Practice Race

 Last Wednesday was the practice race for the PDYC Race Division and Caleidoscope was the Committee Boat.

That meant that we set out the tetrahedron and gave the three fleets, two practice starts and then started them for a simple race to the windward mark and back. This was a good chance for the race crews to get back in synch with each other and the boat, after a winter away.

Taz 2 and Redhead

As we had plenty of people on board to do the flags, horn, countdown etc, I used the time to experiment with a camera that Nicola lent me while mine is in getting cleaned.

I decided to try for some different angles and some crew closeups for a change from my usual "full boat" shots.

So, with no apologies, there is nothing but sailboat photos in this blog posts with few or no captions.

I took about 150 photos so it took quite a while to sort through them, delete those that were blurry or repetitive and play with those that remained; straightening the horizon, brightening them (it was a grey, dim, evening), cropping and increasing colour or contrast as I saw fit.

 

There are a lot of photos of the J80 fleet (Dolce Vita, Flyer, Relentless and Sheets and Giggles) as they were the ones zipping around close to the Committee Boat.

Taz 2.

Until I put the photos on the computer I didn't know there was writing on the boom: Its all sheets and giggles until someone giggles and sheets.

Dream Girl

Islay and Grey Escape

Visually impressive and also impressive in terms of the additional speed provided,

Spinnakers and Asymetricals

can cause

difficulties.

After we had started them off 3 times, all we had to do was watch them finish. Then back to the Yacht Club for food and drinks. Next week its the real thing.