Bringing back the glory days of aviation

So, ticket in hand I make my way to the departure gait for the long haul to Miami. I spy my plane waiting for me on the tarmac, but hang on something isn’t right, now I am no plane expert but even I can tell that that is no Airbus. Not to worry, once I settle in with the touch screen movie selection the journey will just fly by. Stepping on board I am transported back to the glory days of aviation, when business class meant brown leatherette and TVs had 2 inches of glass for screens, now where did I put my flying goggles? So, no movies, what did we do for entertainment in the days before television? Looks like I will just have to rely on the old fashioned art of conversation, that and my e-reader and my iPad. Fortunately for me the chap next to me was quite chatty, 7hours of me talking, I wonder where today featured in the top 10 of his best days ever? I know what you are wondering, 7hrs on a plane with a stranger with nothing else to while away the time, some would say it was inevitable but did I or didn’t I? Fear not fair listener... of course I showed him a picture of Carbon Footprint.

Miami Baby

After spending November attending to the physiotherapy needs of the Swedish Sailing Team at the ISAF Worlds in Perth I decided it was time to give Carbon Footprint some attention. There was just one problem, after the glorious sun kissed beaches of Freemantle, mid-winter Weymouth was not looking quite as enticing. As I sat in my sitting room with the wind hurling the freezing rain at the window there was nothing to do but surf the web and dream of sunshine. Then I saw it, the US Moth fleet Miami Layline winter series... Carbon Footprint get yourself into that RS:X bag and try to look like a windsurfer; we’re going to Miami baby!!!

Pimp my ride

To make amends for the countless times she has been left behind whilst I have swanned of on adventures to foreign shores with the Mach 2, I have promised Carbon Footprint a little road trip over the winter. She is looking a bit tired, so if she is to go on a trip, I decided she needs some pimping. What could be racier (and not involve and fiddly, messy epoxy) than the Union Jack-and-surname sticker combo? I found some stick on carbon stuff on e-bay, much cheaper and with less need for resin than the real thing... wonder if you can make whole boats out of it? Maybe I will develop the first origami Moth...

The following photo was taken partly for the purposes of showing off my cutting and sticking skills, and partly to ensure I had in fact spelt my name correctly. One would think I should be capable of such a simple task, however consider if you will the fact that a Brad Pitt film had happened to come on the TV whist cutting out the letters, (for happened you could read 'was inserted into the DVD player', your choice). Either way you can forgive a girl for the odd lapse in concentration, if not being rendered overcome and incapable of remembering her own name. The whole process was actually a bit fiddly... it would be so much easier if I had a shorter surname... come to think of it Pitt hasn't got many letters...

Weymouth Speed Week 2011

Carbon Footprint once again joined the other home made boats in the unique pocket of eccentricity that is Weymouth Speed Week. Weird and wonderful craft appeared from all over the world to speed, drift or simply try and stay afloat along the infamous Weymouth Speed Sailing course.

So heralded a spectacle is this, that the Dorset Echo even took up the story:

Check the complete article and more pictures out at: http://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/9316923.Homemade_boat_to_compete_in_Weymouth_Speed_Week/

Thanks to Carbon Footprint, and a day joining the windsurfers at their own game I managed to get on the podium not once but twice, bonus.

The best boats... The best sailors...

What an exciting weekend for the world of sailing! Along with many others I decided to brave the elements and show my support to the best sailors in the world. I was not disappointed, the spectacle was breathtaking, the best sailors in the world competing nation against nation in extreme wind conditions in the most technologically advanced boats in the world... It was awesome, the atmosphere was electric, people were watching and cheering from every available vantage point, the athletes were giving it their all on the water... What could have brought the excitement of sailing to the masses in such style? No, it wasn’t the AC45s... this spectacle of world class performance was in fact the it's-too-windy-to-sail-improvised-International-14-raft-building-World-Championships - awesome!

A close start

The ironically named 'Floater'

Threesome

The Mach 2 had run away to Spain, Carbon Footprint was feeling sad and lonely. She was sitting all by herself in the dinghy park in her pajamas... eating ice cream straight from the tub... playing Gloria Gaynor on repeat... It is into sad moments such as this that bizarre twists of fate have a habit of occurring, and so it was that an offer that she could not refuse miraculously appeared. An offer so exciting that it did not feature in her wildest dreams as surely there is no way it could happen... Her heart skipped a beat, could it be real? Could he really mean her? Did he know how she had been secretly admiring him from afar? What could have set her heart alight like this? Was it the offer of dinner with Brad Pitt? (He is coming to the South West to film some Cornish zombies after all). No, far more exciting, she was going out with not one but two handsome young men.

The Swiss foiling team who, (so narrowly), beat Carbon Footprint in speed week have kept apace with sailing design trends and have put a wing on their foiler, Mirabaud LX. They were bringing it to Cowes week and they had invited yours truly onboard! That is definitely an offer a girl could not refuse.

So it was that I made the trip over to Cowes and found myself sailing with not one but two handsome, if not slightly crazy, Swiss gentleman. For those of you not familiar with Mirabaud LX picture this; 10m of 3 man, spaceframe, wing sailing, foiling awesomeness. It is as though designer Thomas Jundt has taken all the best bits of sailing technology and put them together in one extreme machine and the result is this:

Check out www.mirabaudlx.com for all the technical details.

I climbed onboard in the clothes I had just stepped off the ferry in, there was no time to change and the boys said it was fine, I wouldn’t get wet - really?! JP handed me the mainsheet, it appeared my job was trimming the wing, just like the mainsheet on the Moth apparently. Should I just take this moment to point out that I have now sailed more wing sailed boats than most of the America’s cup sailors - if you want any pointers boys... It was as much fun as I had dreamt and more! You get two gentlemen to help you and Mirabaud LX is surprisingly stable, foiling along the Solent through chop that would have upset many a Moth, without even spilling the beers kindly provided by the sponsors. That said we did manage to capsize, oops. As the boys promised, even a little excursion to the dagger board did not involve getting wet, how very civilised. The press briefing was as much showboating as possible - that is my kind of sailing. Buzzing the Royal Yacht Squadron during Cowes week is definitely showboating that Carbon Footprint would approve of!

It was a great day with the perfect conditions for wing foiling, thanks so much to Thomas, Antoine and Eric for letting me play with their very cool toy and ensuring I kept my hair dry!

Now it’s just the offer of dinner from the lovely Brad that Carbon Footprint has to dream about!

Hey pussy cat

It seems that sailing is becoming all about the catamarans these days. Check out this AC action for proof:

http://www.anchorfan.com/video/oracle-racing-ac45-crashes-spectacularly-in-test-for-the-americas-cup

Just when I thought I was getting the hang of foiling, looks like I am going to have to learn what to do with two hulls; not to mention how to swing about in the funny hammock/ trapeze thing. Time for some cat training...

As every girl knows it is always important to try on your party outfit before a big do, especially one where you are not quite sure of the fit. So I thought I should give Adam’s trapeze harness a quick try out. I dug it out of the loft and struggled into it. (Girls, be warned - dating a gentleman with a smaller bottom than you is not good for the ego!) 10 minutes later and I had finally got all the buckles and bits of strapping on. I was in the house on my own and the fleeting thought crossed my mind, getting in was quite a struggle, I hope I can get out of this on my own. Suddenly that was the least of my worries. I was trussed up like a Christmas turkey when horror of horrors... the door bell rang... I snuck a look out the window, maybe I could ignore it... it was the delivery man with an important, long awaited parcel, oh no! OK what are the options? 1) Hide, let the postman walk away and go through the hassle of collecting the parcel from the nearest delivery office - probably in Aberdeen. 2) Answer the door in the middle of the day in what most ordinary members of the public would consider to be S&M wear!

What did I do? What every self respecting young lady would do in the circumstances, threw on the trusty oversized Gill Race Team jacket and signed for the parcel “Wearing my coat, yes I was just on my way out, lucky you caught me” ;-)

Tune in next time to find out how my cat experience goes.