Danish Finn Championships

This last weekend was my first chance to take part in the Danish Finn Championships. The timing wasn't great because I started a new job on Thursday which was the first day of sailing so I already missed 2 races before I turned up on Friday morning. There were 1,5 metre high waves and the wind was pretty strong so it was not entirely without trepidation that I left the harbour into the swell with the other 39 boats that were taking part.

I survived the first race and came somewhere quite near the back - maybe 5th from last and was starting to feel less terrified of the waves, if not entirely comfortable and far from confident. The starting procedure was under way for the second race was about 2 minutes from starting when I capsized (I don't know why, but I think it was a wave that caught me off guard) right at the end of the line by the committee boat. Unfortunately the sail was sticking up in the air so when I up righted the boat, it flipped straight over into me getting me tangled up in the rig and banging my head. This sounds more exciting and dramatic than it really was, but the water was warm (I was already soaked anyway) so it was really more of an annoyance until I got back into the boat and noted everyone gesticulating wildly to me to look up.

The top 30cm or so had broken off my mast when it was stuck in the seabed. I tried to sail back to the harbour, but the boat kept turning back to the wind so in the end I had to have help tipping the boat over again to free the sail and then be towed back to the harbour.

I spent the afternoon out on the rescue boat enjoying the fantastic weather and watching the others have a series of good races.

Happily I borrowed a mast for Saturday and did better than I ever had before with the improved equipment coming somewhere near the middle of the field. However, just as the second race of the day started, the wind shifted through 180 degrees so the race had to be abandoned. We then waited about 1½ hours in the boats for the conditions to settle before we had a final race of the day where I was absolutely rubbish and came in dead flat last.

Now I need to find a replacement mast and oddly 2 new wheels for my trailer as those have been pinched as well.