Business Time
The 18 footers are all gearing up for the JJ in Feb, with all boats sporting their new kit for the Nationals over the next few weeks.
We trialled our new big rig for the first time last Friday, and it is enourmous. We were flat wiring and depowering well before we would have with the old #1. Hopefully that is faster. We need a couple of sick easterlies to find out.
Sunday’s race was an all #2 rig affair, with a seabreeze coming in faily early and a hot day forecast. The breeze came in, but not at 25 knots, so all in all it was an easy welcome back after the break.
We started well with Euan on Souther Cross just below us, Seve buried and tacking out early, and the Project guys launching off the line with speed down low.
The Poms have been working pretty hard on their sailing and their gear since they arrived back in October, and it shows. They lead from the first cross and didn’t lose it til right at the end of the last work.
Upwind we made a couple of mistakes and lost a few boatlengths on the leaders, but rounded in 4th behind Project, SX and 7. Down the run we rolled 7 twice, but Pete decided to throw himself over the side at the bottom mark. 7 went through us and we lost touch with the leaders. It was all still faily close with SX finally getting the upper hand on the last upwind, before Project did a huge pitchpole in the big waves off Nielsen Park.
We banked a 3rd for the first race of the Nationals. Not bad, but still points we don’t want to be losing.
Photo: Ace Marine Photography
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The Moth preparation for the Nationals has been coming along well. It feels like everyone has made a bit of a step up since SIRS.
John, Marty, Ben and myself trained in a nice Southerly last Thursday, with my changes proving themselves against John early on in the session before he found his legs.
In Saturday’s 6 or 7 races in a moderate East-Nor-Easter, John won a few, I won a bunch, and there were a whole load of very close finishes – one in which Marty and me crossed at the same time, and another when John almost cleaned up my rudder blasting into the line on port. Les seems to be 10%-ifying every time he hits the water, so in short order he should be well ahead. The last week also sees both Tacka and Nathan training with us to find the way around the boat prior to their first regatta.
Only a few days left to go now.
January 13th, 2009 at 2:10 pm
It sort of blows my mind that you guys at the pointy end of the moth fleet are still changing settings around. One would think there would be a consensus by now on what is fast, with so many people optimising equipment that hasn’t really changed much in awhile. Perhaps we are collectively learning precisely how little we know…
January 13th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
@Karl
Not changing is dangerous.
It’s rare to find someone at the pointy end of the fleet who isn’t thinking of a way to do it better.
There’s a bunch of people going for big silver bullet changes, and others who are doing small but many improvements. It’ll be interesting to see which approach works.
January 13th, 2009 at 3:11 pm
It was nice to see Pete pay me a visit down under the sea.
January 13th, 2009 at 4:59 pm
My bet is on the iterators in the short term, and the silver bullet types over the long haul. But really they are the same people, as you point out.
New things are never faster straight out of the box; Rohan losing to Thorpe in France is a good case in point.
Found this quote amusing recently:
After you’ve done a thing the same way for two years, look it over carefully. After five years, look at it with suspicion. And after ten years, throw it away and start all over. ~Alfred Edward Perlman, New York Times, 3 July 1958
January 13th, 2009 at 11:23 pm
you still working with Smithy?
January 14th, 2009 at 8:50 am
@rollo
yes, he’s still sitting a couple of seats down in the cube farm.
January 14th, 2009 at 9:49 am
Rollo!! You are alive!! Come home!