Plastimo Lorient Mini – The DAY!

Categories: CEMC · Cirrus Minor · Classe Mini · Lorient · Mini · Mini Transat · Navigation · Racing · regatta · SailingTags: · · · · · · Leave a comment

After a day and a half of delay, the long awaited race started on Saturday morning, April 9th. It turned out to be a beautiful day, 24 hours of respite between two depressions that swept the Brittany coast. We started very early, at 6:30 AM, because the Organising Committee sent us a new shorter route the previous night and we had to revise the waypoints on the GPS and discuss the strategy. At 8 AM we left the dock under sail, in very light wind. Soon afterwards we raised the big spinnaker and glided towards the starting line. We had…

Plastimo-Lorient Race: D-6

Categories: CEMC · Cirrus Minor · Classe Mini · Mini · Mini Transat · Racing · regatta · SailingTags: · · · · Leave a comment

For the past 3 days I’ve been working full-time to prepare the boat for the race. The most important task was reviewing all the security materials. The security list is 6 pages long and it took me one full day only to check everything and make a list of the items that were missing. The good thing is that now the boat is, I believe, ready for the race 🙂 We will depart tomorrow towards Lorient and since there are several minis taking part in Plastimo-Lorient, we will organise a coastal race. For the mini skipper, every moment on the…

Choosing my Mini

Categories: Mini · Mini Transat · Racing · regatta · SailingTags: · · Leave a comment

It was a strange feeling not to have a boat to care and worry about. Without Mem Pas Peur I felt I no longer had a purpose to fill in my limited spare time. When I was a boat owner, I had a constant list of things that I wanted to do on the boat, small projects to improve its sailing or comfort. When these vanished, I started feeling restless, a bit depressed, as if all of a sudden all my sailing dreams were cancelled. This situation could not be tolerated for long and despite Cristiana’s reluctance, I started searching…

As the old saying goes, “All good things come to an end…” – Part 1

Categories: Black Sea · Limanu · Mem Pas Peur · Mini Transat · Racing · regatta · SailingTags: · · · · · · Leave a comment

Such were my 2015 sailing season and my brief but rich experience of owning an excellent boat, Mem Pas Peur. But first things first. For lots and various reasons I haven’t been able to write a new piece in over a year. The last time I wrote something I was excited about starting a new sailing season with Mem Pas Peur, freshly painted on the bottom. Later I will also share a few thoughts about how to never trust a great deal when it comes to buying anti-fouling paint that should last one year (here). I had barely laid Mem…