On target
Somewhat surprisingly, the Active Air team achieved the goal of
finishing in the top 10 at the JJ Giltinan 18′ Skiff
Championship.
I wouldn’t have thought it would turn out this way. We’d just
scraped into qualifying for the regatta at the start of the week
and had a DNF on our scorecard after race 1. Things weren’t looking
flash.
But then we scraped in a few top 10s. Not great top 10s, but enough
to pull us up in a fleet that was wildly inconsistent.
There were plenty of opportunities to make up lots and lots of
places in each race. We gave it away again and again, but still
managed to get up there in the end.
The last race was a tense affair. With a 20-30 knot Southerly
forecast to arrive at 8pm, and a 15 knot Southerly blowing at 1,
half the fleet opted for #2 rigs, half went #1. Given our relative
weight and smaller #1, we went big…. and it paid off.
Euan rolled the dice and chose #2, with Asko, Casio and Rag &
Famish going big. Amazingly Euan held on with his little rig when
the breeze died down, holding out Casio on the upwinds and
finishing a close 3rd in the race.
But then 3rd wasn’t good enough to win the regatta. Casio crossed
the line just ahead of last year’s runner up Asko to win the JJ for
the first time. Asko came close but went down by the smallest of
margins… again. Club Marine and Rag tied for 3rd.
Lucky for us, AAPT, AppliancesOnline and Fisher Fine Arts - all
boats we needed to beat went for #2 rigs. We had a great start and
held off the small rigs on the first tight run and then didn’t see
them much again.
So all in all a great week for us, topping off a mediocre season.
There’s a month and a half or so of League racing left to go - but
I need enough time to repair my knees and back after lifting these
horrifically heavy boats in and out of the water - from the far end
of the boatpark.
…
I forgot to mention that we also won on handicap overall, by about
15 points.
Lots of nice
photos from Saturday on Andrea Francolini’s site. Photos from
all through the regatta on the
18 footers site.
