Leaving Foggy Lymo Town

The big day finally came. Today I packed up all the kit and headed out of Lymington with the boat in tow. Now I’m on the ferry and the tiredness from the last few months has suddenly hit me and a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. Its time to put the boat back where it should be and go sailing again!

I want to say a few more thanks, to everyone at Berton for all the help and space to work on the boat especially Chris, Kevin and Pete from the paint shed and Kim from the office. And to all of my mates and family, for all the support over the last few months.

The plan now, is to drive (very slowly) from St. Malo to base in Lorient, then to work on my boat for another week or so, doing all the fine-tuning and setting up the rig. Next a quick trip to Dark Shadow in St.Remo. Then straight back into training and my first event the Demi Cle on the 17^th of April, I can’t wait!

Then it’s all about hours on the water. But first the longest sleep I’ve had in a long time, even if it is on the ferry

Many Thanks

I have had a very successful day today, lots of organising and flying about but think are definatley coming together.

Where to begin, thank you to Viking liferaft for the sponsorship and quick organising of the raft to take away with me. Thanks to Adrian from Marine Ware for all the support. And to Nick Cox Chandlery in Lymington with supplying me with a set of race halyards. And Will Carson for another great report in the echo. EC_201003...PDF.

I also had a nice email sent through, the boat I raced on in America last season made the cover/post for Rolex New York Yacht Club regatta and has a nice action shot of me on the bow. http://www.nyyc.org/gui/nyyc1/sailingevents/227/2010%20NYYC%20Race%20Week%20NOR%20final%20brochure.pdf

Not a bad day...

Coming Together

Thing have really started to come together quickly now after so many long hard months. The deck gear (apart for the coach house roof redesign) is all back down where it should be... on deck and not in little plastic bags in big boxes in my garage. I have received some new posh clutch from James Hall from Spinlock.

The spares are looking great in there new matt black thanks to the expert help of Pete, who very kindly gave up a lot of his own time to spray for me.

There is now an official team van, well MPV to take back down to France. I have booked my ticket back on the 24th of March and will head down to Lorient with all the kit, to rig and start training.

The plans for this week are all the fun jobs, finish off my bits of carbon work I've been working on, fittng out the coach house, reinstalling the NKE electronic systems and I have the transfer guy coming to logo the boat, but generally things are looking very positive.

I just can't wait to get sailing now!

Hull Painting Finished

Finally the hull paint work is finished. I'm very happy with the end result. The mast and all spars are preped and ready to be spray as well.

Now comes the big task of putting it all together. I'm going to have a dry fitting session tomorrow and then I'll be ready for the weekend to fit all the deck gear with another pair of hands.