Today we will leave Dartmouth and go around start point to Plymouth. Lots of small jobs were done in Dartmouth. In Plymouth we hope to find a rigger to look at the mainsail outhoal that was broken. The weather looks fine. Easy going before the race will start next week.

after a nice cruize with a wild mixture of conditions we are going into dartmouth now. Nice northerly and plenty of sunshine. All is well on b oard of hoj.

NEW RACING OUTFIT FOR ROUND BRITAIN

FINAL PREPARATIONS

This weekend we managed to get the NKE system back into full operation. For unknown reasons the windinstruments died, which means that the autopilot cannot function in apparent wind mode or true wind mode, no polars, no cross over charts. The new Dutch service team of NKE had a spare unit on stock and they sent it over straight away. Today we mounted the unit and it worked straight away. Another succes was the installation of an origo cooker. Harry insisted on a proper cooker for the Round Britain, and not just the Jetboil or Mini Galley, which normally is good enough for me. The unit fits perfectly without any need for improvisatoin. Almost a dissappointment for a jazz musician, but very welcome in our case.

We will leave for Plymouth by the end of next weekend. Ready to go!  

CHARITY DINER NCFS

On 19th May there will be a charity diner for NCFS in Jazzclub Wakker in Eemnes You are invited to come over and have a great evening, which will include a performance by the wonderful Denise Jannah. Denise is a great singer. We were classmates at the conservatory in Hilversum and did some gigs in the mid-80-ies. Denise her career really went fast forward when she signed a record deal with Blue Note. Hope to see you all in Eemnes!

PREPARATIONS FOR ROUND BRITAIN & IRELAND RACE

Over the last few weeks I have been sailing with Harry to fine tune our boat handling and to prepare for the race. A new genua was delivered and we now have significant more power in lighter winds. We are still improving our boat speed, adjusting polars and preparing cross over charts. The Round Britain is an excellent race to optimize the boat, to see what she is capable of, and to compare Home of Jazz with the other two VQ32s in the fleet. All three boats are slightly different. We are relatively heavy, Velocity Girl is relatively light (carbon rig and lighter keel) and Vandal is somewhere in between.

As always some new issues have come up. All of a sudden the windinstruments are failing. This means the autopilot can not work properly. I hope to get this sorted out within the next week.