This was our second national event and we have put in a load of hours training at Bartley SC in the run up.

We arrived at Grafham early Saturday morning. It was about 5 degrees and a light onshore breeze, the forecast was for the wind to gradually pic up then drop off throughout the day, not amounting to much only about 8 knots.

There was to be 4 races scheduled on the saturday as there was unpredictable wind on the sunday. We launched fairly quickly and made our way out to the start line, we where starting in the blue fleet so we where second start and had plenty of time to set up the boat and work out the line bias.

We didn't have the best of starts in the first race and sailed in dirty air throughout the first beat and so therefore rounded the first mark about 35th (which was really near the back of the fleet) we where really determined to make up some places so we really put our heads together and managed to take 10 boats on the downwind leg and a further 5 on the finish line to secure a 26th which we weren't to happy with to be honest and we knew we needed to change the way we tackled the fleet.

We made a few changes and started the second race fairly well at the pin end and then worked our way to the right side of the course which seemed to pay. We had a decent leg and rounded the first mark roughly 20th. On the downwind we made a few misjudgments and lost some places. We made up the places again however and finished 20th which was better than the previous but we know we can go quicker!

We had about 10 minutes before our next start so we just tried to change the way we where sailing, we set up the boat completely different and just hoped that we made them for the better. We got straight into the third race and had a great start, we made our way to the right side of the course and managed to hold our lane and rounded the first mark 15th. We where definitely going a lot better and took a further 4 boats downwind then another boat on the final leg. We finished that race 10th which was much more like the position we would like to be in! The final race of the day we went into with much more confidence and the boat tuning seemed to pay off as we finished the race 13th. Our results definitely improved throughout day and we really learnt loads about tuning the boat!

We qualified 1st in silver fleet which we weren't to pleased with because we have both always said we would rather be last in gold than first in silver, but however this event was a bit different and we saw it as an opportunity to lead a fleet and potentially leave with some silver wear. There was about 8 knots which was a considerable amount more than the mere 4 knots forecasted so we got straight out there into the racing. We also had some further tuning ideas that we could work on and It wasn't long before we where on the start line ready to race. We started mid line and made our way off to the left hand side of the course which seemed to favor the gold fleet. We sailed a great first beat and reached the first mark 3rd a few split second decisions put us right back in the game and we overtook the leading two boats and managed to maintain and extend our lead to finish the first race 1st.

We hadn't won the silver fleet yet and still needed a decent result in the second and final race of the day. We again started mid line and made our way to the left side of the course, the wind was slightly filling in and made the course a bit more even. We rounded the first mark 6th and unfortunately there was just too much of a gap for us to catch up to the leading bunch who had a great windshift up the first beat. We finished the race 6th which was enough to secure our lead overall in silver fleet.

We are very pleased with our result and we are learning and moving on leaps and bounds every time we hit the water. Throughout the winter we are heading up to Rutland Water for the 29er Series which is basically a miny event of about 20 boats every weekend and we hope this will help us improve considerably.