Arlene Ocean Race

Some would say we won the first race, stuffed the second and did okay in the third, but there was officially only one race. The wind did as predicted and went from 5 knots north east to east taking the big boats out to eastern windmills and halfway back before dying completely. We sat there for a few hours waiting for the breeze that tended south to bring the smaller boats (and some of the bigger boats) back to the leading boats for a restart and sprint to the finish. There was a fair bit of luck involved in terms of should we go left or right, head for shore or stay on the line. The boats that won out did what we would normally, head towards the breeze and hope that it doesnt fade near the shore. This enabled boats like syrenka to sail from oblivion back into the race around the outside and be third around campbell.

OP had line honours and we managed a second over the line but well out of contention on handicap. The results were not out before the boys on the bus wanted to leave so not sure of the outcome but likely to be a small boat. Next factor did well finishing just behind Knee Deep a few minutes behind us.

That makes OP5 -4 up on us but who is counting.

Winter Inshore Race 2

Another great day on the water. Second and fastest on YAH with IRC results to be posted next week. But with a little bit of primary level calculating unofficially and assuming I have the correct IRC numbers it looks like its out of us, x factor, and southern star. Most of the roving correspondence has already been duly completed by others and can be found here: http://www.fsc.com.au/3/319/1/latest_news__information.pm Results here: http://www.fsc.com.au/2/281/1/_inshore_winter_series_results.pm Picture Vanessa Cornwall FSC The track from the race is here:

Stories from after event activities at Little Creatures are abundant (apparently) but I can't remember much and my head hurts. Have spent most of the day finding my gear in several different cars.

Any questions?

Big boat summary

Sunday’s racing was very light with no wind before the start. We discussed the possibility of having a race without sails, engines only just to keep the competitive spirit alive but the wind picked up slightly and the need for alternatives disappeared. The start boat again tried to set a course that would have had the windward mark sitting in about 2 meters of depth, not so good for a big boat series, so there was a slight delay again to allow them to move North. Wind at around 7 knots and 100degrees (SE) on a forecast of 10-15 knot north to North westerlies (?). Mediocre start with Jaffa in front OP to windward and I think knee deep to leeward, nowhere to go and couldn’t tack until we had enough bad wind off Jaffa to allow us to tack across into oblivion, and probably enough said on this race. We dropped this one. Second race a better start but OP was sailing better than us and managed to stay ahead on a soldiers course not leaving us much scope to fight back on a one lapper shortened course with the wind dying. Overall out of seven races Next factor took the overall honours with OP second and us in third. Great racing and we enjoyed the competition. We are pleased to see OP back up there and happy that we still have much to learn with plenty of races coming up. Should be some very competitive sailing to look forward too in the coming months. Bring it on.

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