scott.projectsomewhere

It sounds as though KA’s venture into the world of boat building might cannibilize some of their sail business.

The UK guys have developed a KA clone sail and a not-insignificant portion of the fleet is rumoured to be going to use it. Rumour also has it that some of the existing boat builders are going to push the alternative product over the standard KA.

Interesting times.

The last week saw another load of time on the water… as
usual.

Nathan & Ben opened their NSWIS training session with
49er-guru-coach Emmett to all comers, so we joined in for a fairly
fresh Friday and Saturday.

The Friday session was productive, but we still struggled with a
speed problem. Anyone have a new 49er we can get hold of
quickly?

Euan raced in the overnight Flider’s Island Race on the VO70 Ichi
Bahn, so turned up on Saturday with hardly any sleep. The fresh
southerly and afternoon harbour traffic, along with Euan’s
sleep-deprived out-of-body handling meant we had plenty on.

Then Sunday rolled around, and with it the first scratch start of
the 18 Footer season. We started pretty poorly and rounded the top
mark of the SE course deep in the pack. Slowly we worked our way
back up into the field and finished 3rd. Well off Fiat who did a
horizon job on the fleet after rolling us off the line and racing
away into the distance.

Seve and the team on 7 almost lost another spinnaker pole in the
last bottom mark incident with us, with Euan setting them up on the
last gybe, coming in hot on starboard with room when 7 was slow in
their drop. I’m sure Dog
got some reasonable video of that incident for the post-race
debrief.

Obviously, October is kicking along nicely and the sailing season
is well under way.

Last week was no exception. Monday and Thursday evenings sailing
the 49er on the harbour enjoying the early fresh Nor-Easters. Hard
life.

But we’re going to have to take our leisurely afternoon sessions up
a notch or two after our tune-up against Nathan & Ben on
Saturday. The Worlds #6 AST golden boys came down to race in their
first time back on the boat since the Olympic test-event in
Qingdao. The two of use two-boated in some pretty ordinary lumpy
soft NE conditions, heading up and back across the Sound a few
times. After that we did some close, short-course racing in Rose
Bay.

At times we were there, but mostly we struggled for pace. Our
8-year-old training boat might need more than a bit of polish if
it’s going to be on the pace with the top teams. Time to find a
fast one…

Then onto the 18s on Sunday for the first race of the season.
Despite being a grey, cold, ordinary day, the spectators turned out
in force again to cheer on the teams. Good to see the
start-of-the-season enthusiasm.

The race was the first of the new “bouys handicap” whereby 3
top-marks are set, with boats going around closer or further marks
depending on their handicap.

We started the race well and led pretty-comfortably at the top
mark.

And then the fun began.

Despite leading, we now found ourselves in the middle of the pack,
as the trailing boats rounded inside us and set kites ahead. Fark.
We dodged our way through a few on the downwind and got back up to
the top in reasonable shape. There was no chance to catch some of
the C-mark boats though, with boats like Omega Smeg, De Longhi and
AAPT rounding the short-course. I have no idea how those boats
could be classified as either slow or new teams. WTF?

Anyway, after finding ourselves battling through the fleet again
and again, we dropped the ball on the final work and lost 3 of the
A-fleet boats. We took almost every knock and saw Rag, Fiat and
Woody sail away.

Bugger.

Not a good way to end the race, but we found we’re working
reasonably well as a team for the first real outing. We should have
our stuff together by the time January and February roll
around.

The race also saw the first outing of the “Gotta Love It 7″
pro-team - you’d have to say the most well-resourced and supported
team since the death of the Grand Prix. Seve, Rob and Sam started
well and were looking good up the first work, but their day ended
quickly when they t-boned Herman (when in the wrong) at the bottom
mark, blowing up yet another spinnaker pole. The joke around the
park is that their buying a stake in CST composites to get better
access to the carbon poles… since they’ve broken 3 and the season
hasn’t started yet. Oh well.
…

In other news John and Pete picked up their new Chinese McConaghy.
But it hasn’t been painted. So the poor guys have to rig it by the
weekend, race it, then pull it apart again and have it sprayed,
then rig it again for the next week. Hmmm… somehow I can’t see
that happening.

And apparently Australian Youth Match Racing Champion Evan is going
to take my spot on the Active Air/2UE boat this season. Good to
see.

The combined 2008 29er/49er Worlds for Sydney are apparently in
doubt after the NSW Government pulled their $200000 of
funding.

Interesting development…

Now there’s a bunch of people scrambling to reorganise and get the
events to Lake Macquarie.

Interesting.

Sunday’s opening race of the 18 foot skiff season was abandoned
when a 40+ knot southerly blasted the harbour about midday.

The fleet had turned up early in anticipation and there was a
healthy spectator-boat squad ready to go, but the wind didn’t die
and racing was cancelled at 3pm.

Asko, Rag and Omega Smeg were winners on the day, not even
unpacking their boats from the trailors.

I was keeping tabs on the southerly via seabreeze all morning. At
9AM it was through Moruya, then it hit Ulladulla, then Kiama. My 12
o’clock prediction was out by only 6 minutes.

So the cobwebs get to stay on for most of the fleet for yet another
week. At least it gives Micah time to get his boat rigged, and
there’s a bit of extra time for the San Fran boats to be unpacked.
Hopefully John & Pete’s new boat turns up in time too.

And the latest enhancement for the 06/07 regulatory season came out
in a late saturday skipper’s email: if your boat fails to attempt
to start any club event, 15 points will be added to your Australian
Championship score.

We’d better make sure we have our subs organised early.

The made-over 18 Footers
League web site has finally launched. It’s taken a while and
the content isn’t all there… but it’s up.

There’s even an RSS
feed for news.

Who’s volunteering to put together the compelling content to keep
the punters coming back every day?

…

Just in time too, since the 18 season starts up this Sunday. I hope
the ferry is running since there’s a few people expecting to be on
the water for the opening race.