scott.projectsomewhere

Another weekend down, another stack of miles/hours on the clock for the new Moth.

John and I had the best of the conditions, with an 8am start on Saturday and a good couple of hours in a moderate westerly before it died and left the harbour a virtual millpond for the rest of the afternoon.

In that light-moderate and with a bit extra AOA, I was comfortably higher and faster than John’s BR. Downwind I was lower and faster, though I tended to lose it all in the corners. We spent plenty of time practicing gybes, tacks and gacks, but I was still way too inconsistent to be happy. I did manage a couple of massive wipe-outs when my rudder let go mid-gybe. Probably explains why I had some serious problems in that race in the states… though I’m at a loss to think of a fix right now.

A later start on Sunday, and a gusty moderate South-easter to play in. I was again on +1, but probably was running with too much AOA to be really fast. This time there wasn’t much in it. John and I traded boats and found some fairly huge differences in how they felt. John’s had much higher sheet loads, and more grip in the steering, but felt a bit soggy. John found my boat (otherwise known as appliancesonline.com.au) felt much higher out of the water (which it was), and very bouncy… almost on the edge of control (which is probably why I lose control?).

Anyway, we blasted over to the Redbull event and flew around in Farm Cove for a while, but unfortunately the SE breeze over the land meant there wasn’t much pressure close to shore and the platform. We did a bit of flying on the other side infront of thousands of people… so at least the sponsor had some interesting coverage.

After a couple more hours and a few laps, we met up with the Leprechaun and then headed over to have a look at the new STP65 Moneypenny on it’s maiden voyage. We flew a circle around it, then stopped and chatted, the headed off down the harbour to catch it. The poor owner was probably wondering how many of these things he could’ve bought for his money as we did another circle around the boat and headed for home.

All in all, a good weekend taking in the sights of Sydney Harbour. More of the same next weekend with a marathon from Balmoral - provided the forecast is good.

And a bit of 49er sailing to keep me occupied in between. Tough life.

Daylight savings is finally winding up… and with it goes the opportunity to sneak out early for an afternoon sail after work.

Dave, John and I made use of what’s left of the daylight last night, with a quick blast around in a gusty Westerly breeze. It was a bit tricky getting around in breeze going from 5-25 knots and through 90 degrees, but it all made for good fun - albeit wet and cold - sailing.

Dave as usual was blisteringly fast. I could usually match VMG if I didn’t piss it in upwind, but downwind he was just smoking. John was also blasting, til his pushrod decided it no longer wanted to cooperate. I did not fare so well, being too out of control to really push it fast. At least it’s a nice wakeup call that I need to get everything well sorted.

Roll on the weekend… and then the pre-work early morning sails through winter… now where’s that Zhik superwarm suit…

RedBull has been advertising their 1st annual Sydney Flugtag for this Sunday.

If the wind is right, I just might have to put on my black appliancesonline.com.au sail and do a couple of show-pony fly-bys.

Surely I’d be able to keep it out of the water longer than the real flugtag competitors…