scott.projectsomewhere

Today’s races saw a range of conditions and 3 different heat winners.

Race 2 was a non-foiling affair, with Alan Goddard foiling early and leading around the first mark followed by me, with Sam England and Mark Robinson close behind. The long run back downwind was all low riding, with Alan maintaining the lead by only a metre or so.

Up the next work, Alan foiled away, with Andrew Brown foiling into 3rd on the run. Positions stayed like that down the final run into a shortened course finish. Thankfully.

A lot of the guys who placed well in race 1 were back in the pack in the light and shite breeze, so I wore the yellow leaders jersey for the afternoon session.

Race 3, had slightly more pressure, so the fleet blasted away upwind closely packed. There were plenty of place changes downwind as well, with Simon, Andrew and Nathan leading around the bottom mark. More place changes upwind, with Dave Lister blasting up the places before a nosedive and a collision with a scow.

At the finish, a twilight zone of no wind claimed Simon in the lead who low-rode towards the line as Nathan and Andrew foiled him down. In the end, Simon still claimed the win by over a minute, as the following foilers cross-crossed his stern.

I came through in 4th, with Dave in 5th and Robo close behind.

The curse of the form guide seems to have claimed Arnaud for the first few races at least – with a bunch of finishers outside the placings.

The seabreeze arrived on schedule, and race 4 started in a good 15 knots. Dave Lister blasted away from the pack with the speed edge he’s eeked out of his top secret smaller symetrical section rudder foil (specifications tba). Nathan, Brownie and Simon fought out the minor placings with me a bit further back toughing it out with Bora and John.

I crossed the line in 7th, making it a 2, 4, 7 for the day. I’m running 3rd, tied with Brownie and behind Simon and Nathan.

We have a layday tomorrow, with some more variable conditions forecast for the next few days.

The first day of the Nationals today saw a shifty hot seabreeze make for some tricky conditions.

Nathan destroyed the fleet in the practice race, leading by half a leg.

Race 1 was trickier, and Bora made the most of it upwind to lead around the first mark. Simon on the lone Mach2 then sailed deeper and faster in pressure to pass a couple of boats to take the lead.

John, Bora, Nathan, Dave and myself fought it out for the minor places over the remaining laps while Simon extended his lead.

At the final mark I rounded in 2nd but then started chasing pressure on the way to the finish – and lost 4 places. Not a good move.

Start time for the race tomorrow is 10 am, so we could be in for anything.

As I’m about to head down to Geelong for the Moth Nationals, I can’t help but look out the window at the glamour seabreeze that is going to be blowing here today.

And as my kiwi commenter has noticed, my weather predictions for the Nationals are proving to be well off the mark yet again. I should find a new career in meteorology yet.

But seriously, where would you rather be sailing this week based on the forecast? Sydney? or Melbourne?

It’s always refreshing to be reminded of your place in the world.

I had that experience today when I lined up against Nathan and the local fleet in a bunch of races.

Needless to say, Nathan took 6 from 6 comfortably.

Oh well, I guess some people can sail, and others think they can sail.

The spooners have been busy spreading disinformation about the work they’re doing to make their skiff go faster.

The word is that they’ll be building a new cradle to help them rig and launch their boat with the centreboard in place, after they glued it permanently in place with spartite.

At least it wont wobble in the case.

Only a few days to go before the Nationals start, and everyone is keeping their cards close to their chest. Nobody wants their secrets out before the big event.

Mach2 are keeping quiet about how their boats are going in the initial testing in Melbourne. Apart from irreverent leaks from Simon, there’s no details on how the boats are performing or holding up in the unfriendly conditions that Port Phillip is famous for.

The fast guys at St George are also keeping quiet about their new mini rudders which are supposed to give them that extra drag advantage in the breeze.

And then Bora isn’t saying much about his weeks of coaching with the team from that secretive High Performance Institute behind Rohan’s 2007 Worlds preparation.

Also not much news about Bladerider’s new VRX and the stress testing that John and Tacka have been doing in Sydney. Or how they they perform against the local lemons.

Time will tell…