Excalibur Sailing Team

16 August 2011

Hi all

This weekend Jo, Marcus and I, along with members of my family attended the Sailability Multiclass Regatta at Rutland water. I have always enjoyed this competition and in previous years have done reasonably well.

After the IFDS World Championships held in Weymouth in July we realised that we had a major leak where the keel fits into the boat. We also realise that our keel bulb was severely needing an overhaul and having got several people's opinions we put in a claim with our insurance company for a considerable amount. This was to get the leak stopped as well is a new keel. We would like to thank Noble Marine boat insurance www.noblemarine.co.uk for their prompt approval of our claim.

We only got the boat back from the repairers on Wednesday and without getting the boat back into the water we were unable to test out whether everything worked properly. It was unfortunate that we had an event so close to getting the boat back but we had to trust the repairers that everything was shipshape.

On Saturday morning we all congregated at the pontoon but unfortunately where the repairs have been done now the keel wouldn't drop right down leaving about 18 inches above the deck. There was no way we could sail like this and although Marcus and Peter my brother tried their utmost to get us sailing it was impossible to drop it right down.

Better luck next year!

Our next event is the National Rankers held in Weymouth at the end of September. We will be very keen to show the others SKUD competitors how fast we are without a boat that leaks profusely!

Kind regards

Keith

 

In the last six weeks we have participated in the Sail for Gold Regatta as well as the IFDS World Championships. At Sail for Gold it was  Jo's first ever regatta so I was talking her round the course and within a few races she was now understanding more about racing. Our goal for sail for gold was not to come last and we managed this. Our coach was incredibly happy with our progression at this event especially as we had only been sailing together for a couple of weeks.
 
At the start of the IFDS World Championships we were hoping to better our 16th place At Sail for Gold. With an extra four boats at the world Championships we were incredibly excited on the first two days to be running in 16th place out of 21. Unfortunately at this Regatta we were only able to compete in five or six out of the 11 races primarily due to boat breakages as well as bad weather.

Our boat is possibly the oldest on the Paralympic circuit and with this comes problems if they are not kept in check. It was always our intention to completely strip the boat down after the world Championships and after the third day we realised that there are a lot more problems with our boat than we had expected. These are not insurmountable but they will take sometime to rectify.

Jo's brother Marcus has become heavily involved with developing the infrastructure we need for both the boat as well as possibly finding sponsorship and suppliers for equipment on our behalf. He is doing this on a voluntary basis and wants to work with Peter Jones and Wimbleball Sailability  to enable our campaign to move forward. He is also a very accomplished coach.

Looking forward to the rest of the year we are due to go up to Rutland for the access multiclass regatta in the middle of Augustwhich also doubles as the UK SKUD National Championships. After this there are the national rankers in Weymouth at the end of September. We will also be doing several training camps throughout the year..

Jo and I would like to congratulate Alexander Rickam and Nikki Burrell (Great Britain SKUD sailors) for their third IFDS World Championship win in three years!