Winding down…
Sailing has started to wind down a little here in Sydney as summer
comes to a close. You can feel the enthusiasm draining away as the
fleets prepare for hibernation over winter (otherwise known as
keel-boat sailing).
After being led astray over a few too many late nights this week,
it was a tiring long weekend on the water.
On Saturday I took Euan McNicol, Tim Shuwalow and
Tai sailing on the foiler Moth - which hasn’t been on the water
for at least 2 months. The guys all enjoyed the boat and had heaps
of theories going on about how to sail it - and how to improve it.
Both Tai and Tim said they’d buy one.. Tai when he recovers from
his wedding, and Tim when he finds somewhere where he can start
building it… interesting.
There’s plenty of talk going about getting a fleet going out of the
old Vaucluse amatuers with the Eastern suburb’s set… all they
need are affordable good boats… but who knows when that will
happen.
Anyway, after over 4 hours in the sun in a moderate SE breeze…
everyone was pretty burnt, tired and sore.
The new AppliancesOnline
sponsored sail got a run (photos to come) and had plenty of
exposure flying around middle harbour. It started paying itself off
quickly when we returned to shore, with one customer coming up and
asking us if she should buy the fridge she wanted from
AppliancesOnline… of course she should!
I think I should’ve negotiated a commission into the
sponsorship!
So that was Saturday…
Sunday was an early start, with a skipper’s breifing at 7.30 for
the Corporate Games. Luckily I now live 100m away.
Our team of newbies sailed well in our races. In the first we held
2nd place around the track, getting into the lead on the last run
before the breeze completely shut down (it was 8.30!) and we
drifted across the line in 3rd… with 2m separating the first 3
boats…. damn. The second race saw us get off the startline well
and cruise away to a huge lead, we rounded the last lap a good half
a lap ahead and crossed the finish line for an easy win. Lucky
we’re pretty confident with our counting at the factory, for after
we finished the next boat sailed around the finish line and
continued on for another lap… the rest of the fleet followed and
mistakenly continued on for their 4th lap. When the other boats
finally finished they blew up at the committee and umpire saying we
hadn’t raced the course… it hurts when you’re wrong… but they
all couldn’t admit it… we won. The third race was in more
consistent breeze, and we needed to win to maintain our 1 point
lead over the competition. HP slammed on us upwind and we had to
hold on in gas. The 3rd place boat sailed high on the downwind, so
we had to go up with them to protect our position, giving HP a few
extra boatlengths. After that we overlayed the top mark and it was
all over. Both us and HP tied with 1,2,3 places… and they won on
countback… fark. Full
results here.
Anyway… the mis-counters were still swearing blank and blue that
we were cheats when we got back to shore.
So after being eliminated on countback, I had a free Sunday
afternoon.
We’d organised James Moor to steer ActiveAir with Tim on sheet and
Pete on the bow. Thankfully I couldn’t kick them off the boat, so
they had the joy of sailing in yet another shitty light easterly. I
ended up on the ferry for the first time enjoying a lazy Sunday
afternoon on the harbour… very nice.
So only a few weeks of 18 sailing left to go… and a crew swap
with Rag & Famish next weekend… should be fun.
