A warm day reaching 25 degrees with a nice SE breeze around 14 knots with gusts up around 18 gave some great sailing conditions. Having dropped off a little from the morning but pretty much held in for the afternoon.
A good turnout of thirteen (13) catamarans came down to participate. Nine (9) small cats and four (4) large cats. This week Todd and Brad Curry setting a starboard course. Start line between the club house and Gooseberry Island, windward mark a hundred or so metres past the holfuy mudstick along side the shallows and the wing mark back towards the middle of the lake. For the cats they set a great course, the angles particularly good for both reach legs.
At the 12:30pm briefing Brad Curry acknowledged the great results the juniors had achieved during the Christmas break in Manly juniors and Flying 11’s.
Trevor then gave the briefing and we went about final preparations and we set off. Discretion the better part of valour due to the lively wind conditions Jody decided to get a ride on a TY and Bill stayed ashore to sail another day.
The SE breeze made launching fairly simple and you were able to take off straight out into the lake. A nice wind strength of around 14 knots allowing you to get out on the wire. A few white caps and small waves around 300mm to 400mm made for plenty of spray. The cats milled around the northern side of Gooseberry Island waiting for the start. The start small cats got away cleanly without incident, Hot Pepper hanging back a little managed to point a little higher and appeared to get a lift a little further out from the shore. Hence able to sail up to the southern side of the reef before tacking. With this advantage hot Pepper was able to make good progress being up near the leaders of the pack rounding the windward mark.
After the starboard rounding the reach over to the wing mark developed some excellent speed as the angle was a near perfect 80 to 90 degrees (thanks toTodd and Brad). Once around the wing mark again a near perfect reach was had back down to the start buoy. By this stage the pack had started to spread with Dark Horse pushing out near the front. The work back to the windward mark saw a couple of strategies. Majority chose to head along the northern shore, if able to hold high enough get over the top of the reef, if not go under before tacking and getting a good run along the shallows to the windward mark.
On around the second rounding of the windward mark, Ralf on Dark Horse gave up the lead when he dipped the nose of his craft and even with releasing his mainsheet was not able to prevent a capsize. However afterward Ralf advised that he was able to right his craft very quickly with little fuss (still managed to get a Lake Illawarra Choc top). He managed to get going again only losing a couple of positions. Interestingly it was on this same leg that Wilbur the flying A Class also capsized. Other than that no other mishaps to report. As can be seen by the scratch times White Wave came across the line 1st with Jack Pot very close behind. Then Groove Thing closely followed by Dark Horse (even after capsizing). Next was Silver Fox, Hot Pepper and Yabby.
Scratch times(not adjusted) across finish line were as follows:
15:38:24 Tony Zahra 526 "White Wave" Maricat S/Sloop
15:38:31 Jack Kroek 6306 "JackPot" Windrush S/S
15:39:09 Tony Sanderson 6346 "Groove Thing" Windrush S/Sloop
15:39:58 Ralf Steyer 6286 "Dark Horse" Windrush S/S.
15:42:28 Paul Leaudais 6308 "Silver Fox" Windrush S/Sloop
15:45:25 Hugh Lewis 6327 “Hot Pepper” Windrush S/Sloop
15:50:21 Ross Fyfe 6421 "Yabby" Windrush S/Sloop
General:.
Small Cats Delegate
At the 12:30pm briefing Brad Curry acknowledged the great results the juniors had achieved during the Christmas break in Manly juniors and Flying 11’s.
Trevor then gave the briefing and we went about final preparations and we set off. Discretion the better part of valour due to the lively wind conditions Jody decided to get a ride on a TY and Bill stayed ashore to sail another day.
The SE breeze made launching fairly simple and you were able to take off straight out into the lake. A nice wind strength of around 14 knots allowing you to get out on the wire. A few white caps and small waves around 300mm to 400mm made for plenty of spray. The cats milled around the northern side of Gooseberry Island waiting for the start. The start small cats got away cleanly without incident, Hot Pepper hanging back a little managed to point a little higher and appeared to get a lift a little further out from the shore. Hence able to sail up to the southern side of the reef before tacking. With this advantage hot Pepper was able to make good progress being up near the leaders of the pack rounding the windward mark.
After the starboard rounding the reach over to the wing mark developed some excellent speed as the angle was a near perfect 80 to 90 degrees (thanks toTodd and Brad). Once around the wing mark again a near perfect reach was had back down to the start buoy. By this stage the pack had started to spread with Dark Horse pushing out near the front. The work back to the windward mark saw a couple of strategies. Majority chose to head along the northern shore, if able to hold high enough get over the top of the reef, if not go under before tacking and getting a good run along the shallows to the windward mark.
On around the second rounding of the windward mark, Ralf on Dark Horse gave up the lead when he dipped the nose of his craft and even with releasing his mainsheet was not able to prevent a capsize. However afterward Ralf advised that he was able to right his craft very quickly with little fuss (still managed to get a Lake Illawarra Choc top). He managed to get going again only losing a couple of positions. Interestingly it was on this same leg that Wilbur the flying A Class also capsized. Other than that no other mishaps to report. As can be seen by the scratch times White Wave came across the line 1st with Jack Pot very close behind. Then Groove Thing closely followed by Dark Horse (even after capsizing). Next was Silver Fox, Hot Pepper and Yabby.
Scratch times(not adjusted) across finish line were as follows:
15:38:24 Tony Zahra 526 "White Wave" Maricat S/Sloop
15:38:31 Jack Kroek 6306 "JackPot" Windrush S/S
15:39:09 Tony Sanderson 6346 "Groove Thing" Windrush S/Sloop
15:39:58 Ralf Steyer 6286 "Dark Horse" Windrush S/S.
15:42:28 Paul Leaudais 6308 "Silver Fox" Windrush S/Sloop
15:45:25 Hugh Lewis 6327 “Hot Pepper” Windrush S/Sloop
15:50:21 Ross Fyfe 6421 "Yabby" Windrush S/Sloop
General:.
- The handicap starts planned for this week have been rescheduled to 18th of March so as not to interfere with club championships. Also there are still a few spots that need to be filled for upcoming duties. Tony Zahra is ok next week with Amie making a comeback to assist. I have volunteered with Jody for Feb 18th 2017. We need to fill the other spots. Maybe think about and we can chat next Saturday about who might be able to assist and when. I will then let Trevor know so he can fill the duty roster.
- A few small cats people have expressed an interest in participating in the Australia Day Regatta at the Illawarra Yacht club Thursday 26th January 2017. At this stage the plan is to rig here at PKSC and sail around to IYC start. Plan is to open the grounds around 9am to give time for rigging as the race is scheduled for start 11:00am. Normally once rigged the group or a representative drive around and fill in entry forms and listen to briefing etc. at IYC.
- Australia Day - Jody has expressed an interest in camping after the race and sleeping overnight. Any like minded folks feel free to discuss with Jody.
Small Cats Delegate
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