Without any fresh pictures, or other supporting stuff like GPS tracks I've been loath to just bore all and sundry with copy, but another couple of weeks have passed, naturally not without incident so I ought to update this.

First a couple of weeks back we had a fairly fresh North Easter that saw my hands go early on, then losing the main sheet once more so failed to make the start of the race so returned and pfaffed about.
Since the debacle of the capsize I've been nervous so sailing defensively and nothing good comes from defensive anything, so after the race I let Dangerous Dan take it out a well known wrecker of kit Dan would likely bust it some more, but at least I'd know what it's potential for single handing in the control of someone with youthful experience can do.
He also suffered problems, kite candles, but appeared from the shore to be doing OK with two sails, up and back, but even in the gusts not really coming unstuck as it did that day in Calshot. he did come ashore eventually, was out some time, and insisted I come out and we give it another go two up.

With me playing the jib, even though there was the extra weight of us bother which you would have thought would slow it down, it had the opposite effect and after a while we had her tracking upwind and in one kite reach when we both got back about as far as we could, she came unstuck and went quite well, ploughing through and bouncing over the following sea, only the firing ranges stopped us from bothering Dymchurch with our presence.

He'd tied the jib sheet to the main sheet and it was with this assistance the following week, yesterday as I pen this, I took her out in a freshening SW rly determined to race  and mix it a bit. The race organisation at Hythe is such that we rarely get a course you can sail off in any other than one direction, usually port and usually with a pin end, so not wishing to introduce my rack width and not confident self tot eh start line at the gun, I contented myself with a rearguard pursuit once more into the entire fleets dirty air.

We can't point like a laser but then they go quite slow when they are stuffing it so managed to shake them off sailing bit low and pursuing a fairly low fetch to clear the dirty air, it was a typically short pathetic course (Another reason I'm attracted to the lake, they do at least have proper beats) and the top reach was another beamy Contender affair but we dealt with it, not at any speed but a triangle and a run later and I'm duelling with my pals in a Phantom and Laser, the Contenders, Blaze and Merlin are well gone.

The kite run didn't produce any magic for me, the now stayed stuck and I note even if I got right back, the water release, didn't get noisy which meant she was still using the mid section with the nose engaged and try as I may I can't get back far enough to lift it. the forward pressure of the rig, is stopping it, in fact I'm just thinking as I type this what's different between the boat now and at Calshot and it's just come to me, the jib, the jib is a lot bigger, now I wonder if I've just got too much canvass there now.

Anyway we had a kite mare somehow the sheet was under the pole then the bloody boat had sailed over it, then trying to fly it on the other tack it got stuck half up half down, so i had no choice but to go ashore and was going to call it a day, but... It was low tide I hove to at the waters edge the shore dump wasn't too huge at this point, so I free'd the kite, stuffed it all back down the sock and though bugger it I'm enjoying this for the first time I'll rejoin and at least finish this one, and so it was, a few had pulled out, the wind was taking it's usual toll, there were a few breakages and capsizes, probably pushing the top end of four by now out to sea which is fun sailing, it doesn't come any nicer than this, so I had to get some more.

I tried sailing upwind from the back, it certainly helped, there was no-one left to compare with by now as I was out of touch with the fleet, but for the first time my confidence had returned and hiking fully out of the rear quarter she seemed to revel upwind. With the jib sheet close at hand now I'm almost able to play the jib on the fly, the kite worked down wind I managed to sheet the main in the tiller hand and the kite in the other so got my best kite reach, still not fully unstuck but better.

I've built a twin hander here, I don't want to believe it, but the fact is it goes better with two as it is currently set up so I have to have a bit of a rethink, then as I'm coming ashore at the end of the race, (I had to come in whilst there are still folk about to help recovery) I came in on a bloody wave on my port quarter, I'd wanted to hove to again in the shallows, but the speed we were going and with the wave where it was, had I done so I'd have done a Tom http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BxNucPvPsY&feature=youtu.be so I had no choice but to charge the beach and in doing so there was a God awful graunching noise, our beach at low tide can reveal the most horrendous sharp stones and rock .. I've now got a Titanic graunch under the nose to deal with and there was a load of water on board..