I am struggling to find something different to report on for Saturday’s race. I could talk about the weather conditions; Overcast with variable 5 to 10 knots of East North East to North East winds. Or I could talk about who turned up for the start of race 7 of the pointscore Series; Rosstered Off with Jim, Shaun, John and Dave aboard, Grey Fox with Digger and new crew members Mitch and Jodie aboard, and Frou Frou with me Pete and new crew Richard aboard. Or I could talk about race highlights. However I find this difficult to identify what these might have been for other competitors from our observational position in the middle of a dispersed fleet. What I should have done, and will do in the future is to take a moment at the “end of the race clubhouse gathering and debrief” to talk more to my sailing buddies to find out in more detail what they thought about the race. All I can do for this report is provide a description from Frou Frou’s point of view and hopefully it will be of interest to readers.
Grey Fox and Rosstered Off were very considerate by doing things that, at least to us, seemed to improve Frou Frou’s race position. I hope it wasn’t that they felt sorry and wanted to to make us feel better about our sailing ability. Grey Fox and crew gave us a big scare up the first work, rounding the top mark just astern. They made some very good strategic choices to pick the wind shifts up this leg of the course, their performance made more impressive as Digger was orienting his brand new crew members. I have a feeling that Mitch and Jodie are naturally gifted so hopefully we will enjoy seeing more of their successful sailing exploits during the season. Anyway their performance knocked us out of our complacency making us concentrate and try harder for the rest of the race.
Rosstered Off used a less subtle but just as effective approach of waited for us while sailing third work. Richard noticed that they had stopped ahead and mentioned that they may be in trouble, and how upset he was for this to happen to another competitor. Peter and I agreed by expressing our concern for their misfortune. They said they ran aground in the shallows. However, given the kind and generous competitors they are, we think they ran aground on purpose to give us a chance to catch up make us feel better about our sailing ability.
So thank you Rosstered Off and Grey Fox, you are all very considerate sailors. We will attempt to do the same for you on other occasions.
Results for Pointscore 7:
First on handicap Frou Frou, second Grey Fox and third Rosstered Off.
Jervis Bay Challenge and Try Sail.
Next week many of us will be heading South to participate in Saturdays around Jervis Bay Challenge race. As with previous years and If there are no objections, and there are enough starters in this event, I will use our results for Championship 3 Pointscore 8 results. Otherwise we can reschedule Championship 3 for another time.
After the race some of us will be heading back for the Try Sail event at Port Kembla Sailing Club on Sunday. Unfortunately Frou Frou has a prior engagement and will not be able to join you at Try Sail, but will look forward to sailing with you on 12 November for Poinscore 9.
The end Trev.