scott.projectsomewhere

Time flies when you’re having fun. And when you’re neglecting your blog.

Not much to note of late to be honest. I’m slowly working the new Mach2 up. Finding it’s limits here and there. I even managed to get my sister Tina out for a spin on Saturday. Not much of a load test to be honest, but good to see how it went. The boat actually felt faster, but the handling through tacks and gybes with two on board was a bit tough.

We had 4 more races at Woollahra, so we’re up to 36 races for the spring pointscore so far. Phil still leads handily, but I’m closing the gap now that I’m on the water a bit more. Once we include the visitors in the scoresheet I might be looking good. Anyways, the boat felt good. By the time our late start finally got underway I’d be sailing for a few hours and was generally stuffed, but I got away with a few good shifts and the boat held out to get me over the line each time.

Sunday was a general disaster. 40 degrees, close to 0 humidity. It was like rigging and sailing in a hair dryer. The 18 fleet generally went big rig even though the forecast was nasty. The Nor-Wester was generally shite, with plenty of big shifts which tended to telegraph their appearance with a change in temperature.

We had an ordinary start after Archie and the guys on Asko managed to lee-bow tack too close under us on the approach then lock wings… we weren’t too concerned til they started to call up a few seconds later. Poor form. To infringe so blatantly and do nothing about it, then try to call for rights is just bizarre. I would’ve thought fair sailing would dictate that you’d take yourself out of the situation to do a penalty rather than try your luck for advantage. But then maybe I’m just soft.

We still managed to hold our lane out of the blocks despite reversing out and starting again from below, but we had to take some evasive action to avoid Woody, then got taken for a ride around the top mark when Evan couldn’t bear away. By that stage we were back in the pack and going the wrong side of the course.

We picked back a bit by the next top mark, but this time downwind BoatMate decided to t-bone us as we headed downwind under full noise with the kite up. The first we heard about it was the bang as we saw them disappear out behind our boat without a bow. We gybe-dropped and started a 360 capsize before we noticed our wing had broken in the collision.

I still don’t quite understand what they were thinking. Technically they were in the right, but given an 18 has no visibility to leeward going downwind, a quick yell or a luff to slow down and avoid a catastrophe wouldn’t go astray. It’s not as if a week of boatwork is a good outcome in any situation.

Anyways, it was a generally shite day. Probably one of the worst days we’d raced. Hours of boatwork in the blazing heat, some shite sailing, no result, and a bunch of repairs.

Maybe next week…

A windy day for the 18s on Sunday, for the first scratch race of the season.

We had a bit on early, with one of the chainplate fittings opening up while we rigged which required a bit of love from a hammer and pliers. We hit the water late, and found a whole bunch of stuff that didn’t quite work given that we haven’t used the little rig in a long long time.

Anyway, we couldn’t pull the vang on and probably worse, couldn’t let it off, so we sailed with what we had.

The fleet spread pretty quickly out of the blocks, with a bunch not making it to the line. Cocko took the lead early on with us following. But it was the spooners who rounded in 2nd when we double tacked at the top.

It proved to be short-lived, with the red boat hitting the piss near Shark Island, before Cocko got tangled and capsized at the bottom of the 2nd run.

We sailed around the rest of the track in a pretty relaxed mode, with the next boat a couple of minutes back. At the finish we even cruised across the line sitting in instead of re-setting the kite.

Anyway, a good day. Good to get a rare windy one. We’d like some more, but given only 10 finished, I think there’d be a few boats who wouldn’t.

Some interesting video on the 18’s site.

While the 18s have been rolling into week 4, the long awaited Moth has hit the water. After an extended assembly and a few quick trips in and out to sort out vang strops, I managed to make the last two races of the day.

At one point we had 11 boats in the fleet, with the Balmoral boats joining in. Phil in my old limping crab keeps extending his lead in the pointscore, not so much by turning up every week, but by taking out most of the races as well.

Next Saturday sees the Moths descend on Belmont for a day of racing at the 2011 Worlds venue. It will be a good chance to see what Belmont has to offer, and Nathan will be there to keep everyone honest.

For me I have the wedding on Saturday, to cap off the extended bucks celebrations of the past month.

It’s been a while between blogs. Over a month.

You know it’s bad when your Mum rings to find out if everything is ok because the blog hasn’t been updated.

But in all honesty there hasn’t been much blogworthy to write about. That hasn’t stopped me before.

Yes, there was the end of an old job. There was a debaucherous bucks-week in Vegas. The start of a new job. The start of the 18 season. And another bucks day. Some Bladerider sailing. Not much really.

No new Moth yet though. Apparently it is in the country. I think I’ve forgotten what they look like.

The 18s are going well, with a bunch of handicap races to start the season. We had a good win in week two. But it’s only week two. The season is shaping up to be interesting, even though yesterday’s race was a 3+ hour drift-off. At least it didn’t resort to a paddling race for everyone.

I’ve been so off the pace I haven’t been following what’s been going on in the mothosphere in my absence. Anyone? Anyone? Maybe Dave Lister has killed the mothosphere star?

New boat is coming soon…

In the meantime, Ben got the keys to the old one and took it out for it’s first race on Saturday. It was his first time out with a 40mm mast, and he promptly lost all the cams. An hour and plenty of frustration later he made it back out for the last race.

I got to sail his Bladerider X8 for the day, just to keep me on the water. Despite taking a bit of time to get used to, my 3 months of Bladerider sailing back in 2007 all came back to me, and I got around the track ok.

Phil took most of the 2nds, pulled off a couple of foiling tacks when nobody was watching, but came unstuck when it got patchy.

Dave launched for his first race, and took a bunch of 3rds and a 2nd. You could hear him yelling from almost anywhere on the track as his excitement boiled over. A bit of a worry. He will be getting faster and faster all the time given he will be sailing every day – if the boat maintenance program doesn’t slow him down.

Another weekend of X8 sailing next Saturday, then the new boat arrives for October, with our later start time of 3pm kicking in once daylight savings ticks over.

Results

I may never win another Moth race again.

After both Tom Slingsby and Mat Belcher order new Mach2s. Due to be delivered in October.

Add in John & Nathan.

Then new guys like Dave O’Connor and Stu Pollard who’ve recently bought into the fleet and have plenty of enthusiasm and time. And Joe, Matt & Ben who have bought M2s. And Phil who is smashing everyone – including me – in my old Prowler.

I’ve got a bit on!

It looks like my last post had the desired effect. Get a bit of fire and motion back into the mothosphere.

Quite amusing that it’s so simple to wind people up for a handbags at dawn showdown. One of the more perverse ways to get a laugh out of it.

Anyway.

Nice to get the boat back out for a run this weekend. Nice and slippery as expected with a trail of suds following me wherever I went.

We raced WSC’s Cock of the Harbour season opener on Sunday against an assembled fleet of 49ers, i14s, B14s, Tasars and Lasers. In a building Nor-Easter, I port tacked the fleet and then built up a nice lead on the shy reach down to Ft Denison. The harbour was a washing machine with a run out tide and plenty of traffic, but the open water at the Sound proved more of a challenge with the opposite swell and wind chop making it difficult to foil on starboard.

Phil was in 2nd place as I headed back from Manly, but he was tiring quickly and Ben, Marty and the trailing 49ers were running him down.

I did a quick pitchpole near Sow & Pigs trying to thread the needle between a fishing trawler and a keelboat heading in opposite directions. But despite that little hickup I crossed in first, about 10 minutes in front of Ben in 2nd. A 65 minute lap around the Harbour.

So nice to be back on the water.

Ben also got the first taste of his new Mach2, and promptly pitchpoled his way downwind in the chop. A bit of re-learning to be done going from his Bladerider to the M2. But shouldn’t take long.

I also had Donosan make up vanity name tags for my sail. Prototyping suggestions from Thierry for better sailor identification. Maybe it will make it easier for photographers, and easier for commentators to identify boats around the course. What do you think?