It was officially Summer and the sun put on a good show. Pointscore 10 would be sailed in a light to moderate easterly that clocked in around 8 knots. Beautiful!
Earlier on, Hayden Sellers kindly demonstrated the care and maintenance procedures of our two trusty rescue boats to a group of adults and juniors. Thank you Hayden for making sure they’re kept in perfect order. Then Kurt Griffiths took Martin and I out on Puffa to help us with attaining our boat licenses. Thanks Kurt!
There was a good turnout from the combined Small and Large Cat membership with 12 cats in the rigging area. If you count the Porter’s Windrush TY “Beans” there were 13 in all.
Ian Richardson debuted his beautiful new Weta 4.4m Trimaran called Biohazard. It’s a lightweight sportscraft built of composite foam sandwich with carbon spars and beams. It carries an 8m² furling screecher. It looks fast even when it’s sitting still - and having 3 hulls it’s therefore 3 times better than any monohull. If you’re wondering how I get away with making such outrageous comments in a mixed fleet club – its easy – its because nobody reads this blog. (ha!)
Large Cats are still down in numbers while we wait for Les Porter’s new foiling A Class to arrive – and for Rob Porter’s foot to mend. Here I'd like to wish Les a quick delivery and Rob a quick recovery.
Ralf Steyer and I, laid out the watery racetrack with the very welcome assistance of John Pinkerton, visiting from Koonawarra SC. The start was south of Gooseberry Island with Top mark toward the green stick at Primbee and wing mark between Gooseberry and the eastern headland.
After the TY’s, Monos and Small Cats were safely underway, it was Kurt Griffiths (Wreckless) and Paul English (Play Time) who would reprise the ‘battle royale’ between the fat-headed and the pin-headed Nacra 16Sq’s, respectively. On the progressive pointscore, both boats sported a 78 yardstick so it was going to be a match race to see who would be first home.
Kurt won the start by just a few seconds but with Paul pointing higher he was able to tack away to the right side. Paul made a good fist of the first work arriving at the top mark in front, but Kurt showed good speed, trapezing on the reach, to eke out a lead after the first triangle.
From the vantage point of the duty boat, it seemed the wind was quite shifty. We noticed the sailing angles were constantly changing all over the course – so it was a tricky race I think to make the most of the shifts and to stay in the stronger wind channels.
At the end of the day, it was Kurt who managed to answer Paul’s challenges and eventually win convincingly. After the race it was great to enjoy some cool refreshments with all the sailors and swap stories. All in all, a wonderful day spent on the water.
Congratulations also to Ian Richardson who uncorked a win on handicap on his first race on the Weta trimaran! Well done!
Don’t forget, next week is the President and Secretary’s Round the Lake Race! It’s the last race before the Xmas/New Year break so hopefully we have a good turn out and more of this great weather.
See you all there! Regards, Ross Boyd
Earlier on, Hayden Sellers kindly demonstrated the care and maintenance procedures of our two trusty rescue boats to a group of adults and juniors. Thank you Hayden for making sure they’re kept in perfect order. Then Kurt Griffiths took Martin and I out on Puffa to help us with attaining our boat licenses. Thanks Kurt!
There was a good turnout from the combined Small and Large Cat membership with 12 cats in the rigging area. If you count the Porter’s Windrush TY “Beans” there were 13 in all.
Ian Richardson debuted his beautiful new Weta 4.4m Trimaran called Biohazard. It’s a lightweight sportscraft built of composite foam sandwich with carbon spars and beams. It carries an 8m² furling screecher. It looks fast even when it’s sitting still - and having 3 hulls it’s therefore 3 times better than any monohull. If you’re wondering how I get away with making such outrageous comments in a mixed fleet club – its easy – its because nobody reads this blog. (ha!)
Large Cats are still down in numbers while we wait for Les Porter’s new foiling A Class to arrive – and for Rob Porter’s foot to mend. Here I'd like to wish Les a quick delivery and Rob a quick recovery.
Ralf Steyer and I, laid out the watery racetrack with the very welcome assistance of John Pinkerton, visiting from Koonawarra SC. The start was south of Gooseberry Island with Top mark toward the green stick at Primbee and wing mark between Gooseberry and the eastern headland.
After the TY’s, Monos and Small Cats were safely underway, it was Kurt Griffiths (Wreckless) and Paul English (Play Time) who would reprise the ‘battle royale’ between the fat-headed and the pin-headed Nacra 16Sq’s, respectively. On the progressive pointscore, both boats sported a 78 yardstick so it was going to be a match race to see who would be first home.
Kurt won the start by just a few seconds but with Paul pointing higher he was able to tack away to the right side. Paul made a good fist of the first work arriving at the top mark in front, but Kurt showed good speed, trapezing on the reach, to eke out a lead after the first triangle.
From the vantage point of the duty boat, it seemed the wind was quite shifty. We noticed the sailing angles were constantly changing all over the course – so it was a tricky race I think to make the most of the shifts and to stay in the stronger wind channels.
At the end of the day, it was Kurt who managed to answer Paul’s challenges and eventually win convincingly. After the race it was great to enjoy some cool refreshments with all the sailors and swap stories. All in all, a wonderful day spent on the water.
Congratulations also to Ian Richardson who uncorked a win on handicap on his first race on the Weta trimaran! Well done!
Don’t forget, next week is the President and Secretary’s Round the Lake Race! It’s the last race before the Xmas/New Year break so hopefully we have a good turn out and more of this great weather.
See you all there! Regards, Ross Boyd