scott.projectsomewhere

So there goes season #3 at the 18 Footers League.

And what a season it was.

It started out well, with high expectations after dumping Sweeny and Pete on Active Air and moving to a new team with former JJ winner Euan on Club Marine. 12′ skiff Interdominion Champion Cam went on the bow, and things were shaping up well.

But it didn’t end up that way.

We had some awesome races in October and November. I will never forget our 20+ minute win in the breeze gusting well over 40 knots. That was incredible.

Then through late November and December Euan went coaching in Miami and Cam went training for the Inters on the 12. Even with a legend like Trev on the helm our consistency dropped and we only managed a 3rd in the State Championship behind Woody and Fiat.

And that was to be our best series result of the year.

Euan went away again during the Nationals in January and without Cam as well our performance really suffered. A bunch of mid-teen results pushed our placing in that series back to 7th. Not great.

Then we started to struggle for pace as the rest of the teams in their new boats started to hit their straps. The boat started cracking under the rig tension and Euan lost confidence in it.

The JJ came and went in February, with an early lead then a spectacular blow out. For another 7th place result.

Euan then headed off overseas again and the boat went off to Brisbane, which threw our Season Pointscore and Championship results away, finishing 9th in the Championship.

Despite that I thoroughly enjoyed steering over the last month. Cam and Tai were awesome on the boat, and if I could put together a a good boat with those guys we could do just fine. We wouldn’t be challenging for the lead overall, but we’d be competitive from time to time. And that’s not far off this season’s final outcome.

But I don’t think I’ll be steering a boat for next season. The question is either take on the responsibility of organising a boat and team and fight it out to move up the fleet, or stay with an already top team and fight it out at the front of the fleet.

Even at this early stage it’s looking like there will be a shakeup for next season.

Sweeny isn’t coming back for another tilt with Active Air. Herman is also not going to steer his AppliancesOnline boat. So there’s 2 from the top 10 who aren’t returning.

Hanno also announced his retirement at the end of the season. He was hoping to outlive Woody, but Woody isn’t going anywhere just yet.

Fiat and 7 (Seve Jarvis?) are coming back again for sure. The potential training restrictions being talked about might put a dent in their otherwise endless program though.

Hugh on Asko was philosophical about another year, but more positive about the prospect than this time in previous years.

Macquarie is also back with the same team.

James Francis is taking the helm from Tom Clout on SX. Jacqui seems to be losing her team. James Moor on Panasonic is not interested in sailing again. Omega Smeg is due for a new boat and Van Munster is building one for himself. Dennis’ team are looking for their own boat. Despite a disastrous season of rig breakages and crew dust-ups, Stray is coming back on F&P. Rollo will surely be around as well. Not sure about the guys on Pure Blonde, who are now showing form.

And what about Euan? From the season re-cap email it’s hit and miss. He’ll be coaching Dog and Iain again if they keep the Star campaign going. There’s also a bit of sailing on Alfa Romeo in Europe over winter. He wants to do it well (which means time and money), but he wants to be heavier (good luck getting me to bulk up). So I don’t know if I’ll be back on the program.

We should know more on that after the NZ regatta, where Euan is sailing Club Marine with Herman and Pete.

But that’s a good month away. And I’m not one for making slow decisions…

This entry was posted on Monday, April 2nd, 2007 at 11:20 am and is filed under 18' Skiff, Sailing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.