Well after tuesday evening, I have no doubt that the Ninja is a serious piece of kit. Jonnie and I had a late afternoon/ evening session in flakey winds of between 8 and 14 mph. It was a good chance for me to try out the boat in a reasonably broad range of winds. We also had the usual Worthing groundswell and chop to deal with in the light winds.

As Jonnie and I are now on pretty much the same kit (North V8 and Ninja Foils) it was interesting to see how the two boats lined up against each other.

The first thing I noticed was how little wind the foils need to work. Do you remember the Hayling training videos with Jason Belben sat in the middle of his Ninja foiling in what appeared to be very little wind? Well that was what we experienced with one difference.. we are both 79 kilos! It was so weird foiling in virtually no wind, sat right in the middle of the boat just holding it there. When it came to gybing I realised that both of us have been training in the higher wind bracket (15 – 20knots) and gybing in very little wind is a whole new ball game as the timings are all different for getting across the boat.

I still need to sort out the exit angles as well in the light stuff but I guess time on the water will sort that out. I’m just chuffed the boat is going well and riding high (after Jonnie pointed out I needed to raise it up a bit as it was riding low!)

I’m definately feeling more at home in Ninjario now and I guess it will only get better.. I long for the day when it feels like wearing an old glove (ah … Supermistress…). So far so good.

Also my sail numbers arrived today. Once again thanks to Simon Reynolds for pointing me in the direction of Chris Henderson in Essex who used to work for Hyde and is currently class measurer for Musto Skiffs. He also happens to make sail numbers! The beauty is that they came pre laid out on a single piece of sticky back paper and measured according to ISAF rules so all I had to to was make sure they went on parallel! That has to be the fastest I’ve ever put a whole set of numbers on.

Anyone who needs new stylized numbers should get in touch with Chris (give me a shout for his details). Apart from anything else, he turned it around in double rapid time.

Next stop Parkstone open meeting.