Todays training session with the Weymouth Scouts was abandoned, which gave Murray and me a chance to tune the clubs red Sunburst, and the Scouts freshly refurbished blue one.
After a brief tuning session ashore, a course was set, and off we went.
The blue boat lead the way after the initial beat, although this was more due to the red boat being out of phase with the light and patchy wind. A mile of downwind running and the gap had not changed measurably.
Turning back upwind, it was immediately obvious that the blue boat had rather bad lee helm, requiring significant heel to balance things up.
The red boat showed much better height in the light conditions, although the speed seemed very similar.
After a short while, the red boat had got her nose in front, and the boats separated, one to each side of the channel, both trying to avoid the tide. The red boat then hooked into some better breeze, and pulled out a huge lead, while the blue boat sat becalmed.
At the final mark, before turning for home, the gap was around 5 minutes, and it stayed about the same all the way back downwind to the finish.
Back ashore, a little more rake was added to the mast of the blue boat, then we went back out for another go.
This time the boat felt much better, although the height was still lacking. A short beat put the red boat well ahead again.
The top batten in the blue boat was far too stiff, basically a straight line. I will be sanding it down tonight, and if I can find a tuning guide, will set it to the correct tension. This should help the leech of the sail to hook up a lot better, giving additional height and power.
Tomorrow is scheduled to be a racing day, so we shall see how it performs then. There's also meant to be a bit more wind.
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