A warm cloudy day around 26 degrees Celsius with 11-16 knot breeze via Billy Ledger’s wind meter – BOM Albion Park advising up to 20 knot gusts. Looked like it would provide great sailing conditions. Twelve (12) catamarans came down for a sail. (see below list of who came down). With all the boats rigged up Steve Sellers and Trevor Dunn took on response boat and course setting duties. The plan was for course A this week. Response boat went out and the catamaran folks finished setting up.
Whilst rigging, Les Porter discovered his sailing day was over. The main traveller was about to tear off it’s mounting point at the rear beam.
It was noticed that the response boat had laid the 1st mark and was sitting behind it between the clubhouse and Gooseberry Island. As time went on it became obvious that there was something wrong with the response boat as it had not moved. Radio contact with the response boat confirmed that they had engine troubles and one of the TY’s would tow them back to the marina. Even after the best efforts of those involved the boat was not able to be started. Hence without a response boat (backup boat Puffa away with Flying 11 juniors) the day’s racing was abandoned.
There was obvious disappointment but I think it was better to be safe than sorry. Also we had no means of setting the course etc. So, Kurt and Bruce went out for a quick blast on their Nacra 5.8 Clewless and returned later with big grins saying the wind was perfect – solid and consistent.
I had a chat to Tony Zahra looking at boat setup and when comparing to some of the other Windrushes found that my mast was raked back significantly more than some of my fellow sailors (close to 250mm – 300mm). Hence we made some adjustments raking it forward, stiffening rig tension a little and making it the same as Tony Sanderson’s mast rake. Slightly more forward than Jack Kroek and Ralf Steyer.
At this point I decided to test this adjustment and Jack Kroek joined me. We did a big reach straight offshore out towards the other side of the lake. Going past what looked like 4 Paper Tigers sailing out of Koonawarra. Wind strength was perfect to trapeze, lighter than last week so was pretty much able to use full wind power most of the time. The southerly breeze pushing up some steep waves at times making the boat falter occasionally when punching through a particularly steep wave. Once over towards the other side of the lake we tacked over towards Windang bridge and the shallows (water much flatter over this way). Following Jack at this point the rake adjustment appeared favourable in helping pointing ability. Next week should be a good test. From here we had a nice broad reach back to shore. When we returned to shore Tony Sanderson made the suggestion that we should have sailed over to the Paper Tigers and may have been able to join them (hindsight is a wonderful thing!).
After packing up it was a refreshing cold shower as the hot water had tripped out.
Les Porter 938 “Pilot Error” A Class Foiling
Rob Porter snr “Shark Bait” Taipan 4.9 Sloop
Rob Jnr & Johnny Porter 1602 “Phantom Menace” Nacra 5.8
Kurt Griffith & Bruce Borchadt 1550 “Clewless” Nacra 5.8
Ross Boyd 860 "Symphony 2" A Class Classic
Tony & Amie Zahra 526 "White Wave" Maricat Sloop
Tony Sanderson 6308 "Groove Thing" Windrush S/Sloop
Bill Ledger 182 "Billyo" Nacra 14 square
Ralf Steyer 6286 “Dark Horse” Windrush S/Sloop
Jack Kroek 6421 "Jackpot" Windrush S/Sloop
Hugh Lewis 6237 “Hot pepper” Windrush S/Sloop
Jody Mathews 629 “Blue Tongue” Windrush S/Sloop
General:
1. Kembla Kats Regatta Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th of March 2016. This is only 2 weeks away.
2. Please be advised that Club Championship 6 (cancelled this week due to race abandonment) for Large and Small cats to be rescheduled to next week Saturday 27th February 2016.
3. Reminder that Large cats Club Championship 3 has already been rescheduled for 9th April 2016.
Regards Hugh Lewis
Whilst rigging, Les Porter discovered his sailing day was over. The main traveller was about to tear off it’s mounting point at the rear beam.
It was noticed that the response boat had laid the 1st mark and was sitting behind it between the clubhouse and Gooseberry Island. As time went on it became obvious that there was something wrong with the response boat as it had not moved. Radio contact with the response boat confirmed that they had engine troubles and one of the TY’s would tow them back to the marina. Even after the best efforts of those involved the boat was not able to be started. Hence without a response boat (backup boat Puffa away with Flying 11 juniors) the day’s racing was abandoned.
There was obvious disappointment but I think it was better to be safe than sorry. Also we had no means of setting the course etc. So, Kurt and Bruce went out for a quick blast on their Nacra 5.8 Clewless and returned later with big grins saying the wind was perfect – solid and consistent.
I had a chat to Tony Zahra looking at boat setup and when comparing to some of the other Windrushes found that my mast was raked back significantly more than some of my fellow sailors (close to 250mm – 300mm). Hence we made some adjustments raking it forward, stiffening rig tension a little and making it the same as Tony Sanderson’s mast rake. Slightly more forward than Jack Kroek and Ralf Steyer.
At this point I decided to test this adjustment and Jack Kroek joined me. We did a big reach straight offshore out towards the other side of the lake. Going past what looked like 4 Paper Tigers sailing out of Koonawarra. Wind strength was perfect to trapeze, lighter than last week so was pretty much able to use full wind power most of the time. The southerly breeze pushing up some steep waves at times making the boat falter occasionally when punching through a particularly steep wave. Once over towards the other side of the lake we tacked over towards Windang bridge and the shallows (water much flatter over this way). Following Jack at this point the rake adjustment appeared favourable in helping pointing ability. Next week should be a good test. From here we had a nice broad reach back to shore. When we returned to shore Tony Sanderson made the suggestion that we should have sailed over to the Paper Tigers and may have been able to join them (hindsight is a wonderful thing!).
After packing up it was a refreshing cold shower as the hot water had tripped out.
Les Porter 938 “Pilot Error” A Class Foiling
Rob Porter snr “Shark Bait” Taipan 4.9 Sloop
Rob Jnr & Johnny Porter 1602 “Phantom Menace” Nacra 5.8
Kurt Griffith & Bruce Borchadt 1550 “Clewless” Nacra 5.8
Ross Boyd 860 "Symphony 2" A Class Classic
Tony & Amie Zahra 526 "White Wave" Maricat Sloop
Tony Sanderson 6308 "Groove Thing" Windrush S/Sloop
Bill Ledger 182 "Billyo" Nacra 14 square
Ralf Steyer 6286 “Dark Horse” Windrush S/Sloop
Jack Kroek 6421 "Jackpot" Windrush S/Sloop
Hugh Lewis 6237 “Hot pepper” Windrush S/Sloop
Jody Mathews 629 “Blue Tongue” Windrush S/Sloop
General:
1. Kembla Kats Regatta Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th of March 2016. This is only 2 weeks away.
2. Please be advised that Club Championship 6 (cancelled this week due to race abandonment) for Large and Small cats to be rescheduled to next week Saturday 27th February 2016.
3. Reminder that Large cats Club Championship 3 has already been rescheduled for 9th April 2016.
Regards Hugh Lewis
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