The weekend camp of 1st / 2nd July started out promising with a number of attendees. Ella and I thought this might be a good opportunity to dust off the Javelin for a shakedown sail before summer camp. Which is another way of re-discovering all those little jobs which I had mind to sort out at the end of last season but never quite got round to. Living not too far away we thought we’d just go down for the Saturday. One by one, people pulled out for various reasons. Then Martin, the organiser, checked the forecast which showed gusts of F7 and pulled out himself and, eventually, it was just us.

The sun was shining as we set out. Arriving at Rutland we paid our day fees, checked the wind (F4), rigged the boat and headed for the water. The club is very friendly and we had rescue cover until 5pm. There wasn’t much else out other than a couple of training boats and a fleet of Waszps buzzing about up the southern arm of the reservoir. We headed out into the main bowl of the reservoir and thrashed about – Ella on the wire – and giving the windsurfers over the far side a run for their money. We had full rig up and managed without any difficulty.

The morning sail was enlivened by a “Hat Overboard Drill” which was executed in textbook fashion, although the recovered hat was considered too soggy to put back on. Beating back up to the club for lunch we had a duff tack – the jib sheet jammed presenting full sail to the wind as we came round – which ended up in a capsize. Well, it’s good to practice these things every now and again! I thought I’d do a dry capsize and went over to windward – forgetting I was 3 ft aft of the centreboard – which I missed completely – and ended up having a swim anyway. The boat came up with no problem and was drained in a matter of seconds.

After lunch (excellent wet bar and café) the wind had risen a bit. I thought I’d try a reef but for various reasons I had trouble getting the foot of the sail tight so ended up shaking it out. It was now a solid F5 and we were flying! We were managing OK but it was certainly hard work and the reef would have been useful. However, we could feel the gusts getting stronger and rather than risk damaging the boat (or us) we decided to head back in. It was certainly an exciting sail and getting some heavy weather experience in the relative safety of the reservoir very worthwhile.

Lessons Learnt
1. Tie your hat on
2. Remember where you are relative to the centreboard
3. If you feel the need to reef, then reef
and get it right!

Jamie and Ella