The best term I heard to describe race conditions for Saturday’s Pointscore number 2 was, “Bracing”. Even the Frou Frou crew taking their turn as duty crew aboard the Wal Curry had to admit that a couple of extra layers of clothing would not have gone astray. The cold did not in any way dim the enthusiasm of the sailors aboard the four TYs brave enough to pit their wits against the elements, including the stiff south easterly wind.
We witnessed a reasonably clean start with Out Of Exile needing to do a loop at the pin end of the line to avoid crossing early. Nice to see fair play, plus it meant we did not have to recall anyone.
The first work looked heavy going for the fleet with the wind still coming in strongly at 15 knots or so. This being the first race sailed this season and, not to be unexpected, we observed some interesting sailing techniques that included novel spinnaker launching manoeuvres aboard Rostered Off and Out of Exile, and interesting jib sheeting arrangements aboard Serenity. The only exception was Offshore Account who looked very relaxed on the occasions we observed her in action.
By the second half of the race however it looked as though skippers and crew had ironed out most of the bugs in teamwork and equipment handling and were managing the conditions very well.
The Frou Frou crew enjoyed their day on the duty boat, but we were a little jealous watching our compatriots sailing around the course.
Race results
Last seasons handicaps where available have been carried over for this season and, very interestingly the four TYs sailing today finishing within 1 ½ minutes of each other demonstrating the fairness of the system developed by Barry Grant.
First on handicap was Offshore Account with Dave and his talented crew Rob and Judy. Second was Rosstered Off with Jim and his equally talented crew Richard, Dave Shaun and Rob. Third was Serenity with Wayne and his rapidly improving new crew to the sport Mark and Martin. Forth was Out of Exile with Bob and his enthusiastic crew Rob, Josh, Jonny and Kyle.
Hope to see you all at the start for next Saturday’s race.
The end Trev.