Pipedreamer in Tatters

The overall plan had been to do the Dun Laoghaire to Dingle in 2015, The Round Ireland in 2016 and the Fastnet in 2017.  Of course, as you have heard me say before, no plan survives first contact and so it proved.  LYC announced their intention to come to Holyhead for their 2015 regatta and Dun Laoghaire to Dingle was off.  Surprisingly, however, despite this setback, the idea of going round Ireland gathered pace over the winter and we are now entered!  All of this is by way of a preamble to what happened 3 weeks ago.

To participate effectively (compete is a strong word!) in the above event(s) we had ordered a new deep reacher and about 3 weeks ago it arrived.  Keen to try it out and get to know it, we flew it in a Club Race, more or less straight out of the bag.  We were very impressed with its performance - and ours!  There had been one or 2 slight hitches.  The first recovery was a little laboured and the second hoist had not gone smoothly with someone standing on the halyard.  Nevertheless, we crossed the Club line, spinnaker flying and then went for the drop.  But it wouldn't, drop that is.  It was jammed.  We were now in amongst the moored boats, 4 or 5 boat lengths from a lee shore with the kite flying uncontrolled from the top of the mast, wind gusting over 20kts.  We tried everything we could think of, but to no avail.  In the meantime the kite started to tear itself to shreds.  It was not until we increased our skeletal manning with the addition of Dave and Max and sent Max up the mast that we finally resolved the problem - by now though, there was not much left of the new kite.  There was also no apparent reason for the snag and, while we have come up with some plausible theories, we are still really none the wiser.

So, here we are with a week to go to the big event.  A replacement sail is on order, but it will be touch and go as to whether it arrives in time.  Pipedreamer is due back in the water this afternoon, having been pressure washed.  There still seems a mountain of preparation work to do, but hopefully we will be on the start line in Wicklow at 1300 on Sat 18 Jun (with a new sail?).