Irish Slalom Series Round 1 Newtownards March 27th - 28th

Picture Of KA Sails Team Rider Daniel Macaulay Coming Ashore After One Of The Races

Apologies as i havn't had a chance to update my blog sooner but i was at the first round of the Irish Slalom Series in Newtownards, Northern Ireland. I traveled up on Friday from Kerry which took me 6 hours so i was pretty tired but decided to stop off at the sailing club where the event was being held for a couple of pints before i went to the B&B i had booked for the weekend.

On Saturday morning after i had registered for the event i rigged up my 9.0m KA Race and my Starboard I Sonic 144 with 50cm Vector Fins Maui Canefire fin as it was forcasting light winds for the first part of the day and as it was forcast to pick up i also rigged my 7.3m KA Koncept and my Starboard I Sonic 111 with 42cm Vector Fins Maui Canefire fin.

For this event they were using a heat system and as i was in the first heat so i got ready and as the wind was 10-15 knots grabbed my I Sonic 144 and 9.0m KA Koncept and headed out on the water. In the rush to get on the water i forgot to check my boom height and as soon as i waterstarted my boom was too high so i un clamped the boom and lowered it. As i was re clamped the boom i lost my balance and dropped the sail which i was pretty annoyed with, basically because i made the mistake of not checking my boom height in the first place. As my sail was in the water the luff tube filled and with the wind pinning the sail to the water it was very hard to uphaul it and as i was doing so i felt my back go again. I was in agony at this stage so made my way back into the beach. I was felling pretty gutted at this point as yet again my back let me down when using a 9.0m racing so i decided to wait a while to see if my back stopped hurting but after a couple of hours it was clear this was not going to happen so i got out of my wetsuit and for me my event was over.

The wind continued to build and the rest of the fleet had some of the best slalom racing seen in this country in a while with winds gusting up to 30 knots and i was gutted to have to watch it from the beach. On Sunday the wind filled in again and the fleet got in a a few more races before the called it a day in the early afternoon as everyone was knackered after all the full on racing that had taken place. After the prize giving i made the long journey home and arrived a 11pm

I can't understand why i never have a problem when speedsailing on small kit and then when using bigger sails i have the problem with my back so for now i am going to concentrate on the Speed Events and put the slalom events on the back burner for a while and see over the next year if i can get my back alot stronger to stop me damaging my back when using big sails