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.

thedailysail put together a nice little form guide on this week’s JJ, with a bit of help.

And so the regatta started yesterday (actually the invitation was on Friday).

The form guide has been to expectations, with Seve, Rob and Sam on 7 taking both races in fairly comfortable fashion. Even in the light and shite south-easterly, the guys walked away from the start to lead by often very large margins.

For the rest of us, it has been an up and down couple of races.

In the invitation race, The Rag (me), Asko, Fiat and Club Marine were fighting it out at the back of the fleet up the first work, with Rag taking stone motherless last around the mark. Even Herman beat us around with a capsize.

From there we stormed home though. Picking up boats on every leg to finish in 5th spot. So all in all, a reasonable result considering how it started.

Yesterday’s first heat was unfortunately not so good. We started better, but generally got shafted up the first work and had to fight through the bunch. We then proceeded to get parked in a pile up at the leeward mark, where out mate Simon on AppliancesOnline decided to stop and half capsize with 6 boats behind him trying to get around.

From there we took some good lines upwind, and were just on Fiat’s tail when John’s trap loop gave way and he ejected out the back of the boat, tiller in hand. Pete and I stopped the boat and reversed up to him as he did the quick 50m swim. At least we couldn’t hear the yelling underwater. After the hasty tiller repair, a whole bunch of boats sailed through, and what could’ve been a reasonable result was now thoroughly disappointing. Unfortunately the rest of the course was not much better, and we crossed the line in 13th. Not a great way to start.

For the guys on 7 though, it was pretty much ideal. They took the win by almost 2 minutes, and the main competition on Fiat, Asko, Club Marine and Macquarie were back a couple of points. They’ve already built up a buffer.

However the win wasn’t without it’s dramas. The disappointment in the fleet was tangible when the 2nd start was recalled, and we all looked around to see the 7 guys on the fin at the boat-end, with Smeg taking chunks out of their hull and fins with their wings. If only. There’s still plenty of races to go, and plenty of opportunities for surprises.

The Smeg guys were toughing it out at the front for the real race though, taking 2nd ahead of the visiting Kiwis on C-Tech. At least I mentioned them in my form guide, and they could be a bit of a surprise package if the breeze continues to be fairly ordinary. They’ve gone for a new high-modulus mast tip after breaking their old one early in the year, and they’ve stiffed up their lower-mast, but they didn’t bother to re-do the luff-round on the main, so they’ve got a nice-looking powerful rig for the light winds… and it seems to be suiting Trev’s high-mode.

For us, hopefully today’s race is a bit better, and we can beat John’s 8th, OCS for the first two races last year.

Another race today, with the same light and shifty east-south-easterly. Hopefully we can get in phase and sort out our upwinds. If we get off the line well and tack when it flaps, we might be in with the a chance.

Ok, so I’ve blogged about it before… but I just keep coming back to Simon Payne’s blog.

It’s become the first stop on the daily staple from the inane forum rants of Doug Lord vs SimonN, through the various moth-related feeds, to our update-and-rss-phobes rohan & luka.

If there is a trophy at the Worlds for the best blog, we already have a stand out favourite. Nobody else comes close.

And while I’m vaguely on the topic, I found a nice motivating poster for Doug and his ilk who refuse to give Mothing (and the required blogging) a go…

I just had a quick read through my form guide for last year’s JJ Giltinan. It wasn’t too hard to put together, and wasn’t too wide of the mark.

I think this year is going to be even easier to predict. The same contenders are back again, and in a lot of ways, the rich have got richer. There are no known unknowns.

So here we go again, who’s on form for the 2008 Giltinan:

Gotta Love It 7. The spooners have all the aces this year. They were quick last year but managed to hit everyone and hit the piss enough to avoid winning. This year is different. They’ve ironed out the low points and have won both the NSW States and Australian Championships without having to sail the last race. They lead the never-ending Club Championship by a mile even after carrying Sunday’s DNF. They’ll have their coach boat on the water to help them out if they need to tow any old 18s out of the way, or pull them to windward of the finish line after they’ve broken their rig. They’ll be unlucky not to smash everyone this year…. but then again they’ve hit us the last 3 races and we haven’t done anything about it… nobody is going to let that go next week.

Fiat. Cocko, Linksy & Nath. Reigning champions (twice). Fiat has been the test bed of some weird and wonderful rig ideas this season, and despite plugging away with consistent results haven’t really being able to dent the 7 machine. In the end it seems 7 have decided to forego joint training sessions to ’save themselves’ for the event - or more likely - to make sure Fiat doesn’t catch up. No doubt Cocko and the guys will be waiting in the wings ready to capitalize on the first mistake, but then I doubt their favoured top-end big-rig NE conditions will play out for the event like they did last year. If anything, this one is going to be light and shite.

Macquarie. Micah, Jack & Drew. They’re always there, but not quite. Also the recipient from some of Euan’s rig development, they’ve come out with something everyone else seems to think looks crap - but they still go quick. Who knows how that works. They’re much lighter than the rest, so they’ll be looking for some dodgey breeze so they can play that to their advantage. I think they can win races, but can they pull off the series?

Asko. Hugh, Paul & Niall. Perennial place-getters at this event (not quite last year though). Hugh has said this will be his last year in the 18s, but we’ve all heard that before. Asko has been hitting it’s straps at the right time this season with a 1, 2 in the last 2 races. They’re quick, high and smart. Their new big-Ullman mains are going well. They’ve got a new centreboard out of the new mould which seems to be going well for them. They love the light and shifty stuff. They could take it out if 7 fumbles.

Rag. John, me & Pete. We’ve won a race - finally. We’ve been plugging away all season, starting the regattas well but dropping the ball in the middle races. We need to get off the startline well and we could be in the top couple. More likely than not we’ll just keeping banking reasonable scores, minimize losses and wait for an opportunity. The points in this regatta are always close, so at the end we might just be there.

Club Marine. Beasho, Cam & Hebbo. Our resident AC tactical guru has a knack of being on the right side of the shifts, which is hardly suprising really. They’ve got the biggest set of sails for both #1 and #2 rigs. Add that up and in a light and shifty easterly they could be dangerous. They haven’t quite nailed a regatta, but they’ll be there. It’s not as if they’re lacking talent.

I think that’s going to be the top 6. But then I’m always fundamentally biased in my assessment of where things are at.

But who else is there?

Howie. He’s got the old team together, and will be a rocket ship with his now thoroughly old and undersized rigs - if it blows top-end conditions. He wasn’t slow by any means in yesterday’s brief line up. But then they’re not light, and a couple of big scores in some dodgey breeze could hobble their campaign.

Smeg. Chesty Bond, Dan & Jimmy. They’ve been battling it out with us for the last couple of races. They’re by no means slow. They’ve got enough grunt. They’ve got enough experience. They’ll be top 10 for sure. If things go their way they’ll be right up there.

Woody. Always there. No training sessions this year. They’ll be fighting for places every race, but then it’s a tight field.

The Kiwis on C-Tech. They’re always quick in a blow, and will again be fighting for position. But like I said, it’s a tight fleet and the Sydney 18s do have a couple of advantages when it comes to racing on Sydney Harbour.

What about the surprise packages?

Rollo, Jack & Jasper on SLAM. All the way from Western Australia. The new boat is going on the water for the first time on Tuesday. They’ll be toughing it out getting it all sorted, so they might be there come race 4 or 5. Rollo will be dangerous - literally - as usual.

Herman? Making a late entrance on the Keith Piggin. He will be dangerous on the course, and really has nothing to lose.

Pure Blonde - sure to nail some pin-end starts and good places.

Active Air - fast, but too many mistakes.

There’s plenty more boats competiting, but what else can I say. I think the top 6 boats are putting in more money and more time than anyone, and they started at the front of the fleet anyway. I think come the end of the event, and barring a disaster (or some poor rig selection), they’ll be the top 6 on Sunday week.

So there you go…. after last year’s debacle of a prediction this will probaby be a bit off the pace as well.

Oh… and hello Toby and the guys at thedailysail.com. If you want to borrow my content this year, just email me and ask.

Foiler pioneer Wardy has started up an interesting thread on the Moth.asn.au forum about removing some of the now redundant rules in the International Moth Class.

Like the restrictions on windsurfers, or catamarans, or the tight-tape rule which neutered Burvill’s Windrush after the 2000 Worlds.

Interesting idea. Completely open class. But I’m not sure how it’s going to make any difference… or maybe I’m just not thinking outside the box enough.

And interesting comments in the thread about equipment restrictions too… since I’m currently in the process of gearing up for the Worlds again. I don’t know how we go about containing costs in this day and age of chequebook sailors and sponsored semi-pros (or full-pros as the case may be). Given that only 5 boats at the Worlds (60-odd boats total) played rig-roulette, is it really a big enough issue to clamp down?

A race win for The Rag this season has been a long time coming, but we finally put it together on Sunday to take away a close fight in the last race prior to the JJ starting on Friday.

The margin was only 4 seconds over Hugh and the guys on Asko, who swapped the lead with us constantly during the race, and threw a whole bunch of tacks into the last work to try and get through.

Anyone would’ve through it was the last race of the JJ the way the crowd cheered when we crossed the line. Calligeros and Riss were loud as expected, the bookie on the ferry was grinning from ear to ear and horns were going off all over the shop. Very nice. The excitement for us crossing the line was almost as animated as the boat-park allocation for the JJ in the bar afterwards, when 7 pulled place 23 - the furthest from the ramp.

It didn’t seem like it was going to be our day early on though, with John still off the pace with the flu, and our main ratchet block packing it in before the start - the 3rd this season (we’re now changing them all to Harken). So even though I couldn’t straighten my arms after a couple too many chinups with my trainer… I had to go around the southerly course with 5 upwind legs and a heap of two sail power reaching… with no ratchets.

We were pretty lucky around the track, despite a few tangles and stuff-ups, we stayed close enough to get through when Akso’s last drop went awry. The spooners also bowed out early, after tangling with Langman (or was that Rollo on the helm?) and blowing their pole wire in a crash-tack capsize at the pin end. Club Marine also swam in the mayhem, and Smeg had an OCS restart but pulled through to 4th. Plenty on in top-end big rig conditions.

So hopefully we’re getting out stuff together at the right time this season. If we can just sort out the last few rough edges, and have a bit of luck fall our way, we could be in the placings at the end of next week.