scott.projectsomewhere

It looks as though I will be sailing in the NSW Moth States over the Easter long-weekend after all.

But my defense of the Championship is going to be very poor. I don’t have a boat yet, and if I do I will have had about 15 minutes of Moth sailing in the last 12 months to build on.

It makes my write-up of the last regatta now seems oddly prescient. In a pretty ordinary way…

But anyway. Who’s going to be up there this time?

Well, Rohan - based on his Nationals performance and his new boat and new coach - should win pretty easily.

But he’s a Victorian so he can’t take the trophy with him.

Luka is there too after his close 2nd in the Nationals and with another couple of months in the boat.

Luka is tipping Chris Dey as well, though I haven’t seen him race for over a year. He was quick at Northbridge last time.

Les will have his recently modded HT foiler with its new Truflo rig. But by his own admission he’s still learning. That process isn’t going to take long.

How many other foilers? Amac in a Bladerider, Grant in my old boat, Pete and Donosan in their HT-Fastacraft foilers, Alan in the Leprechaun, Ben, the BR prototype, Matt day in Robo’s old boat, Phil Stevo in his HT.

14 foilers by my count. Maybe more. Plus all the non-foilers of course.

Could be interesting.

I’m waiting for my new boat to arrive…

In the meantime Luka has offered to let me have a go on his Prowler this Saturday.

It’s going to be an interesting comparison for the Bladerider when it arrives.

Silja is up for nomination for Seahorse Magazine Sailor of the Month.

So go and vote.

So there goes another weekend in Sydney… and with it Summer’s daylight savings.

The Corporate Games went well for the Factory workers, despite fielding 3 of our 4 teams in the one heat - where only the winner progresses to the final.

We floated around for a fair while in Saturday’s 30+ heat with our convenient black uniforms as the breeze fluctuated from W-NW-NE-SE-S. Things finally got underway on a short course between Garden Island and Clarke Island.

Unfortunately for us, I mis-timed the first start and we were over with 5 seconds to go. We staggered then returned around the pin and took the fleets stern to the right. Not a good idea in a no-drop 3-race series. We pulled a few good shifts and rounded in 3rd (out of 5), then pulled through into 2nd at the bottom mark. Another few good shifts and we squeezed past another of our boats and took the lead. Nice.

The next race we started well, pushing the girl skipper on Booz Allen over the start then started bearing down towards the pin and the other of our factory teams. They were struggling to lay and were practically dead in the water, but the charter-boat skippers still freaked out and grabbed the wheel to avoid a collision - a collision which was never going to happen anyway. After a bit of trash talk and a failed protest by the still dead-in-the-water competition, we sailed away from the fleet and took the race easily.

Next one was a bit of a cruise. We needed to come anything better than last to take out the heat, so we sailed comfortably around the track for a 3rd.

The team pleaded for me to come back and steer again in Sunday’s final (isn’t it nice to be wanted). But I was committed to the 18.

Race an 18 footer or a tubby Sydney 36? Tough decision.

(more…)

Notice to all skippers

The Australian 18 Footers League are requesting expressions of interest from anyone wanting to skipper an 18ft Skiff at the club during the 2007-2008 season.

Please notify your intention by return email to frank@18footers.com.au NO LATER THAN 30 MARCH.

Frank Quealey
Australian 18 Footers League

Herman has upped the ante in the blogging stakes… launching his own AppliancesOnline blog. So now we’re going to be fighting it out both on the water and in the blogosphere.

But having posted over 10 entries in their first day, I have a feeling they’re going to run out of content soon. In the meantime I can go on bleating about my trivial existence ad infinitum. That and I can’t get to the end of one of their sentences before I’ve forgotten what it was about…

Maybe I shouldn’t be too harsh to my sponsor though.

Anyway.

In other news, Herman has sent through the link to Euan’s new blog. It’s always a bit scary to write fairly personal guff on the net for all and sundry… especially when they come up in the boatpark and talk about it… or leave surprise comments… but Dog did it, and now Euan has done it too.

I’m probably going to cop an earful for outing him, but here’s the link. Hey, it wasn’t my fault.