scott.projectsomewhere

Club Marine survived the 20+ NNE breeze yesterday with only a broken batten and a broken bit of shock-cord… luckily.

It was shaping up to be nasty day for us, with Waz filling in for Euan (who had pissed off to Miami mid-Nationals), and Matt filling in for Cam (who’d pissed off to Geelong to win the 12′ Interdominions mid-Nationals).

We could’ve done a F&P and taken the day off completely… that was definitely on the cards late Saturday.

But anyway, we made it out there late after a hasty batten replacement, then proceeded to capsize on the first bear-away 2 minutes before the start. We then had to keep the boat in the water while the fleet sailed around us just to make sure we didn’t wipe someone out.

As we trailed the fleet half a leg behind up the first work, John, Evan & Pete on Active Air rounded the top mark with a good lead on the fleet. It did go through my mind that it would’ve been much more fun to be on board with them at that point. Oh well.
After that it was fairly smooth sailing though, no capsizes until the last work.

We finished 16th, which is pretty poor - but not too bad considering what it could’ve been.

Unfortunately I don’t think Waz will be too keen to step back on board after being stitched up with an inexperienced bowman in 20+, so I might have to take the helm unless Clynton wants to step on.

At the other end of the fleet, Seve and the guys on 7 continue to improve, leading most of the race, and finishing 2nd by only 6 seconds. They’ve definitely taken the campaign to a new level and anyone else is going to have to match them if next season isn’t to be a complete walk over.

Interesting.

And Euan didn’t appreciate the 2am text from Herman on appliancesonline.com.au saying we’d broken the rig…

I’ve put together a reasonably accurate form guide for the last few 29er Worlds, but I’m a bit out of the loop this time around.

My picks?

If it’s predominately windy, ‘06 Euro Champions Huw & Max will be fastest.

If it’s all over the place, ever present Pepe & Swiss crew Matteu will be consistent. They’ve been training enough by the sounds of it.

With no 49er sailing at Sail Melbourne for me, I should’ve organised to get over there and have another go at it.

Maybe next time.

Emmett & Cam are cleaning up at the 12′ Skiff Interdominion in Geelong. 3 firsts from 3 races is pretty good - looks like their minimalist 2-rig, 0-preparation approach is paying off.

Or maybe it’s because they’re good.

The rubber mallet would’ve come in handy when John, Euan and I assembled the original prototype Bladerider yesterday.

After 3 hours of bashing, drilling and filing we were ready to go on the water. Thank god we brought Euan along to take over the project and actually get things done.

Several trips out and back later we were flying… reasonably… but not well.

The list of boatwork to do during the week is growing, but hopefully we’ll have it sorted soon. Thankfully the production boat from last weekend was lightyears ahead of the original prototype.

It looks like Garda Moth Worlds could be a prime event for another confrontation with Paul Brotherton.

According to Simon Payne, Paul has been training on his new Prowler almost every day since getting it in December. Someone of his talent, and someone with that amount of time available isn’t going to take long to get to the front of the fleet.

Add that to the fact he’s under 65kgs, and he’s going to be bloody quick.

Fark.

Maybe the extra year since our last encounter might have softened him up… I doubt it.

Nige has put together a nice little video of the Bladerider crash testing we did over the weekend…

Interesting to see the crashes that the rock-stars had on their first hydrofoil outing… though I think some of the biggest crashes where mine!