However, when the picture is the one below, maybe some might understand why this isn't my idea of the ideal picture to please the sponsors. However, at least we got the sponsors name into the article............
What seems a little harsh is that 5 boats capsized on Sunday, 4 during the race and the print the photo of the one who swam before the race. Yes! At last. A race with no swim. Even better we weren't last and we learnt a lot.
We had about 11-14 knots of breeze that was shifty as anything, making it really tough. A busy harbour kicked up an inconsistant chop, so getting settled was difficult. Worst still, the first leg the triangle downwind had a really difficult area on the entrance to Rose Bay with big wind shadows, gusts and shifts of 30+ degrees. If you tried to gybe away, things got too tight to get back to the mark and Shark Island got in the way. So, noty the easiest day in the office.
However, after a poor start (must pull the trigger earlier) we trudged up the beat trying to find a good lane. Eventually, after nearly losing touch with the fleet, we found a lane that got us back to the fleet in time to see how we could compete downwind. And compete we did. We actually overtook a few boats, some with speed, others by handling Rose Bay well. However, this only led to exposing our real weakness. We couldn't point if our life depended on it. Getting on the inside of a few lifts hid this for a while, but there is no hiding from the fact. Added to this, we managed to rig our downhaul wrong, leading to the downhaul strap ripping off. In the bar afterwards I lost count of the number of people who said "we have all done that!"
After the race we were also able to ask last year's skipper, Herman, about the pointing. It seemed we were using a fraction of the vang that we should have been, so hopefully that is another lesson learnt. What is a bit of a shame is that I actually felt we were sailing the boat OK but with no upwind speed, it is hard to be sure.
Anyway, the team are a bit more fired up so those of you on the harbour should see us outr training a bit more. First session is on Thursday, when high on the agenda is learning how to pull the vang........hard!
As we seem to be going back in time (newspaper on Monday, 18 racing on Sunday), i guess a little update on the Moth sailing is in order. On Saturday we had one of the top boys from St. Georges sailing with us at Balmoral and he made us look silly. I won the start comfortably, only to see Dave traveling at speed behind, going lower and far quicker. A quick pull away later and the speed was matched. Even better, Dave tacked away to the side that never pays! A couple of minutes later I look over to the other side of the course and he is dead and buried! Then the wind softens, angles change and one boat foils the whole of the beat while the rest of us wallow. From there, whenever I saw dave, he was foiling and I wasn't.
On reflection, I don't yhink it is a boat difference but an experience one. Dave was sailing angles I haven't seen before and it is clear I need a rethink. I need to do some serious training with the GPS in VMG mode.
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