Nationals Wrap-up
First of all congratulations to Amac for winning the 2010 Nationals with a dominant performance. He not only sailed well, but managed to outsmart the rest by designing a boat that showed blistering downwind pace.
It wasn’t a 100% standard Mach 2 either, with custom smaller rudder and nice looking centerboard, he was able to sail 5-10 degrees lower than the rest of the fleet, often leaving us in his wake by the bottom mark.
Andrew Stevenson also sailed well to finish 2nd after a tie on points with myself going into the last race. I suffered with lack of downwind pace but had excellent upwind speed, unfortunately not enough to claim 2nd.
It was an excellent event thanks to John Ilett and Guy Skinner as well as Richard and Chris form WA fleet + other volunteers. Disappointing result for me but thanks to these guys I had a fantastic time, and that’s what counts.
Aussie Nationals Update
Two more days to go and it’s all over.
So far it has been an interesting regatta. Amac has been dominating with 6 firsts in the first two days. His downwind pace can’t be matched by anybody here and would always gain or extend on these legs. Andrew Stevenson has been fast too but ultimately it has been a one boat race.
I have had a mixed bag of both luck and results. On the first day I broke my belcrank fitting on the centerboard and had no full flap up or down. Just lot of slop in the system and struggled to stay near the top. I had a 4, 3, 2 scoreline, but fixed the problem for the afternoons dash for cash. With $1200 of prizemoney on offer it was worth trying to win. I won the 3 elimination heats and then disaster. On the way to the start line I managed to hook up a trawling line from a fishing boat 50m away. It wrapped itself around the centerboard and pulled the flap down hard, breaking my linkages. The idiot didn’t even stop on going until the line broke. Man I could have strangeled that guy….. Andrew Stevo picked up a nice cheque for his efforts.
The next day was good. A bunch of 2nds and 3rds behing Amac and Andrew put me into 2nd overall.
Yesterday was a hard luck story again. I lead the first race from the start and once the breeze dropped to lowriding the starter decided to abandon the race. What the? He claimed a windshift was the reason. Sorry to inform you buddy but the wind shifts. That’s sailing…. Besides I had to gybe down the last square run 3 times so what wind shift was he talking about anyway?
Next race was tough. I think I was still fuming particularly after he told me to go home if I don’t like his calls. I think I should have strangled him as well as that fishing bloke… I was way back after 2 swims and tried to get back into 5th with a port tack run towards the finish. I might have gotten in a way of a starboard tacker, but that’s another story.
Race 2 on the day was great. Neck and neck with Amac around the whole course, he would get me every downwind run but I pulled some nice tacks and fast works to pop in the lead again. I held him off down the last run as he droped back to 3rd after breaking his linkages in a cartwheel.
Amac unable to foil in the last race left it to Andrew and I to fight it out. I had better upwind pace while Andrew was quicker downwind. I was in the lead until the last lap when the camera boat decided to mount themselves right in between the two bottom marks. Realising they would get in the way they bolted our of the way leaving nice 1m waves behind their boat for me to cartwheel over. Andrew poped through and I got 2nd. Not happy Jen.
After the race, I was nformed of a protest over the finish of the race 7 and consequently disqualified for my dodgy manouvre.
Today should be fun. Strongest breeze of the series forecast with decentwaves too. Amac is up and runing again and I am still tied up with Andrew for 2nd after the DSQ drop. What will today bring? More reports tomorrow…
Arrived in Perth…
Sunny warm days, good wind, flat water, grass rigging, no weed, no tide, no traffic jams, no road tolls, and lots more are just some of the attractions of this year’s Australian championship in Perth. Unfortunately lack of NSW and no Victorian boats are a disappointment for an event that is set in a near perfect location.
I arrived on Sunday but I’m actually in Margaret River region taking a bit of a break before heading to Perth tomorrow and doing some training. The racing starts on 4th with invitation race on 3rd, however I traditionally don’t sail in this for religious reasons…
John Ilett has been fantastic in letting us stay with him and has been a perfect host and organiser with help from small but keen WA fleet. In fact I haven’t seen John since the Garda Worlds so it’s great to catch up and show him some of the stuff we have been developing in Sydney. It should be a great event with 5 days racing and total of 15 heats. 3 morning days and 2 afternoon ones with the afternoon course alternating between the flatter waters north-west of the club to choppier area directly in front of the launching area.
Either way, my boat has been pretty fast lately in most conditions so it will be a game of minimising mistakes and staying focused if I want to do well. Andrew Stevenson is probably the dark horse that will do well. He hasn’t raced against fast Woolahra boats for a while, but after winning the last race at St George many actually don’t realise how fast he is an a bit of breeze.
I’ll post more updates as we go, in the meantime Happy New Year.
“Ready” For Sale
All good things must come to an end. Anyone interested?
So far…. not so good
Interesting start to the season. I went out about 7-8 times and only finished 2 sails without braking anything. Mostly little things like linkages and wand bits, but quite unusual for someone as obsessive compulsive about my boat as I am…
In the races I did complete, I did ok. Dave still has an edge on boatspeed and has won most St George races. Last weekend at Belmont Nathan was really impressive. He won all 3 races of the regatta even though his boat wasn’t the fastest. Dave’s was, but he snapped his magic wand so I finished 2nd.
This weekend I’ll be doing some 16ft skiff racing and getting my boat back together after more breakages on Wednesday. New gantry is also on the way as is a new sail/mast combo and yet another version of my wand. Lots happening, with exactly 5 weeks till the boat leaves for Perth Nationals.
Sunshine
After 40kn winds spoiled any sailing the previous weekend, we had some nice wind for the Zhik Sunshine Regatta.
Sailed from my favourite club on Lake Macquarie, we had 12 Moths make the trip from Sydney.
I missed the 1st days racing which was dominated by Dave with two firsts, but sailed on Sunday and Monday. I got a win in the marathon race with a 30 second margin over Dave and Andrew Stevo another 9 seconds behind in 3rd.
The next 2 races were taken out by Dave. I had two seconds while Lea, Alan and Andrew battled for 3rd. I got another win on the last day from Andrew and Dave, while Phil cleaned up in the final heat 6. Sailed in non-foiling conditions it was a reminder of how awful these boats are in sub 3 knots. Dave pulled out and I probably should have also…
So, overall an excellent weekend. Congratulations to Dave on the overall win and everybody at South Lake’s Sailing Club for hosting a great regatta.
Season start
I finally got around to doing a few updates on the site. New videos in the video section, St George 09-10 calendre and the photo section with “photos coming soon” bit is gone, because photos are never blody coming.
I did sail on the weekend too. Only on Sunday after my close mates bucks party took most of the Saturday. I learned that sailing is good for a hangover, but bad for the boat. Yeah, I fell on it. Only a small dent, but it is the first too.
AGM Minutes
Still need to get around to typing these, however it was a good meeting with excellent turnout from St George members. Maybe distance was too great for those living North?
No real big changes since last year. I will continue on as President and John McAteer will continue as secretary. The season membership fees have been locked in at $100, so no longer $90 + 10 for interclub applyes.
We also discussed States at Belmont, and possible change of format for 2010-11 season. This would include running of the event over 2 weekends at 2 different venues. So 4 days of racing and all to be compleated in 1st 1/2 of the season when people seem to be more keen. Also it’s good regatta preparation for the big events like Nationals or Worlds.
By the way thanks to Dave and Dionne for hosting.
NSW AGM + some sailing…
What awesome weather we have been heaving for the last two weeks. 15kn SE and flat water last Saturday, and today another 10-15kn NE.
The boat is going well although, It’s going to take some time getting to know how to use it. I have about 4 different things to adjust before I can bare away and this doesn’t even include vang or cunningham either. Fricken ropes going everywhere!… and they are all red.
I can’t complain too much, I like things to look pretty. Yeah, gay I know and I still need to put another one on for next weekend.
I do seem to have reasonable pace compared to Dave. Not that much in it at this stage. He is still tacking a lot better and has pulled 8 in a row without touching. My best is 3.
Lea, Phil, Chris and Bruce also sailed so it was a good turnout.
By the way the NSW AGM is on tomorrow. Details are up on IMCA Aus website, Dave is hosting it and yeah,… Scott is coming too 
News just in
Scott expresses his love for Dave.
http://scott.projectsomewhere.com/2009/09/03/argumentum-ad-ignorantiam/#comments
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