scott.projectsomewhere

So the rebranded SIRS regatta (now called Sail Sydney) is over. Probably the biggest Moth event in Australia for the year – which is both good and bad.

Today was another incredible day. Funny that Monday and Tuesday of SIRS always seem to be ideal weather and provide some of the best racing. Today was just that.

We delayed for a long time waiting for wind to come in, and when we did head out there was only 8-12 knots, but it was enough. 4 boats finished the day tied on 5 points, so the racing was close. It seemed to be one mistake and you’d be in 4th. Another and you’d be battling to stay ahead of the chasing pack.

I finished up with a 3, 2. Coming back from a terrible start in the first one to just sneak in 3rd, then losing touch with Amac in the fading breeze to get a 2nd in the final race.

Dave sailed well and won the event overall. The top 4 finishers in race 6 got thrown out, with all but the second pack doing the right number of laps. Amac had to keep a 10th place which put him out of contention, but only just. He sailed well, albeit always appearing to be on the edge of control. A few little tweaks gave him a handy but tiny speed advantage which he exploited pretty well almost every race.

Rob Gough rounded out the top 3, but had an ordinary last day, his last in the VRX.

Full results here.

The next big event is the Nationals, then on towards the Worlds in Dubai. With plenty to do in between.

Today was awesome. Perfect conditions. Flat water. Building sea breeze. Not much traffic.

No gear breakages.

I finished the day with 3 3rds. In the first one I was pretty lucky to get back to there after not foiling off the line. By the time I got up and going around the back of the tanker, I was a good 300m behind. I pulled through but never challenged Dave or Amac out in front.

Second race was better. I led around the top mark after John overlaid the layline. A bit of rudder ventilation at the bottom let Dave and Amac through, then I hit the mark avoiding Amac’s bottom mark rounding for good measure. Dave got away for the win.

Next one was another 4 lapper. This time I led at the top mark again but Dave blew past and I ditched it in a gybe to become a sitting target for a slightly out of control Amac. A few ordinary other tacks and I was the usual 50m behind on the upwinds, 150m behind on the downwinds. I even put it in the piss through a gybe on the last run just to make sure.

But you’d struggle to complain about the day though. Really tight racing through the fleet, despite being a bit of a 1-way track most of the time.

Only 1 day left, and with a pretty ordinary forecast we’ll probably be postponed on shore for a while. I’ve pulled up to 4th, but won’t go close to troubling Rob, Dave and Amac for the placings.

So the funny thing is I managed to get around the track in the Moth today with no breakdowns.

I gave away the first race with a stupid decision to go right on the second upwind, since I thought the tanker ship on the left would be too close to the left gate layline, but I was wrong. I lost a couple of hundred metres on Amac and Dave, but rounded the last mark only marginally ahead and slow out of the tack so they both blew straight through. Amac motored away for the win, but I pulled ahead of Dave to take 2nd.

Lucky I didn’t make the same mistake in the next race, and lead around the track, opening up a little each lap to take the win.

But then I had to leave to make it over to the 18s as expected, so I missed the last race which Amac won – ending the day with a 1,2,1 scorecard. I’ve now got a 2,DNC,DNC,2,1,DNC from 6 races.

Feels like the Worlds almost.

I rushed over to Double Bay for the skiff race, but probably shouldn’t have.

We got out with little rig in what was shaping up to be a great Nor-Easter. We went upwind for a bit, then set the kite to come back to the start. We bounced over a couple of waves and the forestay rack at the bow sheared in half. The jib popped up off the deck, and the kite halyard levered it’s way around the trap attachments to break the rig at the hounds. All in slow motion.

So a messy packup of broken bits in the water, and we sailed in under bare poles for an early shower.

And plenty of boatwork. Not good.

At least my weekend wasn’t as bad as John’s. After he lost both a rudder vertical and a gantry in the collision with Nathan on Friday.

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In other news, Christophe Launay has posted some awesome photos from our photoshoot/training sessions over the last couple of weeks. Pretty good… even if they’re of me.

The novelty of not finishing races due to gear failure is wearing off.

This time my primary vang strop let go before the start of the second race at SIRS. I couldn’t get it fixed in time to make the last race, so I have two alphabet scores to go with a 2nd in the first race.

Given I’m going to miss a few more today to make it over to the 18s, my scorecard after two days is going to be pretty woeful.

Anyway.

The Moths have been relegated to the Rose Bay course this year, and in the light easterly yesterday, the top mark positioning was doing nobody any favours. At least it would provide plenty of passing opportunities as the fleet compressed in the hole each time around.

Dave blasted away from everyone pretty early on, but Rob Gough, Amac and I all swapped the lead at some point. By the finish Dave took the race with me sneaking through for 2nd about 10 seconds back.

But that’s about all of the racing I saw.

So Sunday rolls around and we have a very light seabreeze which is forecast to build nicely throughout the day. We’re racing the morning session, so we’ll probably get a bit of low riding in and watch the real breeze from shore this afternoon.

Or sail in it on the skiff as the case may be.

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.