scott.projectsomewhere

Well the spooners on 7 are definitely fast.

They took a swing at the rest of the fleet very early in Race 2, with a nice right-hand shift at the boat end of the line, while everyone down the line (Fiat, us and Rag in the middle), got a lull and a 20 degree left-hander. 5 minutes into the race, 7 was already a minute ahead and everyone was racing for 2nd place.

Again.

I know it’s early, and at this point last year Euan, Cam and I on Club Marine were pretty chuffed with a 3,1 score, but we managed to blow the regatta big time and finish 7th. Anything can happen for the currently unassailable 7 team over the next 5 races. But then it’s not that likely. The guys are hitting all the right buttons at the moment, they’re starting well, they’re getting in phase and they’re fast. They lead around every mark again yesterday. If only physchologically they’ve built up a big buffer on the fleet.

The race for places back through the fleet was pretty tight, with Smeg taking another 2nd place, Asko 3rd and Club Marine 4th. We swapped places with Beasho on Club a couple of times, but in the little match race towards the finish line, he dialled up inside and gained guage with only 50m to go and we were toast. His tacks were bad enough that if only we threw a couple more we might’ve got there… but John had no intention of letting Fiat get through ahead, so we played it a little too safe.

Fiat are lucky they’re such great sailors, since they seem to be struggling a little so far. If there’s anyone who wants to see Fiat infront of the spooners it’s their sponsor Neville, who was on the water again on his bright red cigarette boat - with it’s 3 x 300 hp outboards.

The Rag support team was large and vocal again. Several people commented that half the spectator fleet were Rag supporters, and that’s probably not far off the mark with Dennis, Callig and Hanger all flying the Rag flags. We’ll have to organise a bunch more stickers and flags for the MJ kids next year, who were harassing us for them before the race yesterday. Got to get the youngens in early with our sponsor Coopers.

One of the spectators on Bradley’s got a nice sequence of shots of CST and their ‘incident’ with the ferry. The guys luffed and tacked with the kite up to avoid plowing straight into the oncoming ferry, who was charging up through the course under CSTs spinnaker, without blowing their horn. We had to stop and reach down behind the ferry, which probably blew any chance to taking Club at the finish.

But that’s Sydney Harbour for you.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 18th, 2008 at 9:40 am and is filed under 18' Skiff. 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.