scott.projectsomewhere

Oh the irony…

We happened to have the Beatles song blaring from the pimped-black
108′ Shiver as we sidled up beside James Packer’s totally
inadequate 80+ footer… and the girls got out of the spa to
wave…

And I thought the flying Moth was a show-pony boat…

SIRS is
over for yet another year - thankfully.

The 4 day regatta in relatively fresh conditions took its toll on
the Moth competitors and their equipment.

Our event started with 2 races on the Saturday morning. The first
was in light-moderate conditions, with Rohan (and
his new paint job) taking the lead from the start line and both
of us quickly foiling away from the other Moths and the Finn fleet.
My speed was fine upwind, but technique wasn’t too good downwind so
Rohan opened up a few hundred metre gap. After rounding for a third
lap (on a 2 lap course) I caught up and took the lead, but a little
gust in the failing breeze got him up and through for a win by a
boatlength or so.

The 2nd race was a bit more exciting, starting in the middle of a
storm, with plenty of wind along with thunder and lightning. Rohan
again blasted away from the start, and the massive pitchpole I did
downwind didn’t help me catch him. The boat felt a little sticky
downwind for the breeze.

A
good flickr gallery of the first day…

On to Sunday and a gusty Westerly breeze on a course set up under
Ft Denison. Robo took his new Red-Bull styled boat out and led at
the top mark, followed by myself then Rohstan. I again his the piss
gybing downwind and let him get away. Robo decided to hide from the
breeze upwind and both Rohan and myself went through.

The next race saw Rohan tangle up with Finns while attempting a
port-hand start. I established a huge lead, only to be have Rohstan
foil around me on the last lap as I sat stationary in a fleet of
lasers up underneath Denison.

The third race of the day was painful, with Rohstan taking good
pressure down every run in the patchy breeze to win by over 10
minutes. For some reason every time I was going down there was
almost no wind and I was being passed by lasers… not fun. Robo
was another 5 minutes back in 3rd place.

In between races the Moths noticed a camera man on a duckie… and decided to
do syncronised flybys…
what a bunch of show-offs. Though there was a
nice shot of the rudder cavitation on my boat - it’ll be nice
to have one on centreline for the upcoming Nationals.

The extended gaps between races also gave me the chance to go
blasting with the League 18 footers. In the right pressure the boat
was the same speed upwind (but lower), and similar speed downwind.
Not bad for 20+ knots of wind.

Day 3, and after plenty of time on the water we were all
suffering.

This time it was a 15-25 knot Southerly with a course set across
the ferry lanes up to Shark Island. Rohan had it very easy in these
conditions, with both myself and Robo capsizing multiple times. I
ended up getting a 2,3,3 after capsizing more than Robo… The boat
still felt sticky upwind and down and the other boats foiled well
uphill to round ahead of me on several occasions.

So Tuesday rolls around and Rohan doesn’t need to sail after
winning the previous 8 races. Robo bails out with a swollen wrist
(and Rohan was complaining about RSI from twisting the tiller too
much as well ?!?). I made a few tweaks to the cable and mast rake
and the boat felt much better - foiling high in the light breeze
and flat water.

In the light winds Chris and Stevo matched pace downwind with two
double-trapping Tornados, but were going a touch higher.
Interesting.

I raced the first race in the reduced fleet, then pulled out when
the boat wanted repairs.

So it’s on to the Nationals in just under a fortnight. There’s a
lot of ground to be made up on Rohstan but not much time to do it.
The boat is going in for a birthday and with a rudder on centerline
it might go a little faster. Other than that I need to lose about
6kgs to get onto a more competitive pace… I could do that - but
not sure that I’m keen enough to be that skinny.

Oh yeah… there were a bunch of other boats at the regatta too.
Outteridge won a tight 49er contest. Slingsby slaughtered the
Lasers (or so I thought), Bundock won the Tornados, Nossiter won
the Finns etc etc etc. All a bit routine.

There was a bit of interest from other sailors in foiling Moths,
but I wouldn’t expect it to turn into actual converts. Olympic
class sailors aren’t exactly going sailing for the speed now are
they?

Full results.

Now here’s a thought for a (relatively) inexpensive European
training ground… a nice little holiday house in Croatia -
courtesy of Luka.

If only I could find a valid excuse to spend a few weeks sailing
around there (provided the wind blows sometimes).

Apparently I’m not fast enough to blog these days… so here’s a
quick recap of yesterday’s racing.

17 big boats made the start for the - formerly known as Canon - Big
Boat Race. The Big-Boat is the annual warm-up for the Hobart bound maxis,
but thanks to a few phone calls, the little 50′ black harbour racer
was included in the line-up again this year.

The usual suspects were there. 98 footers Alfa Romeo and Wild Oats
XI led the fleet which also included Konica Minolta, Nicorette (now
called AAPT to those who sail it), Wild Joe, Loki, Vanguard,
Brindabella, Aftershock, 4 Volvo 60s (Seriously Ten, ABN Amro - not
the fast one, Ericsson & DHL), Sydney & the Open 60 Hugo
Boss…. and obviously some other boat which I can’t remember. A
fleet with serious boat pr0n value!

I’d say over 100 power boats lined up to watch the race (which by
coincendence included a few canting keel, auxilliary sail driven
power boats). The spectator fleet even extended to a Navy shitter
which parked itself 100m to windward of the startline for 30
minutes before being politely told to move. Herman and friends
joined in the flotilla on the camera cat - despite being run off his feet with the
success of his new venture, he still had time to take a
leisurely day off on the harbour.

So… the first start attempt resulted in a general recall (lucky
for us). In that effort, Ricko on Wild Oats closed his eyes and
bore into a wall of boats at 12 knots. With nowhere to go, the
fleet had a choice of A: let them through or B: die. Lucky for them
(and Bob’s asset portfoilio) a ‘gap’ opened up…

The second attempt was a better affair for us, holding the fleet up
nicely at the boat end and taking off for clear air (after being
rolled by Alfa within 10 seconds) just astern of Joe. Hugo Boss
enjoyed the benefits of 20′ deck spreaders - with Alfa almost
wiping out their rig on the line.

Nicorette (called AAPT actually) decided wisely to pass us to
leeward on the fetch up to the first mark. Yet within a few minutes
the benefits of Sexy’s boat preparation showed - and their main
fell down.

In the light South-Easterly the rest of the race ended up being a
bit of a reaching affair. Not too great for a skinny short boat
like ours. We ended up being caught by Dennis’ brother on
Aftershock, then rolled by Vanguard and Brindabella (hey they’re
only 30′ longer) on the last lap.

The uber-maxis finished off the Opera House about the time we
rounded the mark near the heads (that’s a long way ahead). 13
seconds separated Alfa & Oats, with Croakey’s $1.2M tungsten
keel and Code-0 paying off.

A reasonable report in
the oh-so-lefty SMH

Update #1: In thanks for our efforts on the day, the crew has been
invited on the new
108′
powerboat. I know it’s tough but someone has to do it.

Update #2: Andrea Francolini has also posted a few photos of the
race on
his web site.

This time of year is always a busy time for sailing, but I still
only managed to do 5 days in a row last week.

Wednesday was a blown out training session on Atomic - in which we
clocked over 17 knots of boatspeed under main and jib alone without
trying.

Thursday was a twilight on the 49er with Dave, in which we were
ragging out upwind in 15 knots of breeze.

Friday was the catch-up training session on Atomic - in which we
actually got to put the spinnaker up.

Saturday was the testing session on the Moth with the new sail. The
new top-speed for the boat so far was set at 21.8 knots in a gusty
South-Westerly that morning. Then it was on to an aborted 49er
session in the evening, with a southerly pumping through as we
rigged the boat.

Back to the 18s on Sunday for a last minute repair effort before
racing in a nice top-end of big rig Southerly. We were slow upwind
but pulled through downhill to finish in 10th.

So that was the week passed.

The week ahead sees the Big Boat Race on Tuesday. We’ll be
thorougly blasted by the 98′ super-maxis Oats & Alfa, but at
least they’ll be fun to watch for the first 5 minutes before they
disappear over the horizon.

I might be able to fit in a 49er evening on Thursday if I play my
cards right.

Then its on to SIRS in the Moth on Sat/Sun/Mon/Tues. That’s sure to
be a painful regatta with the foils not liking the dodgey breeze,
traffic and waves in the Harbour. I’ll have to make sure I put in a
bit of work there too to make sure it all stays together.

So yeah… generally not much interesting happening.

Though the ‘04 Brit 29er World Champs did arrive on Saturday… and
got smacked around a little in a pretty mediocre local regatta.
Tris finished 4th, and Alain crewing for Dave finished 6th. With
enough breeze on, I’ve no idea why they didn’t win.

And the guys on Casio ended up winning the NSW 18′ States…
again… taking home the Casio watches. The Rag was 2nd after going
prawning, and Euan was 3rd.

Aint it nice to work for a company which gives all its staff
christmas gifts from Tiffany & Co.

Not that I have the nous to appreciate it… took me long enough to
work out what it was.

It’d be a different story if they made silver shackle keys
though…