Big Boat Series

The start boat decided to drop anchor right on the shallow spot from last week so the start was delayed until we could direct them to a more suitble location. First three races over and the competition is close. After a great start we led most of the first race only to surrender the lead to op on the last kite drop due to a fouled halyard on the drop and then forgetting to remove the short sheet . Second race second over the line again behind knee deep. Third race the wind dropped out and only a one lap race with a shocking start, dead last over the line but a good comeback to finish second behind op. Great to see the boys on OP competitive again. Yet to work out positions on handicap so off to the bar now. Nav out for now

Winter inshore race 1

After a pretty wild and windy week we managed to get out okay. The wind was strong and had that wintery feel today, the strongest by far this year. The strength averaged 22knots but was dense and felt a lot stronger, stronger than the 26 knots from a few weeks back. Still full main was the call due to an expected drop in wind pressure as the day went on. Time to test the no 4. This was quickly lowered again when we saw how small it was. More like a 5. No 3 back up just in time for the warning gun. Things happen so fast on the new boat and the day was not without incident. A good start, right on the gun and away until we had enough clearance from the fleet, we had planned to stay on starboard as the wind looked good from this side but after looking at the mark we realized that we were already easily on the layline and had to go over on to port in the clear. Trucked along in a squall that shifted 15 degrees then making the mark difficult to reach and we needed a couple of short ones to get around.

No 3 kite up and away. The plan was a quick gybe but the pole hadn’t locked in properly (still) and caused some distraction for a few minutes. At 16 knots things happen fast and before we knew it we were way past the downwind mark and heading for the harbor. Tactician remained calm and we got the heady and the kite down without incident but almost hard on again to get back into shore and covering a fair bit of ground. A couple of quick tacks then to E the shallow one. Fingers crossed but with 0.7m and some storm surge still about we were okay with the depth gauge dropping briefly to 3.6m at the mark. Phew past the shallow bit ……or so we thought.

Now back out to s mark almost hard on the breeze 2 miles. ¾ the way along the leg and crunch. We hit the bottom hard at about 6-7knots and it slowed us to 2-3 knots, a lot of force. According to the charts we should have had 4.1 meters plus 0.7m tide , plenty of water but touched again. Keel up to almost half and we were still touching at 4-5 knots. A sound no one was happy to hear especially naviguesser and of course the RO. Finally clear. Keel back down and off. Looks like the sand banks had moved during the bad weather.

Analysis of the data shows the depth dropped to 2.8 metres at the point of contact and for a long stretch!! This is with 0.7 metres of tide, so this means the sand was 2.1 AHD. Below is the area in question, and showing the tracks from previous races over this area. We have been over this with the kite up at 12-15 knots!! This is now an exclusion zone for us.

No obvious damage and no signs and any damage upon internal inspection but we need to send someone down below to check the keel and around the top of the keep support just to make sure. Back to the top mark and around with the no3. Late hoist due to the distraction of running aground but off again and the call was for another gybe. Again slow gybe and sailed along way down wind but managed to get the kite down cleanly and over the line for the gun.

Phew what happened! It’s like a short sprint, don’t get time to think about anything until we are there.

We averaged 9 knots for the day and finished 2nd on IRC around 1.5 minute behind X factor. We lost a good couple of minutes when we ran aground and sailed a lot further at each kite drop so there is plenty of room for improvement. Fifth on YAH so hopefully this will improve our FSC handicap back to something realistic.

The Sunday Times newpaper WA

Click to enlarge

The caravan proves a match for Knee Deep.

The morning greeted us with a 10-12knot North Easterly clear skies and a forecast of 28 degrees. Winds said to lighten further then tend SE to 10-15 knots. Pleasant cruising conditions. Bit more would have been good for racing, but cruising it was for the eagerly anticipated match up with Knee Deep. The start line was almost as long as the first leg (measured at 600m) so it was always going to spread the fleet. Nav and tactician called pin end start early on. Nailed the start and a short run before tacking to port clear of the fleet and first to top mark.

Kite to West windmill with Knee Deep having slightly more downwind boat speed than the caravan and managed to pass us. However just as we were approaching the mark the wind died and knee Deep stopped as we glided past to be first around windmill.

Someone also said there were two other martin 49s in the race but we didn’t see them after they gybed early into oblivion and never recovered. Fickle winds lead to imaginary wind lines being spotted from all directions. Personally I think there was more wind from the crews behinds at this stage as we drifted around at speeds of up to 0.8 knots. It did what no one expected and turned into a very light SW sea breeze reaching the smaller end of the fleet first and playing right into the hands of Jaffa who did very well and kept up with the front end of the fleet (that’s us). We managed to keep a cover on Knee Deep from there on coasting along with them on our tail for the rest of the race. Wind didn’t recover over 7 knots till the end so gently does it for the rest of the race. The downwind legs were interrupted by football on the TV with Hot pies in the microwave being preferred by some. Just lacked beer , but we lose the plot with a few beers so just as well. We finished with line honours a minute or two in front of Knee Deep but we don’t think we were far enough in front of Jaffa to give us the 38 or so minutes we needed on corrected time. Great race great day and a few drinks on the bus home. Only one stop for drinks and one toilet stop this week. Till next time, the roving reporter logging off.