Training at Port La Foret

After 2 days of solo training at Port La Foret, I am totally exhausted, but very happy!

The big good news is that ROXY has made huge gains this winter! The two new assymetric daggerboards have changed our upwind performance significantly. Yesterday, I managed to stay with the new boats for a whole upwind leg in 8-14 knots of wind! As you can see in the photo, after a reasonable start, I even had PRB behind ROXY! Yippeee!

 

Yesterday involved some spinnaker work and sailing in gentler breezes, but the effort required for managing all the manouvers (even in only 10 to 15 knots) is considerable! Two spinnaker hoists and drops, two starts, several tacks..... in one day is enough for me!

 

Voila! We are now in final preparations for the Artemis Transat, with Roxy back at "home" in Lorient. Time is rushing past too quickly at the moment: in just one weeks time we will be leaving France for Plymouth!

 

Sam x

Yikes! It's hard work!!!

Hello!
A quick note after a strenuous day's solo training at Port La Foret.

5 boats - Brit Air, Foncia, Generali, PRB and ROXY

25 knots of wind

HARD work, solo, manouvering in these conditions, but great fun! I did one great start that I am proud of, at pace, in front of everyone. ROXY did very well, mostly keeping up with the new boats (except when her skipper made little mistakes!) The new daggerboards are magic!

We did one leg TWA 90deg reaching (at boatspeed 18-20 knots), then downwind offshore of the Glenans, then a re-start (my start was not so good this time - room for improvement!) and upwind to finish.

I did all the manouvers solo (knackering) with Erwan, Tanguy and guest of the day Servane Escoffier looking on, giving useful feedback! We even managed to get Pascal Conq on board at the end of the day for the last beat (transferred from Generali) to remind him of how great his 8-year old designs are too!!!

Tomorrow is forecast to be calmer, but I'm sure that it will be just as hard work! Guest of the day is Bernard Jaouen, my fitness coach!

Sam x

Update after a week of training....

Hello everyone!

I am recovering at home after a week of hard training on the water!

The first three days were with Tanguy Leglatin, with several objectives including solo manouvers, boat speed, working out how to optimise the new daggerboards, and also a day out with Philippe Le Gros from Incidences to work on sail design for the Vendee sails, and rig / sail tune for the Artemis Transat.

 

These days were more than productive, with different conditions every day (and no rain!) so I got loads done. The sails and rig tune are becoming less of a mystery. And after some tacks where my heart rate reached nearly 180 beats per minute, Tanguy and I managed to find some ways to economise on energy. Likewise for the gybes!

 

The sailing has taken Roxy away from the guys, who are still working through the job-list, but there has been plenty to do on land whilst I have been out sailing, and when they stay ashore, I take care to note every little point that needs checking, changing or repairing so that their job is easier!

 

We stayed on the dock on Thursday. In the rain! I spent the morning with Philippe Rousell from nke and Brice from TEEM to start up the new nke 3D sensor and processor, which should vastly improve all my instrument data and therefore pilot performance. It's quite daunting piece of kit, but I managed to learn how it all works which is important if I want to get the best out of the instruments.

 

Then on Thursday night Erwan and I set off in 30 knots of wind and the pouring rain to do a night sail to Port La Foret (via Belle Ile). Firstly for me to get back into the swing of sailing at night, and secondly (and important) to "send it" a bit and test out ROXY in some fully loaded up conditions! So, we did exactly that and hooned off at 90deg TWA with 2 reefs and the staysail at boatspeed averaging 18 knots. I loaded up by filling the ballast and putting a bit of daggerboard down! It was rather WET to say the least! The cockpit couldn't empty out fast enough! We actually tested out our Musto oilskins at the same time! After a couple of hours we tacked to check out the other tack, then did some upwind tests, then headed for Port La Foret, and decided that it was time to test out the cooker and a nice pot noodle and some M&Ms (sorry to Denis, my nutritionist, who will probably not be too happy about the diet for the evening!) Finally, the engine to test out charging, an e-mail on the Iridium and check the F77 connection to the internet..... all in one night!

We arrived at 05.00 on Friday morning, with the high tide, and Corentin was there to help us in with the rib. All in all, a fun, but tiring night!

 

So now ROXY is ready at Port La Foret, as next week I am participating in the training "stage" with Pole France. There should be 6 or 7 boats out on the water - all of which are new-generation boats - so it will be hard work and very interesting. Roxy, PRB, Foncia, Generali, Safran, Brit Air and perhaps BT should all be there.

 

More news soon.....

 

PS A HUGE THANKS to Alex from Ports de France http://www.portsdefrance.com for helping me get my blog onto samdavies.com. I think its the best way to keep everyone up-to-date with my adventure.......

Great Sailing on board ROXY

On Saturday, Erwan and I set off for another "test sail". As we were only two-up, we managed to time our outing to co-incide with JoJo (Seb Josse) and the BT Team, and they were kind enough to lend us Albert and their rib to help us off the dock!

Due to some ROXY committments this week, including a crazy "bikini" photo shoot (in zero temperatures - I don't envy the super-models at ALL! more about that later!) I haven't been able to sail until Saturday, so I was very keen to get out. Luckily the conditions were perfect with 15 to 20 knots of wind, and some waves to crash off and test everything out / bed in all the new lashings etc!

 

We headed out upwind, and filled all the ballast tanks to load up the boat. It was the first time we have had wind, and all day to get going properly and we both were reveling in the conditions, the sun, helming..... Our other objective was not to loose touch with BT, as we needed their help to get back to the dock!!

 

Round Ile de Groix, a nice tack, a few sail changes, then bear away and gennaker up to wizz off downwind back home with a couple of gybes included. We crossed paths with Generali too, and then all the Minis and other boats who were out race training. It really was pretty busy out there!

 

A great day out. Back in time for the BT team to catch us on the dock! The only disaster was my super tomato salad that chose to jump into the cockpit during a little gust, and so leaving us with a bit of a clean-up mission at the end of the day!

S x

ROXY ready to get wet......

Roxy is finally ready to hit the water... now we are just waiting for a weather window to be able to launch and carry out the compulsory 10 degree and 90 degree tests.

Planned for tomorrow, Monday, we have had to delay our launch due to inclement weather. So now we will launch on Tuesday at 11am, and do our 90 degree and 10 degree tests Thursday afternoon.

That means that if we are really organised, we will be able to have our first sail Friday afternoon and Saturday. These two days will be designated to rig tuning (as the standing rigging is brand new, we will need some time to get this right) and testing our new assymetric daggerboards.

The daggerboards should hopefully win us some much needed boatspeed and pointing ability, and I reckon that ROXY looks like a "real" open 60 now with these Finot-Conq designed boards and also her new bubble-eyes!

Last week was spent putting all the pieces together like a jigsaw puzzle, and lifting ROXY up over 5m to fit the keel back under her and bolt together the keel plates into place in the keel box, and connect the hydraulic rams.

I'm back!

Hello!
Here are some photos of ROXY in the midst of our winter refit, with her new colours!

Looking cool eh?

More news soon.....

Sam x