Just another perfect day

Sunday was the second race for the ASCC summer series. Jenni, Julie, Karina and I set sail in beautiful sunshine with a predicted breeze of 8-13 knots ahead of us. Again no start boat although Dayna had hoped to rent a tinnie. We found out why she couldn't later in the day.

We started from Taylor Bay and we were the first across the line having taken care to stay out of the notorious dead zones further in to shore. The we encountered a windless hole which stopped our progress somewhat for a while. But fortunately before Laine in Topknot and Scott in Leapfrog could catch up to us we found the wind and cruised off. Tacking up to Lady Bay we dodged ferries and a big freighter heading into the harbour. And a fleet of Lazers zipping around off Nielsen Park.

Jenni as preventer

On the run to Clark Island we put the pole up which we had almost never done before. Unfortunately when we came to take it down we discovered it had gone up upside down so took a while to unhook. Still, you live and learn. Then a couple of tacks back to the wedding cake of Watson's Bay where we found several of the aforementioned tinnies fishing off the lighthouse. Resisting the temptation to scare the sleeping fellow in one of them we rounded the mark and reached back to Taylor Bay well ahead of the other two boats. Nice!

For a picnic on board we were joined by Laine and crew but not by Scott whose crew had too many hangovers to stay. We decided to fill the fuel tank on the way home in preparation for the Broken Bay trip on Friday. Turns out D'Albora marina fuel service closes at 4.30! not very boatie friendly at all. So we filled the water tanks, emptied the spare fuel tank and found that was enough to top up the main tank.


Then a motor home to Balmain in the dying day. Too lazy to put up the sails.

One of these days we may get some results. But don't hold your breath as we are still waiting for the Winter Series places much less Spring or, heaven forbid, Summer results.

ASCC Regatta

I had the great pleasure to sail in the ASCC's Annual Regatta with two very talented sailors, skipper Gavin Dagley and crew Dee Mason.
They are both from Melbourne and are incredibly good sailors. Gavin has won the ASCC's regatta every time he has entered except last year when he and Dee, without their regular third member Dale, came second. With Dale deciding to skipper his own boat this year I was the lucky to be asked to be the third team member. I was very nervous in case I was the result of another 2nd.

It was a beautiful day with winds predicted to lift during the day from the early 8knots. Because we were a light weight team (in lbs not talent) compared to our main competition we expected to have to hike pretty hard. I had been doing sit ups in preparation for this challenge but feared it wouldn't be enough.

The first drama was that our headsail has a broken top batten. We were given a replacement sail and it too had a broken top batten. What rare the chances. Rather than change the sail yet again Dee as foredeck, removed the batten completely.

Gavin can pick wind gusts that a normal person (me) can't see. He was always exactly where he wanted to be on the start line and ready to power off as the gun went.
Seconds to go... We are third from left (and right)
And we're off
Instant speed, (we are now in the lead on the far right)
And we're way out in front.

We had three other boats to watch out for. Dale's team, the boys that won the regatta last year (Nik and David) and the girls from Adelaide who won the non-spinnaker division of the Gay games both here and in Sydney (Julie, Julia and Meredith). Gavin clearly has a friendly rivalry with Dale and so we kept a very close eye on him at all times. And the need to hike was quickly realised. Dee is a champion at it.
Look at that girl go! And I realised that sit ups for a couple of weeks is definitely not enough.

Although we were not always in the lead the downwind legs were always good for us. Upwind the weight told a bit I think. But downwind we were awsome. We passed Dale and the Adelaide girls more than once in the five races.
Here we are on the left of the girls
getting the all important inside overlap
and first around the bottom mark!

We won the first four races which assured us the win but couldn't quite overtake the girls in the final race.

The boats came from the CYC's Youth Training Academy under the watchful eye of the very patient Jenni Bonnitcha.

It was a fantastic day and the race committee did a really great job

in between wines!