35kn anyone?

No racing on Saturday with westerly winds gusting to 35kn!… So what better to do than watch the carnage at GRSC, hosting a heat of 16ft Skiff States.

In my time racing 16’s with Dave at GRSC I can remember only one or 2 races being cancelled. Basically it has to be absolutely ridiculous before the though of abandoning might entertain the race committee….anyways great for spectating and that’s what we were there to do.

Riley won convincingly after some very impressive sailing, and made me eve re-evaluate my decision of declining a crewing role with Jack few years ago. Absolutely awesome boat handling skills, and shows the depth of Sailing in Australia at the moment. 2nd was ex mothie Peter Thorpe on CST Composites while the rest of the field failed to finish.

Similar breeze strenght prevailed on Sunday wit 18’s abandoning the racing for the day. It would have been another good one to watch.

So with a bit of luck the wind gods will be a little kinder for St George interclub next Saturday, because at the moment I feel quite riped off.

Mothcast with Phil

So if you have missed Bruce’s post, the second episode of Mothcast is now up.  Next in line is John Ilett, with interview to be recorded later this week…

Balmoral interclub

Wow, what a difference a new sail makes! The Interclub at Balmoral on Saturday saw first glimpses of speed from the new boat all thanks to Amac’s loaner sail.

I had a good mid line start and went left into more pressure to round the top mark in 1st, meters in front of Andrew Stevo and Scott. Over to the wing mark and we seem to be all exactly the same speed. Andrew had some issues one the run leaving Scott and Myself to battle for the lead.

I still rounded in 1st and extended my lead to about a minute by the top mark after Scott went too far right and out of the pressure. Down the next run it was starting to get lighter, probably only 10kn and I lost out to Scott who picked a few nice gusts down to the bottom mark.

Up the next work I picked the layline into the top mark only to get knocked 30 degrees and find myself in the middle of 2 start boats trying to lay some marks. A bad tack and breeze dropping to 5kn alowed Scott and Dave to foil past as they went further left into more pressure. Matt day also gained however I managed to get in front of Dave just before the top mark as he hit a lowriding patch too. Over to the wing mark, Matt managed to get up and foil away into the distance leaving Dave and myself lowriding for the next few hundred meters. I was the next to finally get up and finished in 3rd with Dave finished some distance behind after struggling to foil down the last run.

So all in all, I’m really happy. When the breeze was up I lead for 1/2 the race and I still feel I can get loads more speed out of the boat. I think Dave still has the fastest boat, and probably the best boat-handling, but he needs more than 8kn to do well. Scott is also very quick and makes few mistakes, but surely the fastest moth in Sydney at the moment is the World Champion?

Weekend testing

More sailing on the weekend with a club race at St George as well as some Harbour sailing with Marty and Alistair on Sunday.

I’m really just treating the racing as tune up time as I need to get this boat going fast asap and start getting ready for the Nationals.

We have a Balmoral Interclub on Saturday, so it will be good to line up against other Sydney Mothies unless they boycot the event just like we have apparently boycoted the SIRS from Woolahra. I’m not even going to waste my time justifying that one, it’s a rude accusation considering what most St George members including myself have done to boost club racing in Sydney.

Anyways, I do have a KA sail coming for this weekend which should make a considerable improvement to my boat speed, and with a new wand being built in my kitchen I’m slightly ticking things off the list.

Just getting to know each other!

Another busy Saturday morning before the 1^st Heat of the club Championship at St George. Plenty of ropes to splice, thighs to adjust and rig Clive’s sail to suit my 40mm CST Mast. Good trick here is to use plastic chain links (that you can get from any hardware shop) if you are short on sail spacers. I must admit this was Lea’s clever last minute idea…

So I got it all ready, (or at least 5 out of the list of 30+ things that are on to-do list) and the breeze was looking great. 15-20kn SE and flat water. Excellent! Well it was for a little while before my rudder pin refused to go through the gantry. So I pushed a little harder and then got it stuck with no chance of getting it out. F*5$k it went in fine last week?. I reckon I must have called my boat every offensive word I knew.  20 minutes later, I watched Dave and others start as I contemplated weather I just leave the thing there and drive home or maybe it’s worth while getting it back on the beach?

Anyways, very frustrating. I went back on Sunday to sort out the problem (bent pin or whatever it could have been) and the rudder went on first go! HHmmm, maybe there is something wrong with me?

Luckily John Ilett called later and I think we have it sorted. With very fine tolerances to minimize slop there is a frictionless point that the pin fits best through, so I might mark this for next weekend. Not boats fault after all, I think we just need to get to know each other better!