Stories from a member, Its always nice to hear from our members, here's how our own Jamie Morgan got on this year.
Reflection on a year of if's, but's and maybes from Jamie Morgan
The temperature has fallen and the winter flu is rolling in and I thought I would reflect on the 2022 season and look forward to the goals of 2023. I went into the year with the simple goal in the solo of trying to just improve on the results from the year before. Being my first season back racing, I thought that shouldn't be too hard, how wrong could I be. Then in the Rs400 just to try and improve a little but most importantly enjoy sailing with Anna (More on this later).
Carsington February 2022; the season opener, the race officer opened his briefing by telling us that the lake had been nicely topped up for us with the recent snow melt and it was now gusting 25 knots and forecast to build. It was freezing but with the excitement of the first event of the year we didn't notice. After an incident while trying to set up my compass going down wind while being hit by a gust, I was now soaking wet and could confirm the top layer of water was defiantly snow melt. The first race got under way and those extra Christmas kilos proved handy, I got to the first mark if not first in the top few. So far 2022 season is a success, a couple of the lads showed that their winter training had gone really well and sailed off into the distance leaving me fighting Andy Davis for 3rd or 4th, until the last run where I got hit by a monster gust and I decided to sample the freshness of the alpine snow melt once again. With that my day was done I limped across the finish line and went in search of an early shower and a warm pasty, safe in the knowledge that I had captured the whole sorry affair on my camera and the guy that runs the solo you tube account will have endless fun awarding me different points from various dancing judges. Knowing that the next week was going to cost me a fortune in new kit at P&B as I was never going to get that cold again.
March came round and a few of us at the club had got ok's thinking about doing the worlds the following year. In march myself and Michael from the club when to Grafham for the Ovington event. In summary it was a good event, really windy, again I followed that chap Andy Davis around all weekend again to eventually drop a place on the second day again to finish 3rd. At this point in time, I decided the ok wasn't for me and has since left my fleet, this would end up being the only event I did in the boat outside of Rutland.
We are quickly into April, the clocks have changed and Thursday night racing at the club has begun. Easily the best racing at the club and the best thing to break up a boring week at work. This year I would be doing the Thursday nights in the rs400 again with Anna, my partner, mentor and super mum. Sailing for Anna is a very new thing, having never been on a sailing course and her only sailing experience is being shouted at by me in the front of the 400 the season before on Thursday nights when my parents were able to look after our son. It's safe to say that the rate she has picked it up is amazing, although I do have to remind her to concentrate, because in her words sailing can be a little bit boring, but luckily her competitive nature and a promise of a meal after racing is enough to keep her going for 45minutes. With her lack of experience in mind, 400 sailing this year has been by far my most satisfying. Watching her go from the start of the year not really knowing what's going on, to being able to anticipate what I'm about to ask her to do next, to winning her first ever race in the spring series finishing 3rd overall, to coming 2nd in the early summer series, to finally winning the last series of the year. The improvement she has shown has been amazing and a joy to watch, even if I do have to do all the hiking downwind (photo evidence supplied). For solo sailing in April there was only the Welsh champs and this proved to be another event where I was second over night and fell off down the leader board on the second day (there's a trend starting here). To finish 5th left me disappointed again, but on the plus side there was a McDonald's dinner on the way home.
May; This would be the start of a long period of pretty much wall to wall solo events for the next 3 months, ending with the nationals in July. I won't go through all of the events (you will be relieved the hear if you have made it this far) but make some notable mentions. Leigh-on-sea solo open, one of my favourites, going there as defending champion and the first event of the year where I had competed the year before. The wind was up and I win the first race, feeling happy with myself I have an average second race but I think I'm still on top. Going into the final race the wind is dying (not my conditions) and I don't string my best race together, to end up in a 3-way tie for first and come out the wrong side of the count back. I end up second, my first race I can measure against my previous season and my first failure. Hayling Island a week later, great event, amazing weather, but I never really get it together. Nothing to write home about but I decided at this event I'm going to try and change sail brand and design for the rest of the year (trying to hide a fundamental problem I have in the solo). June; Weymouth and I have the demo sail, windy and wavy (to start with) I fly up the first beat to get to the windward mark in second, thinking I can get past Paul on the run (The one guy that is bigger than me). I start to push it on the waves get along side him and splat that unmistakable sound of the mast hitting the water, id pushed it to far recover, to have an average race. I don't really get going in the second, then in the 3rd the wind is dying, not my game but I have the new sail and sail well to come in 2nd behind sims, but there's no hooter. I sail in to find out I was ufd and with the second day lost to no wind, another poor result for me especially considering the year before I was 2nd, another missed target.
Brightlingsea; the Eastern area Championships. I enjoy sailing at Brightlingsea, probably helped by the fact I had won the event the year before. We sail out to find its 20 knots wind against tide, big waves and forecast to build. Knowing that the other big guys from the front of the fleet are not there, the plan is simple sail fast up wind, keep it together in the waves downwind using them to keep me moving against the light guys. But at the same time don't be a hero, keep it up right up wind as that's where I'm fast. The plan came together 3 races and 3 race wins by a comfortable margin, was the season starting to come together holding onto the Eastern area title for another year (not literally the class lost the trophy many years ago). The following day I have a great day's training at Northampton with Oli Davenport and I start to think that I'm ready for the nationals in a few weeks, just one event to go before then.
Back to Carsington finale event before the nationals and a lot warmer this time. In summary I'm first to the first mark in every race and I'm flying upwind but I'm getting over taken on the runs, especially the soft ones below the dam. It's a fairly competitive event with people wanting to see where they are before the nationals in 2 weeks' time. I end up just out side the top 10 (I think) but happy I'm fast up wind and, on the sea, I will have the waves to get me down the run.
2022 Solo National Championships; Its July and England is in the middle of a heat wave, that will see the hottest temperatures ever seen. Instead of cancelling the trains because the wrong sort of leaves have fallen on the lines, the lines themselves were now literally melting, but luckily I'm going to Wales. Surely its going to be grey, miserable and windy with big waves. Wales gets the heat wave as well and we spend the week drifting around in light winds with me going from disappointing race to disappointing race, until the final day I'm here just for fun now if you can call it that. Just as we go to launch, a random squall comes over, boats are blown off their trolley, sand is being blown everywhere, but the flags are still up to launch. Once the worst has blown over were on the water racing; 20knots, big waves, this is good. I get to the first mark second behind Oli and look back at the 100 solo's behind us, right behind us at this point, the sensible thing to think would be "you're a big guy your fast up wind, just hang on, stay with this group and you will over take them up the next beat". Andy Davis is right behind, the lighter guy starts going around the outside, I panic I need to gybe to clear my wind as falling to 3rd would be terrible. Splash I broach coming out of the gybe I should have never have done, filled up with water and dropped to around 20th. I made my way back to around 10th ending the event 37th. Seven places worse than the year before, where I was already disappointed with the result, this was the one I really wanted to improve on. I pack up the boat and start the long drive back. It seemed an early time of the year to start reflecting on the season but with the Nationals in July and no real events until October, it felt like the end of the year driving through the long Welsh roads. I came to the conclusion I have one fundamental problem; solo sailing at 94kg, I am just way too heavy to do well in the anything less than a hurricane with waves last seen in the film the perfect storm. With that in mind, I have two options; lose weight or sell up and buy a phantom. I stop at Telford services to get a burger king and to browse through apollo duck adverts at what is available at the moment, my mind made up on my approach. The next day I realise that eating my way into a bigger boat may not be as good for me as trying to shrink into the one I already have and I'm not convinced I can get another boat past the boss. So, I go out on my bike and really enjoyed it, I thought I better give this a go. I make a few small simple changes to my diet and plan to either run or cycle as much as possible even if the means missing some sailing, especially if its light winds.
The only weekend giving myself off this, is the weekend of the club champs, I had asked Anna if she wanted to do it and she had said yes, although not keen on long days on the water. Fresh from winning her first series she was raring to go the club champs. This is an event I have always wanted to win. After coming 2nd the year before and an experience at a previous club where I was club champ for 24 hours before it was decided the results would be changed (don't ask) I was keen to do the best we could. Anna was great, I on the other hand was very average I managed to sail us from incident to incident, getting on the wrong side of shifts, dropping the main sheet and although the light winds probably didn't suit the 400 that well anyway, I hadn't put our best foot forward. That was until the last race where it all clicked, the wind had built and we were flying around the course. This felt good we were back on track, until going around to complete the second lap Anna asks why is our sail number written on the back of the committee boat, bugger ufd'd again. It was a quiet sail in while Anna explained how I had let her down. Sunday brought the pursuit race, were just racing this for fun now, with the breeze moderate and starting nearer the back in a faster boat chasing down the slower boats that's what it was going to be. All was going well and as the time ticked by we were closing down the slower boats and passing them one by one, until the big squall came through and we had the kite up on a tight ish reach and after a little bit of bad boat handling by me, we got blown over. We manged to recover to come in 5th at the end of the race, the whole event was great fun and it was great to see the club buzzing in a way I hadn't seen it for a while and left me thinking only if we could do this more often and we could do the occasional long pursuit race on a Sunday, although maybe not so fun for the slow boats set off early for the long slog around.
So, with a distinguished elderly lady passing away just before our inlands causing them to be delayed and shared with our end of season event at the of October, I went off to Draycot to finish the year. The big question was, had I manged to stick to the plan. On the morning of the event, I weighed in at 84 kg I had manged to lose 10kg since the last solo event, I was delighted. The only unwelcome was I had been passed a bug by our then 18 month old, who I wasn't best pleased with, but in reflection he probably had strep A before the BBC had made it trendy and we were lucky that although he was very unwell for a period of time and he had made me unwell, we all came through it with out any of the complications that so many others had, so thank god. Day one; light winds, boat speed was fast I could overtake people down wind on a lake which I had never been able to do before. However, my head was thick and I wasn't with it, I was sailing fast in the wrong direction and ended day one 22nd. Not what I wanted, but knowing why I was there, day two and the breeze was up but I was still feeling awful. I knew today was a different game, I wouldn't need to think too much and just sail fast and that would probably be enough. Race 1 of the day I start on my own and put the pedal down, manage to get to the first mark just outside the top five and move up through the fleet to finish 3rd. Happy with that, race 2 had a similar plan but I forget to raise my centre board on the second beat to go into fast forward mode and don't move through the fleet. Finish 6th, happy with that with a mistake and feeling worse as the day went on. The last race of the day, the wind is still building, sticking to the plan around the windward mark just outside the top five again fly down the run take a boat or two, roll Andy Tunniclliffe on the next beat to move into 3rd and hold out for the rest of the race. I mange to move from 22nd over night to 6th overall moving 16 places up in one day (what was I doing on day 1) and with that the 2022 season was over.
I guess an important thing I do at the end of every season is to look back at the year that has gone and work out what went well and what didn't and work out what I need to do before the new season. So, if I I'm going to do that for the year just gone I would start with my preparation into the season, to start with I had a few problems that I didn't address at the start and I was trying to find the wrong sort of solutions, instead of the one that was needed and that was the weight I was sailing at. I always knew I was too heavy, but instead of losing weight I was trying to find more powerful sails, sail more aggressively down wind or trying to be so fast up wind I didn't need to sail fast downwind, these all caused other problems in turn like capsizing a fair bit down wind, trying to keep up with smaller people. So, this year's plan is first of all be honest with what I need to be doing to be ready for the year, be at the right weight that I want to be at the first event of the year and make sure that I feel fit at the start of the season. Most importantly enjoy the year, one thing coming back to racing in the last 2 years, I have noticed I have almost entirely done it without nerves and although on the water I am still overly competitive and grumpy (sorry to any of you that have been on the wrong end of that). Off the water the community around the sailing has made it the best thing to be apart of, whether its chatting to the guys at the club about what happened in the club race or its traveling around the country to race in a different venue, I've never been to before. All of it has been fantastic fun and that is more important than the results (thank god), hopefully next season can be even better and hopefully we can see as many people out at the club as possible next year.
Some of the better 2022 results
1st solo sea series
1st solo Eastern area championships
6th solo inland championships
9th solo super series
Last updated 11:00 on 26 December 2022