PKSC Saturday 28th  October 2017 point score 7 (small & large cats) Championship 3 (large cats)
Catamaran report.
This week we were welcomed to a north easterly breeze at around 10 -12 knots with up to 19 knot gusts and a pleasant 21 degrees Celsius. This week a good turnout of 5 large cats and 5 small catamarans came down to sail. Regulars Tony Sanderson, Ralf Steyer, Jack Kroek and Les Porter away and Hugh Lewis doing duty with Brendan Markey.
There was a good atmosphere with plenty of people and boats. A large contingent of learn to sail coming down for their 1st week. A number sticking around and tucking into the great food at the canteen.
At briefing club president Richard Hipsley called for a minutes silence to remember Digger who passed away during the off season. A spritely 89 year old and a true gentleman who was still sailing last season. Before sailing his TY digger used to sail a Windrush, now owned and sailed by Paul Leaudais.
This week Hugh Lewis and Brendan Markey doing duty. We set a port course starting out in the middle of the lake in line with the western mud stick. Wing mark set on southern side of Gooseberry Island. Thanks to Todd Curry who hopped off Sharpie truck to lend a hand noticing discrepancy with the wing mark (yellow and red wrong way around) and the reaching angle for monos just a touch too tight for them to fly a kite. Hence we took the duty boat “Wal Curry” for a quick run down to adjust the cat and mono wing marks. With the waves and wind spray flying everywhere we ended up soaked to the skin, we both looked at each other and said should have put our spray jackets on. Once down back to the start getting the start sequence away at around 14:09:30pm. In the haste to get back to the start the anchor didn’t bite in well enough. With the waves and wind action by the time we got to the division 4 start the anchor had dragged a little making a port bias line. Both small and large cat divisions getting away smoothly. In small cats Jody Mathews deciding the conditions a little too strong and didn’t head out. With Yabby and Billyo not finishing it became a two horse (cat) race between Havok and Blue Wave. Tony Zahra on the comeback with his 1st race of the season out due to a dodgy back and Geoff also his 1st race of the season. In the end the seasoned campaigner Tony Zahra getting line honours. The large cats finding the line pretty tight due to the start boat dragging the anchor. They also had a great contest the Road Apple boys enjoying the stiff breeze and put on a great performance. Chris on his F16 Altered admitting to a swim during the race.

Another  great day for sailing. South Easterly breeze at around 10 -15 knots with up to 19 knot gusts and 21 degrees Celsius. This week  4 small catamarans & 4 large catamarans came down. Small cats Tony Sanderson, Bill Ledger, Ross Fyfe , Jodie Matthews and Hugh Lewis and large cats Paul English, Bob Porter Jnr and Johnny back with the 5.8 Nacra,  Les Porter returning from overseas and a new comer Chris Malcolm on a F16.
The rigging process wasn’t without a little excitement. A potential Berkeley Bay bummer award nomination occurred. When Tony Sanderson on Groove Thing  cleated off his flapping jib sheet whilst he when inside to sign on. A particularly large gust started his craft heading to shore gathering some pace on the beach wheels. Only some quick thinking from Dean Souter prevented the cat leaving the shore.
Approaching launch time the wind was still fairly strong with up to 20 knot gusts and a few deciding discretion the better part of valour. Bill ledger opting out doing finishes, Ross Fyfe and Jodie enjoying a ride on a TY.
This week a big thanks to Rob Porter snr, Les Porter and Josh doing duty. With the added complication of flying Ants states course straight out front they set about making a course that went out and around this smaller course. They set a port course starting out front of the club house, windward mark half way along the shallows east side and the wing mark back near the reef.
The start boat had a little trouble with the anchor dragging in the stiff breeze and waves so there was a port bias to the line.
The predicted abating wind strength was delayed and only 2 small cats and 2 large cats ended up sailing.  Small cat start was pretty tight on starboard tack. Hot Pepper just making it past the port pin. Groove Thing starting a little lower had to tack to get across the start line. There were quite a few waves and plenty of spray out on the wire for the 1st work. Groove Thing rounded 1st and started heading down the lake. Hot Pepper following. Hot Pepper noticed once around the top mark the Porters on their big cat 5.8 Nacra Road Apple had caught up and was heading out wider. It was then that Hot Pepper realised that Groove Thing was headed for IYC red mark and that the PKSC wing mark was out wider to avoid confusion. Unfortunately once Groove Thing got down to the mark realising it was the wrong mark, couldn’t find the PKSC mark and continued.  As the race continued the wind strength eventually did drop off a little. The F16 appeared to be a handful, whereas the NACRA 5.8 revelled in the conditions and blitzed the field. Hot Pepper had a port rudder jamb up and could not get it down. Ending up stopping in shallows of Gooseberry Island. This took quite a while and managed to force the rudder down and re-join the race a lap down. Groove Thing continuing misadventure continued when a trapeze wire swivel fitting broke and he went for a swim.
Scratch times across the finish line.
Rob & Johnny Porter – Road Apple- 1657  - Nacra 5.8 – 15:14:15
Chris Malcolm - Altered – 5000 – F16 – 15:21:29
Hugh Lewis - Hot Pepper – 6327 – Windrush super sloop – 15:47:12
Tony Sanderson - Groove Thing – 6346 - Windrush super sloop – DNF
Regards Hugh Lewis

Wind SSE 3.7 to 11.7 knots, over cast and a little bit cool. 6 small cats and 1 large cat sailed today.The start was set slightly NE of Gooseberry Island with a good length work to the top mark set of the “2WL towers” and a wing mark near Dixies Reef. The start was reasonable close with Tony Sanderson, Bill Ledger and Ralf Steyer crossing the line on the gun, followed by Hugh Lewis, Jodie Mathews, Ross Fyfe and Paul English on his 16 square. Ralf at boat end was sailing high but Tony further down the line had good boat speed, Ralf tacked slightly earlier than Tony who then made up some ground to be first to the top mark, only to be taken on the inside after a slow tack. The reaches back to the base mark was close with Ralf on the Dark Horse rounding first, the first tack was towards Gooseberry Island, Ralf was a bit “close for comfort” at the island and tacked, Tony had more height and after having to duck behind the starboard tacking Dark Horse he continued past the island, wrong choice, by the time Tony tacked over to starboard he was 200 meters behind at the top mark. Paul, sailing Playtime was next to round the top mark.The placing’s didn’t change until the last work to the top mark with Playtime getting a good lift through the centre and coming out on top at the windward mark with a good lead over the small cat fleet. This lead was eroded quite a bit on the last windward return leg to the X mark when Paul tacked towards Gooseberry Island and Ralf continued to wards the Headland, but in the end Paul crossed the line first followed by Ralf, then Tony, Hugh, Bill and Jodie. Ross had a swim and scored a DNF after having to get help from the rescue boat. 
Ralf.

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 This week it was mentioned that Tony Zahra would usually be sailing by this time of the season. Ralf mentioned that he is out with a back issue at the moment. We hope that we see Tony back soon.  big thanks to Aaron Weare and Pier Panozzo for doing duty and setting a great course. Tony Sanderson has iron out a couple of bugs on his spare windrush. A nice competitive boat that he is now looking at selling. Anyone interested contact Tony Sanderson for further details.

PKSC Saturday 7th  October 2017 point score 4 (small & large cats) Championship 2(small cats)
Catamaran report.
 
The fourth round of the sailing season was a corker. South Easterly breeze at around 10 -15 knots with up to 19 knot gusts and 21 degrees Celsius.
This week there were 6 cat catamarans rigged up. Tony Sanderson, Paul English, Bill Ledger, Ralf Steyer, Ross Fyfe and myself. Catching up with Bob Porter Jnr (sailing a TY with Bob snr this week), he advised that he and Johnny should be back with the 5.8 Nacra next week. Also that Les was returning from overseas next weekend and should be back out on the water around the following weekend. Building back up the large cat numbers.   Tony Sanderson rigged up his refurbished Windrush (alias Groove Thing) to test it out. And Ross Fyfe doing some setup adjustments on jib positioning had his craft on its side in the rigging area.
This week a big thanks to Leo Mavromatis and Richard Lech doing duty (filling in for Kurt caught up with work commitments). Setting a port course starting out front of the club house, windward mark half way along the shallows and the wing mark back near the reef.
This week the cats were out on the water in good time for the start. The onshore SE breeze making the lake pretty bumpy with plenty of white caps. With only the one large cat this week we told Paul he could start with small cats and he promised to start slightly behind so as not to interfere with the small cats club championship. However once started all bets were off.
The predicted abating wind strength did not eventuate and a fresh SE breeze kept blowing. Bill and Ross with their many years of experience deciding the wind conditions just a touch too strong leaving it to their younger peers and watch from shore.  When milling around before the start Tony Sanderson hopped off in the shallows on the leeward side of Gooseberry island to carry out some adjustments, back in time for the start. Start sequence starting promptly and the small cats were away. This week Ralf on Dark Horse hitting the start line 1st followed by Tony on Groove Thing, followed by Hot Pepper and then Paul on Playtime. The cats started on starboard heading east toward the reef. With good wind strength all the cats getting out on trapeze wire. Dark horse pointing high with Groove Thing pointing a little lower going for speed and Hot pepper splitting the difference not quite as high as Dark Horse. Playtime on a similar line to Dark Horse. Once nearing the reef the cats tacked heading up towards the middle of the lake. Plenty of spray as the cats punched through the waves. Another tack rounding the top mark. Dark Horse leading Playtime followed by Hot Pepper then Groove Thing. At this point Dark Horse already opening a lead over Hot Pepper and Groove Thing. Play Time staying in touch. A great reach was had down to the wing mark. You had to take care running down the backs of waves so as not to dig the nose in. Once around the wind mark it was a broad reach to the start just a touch tight so having to point up a little to maximise speed and drop in a jibe to get down to the mark. On the work back up the lake Hot Pepper stayed on port tack up the lake skimming past the east side of Gooseberry Island. Dark Horse and Playtime tacking at Gooseberry. We crossed paths again at the top mark. Dark Horse and then Playtime still holding a good lead. I think it was at this point that Tony on Groove Thing was caught on the wrong side when tacking and capsized, getting up without too much trouble however loosing touch with the pack. A great tussle was had between Playtime and Dark Horse. This week Ralf on Dark Horse back to his best leading the way. On the last triangle and  then windward to finish dark horse and playtime continued to lead trailed by Hot Pepper. Groove Thing capsizing again when tacking to head up for the final run to the windward mark. With the duty boat at hand the other cats headed to the finish.
Ralf on Dark Horse sailing particularly well leading the Nacra 16 squared of Paul English home. Once back on shore it was noted that Groove thing was still capsized and having difficulty in righting. Bill Ledger grabbed some binoculars to monitor things more closely and he advised that a flying 11(Andrew Mavromatis and Jesse Panozo) was capsized nearby and that the crew from it were giving Tony a hand in combination with the duty boat to right his craft, eventually succeeding.  When giving Tony a hand getting his boat out of the water to derig we found out that the mast had filled with water making it near impossible to right. Tony sporting a nice choc top spending time to remove the lake mud from his sail.
Scratch times across the finish line.
Ralf Steyer - Dark Horse- 6286 - Windrush super sloop – 15:31:07
Paul English - Playtime – 70 – Nacra 16 square – 15:32:22
Hugh Lewis - Hot Pepper – 6327 – Windrush super sloop – 15:38:00
Tony Sanderson - Groove Thing – 6346 - Windrush super sloop – DNF
Bill Ledger - Billyo - 182 – Nacra 14 square – DNS
Ross Fyfe – Yabby – 6421 - Windrush super sloop – DNS

Regards Hugh Lewis