Tag Archives: marblehead blog

Do You Get Cold When Racing at This Time of Year?

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Do you find it a bit nippy in the colder months, striding up and down the foreshore?? Hanging around for start sequences?? Especially on the breezy days?

I must admit, in my first winter IOM series, it got seriously cold, and I got seriously cold… then the enjoyment declined. The way to deal with this was shown to me by a great friend at Chipstead RSC. … A battery heated gilet….

I was incredulous at first… but, honestly, it was a total revelation. Amazing. For a start, the battery lasts about four hours, so you get protection for just the right amount of time to cover a radio sailing session.

Although I call it a gilet, you wear it under your top layers, so you want to read all the customer reviews about garment sizing (important). I wear mine on top of a cotton T-shirt, but under everything else.

If you look on Amazon there are simply loads of designs to choose from. They all seem to have heated panels in different places and I especially wanted heated lower back panels. You just choose which suits you best. I think on mine, additionally the user can also select back/front/both for heating zones… and high/medium/low heat as well. Great!

The second revelation was the price. On Amazon it was about £50. Ridiculous! The rechargeable (on USB cable) battery, which is about the size of an iPhone, costs £20 extra. You just pop it in a pocket inside the gilet.

Blimey that’s less than a set of thermals from Musto or Rooster. I’m in the second winter now and it’s still working! I’m wondering about adding a second battery for longer days.

LT at Datchet is also trialling one this winter. Results are good, I believe. I’m surprised that RW (our “Mr Style”) hasn’t got one yet.

Great Christmas present and you get more races in!

These products come and go on Amazon, but this was the search term I used….

Vapesoon Heated Vest Heating Jacket with 3 Adjustable Temperature Electric USB Rechargeable Winter Thermal Vest Warm for Outdoor Camping Riding Hiking (Battery Pack Not Included)

Winter Racing? Got Cold Fingers??

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Racing your boat through the winter? Great !!

I’ve always enjoyed racing through the year plus you get your money’s worth from the membership fee – ha!! Basically at Datchet, our formal scored series run February to November, but if you fancy racing with someone in December and January you can just turn up. Use the WhatsApp group to find someone to race with!

I do find though that the fingers can get cold on those little joysticks! I know the transmitter covers are called “snugs”, but honestly there’s snug and … SNUG !!

The first gloves I tried were quickly discarded. I found the leather was too thick to let you feel the joysticks properly. So now I’m on my second pair of Cycling Glove Liners.

The first part I bought were beautiful merino wool gloves. However, I found holes in the finger tips very quickly.

Now I am using glove liners made of 80% polyester and 20% elastane. Finger tip feel is simply perfect, they fit like a second skin – and they don’t seem to wear into holes. Very warm inside the transmitter snug.

If you go on to cycling clothing websites like Wiggle, you will find loads to choose from and they are miles cheaper than Merino wool.

Christmas present?

How They Weigh a One Metre ?

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When you come into Radio Sailing, you hear a lot about weights. It’s a hot topic, just like it is in dinghy and keelboat racing.

As an aside : when I ordered a new Dragon keelboat, I remember going to the builder (who had lots of Olympic golds, world titles and the rest of it) and asking what weight he thought the boat would come out at. He said 1700kg is the rule. I naturally asked, “Yes, but what weight do you think you can build mine to?”… “1700kg” came the reply. And he did. Amazing.

So in at least One Metres and Marbleheads, owners and builders have the same keen interest in weights as my Dragon Builder.

I was keen to see my new IOM weighed. The photo above shows the setup. A digital scale with fine graduations plus a wooden IOM standing bracket. Easy enough to see how the Measurer does his job now.

In fact, here is my boat being weighed. Note hatches and onboard battery are inside the weight limit.

Thinking of my Dragon story above, I thought you’d be interested to see how accurate my IOM builder was. “He’s 21Gms over!”, you proclaim !!

Well, I thought that too, so I asked him. I take it that lots of people do. I received a well practiced answer. He says that they target 20gms over because they find that scales around championships do vary. So if you weigh in at a Championship and it looks like you are 20gms over, you can always pop the corrector out.

OK – so he was 1gram over !!….