October already and time to crane out the mast and get out the winter covers before the cold sets in and it becomes an endurance test.
Stavoren harbour
Has been a much better season for sailing for me and my wife than the former one which had me languishing in long covid fatigue. Thankfully this condition finally improved after nearly a year later than the initial infection.
I made the choice to become a member of the VKSJ which is the club for classic sharp yachts, it was very convenient as they have a number of rallies in and around the home waters here of the Markermeer and the Ijsselmeer, we were already members of another club which in recent years we had found the numbers of boats in our length had become very few so there wasn’t much chance of keeping up with the larger vessels when cruising in convoy, no one likes being consistently last to arrive!
We’ve have had some lovely weekend surrounded with a very diverse group of lovely classic boats, the racing has been delightful at times quit frustrating as the wind was very light on two of the occasions, it was then quite surprising how the Vertue crept up on many of the larger boats, although as the wind increased they had the edge over us, but on the whole the Vertue was a force to be reckoned with against the boats of her length namely folkboats!
Due to the prolonged wet period July into August we decided against a longer trip on the boat but instead had many good weekends enjoying the lovely Hoorn and surroundings.
Virtue racing off Stavoren, photo courtesy of the VKSJ club magazine.
Vertue 61 