So, as the JJ approaches, the pace seems to hot up and so does the racing calander. To add a little spice, last night we had the NAB Twilight Race, with a start at 6.00pm. For once, I managed to snatch prime spot in the boat park, surrounded by the "rich" part of the fleet. As usual, there was a fair amount of banter and last night it was with the boys on Club Marine, trying to outdo each other as to who had the lowest budget campaign! There they were, with 2 new mains and 2 new jibs, a new mast, new harnesses, Club Marine clothing yet Beasho and his boys were claiming that their campaign is as poor as a church mice. The poor chaps! We got a new No.2 main and that was it! We paid for everything else. To be fair, the rumour is that they did over spend their budget and had to reach in their pockets a little, but then again, we don't all have sponsors like Fiat and 7.
And on the subject of 7, there is a story that during the week they were helping out with some corporate entertainment. For reasons better known to only them, they decided to use their best and only race legal No.1 jib. No issue, one may have thought, except they broke part of the jib sheet system and the story suggests that their jib was flogging wildly for rather more time than they would have wished. I hope that isn't the edge off their no expense spared campaign.
But back to last night. Light wind No1 rig isn't something we have a lot of experience of and we had never sailed in a South Easterly. The course was a bit of a chase around the upper end of the harbour and just to make things interesting, there was a big fleet of cruisers out for an evening race as well.
I am not sure exactly what happened but we had a few issues before the start that meant our approach was rather last minute. I could see it was boat end biased and was therefore happy to hold back a bit as second row at that end wouldn't be so much of a drama, so long as we could tack off. So there we were, lined up nicely, ready either to accelerate into into the front row or to start second, next to the boat and then tack, when a few boats decided to try to come down from high and barge in. From our position, I could see this start and as they racked up, we dived into a new gap and avoided a raft of 4 boats. We were second from the boat and looking to tack and then we were launched.
It was a strange first beat with lots of snakes and ladders. Pressure and wind direction varied greatly so it was hard to see who was making gains and where we were in the fleet. At times, we looked great but as the fleet converged at the entrance to Rose Bay, we were well in the pack but with lots of opportunity. On top of that, we were sailing a "3 bouy" race, which is where the windward mark is actually 3 bouys set about 50 metres apart, with the top teams sailing further than the lesser mortals. We had least distance to sail and it seemed that the system worked well as everybody seemed to start the ensuing run together.
The real challenge of the run was working through the cruiser fleet that formed a constant barrier across the leg. Try to go above them and you might not find a hole to gybe into, go underneath and sail in bad wind; tricky! We managed to select a decent lane and had a great leg, rounding somewhere around 8th. The next beat was also a bit of snakes and ladders but we continued to hold our own. The problem came on the next leg. For the first time, our light weight went against us. The leg was a very tight reach across the harbour and we simply got creamed by bigger guys. People who we would not expect to go past us were simply able to sail higher and get to the mark; we had to drop and sail up and a headland meant we were coming in on too much of a run.....SLOW!
However, going upwind again saw us really getting to grips with the shifts and we seemed to have found a way of making the boat point, something we had not experienced before. So we took another small ladder and reached the top mark having made back the losses of the previous leg, only to give up 2 at the end of the following run through a well thought out, perfectly executed but fundementally flawed strategy.
The resat of the race was more of the same. For every ladder, there seemed to be a snake and at the end, as darkness approached, the boats in the early teens seemed to all finish in very quick succession. We were 13th, out of 21 starters and were greeted by wild cheering from one of the sponsors spectator boats. I suspect our performance was enough to win somebody some money.
It had been a long and strenuous race lasting 1 hour 45 minutes. Not only was that longer than normal, but the boats take more out of you in light weather than in a breeze. The constant bending of the knee, moving in and out of the boat, plus the extra loads due to the lack of speed meant that we would all sleep well.
So, we have one more race until the JJ and that is tomorrow (Sunday). I keep feeling that given another 2 months and we will probably be ready! Instead, we have one more race and whatever practice we can fit in next week.
And on the subject of 7, there is a story that during the week they were helping out with some corporate entertainment. For reasons better known to only them, they decided to use their best and only race legal No.1 jib. No issue, one may have thought, except they broke part of the jib sheet system and the story suggests that their jib was flogging wildly for rather more time than they would have wished. I hope that isn't the edge off their no expense spared campaign.
But back to last night. Light wind No1 rig isn't something we have a lot of experience of and we had never sailed in a South Easterly. The course was a bit of a chase around the upper end of the harbour and just to make things interesting, there was a big fleet of cruisers out for an evening race as well.
I am not sure exactly what happened but we had a few issues before the start that meant our approach was rather last minute. I could see it was boat end biased and was therefore happy to hold back a bit as second row at that end wouldn't be so much of a drama, so long as we could tack off. So there we were, lined up nicely, ready either to accelerate into into the front row or to start second, next to the boat and then tack, when a few boats decided to try to come down from high and barge in. From our position, I could see this start and as they racked up, we dived into a new gap and avoided a raft of 4 boats. We were second from the boat and looking to tack and then we were launched.
It was a strange first beat with lots of snakes and ladders. Pressure and wind direction varied greatly so it was hard to see who was making gains and where we were in the fleet. At times, we looked great but as the fleet converged at the entrance to Rose Bay, we were well in the pack but with lots of opportunity. On top of that, we were sailing a "3 bouy" race, which is where the windward mark is actually 3 bouys set about 50 metres apart, with the top teams sailing further than the lesser mortals. We had least distance to sail and it seemed that the system worked well as everybody seemed to start the ensuing run together.
The real challenge of the run was working through the cruiser fleet that formed a constant barrier across the leg. Try to go above them and you might not find a hole to gybe into, go underneath and sail in bad wind; tricky! We managed to select a decent lane and had a great leg, rounding somewhere around 8th. The next beat was also a bit of snakes and ladders but we continued to hold our own. The problem came on the next leg. For the first time, our light weight went against us. The leg was a very tight reach across the harbour and we simply got creamed by bigger guys. People who we would not expect to go past us were simply able to sail higher and get to the mark; we had to drop and sail up and a headland meant we were coming in on too much of a run.....SLOW!
However, going upwind again saw us really getting to grips with the shifts and we seemed to have found a way of making the boat point, something we had not experienced before. So we took another small ladder and reached the top mark having made back the losses of the previous leg, only to give up 2 at the end of the following run through a well thought out, perfectly executed but fundementally flawed strategy.
The resat of the race was more of the same. For every ladder, there seemed to be a snake and at the end, as darkness approached, the boats in the early teens seemed to all finish in very quick succession. We were 13th, out of 21 starters and were greeted by wild cheering from one of the sponsors spectator boats. I suspect our performance was enough to win somebody some money.
It had been a long and strenuous race lasting 1 hour 45 minutes. Not only was that longer than normal, but the boats take more out of you in light weather than in a breeze. The constant bending of the knee, moving in and out of the boat, plus the extra loads due to the lack of speed meant that we would all sleep well.
So, we have one more race until the JJ and that is tomorrow (Sunday). I keep feeling that given another 2 months and we will probably be ready! Instead, we have one more race and whatever practice we can fit in next week.
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