On the water / In the bar
The stories of the H28 fleet
at SoPYC on the Swan River.
Autumn Sailing Wednesdays 5th of May
Not on the water &
A lot of contacts.
Every now and then you take a break and so without any warning I took off down to MR for the World Surfing League . _ . Margaret River Pro. So I missed the day on the water, but from the skippers POV I missed nothing. He wasn't a happy chook.
But I did go out on Karoleeya on the Sunday frostbite and despite all our attempts, we had to retire as the bilge pump refused to continue operating and the team of Steve, Mark, Eric and your scribe missed out on a good finish as we sailed well, got the kite up successfully and would have been mid field if we had scrubbed the bottom. In fact I had it on my must do list, but the chance of a tow out shortened up our time prior to sailing and we then spent the next half an hour mucking around on the river. NO clean hull and the boat was a slow as a wet week. But it was a nice day out. Hopefully Steve will get the bilge pump fixed before the next event.
Surprisingly we saw two other H28s out on the day.. Koomela carrying a truly impressive marine growth on her hull and the Mounts Bay boat MB 64 Tengarra out having a run on a pleasant Sunday.
However the H28 website has been getting a few hits and amongst them a request from Jo Baker, the niece of a former owner of Genevieve ( a Victorian Ketch rig that sailed with the fleet during the 70's). She very kindly sent over some photos of the boat and a few of the pennants she (the boat) won.
If any of the Offshore people are reading this.. how about a trip from Queenscliff Victoria to Port Lincoln in SA. That's three times the distance of the Fremantle to Geraldton.
As well as that, Bronzewing (also known as Coramandel) owned by former founding member Jim Goss has risen to the surface. His son Kevin Goss, also a former member at SoPYC has been in contact and has promised to fill us in with a bit more info about the boat and his fathers times in her.
These are the photos from the frostbite.. sorry not many H28s there.
And below that, we have some of the treasures that Jo Baker is happy to share of Genevieve when she was sailed out of Sandringham in Victoria
Not on the water &
A lot of contacts.
Every now and then you take a break and so without any warning I took off down to MR for the World Surfing League . _ . Margaret River Pro. So I missed the day on the water, but from the skippers POV I missed nothing. He wasn't a happy chook.
But I did go out on Karoleeya on the Sunday frostbite and despite all our attempts, we had to retire as the bilge pump refused to continue operating and the team of Steve, Mark, Eric and your scribe missed out on a good finish as we sailed well, got the kite up successfully and would have been mid field if we had scrubbed the bottom. In fact I had it on my must do list, but the chance of a tow out shortened up our time prior to sailing and we then spent the next half an hour mucking around on the river. NO clean hull and the boat was a slow as a wet week. But it was a nice day out. Hopefully Steve will get the bilge pump fixed before the next event.
Surprisingly we saw two other H28s out on the day.. Koomela carrying a truly impressive marine growth on her hull and the Mounts Bay boat MB 64 Tengarra out having a run on a pleasant Sunday.
However the H28 website has been getting a few hits and amongst them a request from Jo Baker, the niece of a former owner of Genevieve ( a Victorian Ketch rig that sailed with the fleet during the 70's). She very kindly sent over some photos of the boat and a few of the pennants she (the boat) won.
If any of the Offshore people are reading this.. how about a trip from Queenscliff Victoria to Port Lincoln in SA. That's three times the distance of the Fremantle to Geraldton.
As well as that, Bronzewing (also known as Coramandel) owned by former founding member Jim Goss has risen to the surface. His son Kevin Goss, also a former member at SoPYC has been in contact and has promised to fill us in with a bit more info about the boat and his fathers times in her.
These are the photos from the frostbite.. sorry not many H28s there.
And below that, we have some of the treasures that Jo Baker is happy to share of Genevieve when she was sailed out of Sandringham in Victoria
Autumn Sailing Wednesdays the 28th of April.
Smoke on the water &
Rolling Swiftsure.
Once again the burn offs are creating havoc on the river with the city of Perth and the Swan river blanketed in a layer of smoke caused by the inversion sitting on top of Perth. A very light sea breeze was in evidence, but the smoke wasn't going to go away as the smoke had been building off shore for a while and was brought back on shore when the breeze came in. The gorgeous Barbi came along to make up our foursome for the day.
Five boats set off on a new course today. There was an amount of uncertainty as to which course, but once the skippers made their minds up it was resolved to follow what may be known as a course 5 for use on a sou westerly. Simply: to Sampson, Print, Addison, Robins, Addison, Robins, Addison, Thelma and the finish line. On a strong breeze perhaps 90 minutes on a light breeze 2 hrs.
The skipper decided to test Corella's mettle at the start line, but it wasn't as effective as he had hoped, but we still got the boat around and pointing in the right direction. Only to watch Glen show a clean pair of heels ( again) on the way to Sampson... he started at the top with clean air and flew. There's something in that theory I think, sail your own race.
So chasing Glen we took off around Sampson, knowing that we needed to find clean air, so a tack, clean air, another tack on an approximate ley line and a nice run up to Print. We liked that and then bent away off to Addison with a pole to assist us. But still chasing Wynella with the rest of the fleet in hot pursuit. Somewhere along the way after Addison, just having crossed us, Wynella lost their speed/sense of direction... what ever and began to slip behind. But we were still severely challenged by Corella sailing four up and having a good time. What we weren't watching for was Bill on Swiftsure Saga who was steaming along very nicely.
The next part of the race was to Robins and Bill did what a good sailor should on a sou wester. He dipped right into the bay and came out like a rocket. We had gone early on the skippers whim and had were facing an entry on starboard from well out to the north of Robins. Bill was just gliding into the mark and had us nicely, sailing around us and around Robins into the bargain. So chase Swiftsure Saga for the rest of the day? The First Jindarra must have been suffering from smoke inhalation as they were lingering around the back with little chance of catching us by now. So down to Addison again. Under poles and trying everything possible to get a momentary lead on Swiftsure.
Not this time and again around the mark and back up to Robins with very little change in the lead even though Corella tried a chance from the northern side. Wynella repeated their trick from the bay and Bill just stayed in front of us. Not much joy there I can tell you. On the down wind for the last time and we entered into a jousting match with the boats being gybed regularly on the way down to Addison. By this time we had caught up with Swiftsure and we were close. A well judged pole drop at Addison had us running quickly and we were edging toward Swiftsures transom again.
All we could do now was trim for speed and try to roll over him. So trim we did. Bit by bit we swallowed the length of the boat with all 28 feet sliding behind us; awesome. Thelma and a major run along the freeway had us tacking near the pin end and a run up toward the finish line with the boat knocking as we did so. But we had the boat over the line, even though the skipper was grumbling that Swiftsure had gone on another 10 meters down the freeway. Surely he hasn't forgotten that Mariner carries another 6 inches under the keel than Swiftsure. No matter it was a good race and the discussion on the hill focused on the new course and the enjoyment of the afternoon. Even the starters came down to share in a glass of lemonade and an olive or two.
Over the line: Mariner, Swiftsure Saga and Corella
On handicap: Swiftsure Saga, Mariner and Wynella
Barry and Peter retired the Jin when Barry wasnt feeling well enough and they withdrew from the race.
On the matter of the Sailing closing day last Saturday.... the abrupt shut down of the Perth-Peel regions with the Covid scare put paid to any chance of the closing day sailing festivities.
& Rupert has nearly finished his work inside the boat ( Georgina).
Smoke on the water &
Rolling Swiftsure.
Once again the burn offs are creating havoc on the river with the city of Perth and the Swan river blanketed in a layer of smoke caused by the inversion sitting on top of Perth. A very light sea breeze was in evidence, but the smoke wasn't going to go away as the smoke had been building off shore for a while and was brought back on shore when the breeze came in. The gorgeous Barbi came along to make up our foursome for the day.
Five boats set off on a new course today. There was an amount of uncertainty as to which course, but once the skippers made their minds up it was resolved to follow what may be known as a course 5 for use on a sou westerly. Simply: to Sampson, Print, Addison, Robins, Addison, Robins, Addison, Thelma and the finish line. On a strong breeze perhaps 90 minutes on a light breeze 2 hrs.
The skipper decided to test Corella's mettle at the start line, but it wasn't as effective as he had hoped, but we still got the boat around and pointing in the right direction. Only to watch Glen show a clean pair of heels ( again) on the way to Sampson... he started at the top with clean air and flew. There's something in that theory I think, sail your own race.
So chasing Glen we took off around Sampson, knowing that we needed to find clean air, so a tack, clean air, another tack on an approximate ley line and a nice run up to Print. We liked that and then bent away off to Addison with a pole to assist us. But still chasing Wynella with the rest of the fleet in hot pursuit. Somewhere along the way after Addison, just having crossed us, Wynella lost their speed/sense of direction... what ever and began to slip behind. But we were still severely challenged by Corella sailing four up and having a good time. What we weren't watching for was Bill on Swiftsure Saga who was steaming along very nicely.
The next part of the race was to Robins and Bill did what a good sailor should on a sou wester. He dipped right into the bay and came out like a rocket. We had gone early on the skippers whim and had were facing an entry on starboard from well out to the north of Robins. Bill was just gliding into the mark and had us nicely, sailing around us and around Robins into the bargain. So chase Swiftsure Saga for the rest of the day? The First Jindarra must have been suffering from smoke inhalation as they were lingering around the back with little chance of catching us by now. So down to Addison again. Under poles and trying everything possible to get a momentary lead on Swiftsure.
Not this time and again around the mark and back up to Robins with very little change in the lead even though Corella tried a chance from the northern side. Wynella repeated their trick from the bay and Bill just stayed in front of us. Not much joy there I can tell you. On the down wind for the last time and we entered into a jousting match with the boats being gybed regularly on the way down to Addison. By this time we had caught up with Swiftsure and we were close. A well judged pole drop at Addison had us running quickly and we were edging toward Swiftsures transom again.
All we could do now was trim for speed and try to roll over him. So trim we did. Bit by bit we swallowed the length of the boat with all 28 feet sliding behind us; awesome. Thelma and a major run along the freeway had us tacking near the pin end and a run up toward the finish line with the boat knocking as we did so. But we had the boat over the line, even though the skipper was grumbling that Swiftsure had gone on another 10 meters down the freeway. Surely he hasn't forgotten that Mariner carries another 6 inches under the keel than Swiftsure. No matter it was a good race and the discussion on the hill focused on the new course and the enjoyment of the afternoon. Even the starters came down to share in a glass of lemonade and an olive or two.
Over the line: Mariner, Swiftsure Saga and Corella
On handicap: Swiftsure Saga, Mariner and Wynella
Barry and Peter retired the Jin when Barry wasnt feeling well enough and they withdrew from the race.
On the matter of the Sailing closing day last Saturday.... the abrupt shut down of the Perth-Peel regions with the Covid scare put paid to any chance of the closing day sailing festivities.
& Rupert has nearly finished his work inside the boat ( Georgina).
Summer Sailing Wednesdays the 21st of April
Smoke gets in your eyes &
Vanessa comes out for a ride.
Well that's an excuse that Glen and his merry gang could have used when they missed out on King on the way up to Robins. We had been given a course three on a flighty, irresponsible and nasty easterly that was full of spite and misfortune.
Winning... well nothing could have been further from the skippers mind as we charged up to Martin-Weaver with the breeze swirling around, dropping in and out and playing mind games with the fleet.
Stone last as we hit Martin and it wasn't going to be much better as we rounded Weaver. We were playing ducks and drakes with the breezes and for once we (at the back of the fleet) thought we could at least have our choice of the gusts as they came down the Canning. This wasn't to be the case as they would come down one half of the river and abruptly disappear. We watched in amazement as a little green masted SS22 picked up a semi tornado and just fled down the river. Lockie was next to him and while Lockie got moving, the 4 tonnes of H28 just wasn't nimble enough to run inside the breeze line. Barry on the First Jindarra wasn't having much luck and really wants to obtain a new spinnaker pole as he's not using the one he has. (he reckons its too long and a metal saw has already been suggested)
Hang on. Wheres Glen? OMG he's halfway to Sampson and we have just made the startline. Sure enough, while we battled with the rest of C fleet (who had caught up with us) Glen was rocking it out with the tail end of B fleet. Off he went, straight up to Robins while we dutifully pointed our noses over to Sampson and once round, headed off to King as the next mark. Someone on Wynella must have finally read the course notes and sure enough, back they came to the rest of the fleet to round King just in front of us.
Swiftsure Saga was lucky enough to have an extra passenger today with Vanessa (the redhead from the bar crew) joining us for a yacht and while originally slated to sail with Mariner, we were a little crowded with 5 on board and we were loath to put a new chum on the rail. So she joined Bill, John and Eric for the day.
Fair enough, we were on our way and the race down to Robins began on a very light sou westerly as a follow me with a string of boats, one after the other all the way to Robins where poor rounding by other boats gave us the chance to get through half a dozen yachts. On our way down to Print, where again a bit of luck helped us improve our position as we managed to get past Wynella and back onto Corella's tail.
Our next dash took us to Foam where the whole of the Royal Perth fleet was aimed at and it was a case of go low and go around or try to find a hole in the fleet. Someone did, but I cant remember who but Lockie tried and then had to join them down to Foam and then go around, while we went low to begin and it was a saving of several boat lengths in the long run. Then back up to Robins in good company again and of course with the clock running out (it was already after 4 pm) we turned to head down to Print then to Como and head for home. But not before another land mine popped up.
Way down around Addison (on the northern side of the course) there were perhaps a dozen boats becalmed and it was clear why Lockie and others had tacked off toward the club early. There was a breeze on the south side of the river and nothing down toward Sampson/Addison. Off we went, keeping the boat flowing and eventually we made it to Como with a SS27 bearing down on us. We had left enough room for him and he swung around the mark and disappeared to the finish line with the skipper grumbling about speed on his boat. It was nearly 5 pm and the line would close by 1715 hrs. Much private gnashing of teeth if the starters had stuffed up.
But over the line comfortably and the boat packed up by 1715 and a cold beer in hand by 1716. Good timing.
Over the line: Corella, Mariner and Wynella
On handicap: Corella, Swiftsure Saga and Wynella.
The summer sailing finished today with Mariner taking the honours and Corella seven points behind. Corella incidentally just pipped Wynella by one point. Bad luck Glen, it might have been a different story if you had gone to King instead of Robins.
Smoke gets in your eyes &
Vanessa comes out for a ride.
Well that's an excuse that Glen and his merry gang could have used when they missed out on King on the way up to Robins. We had been given a course three on a flighty, irresponsible and nasty easterly that was full of spite and misfortune.
Winning... well nothing could have been further from the skippers mind as we charged up to Martin-Weaver with the breeze swirling around, dropping in and out and playing mind games with the fleet.
Stone last as we hit Martin and it wasn't going to be much better as we rounded Weaver. We were playing ducks and drakes with the breezes and for once we (at the back of the fleet) thought we could at least have our choice of the gusts as they came down the Canning. This wasn't to be the case as they would come down one half of the river and abruptly disappear. We watched in amazement as a little green masted SS22 picked up a semi tornado and just fled down the river. Lockie was next to him and while Lockie got moving, the 4 tonnes of H28 just wasn't nimble enough to run inside the breeze line. Barry on the First Jindarra wasn't having much luck and really wants to obtain a new spinnaker pole as he's not using the one he has. (he reckons its too long and a metal saw has already been suggested)
Hang on. Wheres Glen? OMG he's halfway to Sampson and we have just made the startline. Sure enough, while we battled with the rest of C fleet (who had caught up with us) Glen was rocking it out with the tail end of B fleet. Off he went, straight up to Robins while we dutifully pointed our noses over to Sampson and once round, headed off to King as the next mark. Someone on Wynella must have finally read the course notes and sure enough, back they came to the rest of the fleet to round King just in front of us.
Swiftsure Saga was lucky enough to have an extra passenger today with Vanessa (the redhead from the bar crew) joining us for a yacht and while originally slated to sail with Mariner, we were a little crowded with 5 on board and we were loath to put a new chum on the rail. So she joined Bill, John and Eric for the day.
Fair enough, we were on our way and the race down to Robins began on a very light sou westerly as a follow me with a string of boats, one after the other all the way to Robins where poor rounding by other boats gave us the chance to get through half a dozen yachts. On our way down to Print, where again a bit of luck helped us improve our position as we managed to get past Wynella and back onto Corella's tail.
Our next dash took us to Foam where the whole of the Royal Perth fleet was aimed at and it was a case of go low and go around or try to find a hole in the fleet. Someone did, but I cant remember who but Lockie tried and then had to join them down to Foam and then go around, while we went low to begin and it was a saving of several boat lengths in the long run. Then back up to Robins in good company again and of course with the clock running out (it was already after 4 pm) we turned to head down to Print then to Como and head for home. But not before another land mine popped up.
Way down around Addison (on the northern side of the course) there were perhaps a dozen boats becalmed and it was clear why Lockie and others had tacked off toward the club early. There was a breeze on the south side of the river and nothing down toward Sampson/Addison. Off we went, keeping the boat flowing and eventually we made it to Como with a SS27 bearing down on us. We had left enough room for him and he swung around the mark and disappeared to the finish line with the skipper grumbling about speed on his boat. It was nearly 5 pm and the line would close by 1715 hrs. Much private gnashing of teeth if the starters had stuffed up.
But over the line comfortably and the boat packed up by 1715 and a cold beer in hand by 1716. Good timing.
Over the line: Corella, Mariner and Wynella
On handicap: Corella, Swiftsure Saga and Wynella.
The summer sailing finished today with Mariner taking the honours and Corella seven points behind. Corella incidentally just pipped Wynella by one point. Bad luck Glen, it might have been a different story if you had gone to King instead of Robins.
Summer Sailing Wednesday the 7th of April
Shanghaied onto Swiftsure Saga &
It's nice to be last.
Rocking up to jump on the boat, everyone looked at me in astonishment. " You're supposed to be at the cardio's today." "Well, er actually, its next week." So without further ado I was shanghaied off to Swiftsure Saga as Bill was short of crew. The thinking was that it would be a bonus for Bill (definitely) and that possibly I could sort out the problem they were having with the new main. And finally that I could take lots of photos of Mariner for once.
The problem with the main isn't a problem. It's the boat and presently she wont sail well between about 5 to 12 knots of breeze and that's where we were at today. As Bill says, she'll only start to point above 5 knots of boat speed and usually 5.5 knots is where she begins to perform.
So with 6 boats on the line and the 1st Jindarra under the helm of Barry Skinner with a diverse crew to help him. Mariner had five on board so the thought of 6 would have made it very uncomfortable, but its a momentary thing, we'll be down to 3 or 4 shortly. The course was a course four and not a bad choice with the rest of the fleet getting a course two. We were happy as we could get ahead of the Royal Perth fleet and into the bay. And so we did with a fair chase down to Sampson under a breeze that never got above 14 knots and was closer to 10 knots for most of the day.
Third around the mark with Mariner and the Jin in front. Hot on our heels were Anna and Corella (helmed by Rita) with Wynella bringing up a close rearguard. Half the fleet tacked off immediately and the other half shortly after. We were in the other half. By the time we got to the other side there was a tacking duel where we managed to roll a number of boats and kept our spot as third in the fleet. But up front the Jin had kept the lead and Mariner was looking at her transom. But it wasn't going to be like that all the time and as we worked our way up the bay we dipped into Frenchy's and watched as Barry took the Jin deep into the beach. Lucky it was a full tide today. The next look was to Robins where everyone bar the Jin had to go again to make the mark, but Barry showed a bit of luck, pointing the boat up and finagling his way around the mark.
All of a sudden we are 5th and Wynella is on our tail. The rest of the fleet is well ahead and we are as slow as. But something is happening to the First Jindarra and she is just falling away beyond Dolphin East... not toward Como and no sign of a pole at all. Mariner surged forward to take the lead and The Jin recovered, but only to take a solid second. John Wright on Anna has seized the chance and is chasing Barry as hard as he can with Rita doing a fine job on his tail.
Como and down to the outer startline with Swiftsure Saga showing no sign of big speed.. It really is a worry. Around and off to the small triangle with a look at the RP fleet making their way down to Como as we head off to King. For once we had them on starboard. But they knew as well as we did that its just a matter of politeness to all and we slipped through the fleet comfortably. On to King and around we went with only Wynella on our tail. and she was dragged by another bunch of RP boats. Beauty, we have doubled our lead. But relentlessly they are chasing us up and by the time we are heading for Thelma they are within range.
We watched as the rest of the fleet ran along the freeway and then tacked up to the line knocking badly. Should we have tacked off immediately and headed up to the centre of the line before laying over for a run to the finish? .. Well it might have worked, but the skipper had other ideas and we followed the rest of the fleet like sheep. Glen took a chance and went a little further along the freeway, tacked and then began to look famous as he got inside us and rolled over the line in 5th spot. Last again.
Apparently Barry had a problem with the pole and it will be attended to in due course.
Over the line: Mariner, The First Jindarra and Anna.
On handicap: Mariner, Anna and Swiftsure Saga.
Shanghaied onto Swiftsure Saga &
It's nice to be last.
Rocking up to jump on the boat, everyone looked at me in astonishment. " You're supposed to be at the cardio's today." "Well, er actually, its next week." So without further ado I was shanghaied off to Swiftsure Saga as Bill was short of crew. The thinking was that it would be a bonus for Bill (definitely) and that possibly I could sort out the problem they were having with the new main. And finally that I could take lots of photos of Mariner for once.
The problem with the main isn't a problem. It's the boat and presently she wont sail well between about 5 to 12 knots of breeze and that's where we were at today. As Bill says, she'll only start to point above 5 knots of boat speed and usually 5.5 knots is where she begins to perform.
So with 6 boats on the line and the 1st Jindarra under the helm of Barry Skinner with a diverse crew to help him. Mariner had five on board so the thought of 6 would have made it very uncomfortable, but its a momentary thing, we'll be down to 3 or 4 shortly. The course was a course four and not a bad choice with the rest of the fleet getting a course two. We were happy as we could get ahead of the Royal Perth fleet and into the bay. And so we did with a fair chase down to Sampson under a breeze that never got above 14 knots and was closer to 10 knots for most of the day.
Third around the mark with Mariner and the Jin in front. Hot on our heels were Anna and Corella (helmed by Rita) with Wynella bringing up a close rearguard. Half the fleet tacked off immediately and the other half shortly after. We were in the other half. By the time we got to the other side there was a tacking duel where we managed to roll a number of boats and kept our spot as third in the fleet. But up front the Jin had kept the lead and Mariner was looking at her transom. But it wasn't going to be like that all the time and as we worked our way up the bay we dipped into Frenchy's and watched as Barry took the Jin deep into the beach. Lucky it was a full tide today. The next look was to Robins where everyone bar the Jin had to go again to make the mark, but Barry showed a bit of luck, pointing the boat up and finagling his way around the mark.
All of a sudden we are 5th and Wynella is on our tail. The rest of the fleet is well ahead and we are as slow as. But something is happening to the First Jindarra and she is just falling away beyond Dolphin East... not toward Como and no sign of a pole at all. Mariner surged forward to take the lead and The Jin recovered, but only to take a solid second. John Wright on Anna has seized the chance and is chasing Barry as hard as he can with Rita doing a fine job on his tail.
Como and down to the outer startline with Swiftsure Saga showing no sign of big speed.. It really is a worry. Around and off to the small triangle with a look at the RP fleet making their way down to Como as we head off to King. For once we had them on starboard. But they knew as well as we did that its just a matter of politeness to all and we slipped through the fleet comfortably. On to King and around we went with only Wynella on our tail. and she was dragged by another bunch of RP boats. Beauty, we have doubled our lead. But relentlessly they are chasing us up and by the time we are heading for Thelma they are within range.
We watched as the rest of the fleet ran along the freeway and then tacked up to the line knocking badly. Should we have tacked off immediately and headed up to the centre of the line before laying over for a run to the finish? .. Well it might have worked, but the skipper had other ideas and we followed the rest of the fleet like sheep. Glen took a chance and went a little further along the freeway, tacked and then began to look famous as he got inside us and rolled over the line in 5th spot. Last again.
Apparently Barry had a problem with the pole and it will be attended to in due course.
Over the line: Mariner, The First Jindarra and Anna.
On handicap: Mariner, Anna and Swiftsure Saga.
Summer Sailing Wednesday the 31st of March
Why follow when you can lead?
AB leaves the building. &
The final championship race.
As usual it was a guessing game as to which course we may be given. This time they sent us up to Martin - Weaver and gave us a course 3 on what might be called a southerly with a bit of west in it. Actually quite a bit, but you don't need to know that, to guess the comment from the skipper. "Another followers course".
Six boats graced the start line with Corella, Swiftsure Saga, The First Jindarra, Anna, Wynella and Mariner as the fleet. The whole fleet was late to the line and it was a tacking duel to Martin with those who went left and then back to the first mark reaping the dividends. It goes against the grain to run the jetties and we were tempted to do what earlier boats had achieved, but at this moment it wasn't going to happen. But trimming got us there and we were third around the mark with Lockie in the lead and AB in second.
On to Weaver and around with a pole to take us down to Sampson then a cracked reach across to King to begin the follow me part of the race down to Robins and the next set of revolutions around the marks. All was as expected for the first round and we made our way down to Print and across to Foam where Andrew Bell handed over the helm to Barry for the next round of the marks.
Both the First Jindarra and Corella went way deep into Heathcote in the expectation of picking up the Sou wester but the crew on Mariner had a different bent and we tacked off to do something different. "Why follow when you could lead" was the thought and with that in mind we shot up the middle with John Wright on our tail and found ourselves beginning to improve on the run. We were going faster than they were. My word, we had to get through them but we had speed and a happy skipper. By the time we made a ley line we could tack freely and headed over to the mark with the skipper already thinking of the chance that Lockie could get him on starboard coming back. Didn't happen and we shot around the mark with a lee pole set and already drawing.
It was getting pretty close to four o'clock so the betting was it was going to be a shortened course.. this was our chance to shine and the boat leapt forward with the two lads on the bow working the pole with the constant gybes being thrown at them. Down to Print again and this time make our way to Como. Getting rid of the pole was an easy one and then the race was on. We have to get to the line first, but not by a huge amount as our handicap is already climbing skyward. Sure enough, the flags were fluttering at the start box and we were home and packing up.
Over the line: Mariner, Corella and the First Jindarra.
On handicap: Mariner, Corella and Wynella.
Rupert was there yet again and still working on Georgina. The trims are going on and he's learning that the tannins in the timber will leach out when they aren't sealed.
Andy Bell as you might have noted, has sold the First Jindarra after several highly competitive years and has mentioned that he is taking up golf as his sport of choice. He reckons that he's playing off 20 at the moment, "But its likely to go down" he says. The odds of him giving up sailing? Nope, I don't think so.
Welcome to the H28 fleet. Barry Skinner and Peter Broadbent.
The last championship.
Well it appears that breaking your mast and having a hole in the side of your boat will destroy your chances of winning a championship. Well done to Glen and the boys on Wynella who have persevered all the way through the season to rack up enough points to come second in the last race and still win the season. Thoroughly deserved. We could also thank Covid for wiping out one of the championship races and making it a tight finish, as had Glen sailed that one with the First Jindarra still on the sidelines, he would have been well ahead.
I had the chance to sit on Heathcote and again at Applecross Spit on the board walk and caught some pictures of the boys working their way up the river. Enjoy.
Why follow when you can lead?
AB leaves the building. &
The final championship race.
As usual it was a guessing game as to which course we may be given. This time they sent us up to Martin - Weaver and gave us a course 3 on what might be called a southerly with a bit of west in it. Actually quite a bit, but you don't need to know that, to guess the comment from the skipper. "Another followers course".
Six boats graced the start line with Corella, Swiftsure Saga, The First Jindarra, Anna, Wynella and Mariner as the fleet. The whole fleet was late to the line and it was a tacking duel to Martin with those who went left and then back to the first mark reaping the dividends. It goes against the grain to run the jetties and we were tempted to do what earlier boats had achieved, but at this moment it wasn't going to happen. But trimming got us there and we were third around the mark with Lockie in the lead and AB in second.
On to Weaver and around with a pole to take us down to Sampson then a cracked reach across to King to begin the follow me part of the race down to Robins and the next set of revolutions around the marks. All was as expected for the first round and we made our way down to Print and across to Foam where Andrew Bell handed over the helm to Barry for the next round of the marks.
Both the First Jindarra and Corella went way deep into Heathcote in the expectation of picking up the Sou wester but the crew on Mariner had a different bent and we tacked off to do something different. "Why follow when you could lead" was the thought and with that in mind we shot up the middle with John Wright on our tail and found ourselves beginning to improve on the run. We were going faster than they were. My word, we had to get through them but we had speed and a happy skipper. By the time we made a ley line we could tack freely and headed over to the mark with the skipper already thinking of the chance that Lockie could get him on starboard coming back. Didn't happen and we shot around the mark with a lee pole set and already drawing.
It was getting pretty close to four o'clock so the betting was it was going to be a shortened course.. this was our chance to shine and the boat leapt forward with the two lads on the bow working the pole with the constant gybes being thrown at them. Down to Print again and this time make our way to Como. Getting rid of the pole was an easy one and then the race was on. We have to get to the line first, but not by a huge amount as our handicap is already climbing skyward. Sure enough, the flags were fluttering at the start box and we were home and packing up.
Over the line: Mariner, Corella and the First Jindarra.
On handicap: Mariner, Corella and Wynella.
Rupert was there yet again and still working on Georgina. The trims are going on and he's learning that the tannins in the timber will leach out when they aren't sealed.
Andy Bell as you might have noted, has sold the First Jindarra after several highly competitive years and has mentioned that he is taking up golf as his sport of choice. He reckons that he's playing off 20 at the moment, "But its likely to go down" he says. The odds of him giving up sailing? Nope, I don't think so.
Welcome to the H28 fleet. Barry Skinner and Peter Broadbent.
The last championship.
Well it appears that breaking your mast and having a hole in the side of your boat will destroy your chances of winning a championship. Well done to Glen and the boys on Wynella who have persevered all the way through the season to rack up enough points to come second in the last race and still win the season. Thoroughly deserved. We could also thank Covid for wiping out one of the championship races and making it a tight finish, as had Glen sailed that one with the First Jindarra still on the sidelines, he would have been well ahead.
I had the chance to sit on Heathcote and again at Applecross Spit on the board walk and caught some pictures of the boys working their way up the river. Enjoy.
Summer Sailing Wednesday the 24th of March
A masterclass in sailing &
Lost and gone.
A west sou wester that gradually worked itself into the sou west with holes in the breeze that had the boats standing up waiting for more wind. Half a dozen boats and a course one on offer. Surprisingly they sent us off northward with a strong reach down to Sampson. We made the line very nicely, hanging on our sails before the line and fell down on to the line with the clock winding down just in time. Good one; with Brian hors d'combat (a buggered ankle) Captain Phil took the helm and we filled the boat with crew. We had already put Glen behind us on the startline and everyone else was below us with Lockie sailing a very good two up with Rita and sailing low and fast slipped into third place as we rounded Sampson.
As soon as the fleet had rounded the mark, the First Jindarra tacked away heading to better places down near Heathcote. He was swiftly followed by Anna and Wynella, leaving Corella and Swiftsure Saga on our tails. By the time we had reached the other side, all three boats that had tacked off were in front of us. Not very much to our liking but hey you take what you get. I watched as Anna crept in below Heathcote, making his way into the bay from whence he simply put the rest of us behind him. So up the breeze we went with Lockie making great gains punching into the breeze. Damn he was ahead and one or two tacks later we were looking at the back end of the fleet. Maybe we shouldn't have taken that small tack to improve our position, but when I looked up again there was only Swiftsure Saga behind us.
And so it was, as we worked our way up the course with the Royal Perth fleet joining us around Robins and continuing past Applecross spit upward and beyond our turning mark at Deepwater. Looking across at Swiftsure Saga I watched in amazement as the Royal Perth boat below them didn't change course. They stayed on port and Bill was forced to alter his course to prevent a collision. Unfortunatley he may not have waved a red flag in protest, but the damage was done and his speed was killed and another RP boat was forced to tack away with the RP boat continuing on, only slowly coming over onto the other tack.
Around Deepwater and down to Print trying to catch Wynella and fending off Swiftsure Saga. Well we got around Print fair on the tail of Wynella and Swiftsure Saga a little below us, they tacked earlier and using his new sails Bill simply ran away up the breeze. Fortunately our friends in Wynella decided to slow down and we found ourselves in front of them and decided come what may that we were going to stay there for the rest of the day. We made Robins on a very nice run and the next leg was a beam reach to Dolphin East with no passing lanes available. A pole set to leeward allowed us to go onto the next down wind run with the pole set already and Como was within easy reach. But still no passing lanes and Andrew Bell was so far ahead, that even seeing him was a tough one. I finally picked him up rounding the outer startline before we were even at Como. John Wright and Anna was the only boat that surged ahead and he was midway between Lockie in third place and Andrew in first.
Still we had our problems and those had to be dealt with. The small triangle was on offer and somehow the SS27's had caught up with the fleet. One of them, slipped in between our boat and Wynella and our next thought was that they would roll us, but they played smart and passed us at a distance. The small triangle was finished with Mariner tacking off after Thelma and then going for the line a little early with the resultant double tack to finally make the line. Not that it would have mattered very much, we were going to be last, lost and gone forever.
The masterclass from the First Jindarra was over, with only John Wright on Anna showing a trace of resistance. He and his crew sailed well as indeed did Lockie and Rita with Corella. The rest of us.. well there's always next week.
Over the line: The First Jindarra, Anna and Corella.
On handicap: The First Jindarra, Anna and Wynella.
Seen around the pens:
Rupert was sitting in the boat patiently working on the hull of Georgina.. nice to see him back.
The new part owners of Karoleeya, Barry and Peter, were seen out on the water in Barry's nice green electric boat following the fleet. Good on them. They are looking for someone to sort out the electrics on Karoleeya so it may be a while before they grace us with their presence.
1st of April 2021
This has been amended. Barry and Peter have bought The First Jindarra and are currently negotiating their pen leases as one of them isnt a member at the moment. Karoleeya is still in Graemes hands.
The last championship day is this weekend. We are looking forward to the results.
A masterclass in sailing &
Lost and gone.
A west sou wester that gradually worked itself into the sou west with holes in the breeze that had the boats standing up waiting for more wind. Half a dozen boats and a course one on offer. Surprisingly they sent us off northward with a strong reach down to Sampson. We made the line very nicely, hanging on our sails before the line and fell down on to the line with the clock winding down just in time. Good one; with Brian hors d'combat (a buggered ankle) Captain Phil took the helm and we filled the boat with crew. We had already put Glen behind us on the startline and everyone else was below us with Lockie sailing a very good two up with Rita and sailing low and fast slipped into third place as we rounded Sampson.
As soon as the fleet had rounded the mark, the First Jindarra tacked away heading to better places down near Heathcote. He was swiftly followed by Anna and Wynella, leaving Corella and Swiftsure Saga on our tails. By the time we had reached the other side, all three boats that had tacked off were in front of us. Not very much to our liking but hey you take what you get. I watched as Anna crept in below Heathcote, making his way into the bay from whence he simply put the rest of us behind him. So up the breeze we went with Lockie making great gains punching into the breeze. Damn he was ahead and one or two tacks later we were looking at the back end of the fleet. Maybe we shouldn't have taken that small tack to improve our position, but when I looked up again there was only Swiftsure Saga behind us.
And so it was, as we worked our way up the course with the Royal Perth fleet joining us around Robins and continuing past Applecross spit upward and beyond our turning mark at Deepwater. Looking across at Swiftsure Saga I watched in amazement as the Royal Perth boat below them didn't change course. They stayed on port and Bill was forced to alter his course to prevent a collision. Unfortunatley he may not have waved a red flag in protest, but the damage was done and his speed was killed and another RP boat was forced to tack away with the RP boat continuing on, only slowly coming over onto the other tack.
Around Deepwater and down to Print trying to catch Wynella and fending off Swiftsure Saga. Well we got around Print fair on the tail of Wynella and Swiftsure Saga a little below us, they tacked earlier and using his new sails Bill simply ran away up the breeze. Fortunately our friends in Wynella decided to slow down and we found ourselves in front of them and decided come what may that we were going to stay there for the rest of the day. We made Robins on a very nice run and the next leg was a beam reach to Dolphin East with no passing lanes available. A pole set to leeward allowed us to go onto the next down wind run with the pole set already and Como was within easy reach. But still no passing lanes and Andrew Bell was so far ahead, that even seeing him was a tough one. I finally picked him up rounding the outer startline before we were even at Como. John Wright and Anna was the only boat that surged ahead and he was midway between Lockie in third place and Andrew in first.
Still we had our problems and those had to be dealt with. The small triangle was on offer and somehow the SS27's had caught up with the fleet. One of them, slipped in between our boat and Wynella and our next thought was that they would roll us, but they played smart and passed us at a distance. The small triangle was finished with Mariner tacking off after Thelma and then going for the line a little early with the resultant double tack to finally make the line. Not that it would have mattered very much, we were going to be last, lost and gone forever.
The masterclass from the First Jindarra was over, with only John Wright on Anna showing a trace of resistance. He and his crew sailed well as indeed did Lockie and Rita with Corella. The rest of us.. well there's always next week.
Over the line: The First Jindarra, Anna and Corella.
On handicap: The First Jindarra, Anna and Wynella.
Seen around the pens:
Rupert was sitting in the boat patiently working on the hull of Georgina.. nice to see him back.
The new part owners of Karoleeya, Barry and Peter, were seen out on the water in Barry's nice green electric boat following the fleet. Good on them. They are looking for someone to sort out the electrics on Karoleeya so it may be a while before they grace us with their presence.
1st of April 2021
This has been amended. Barry and Peter have bought The First Jindarra and are currently negotiating their pen leases as one of them isnt a member at the moment. Karoleeya is still in Graemes hands.
The last championship day is this weekend. We are looking forward to the results.
Summer Sailing Sunday the 21st of March ( The retro race )
Kate still wants to know why! &
Slowly cooking on the water.
The day began with the temperature well into the 30's and not very much breeze around. Setting up Anna was going to be a small chore, but John W had turned up the same time as I had and we had the covers off and the boat came together as the rest of the crew rolled up. Around us, another 4 boats began to take shape with Wynella, Karoleeya, Mariner and Napea of Carrick all pulling on their glad rags ready for a show with the rest of the retro fleet. It would have been nice to see a few more H28s but we were thankful for those who rocked up. Kate was driving Mariner and had young Jason on board ( last seen driving Shades) along with a crewman from Karoleeya.
A reasonable breeze had sprung up and definitely out of the west and nor west. But they gave us a course one and to hell with it. So a long line leading off toward Smith and Lucky not completely on the breeze but cracked enough to give us speed. Mariner got in front and from then on it was a follow me race with Anna having to go a little wide on Smith while we fought to get around Wynella. We did so and then fell into a hole of our own, forgetting to hang on till Lucky. Ooops. So we lost our lead and from then on we were chasing Wynella as well. Then the down wind segment on a run to Bond and it very quickly got hot without the cooling of the breeze. Back up to Sanders (99) with Jon Sanders himself out on the water with Perie Banou II along side us.. I'm was glad of that .. at least he could find it.
Then a reach across to Bartlett with Glen on Wynella checking at every mark on the river to make sure he didn't get it wrong. Really Glen... just watch the boats out the front. Behind us Jim and Steve were having a battle all of their own with Steve suffering from a blown out jib. Fortunately he had a spare but not really suited to the day. Oh well. Sail on. From there on it was a case of another pole all the way down to Como leaving outer Dolphin to port. Quietly cooking in the lessening breeze. At last we found Como and bent around the mark dodging the boats coming towards us from Anderson. Umm....funny course planning folks. We were headed for Martin /Weaver and then back to Como reaching again.
This time we had our own share of ducking boats coming in to the finish line.. but that fine. By this time Kate and Mariner were well away and looked as though she would do well on the score line, even though her handicap was healthy. We fell over the line after Wynella and headed back to the pens reasonably content with the day. Putting the boat to bed we then headed up to the marquee and joined the noisy throng of people celebrating loudly. All the food was gone by then, but a cold beer was certainly on the cards.
The results were read out, Bernie took a few photos and Kate erupted. She hadn't even been included in results. They had left her off and she wanted to know why. She'd paid up, signed on the dotted line and made sure she was ok to go. Even with a handicap that was healthy she should have scored at least a third and Wynella had managed to scoop those up. No hard times to Glen... but Kate wanted those flags just as hard as he did. Oh well. I've just seen the amended results and Kate got a 4th in both the division and combined fleets. :-{
Enjoy the photos.
Two cameras were used today so there will be a mix up of photos.
Gina Pickering came through with a video of the afternoon. Its below the slide show. Enjoy.
Summer Sailing Wednesday the 17th of March.
Whirling dervish! &
The new mast is doing the trick.
With a course one on the flag poles and a dash up to Martin- Weaver it was clear that taking the start was the prime objective. Sure it was a sou wester (of sorts) but no better than about 12 to 15 knots and we were in fine form with both Phil and Kate on board. Andy Bell had visitors and the rest of the fleet were well stocked for crew.
Leading up to our start time the skipper decided that we were capable of gybes (well we have been for the last 8 years, but I digress) and had the boat spinning on the course faster than a whirling dervish. Gone was the need to tack, no - a gybe was in vogue and the crew was dealing with it nicely. By the 30 second mark we were hanging on our sails before the line, holding out the those who dared come in from the box end.. GO Up was the call. Then as the seconds counted down, the head of the boat moved down and we eased our sails into shape with Lockie scooting away below us, thankful (I think) for the hold up on the line above him. Our job was done and we moved off into second place while The Jin and Anna restarted on the line. Wynella got away well and Swiftsure Saga followed suit.
Away to Martin with good trimming and then bend away to Weaver with a gybe at the mark.. no tidal influence to be seen. The next run was to Sampson of course and we already had The First Jindarra back on our tail as he had made up his ground quickly and was not going to be dissuaded in his wish to do well. But the door was closed and until we hit Sampson he was following the same line as every one else. As we swung around the mark following Corella, he turned left and picked up a great run across to Heathcote on a lifting board that allowed him to get in front of us and then a set of tacks had him roll Corella providing me with a great set of shots as the boats crossed in front of us.
Our next effort was to get through the gap in the RP fleet and we took the time to chuckle at a Royal Perth yacht that had found the putty up at Applecross spit. The RP boat Pelican was trying to pull them off, but with sails up and trying to pull her backwards it was going to be a hard ask. We went a little further out on the line to Deepwater and then made our attempt with the breeze still pushing us down. Around the mark we went, with a pole set on starboard and running pretty close to dead down wind. On the way down The Jin and Corella were playing silly buggers with AB taking Dave Locke away for a while, but as far as we were concerned it just let us get that little bit closer.
We made Print and then set off into the bay again with the intention go in deep and run up the breeze till we rounded Robins. AB went early and hoped he would make it.. he didn't and had to tack back. Both Corella and Mariner made up good time with Anna who was sailing well, slipping into a good 4th spot behind us. We made our line to the mark and rounded with a broad reach down to Dolphin East. A few big boats passed us and we were happy to let them through as no one wants a big boat sitting on your transom. A pre set leeward pole had us rounding Dolphin East with a starboard pole ready to go. Nice one and we didn't have the problems setting the pole after the gybe.
It was already 1600 hrs and the odds were that they would shorten up the course. Sure enough we bent around Como and set off for the outer startline. Once the box came within sight, yep, the flags were set. So it evolved into a dash to the line. Fine, that we could do and without very much further ado we headed for the finish.
Over the line: The First Jindarra, Corella and Mariner.
On handicap: Corella, Wynella and Anna.
Karoleeya: we are waiting for Barry and Peter to take their boat out on the water on a Wednesday so its up to them to make up a crew and go for it. Look forward to their involvement.
Whirling dervish! &
The new mast is doing the trick.
With a course one on the flag poles and a dash up to Martin- Weaver it was clear that taking the start was the prime objective. Sure it was a sou wester (of sorts) but no better than about 12 to 15 knots and we were in fine form with both Phil and Kate on board. Andy Bell had visitors and the rest of the fleet were well stocked for crew.
Leading up to our start time the skipper decided that we were capable of gybes (well we have been for the last 8 years, but I digress) and had the boat spinning on the course faster than a whirling dervish. Gone was the need to tack, no - a gybe was in vogue and the crew was dealing with it nicely. By the 30 second mark we were hanging on our sails before the line, holding out the those who dared come in from the box end.. GO Up was the call. Then as the seconds counted down, the head of the boat moved down and we eased our sails into shape with Lockie scooting away below us, thankful (I think) for the hold up on the line above him. Our job was done and we moved off into second place while The Jin and Anna restarted on the line. Wynella got away well and Swiftsure Saga followed suit.
Away to Martin with good trimming and then bend away to Weaver with a gybe at the mark.. no tidal influence to be seen. The next run was to Sampson of course and we already had The First Jindarra back on our tail as he had made up his ground quickly and was not going to be dissuaded in his wish to do well. But the door was closed and until we hit Sampson he was following the same line as every one else. As we swung around the mark following Corella, he turned left and picked up a great run across to Heathcote on a lifting board that allowed him to get in front of us and then a set of tacks had him roll Corella providing me with a great set of shots as the boats crossed in front of us.
Our next effort was to get through the gap in the RP fleet and we took the time to chuckle at a Royal Perth yacht that had found the putty up at Applecross spit. The RP boat Pelican was trying to pull them off, but with sails up and trying to pull her backwards it was going to be a hard ask. We went a little further out on the line to Deepwater and then made our attempt with the breeze still pushing us down. Around the mark we went, with a pole set on starboard and running pretty close to dead down wind. On the way down The Jin and Corella were playing silly buggers with AB taking Dave Locke away for a while, but as far as we were concerned it just let us get that little bit closer.
We made Print and then set off into the bay again with the intention go in deep and run up the breeze till we rounded Robins. AB went early and hoped he would make it.. he didn't and had to tack back. Both Corella and Mariner made up good time with Anna who was sailing well, slipping into a good 4th spot behind us. We made our line to the mark and rounded with a broad reach down to Dolphin East. A few big boats passed us and we were happy to let them through as no one wants a big boat sitting on your transom. A pre set leeward pole had us rounding Dolphin East with a starboard pole ready to go. Nice one and we didn't have the problems setting the pole after the gybe.
It was already 1600 hrs and the odds were that they would shorten up the course. Sure enough we bent around Como and set off for the outer startline. Once the box came within sight, yep, the flags were set. So it evolved into a dash to the line. Fine, that we could do and without very much further ado we headed for the finish.
Over the line: The First Jindarra, Corella and Mariner.
On handicap: Corella, Wynella and Anna.
Karoleeya: we are waiting for Barry and Peter to take their boat out on the water on a Wednesday so its up to them to make up a crew and go for it. Look forward to their involvement.
Summer Sailing Saturday the 13th of March. A Championship Day (the 5th)
No I wasn't on the water, with Bill taking the wise course to let his body rest, but the sailing was done and dusted (as can be imagined) with The First Jindarra taking the biscuits.
The lead was a whopping 22 minutes and some odd seconds on a course three with a 13 knot day out of the sou east. Wynella was second, followed by Karoleeya 10 minutes later and Aloha did a fine job to finish the race before the start box door was locked as the starters headed for the bar.
There is one more race for the series. All eyes will be on the finish line.
When Rupert gets Georgina finished, all of this will begin anew.
No I wasn't on the water, with Bill taking the wise course to let his body rest, but the sailing was done and dusted (as can be imagined) with The First Jindarra taking the biscuits.
The lead was a whopping 22 minutes and some odd seconds on a course three with a 13 knot day out of the sou east. Wynella was second, followed by Karoleeya 10 minutes later and Aloha did a fine job to finish the race before the start box door was locked as the starters headed for the bar.
There is one more race for the series. All eyes will be on the finish line.
When Rupert gets Georgina finished, all of this will begin anew.
Summer Sailing Wednesday the 10th of March
The return of The First Jindarra &
It aint over 'till its over.
A dodgy nor wester that really was going to push us hard. No more than 12 to 17 knots that dropped away down to 8 to 13 knots. Six boats with John Wright returning and Lockie coming out with a third man. Welcome Keith, you're fitting in well. Of course the interest was going to be in the Jin as this was her first day on the water with the new stick. Wynella had also been re rigged, so they were in a spot where they needed to test the rigging properly as well. Even Karoleeya had the inner stay pin replaced with Ernie looking very hard at the other side and recommending that it be replaced as well.
Starting was going to be a little perilous as the top of the line was favoured and getting on the spot involved some fancy footwork. Mariner rolled The Jin in the process, gaining the top spot, but must have made it by inches cause we got some sly shots at the post race discussions. The race was on in earnest and to add to the fleets woes they had put up a course three instead of the expected course two. So a lot of reaching and we were going to meet up with the RP fleet sooner or later.
Off to King after Sampson with both David Locke and Andrew Bell hot on our tails and first around then had the gruelling trimming race all the way to Robins. It was a case of trim, trim, trim. Finally we made it and shot around the corner with a broad reach beginning on the way to Print. This part was going to be fine, but the cross between Print and Foam was going to be a bugger as we had the RP fleet coming up on starboard. Slam bang crunch..... we ran into the fleet and had to dodge two big boats with the obvious result when Andrew got the inside overlap at Foam and headed off up toward Robins in the lead. Great. Now we have Corella on our tail and John Wright with Anna had recovered from his lack of speed and was sniffing at Corella's heels. Swiftsure Saga and Wynella were busy trading places at the back of the fleet
Around Robins and sort out a pole that was actually working well and we changed it over to a leeward pole prior to the corner at Print and then ran down to Como at great speed. A bit of bad luck for The Jin as one of the pole sheets on The First Jindarra managed to catch on the Como mark and Andrew then had to pull a 360 off. Unfortunately he didn't make his turn in clear water. However the race was in front of us and that great big boat Eun na Mara was sitting on our wind right in front of us. The skipper was restless and was virtually bouncing up and down on the spot urging the helm on the big boat to " Hurry up" and "get a move on." Finally they sorted out their jib and surged away, but the damage was done and we lost at least 30 metres.
The rest of the race was going to be a pair of drag races with a dash to Sampson, back to King and then off to Addison with the skipper willing the boat to go faster. I think if he could have picked it up and run with it, he would have. The next phase was going to be the hardest ask as the boat had to make it to Como in a by the lee situation as we had been holding off our pursuer by going up, changing the angle all the time. Then when we had to come down, the boom had to be held in place. And again at Heathcote where we went up again to keep him off and then aimed at the finish line with a brief kerfuffle with a reluctant headsail that had hung on the forestay.
Finally we were aiming at the line with no other moves to make, but until the fat lady sang, we weren't going to say a word. Then it was over.
Over the line: Mariner, The First Jindarra and Corella.
On handicap: Mariner, Anna and Wynella.
The First Jindarra retired after racing.
If anyone is wondering about Bills new sails... well they still haven't arrived back from the lofts. They went in to be recut as they were too long on the foot. That was a month ago. Not the best way to do business.
The return of The First Jindarra &
It aint over 'till its over.
A dodgy nor wester that really was going to push us hard. No more than 12 to 17 knots that dropped away down to 8 to 13 knots. Six boats with John Wright returning and Lockie coming out with a third man. Welcome Keith, you're fitting in well. Of course the interest was going to be in the Jin as this was her first day on the water with the new stick. Wynella had also been re rigged, so they were in a spot where they needed to test the rigging properly as well. Even Karoleeya had the inner stay pin replaced with Ernie looking very hard at the other side and recommending that it be replaced as well.
Starting was going to be a little perilous as the top of the line was favoured and getting on the spot involved some fancy footwork. Mariner rolled The Jin in the process, gaining the top spot, but must have made it by inches cause we got some sly shots at the post race discussions. The race was on in earnest and to add to the fleets woes they had put up a course three instead of the expected course two. So a lot of reaching and we were going to meet up with the RP fleet sooner or later.
Off to King after Sampson with both David Locke and Andrew Bell hot on our tails and first around then had the gruelling trimming race all the way to Robins. It was a case of trim, trim, trim. Finally we made it and shot around the corner with a broad reach beginning on the way to Print. This part was going to be fine, but the cross between Print and Foam was going to be a bugger as we had the RP fleet coming up on starboard. Slam bang crunch..... we ran into the fleet and had to dodge two big boats with the obvious result when Andrew got the inside overlap at Foam and headed off up toward Robins in the lead. Great. Now we have Corella on our tail and John Wright with Anna had recovered from his lack of speed and was sniffing at Corella's heels. Swiftsure Saga and Wynella were busy trading places at the back of the fleet
Around Robins and sort out a pole that was actually working well and we changed it over to a leeward pole prior to the corner at Print and then ran down to Como at great speed. A bit of bad luck for The Jin as one of the pole sheets on The First Jindarra managed to catch on the Como mark and Andrew then had to pull a 360 off. Unfortunately he didn't make his turn in clear water. However the race was in front of us and that great big boat Eun na Mara was sitting on our wind right in front of us. The skipper was restless and was virtually bouncing up and down on the spot urging the helm on the big boat to " Hurry up" and "get a move on." Finally they sorted out their jib and surged away, but the damage was done and we lost at least 30 metres.
The rest of the race was going to be a pair of drag races with a dash to Sampson, back to King and then off to Addison with the skipper willing the boat to go faster. I think if he could have picked it up and run with it, he would have. The next phase was going to be the hardest ask as the boat had to make it to Como in a by the lee situation as we had been holding off our pursuer by going up, changing the angle all the time. Then when we had to come down, the boom had to be held in place. And again at Heathcote where we went up again to keep him off and then aimed at the finish line with a brief kerfuffle with a reluctant headsail that had hung on the forestay.
Finally we were aiming at the line with no other moves to make, but until the fat lady sang, we weren't going to say a word. Then it was over.
Over the line: Mariner, The First Jindarra and Corella.
On handicap: Mariner, Anna and Wynella.
The First Jindarra retired after racing.
If anyone is wondering about Bills new sails... well they still haven't arrived back from the lofts. They went in to be recut as they were too long on the foot. That was a month ago. Not the best way to do business.
Summer Sailing Wednesday the 3rd of March
Things that could go bang &
Just to prove that a clean bottom always doesn't work.
The skipper happily announced to me that we had won the summer series .. and by one point. Hang on, we've only sailed 7 races so far in this series. I knew that we had come third in the Spring series with Swiftsure Saga taking the series by a whisker from Wynella, but seven races does not make a series. I'll leave it alone as to go any further down that track would lead to confusion.
However it was a welcome return to the water for Bill Richards who was laid low last week. He managed to recover sufficiently well enough to sail today, but he had a battle on his hands even though he had cleaned the hull prior to sailing. The forecast was for thunderstorms, a riotous nor easter of 15 to 20 knots and rain. Welllllll No! A soft northerly that blew all around the place and then fell out in spots... it just depended where you were on the water as to whether you had the breeze or not. And a light winds course four to boot.
Bill cleaned the hull as I'd mentioned and was full of chuff.. he took the lead on the way to Sampson and it looked as though he was going to get away on the way to Robins and indeed he managed to get around the mark leaving both us and Wynella in his wake. Glen by the way, wasn't having the best of days and settled for a decent handicap improver as he fell further back in the field.
On the way across to Dolphin East Bill had the choice of tacking to put his boat on the same tack as us or go further to the north around the on coming Royal Perth Fleet. Not the best of ideas. We stayed in the middle away from the RP fleet and picked up good pressure. Forging ahead, we found a lay line to Dolphin East and headed across to find that Bill had dropped behind us to the tune of 50 to 70 meters. Nice one. So keep the theme going and head off for Como ready to aim for the outer start line.
Around we went and looked back, only to see Wynella ( falling further back) just rounding Como and we realised that Bill was still the one to beat as his handy lower handicap was going to make it very hard to get both first and fastest. Down to Sampson and around we went with Bill close by.. but the chance to get a pole out first had the boat surging ahead and despite the 4 or 5 gybes, we kept our lead in the fluctuating breeze getting around King and aiming the boat toward Print. Some tight reaching took us to the mark and then an open reach down to Thelma allowed us to open up the lead a little. A pole was set , but Bill had a big help from a favourable wind change and took off after us. But in all, too little too late and with a 71 second lead we slipped over the line. Wynella arrived later on, as their search for pressure had been fruitless and it was 1707 hrs before they reached the line and headed for the pens.
Over the line: Mariner, Swiftsure Saga and Wynella.
On handicap: Swiftsure Saga, Mariner and Wynella.
Georgina has had the splining done and if you go to the video section, its up on line. Well done to Lockie, Brian Cross and father and son Jason and Rupert Ledger. At present Rupert is working on the rest of the glassing on the boat and will probably go back into the water on Friday. Wait and see.
Karoleeya is undergoing a shift in management and more will come out in due course. It will be interesting to see how things fall.
Sooner or later the mast will arrive for The First Jindarra and Andrew must be sweating on the fitting as they will have to tune the boat's rigging before racing the championships in 10 days time.
The ABBA meeting with shipwright Ian Weaver as the guest speaker was a great event with a number of H28 owners popping in to listen to him. The session was packed with information and perhaps in future he could split the session into two, to allow more of us a chance to ask questions as there were those who had them but didn't find a chance to get the question in. Next time perhaps.
But I don't think we will be able to have such a great backdrop with the lightning flaring behind him, silhouetting the city.
Things that could go bang &
Just to prove that a clean bottom always doesn't work.
The skipper happily announced to me that we had won the summer series .. and by one point. Hang on, we've only sailed 7 races so far in this series. I knew that we had come third in the Spring series with Swiftsure Saga taking the series by a whisker from Wynella, but seven races does not make a series. I'll leave it alone as to go any further down that track would lead to confusion.
However it was a welcome return to the water for Bill Richards who was laid low last week. He managed to recover sufficiently well enough to sail today, but he had a battle on his hands even though he had cleaned the hull prior to sailing. The forecast was for thunderstorms, a riotous nor easter of 15 to 20 knots and rain. Welllllll No! A soft northerly that blew all around the place and then fell out in spots... it just depended where you were on the water as to whether you had the breeze or not. And a light winds course four to boot.
Bill cleaned the hull as I'd mentioned and was full of chuff.. he took the lead on the way to Sampson and it looked as though he was going to get away on the way to Robins and indeed he managed to get around the mark leaving both us and Wynella in his wake. Glen by the way, wasn't having the best of days and settled for a decent handicap improver as he fell further back in the field.
On the way across to Dolphin East Bill had the choice of tacking to put his boat on the same tack as us or go further to the north around the on coming Royal Perth Fleet. Not the best of ideas. We stayed in the middle away from the RP fleet and picked up good pressure. Forging ahead, we found a lay line to Dolphin East and headed across to find that Bill had dropped behind us to the tune of 50 to 70 meters. Nice one. So keep the theme going and head off for Como ready to aim for the outer start line.
Around we went and looked back, only to see Wynella ( falling further back) just rounding Como and we realised that Bill was still the one to beat as his handy lower handicap was going to make it very hard to get both first and fastest. Down to Sampson and around we went with Bill close by.. but the chance to get a pole out first had the boat surging ahead and despite the 4 or 5 gybes, we kept our lead in the fluctuating breeze getting around King and aiming the boat toward Print. Some tight reaching took us to the mark and then an open reach down to Thelma allowed us to open up the lead a little. A pole was set , but Bill had a big help from a favourable wind change and took off after us. But in all, too little too late and with a 71 second lead we slipped over the line. Wynella arrived later on, as their search for pressure had been fruitless and it was 1707 hrs before they reached the line and headed for the pens.
Over the line: Mariner, Swiftsure Saga and Wynella.
On handicap: Swiftsure Saga, Mariner and Wynella.
Georgina has had the splining done and if you go to the video section, its up on line. Well done to Lockie, Brian Cross and father and son Jason and Rupert Ledger. At present Rupert is working on the rest of the glassing on the boat and will probably go back into the water on Friday. Wait and see.
Karoleeya is undergoing a shift in management and more will come out in due course. It will be interesting to see how things fall.
Sooner or later the mast will arrive for The First Jindarra and Andrew must be sweating on the fitting as they will have to tune the boat's rigging before racing the championships in 10 days time.
The ABBA meeting with shipwright Ian Weaver as the guest speaker was a great event with a number of H28 owners popping in to listen to him. The session was packed with information and perhaps in future he could split the session into two, to allow more of us a chance to ask questions as there were those who had them but didn't find a chance to get the question in. Next time perhaps.
But I don't think we will be able to have such a great backdrop with the lightning flaring behind him, silhouetting the city.
Summer Sailing Wednesdays the 24th of February
Plonky comes out for a ride with Captain Araldite &
Oh, the indignity! Towed home.
Alan Sharpe is a really nice guy, recently retired and a fantastic F15 sailor. WTF is he doing on an H28? Apparently he saw us out on the water last week and bent the skippers ear. With Bob Harrup away on holidays he was more than happy to jump on board Mariner to talk tactics. The over load on the boat was getting over the top so Graham jumped onto Corella for the afternoon and Ron stayed in his beach shack in the south. They gave us a course 3 with 14 to 17 knots on offer, slowly shifting into the sou west and back again.
It was all about the start (again) and the drag race down to Sampson had us neck to neck with Corella with Glen and John close behind. The first mark was the most important and Corella threw everything at us they could to get away, but thanks to a recently cleaned hull we kept up. And kept up and kept up. Despite the best efforts of the crew on Corella it was going to be our nose inside their transom at the mark and around we went dropping bad air on them from the get go. Anna and Wynella both made their minds up and tacked away early as we held on and then aimed at the mark, working hard to be able to hold David Locke off.
After King, then to Robins with a dip into the bay and up the line we went to Robins with Lockie and the entire Royal Perth fleet on our tails. We were doing well until we made the top and rotated around it only to find that Phil had a knot in his main sheet and couldn't let off the main fast enough. Nearly ran into a large RP boat who was roaring up the river next to the mark. But we made it and happily we set our pole for the run to Print and then back to Robins via Foam. A slight hiccup with the pole, but no time lost thanks goodness and our lead was still secure. Keeping out of the depths of the bay we found a good starboard lay into the mark and then tack and bear away with a pole going up almost immediately. Fast.. !
However Lockie was starting to be troubled by John Wright who is also known for not giving up. Once he had the boys on the boat flowing, it was an interesting thing to watch and as Lockie fell back a little (or we surged) Anna would get closer. Making Print we set up for Como and with the recent problem with the mark going for a wander, they had put a blue marker flag out to advise us of its current and proper location. Around we went, aiming at the outer startline and my time was taken up twitching the headsail to ensure that the boat was fast.
A good gybe and then the chase was on for Anna and Corella with Anna beginning to push forward again. Poor Lockie, he was hoping for a win on the day. But Glen and Wynella weren't worried they had managed to get their handicap down to a reasonable level. A win for them was on the cards. Well away by the time we were aiming for Addison and the boat kept surging forward with the urging of Plonky to Brian to keep your eyes stuck to the headsail ribbons like araldite. Even more so as when we flipped around Addison and headed off to the finish line via Como to starboard. The line was going to be ours but the interest was between John and David. Lockie made the line 2 seconds in front of John Wright but lost out thanks to his superior handicap.
Unfortunately Glen and the boys were a little late coming in.. One of the oil lines broke on his normally reliable diesel. Lockie was kind enough to go out and bring him back in. Fortunately he had crossed the line.
Over the line: Mariner, Corella and Anna
On handicap: Wynella, Anna and Mariner.
On shore:
Georgina is coming up onto the hardstand to be splined this weekend and everyone is welcome. Rupert needs to clean the paint off the hull before the splining can begin.
Andy Bell may have his mast on shortly, but its still in the mystery zone. Rumour has it that the stick cost 17,000 and transport was another 3,000.
And Casilda is up for sale. The boat is down around Geographe Bay and there are those who were talking about buying her and bringing her up to the river to get the mast off her. It was 6 years since I have seen her
Tehana is up for sale and is under offer. (I have heard the rumours as to the new owner but until it happens)
Plonky comes out for a ride with Captain Araldite &
Oh, the indignity! Towed home.
Alan Sharpe is a really nice guy, recently retired and a fantastic F15 sailor. WTF is he doing on an H28? Apparently he saw us out on the water last week and bent the skippers ear. With Bob Harrup away on holidays he was more than happy to jump on board Mariner to talk tactics. The over load on the boat was getting over the top so Graham jumped onto Corella for the afternoon and Ron stayed in his beach shack in the south. They gave us a course 3 with 14 to 17 knots on offer, slowly shifting into the sou west and back again.
It was all about the start (again) and the drag race down to Sampson had us neck to neck with Corella with Glen and John close behind. The first mark was the most important and Corella threw everything at us they could to get away, but thanks to a recently cleaned hull we kept up. And kept up and kept up. Despite the best efforts of the crew on Corella it was going to be our nose inside their transom at the mark and around we went dropping bad air on them from the get go. Anna and Wynella both made their minds up and tacked away early as we held on and then aimed at the mark, working hard to be able to hold David Locke off.
After King, then to Robins with a dip into the bay and up the line we went to Robins with Lockie and the entire Royal Perth fleet on our tails. We were doing well until we made the top and rotated around it only to find that Phil had a knot in his main sheet and couldn't let off the main fast enough. Nearly ran into a large RP boat who was roaring up the river next to the mark. But we made it and happily we set our pole for the run to Print and then back to Robins via Foam. A slight hiccup with the pole, but no time lost thanks goodness and our lead was still secure. Keeping out of the depths of the bay we found a good starboard lay into the mark and then tack and bear away with a pole going up almost immediately. Fast.. !
However Lockie was starting to be troubled by John Wright who is also known for not giving up. Once he had the boys on the boat flowing, it was an interesting thing to watch and as Lockie fell back a little (or we surged) Anna would get closer. Making Print we set up for Como and with the recent problem with the mark going for a wander, they had put a blue marker flag out to advise us of its current and proper location. Around we went, aiming at the outer startline and my time was taken up twitching the headsail to ensure that the boat was fast.
A good gybe and then the chase was on for Anna and Corella with Anna beginning to push forward again. Poor Lockie, he was hoping for a win on the day. But Glen and Wynella weren't worried they had managed to get their handicap down to a reasonable level. A win for them was on the cards. Well away by the time we were aiming for Addison and the boat kept surging forward with the urging of Plonky to Brian to keep your eyes stuck to the headsail ribbons like araldite. Even more so as when we flipped around Addison and headed off to the finish line via Como to starboard. The line was going to be ours but the interest was between John and David. Lockie made the line 2 seconds in front of John Wright but lost out thanks to his superior handicap.
Unfortunately Glen and the boys were a little late coming in.. One of the oil lines broke on his normally reliable diesel. Lockie was kind enough to go out and bring him back in. Fortunately he had crossed the line.
Over the line: Mariner, Corella and Anna
On handicap: Wynella, Anna and Mariner.
On shore:
Georgina is coming up onto the hardstand to be splined this weekend and everyone is welcome. Rupert needs to clean the paint off the hull before the splining can begin.
Andy Bell may have his mast on shortly, but its still in the mystery zone. Rumour has it that the stick cost 17,000 and transport was another 3,000.
And Casilda is up for sale. The boat is down around Geographe Bay and there are those who were talking about buying her and bringing her up to the river to get the mast off her. It was 6 years since I have seen her
Tehana is up for sale and is under offer. (I have heard the rumours as to the new owner but until it happens)
Summer Saturday Sailing the 20th of February
The skipper was sick &
Two boats.
Very little for me to report this week as I wasn't on the water. John P rang on Saturday morning and gave me the news that Bill was not going to be able to sail and he held doubts about Wednesday as well. That left Wynella and Aloha to take up cudgels and as Karoleeya wasn't able to get a crew together (they all had something else on) Wynella and Aloha battled it out between themselves in a course one and about 12 to 17 knots out of the SW.
It must have been an exciting race as Wynella crossed the line 50 seconds in front of Aloha and that's not much to talk about over 2 hrs and 45 minutes of racing. However Aloha took the win with a nod to her lesser handicap and Wynella a second on handicap and a nice reduction in her handicap as well.
Till Wednesday.
The skipper was sick &
Two boats.
Very little for me to report this week as I wasn't on the water. John P rang on Saturday morning and gave me the news that Bill was not going to be able to sail and he held doubts about Wednesday as well. That left Wynella and Aloha to take up cudgels and as Karoleeya wasn't able to get a crew together (they all had something else on) Wynella and Aloha battled it out between themselves in a course one and about 12 to 17 knots out of the SW.
It must have been an exciting race as Wynella crossed the line 50 seconds in front of Aloha and that's not much to talk about over 2 hrs and 45 minutes of racing. However Aloha took the win with a nod to her lesser handicap and Wynella a second on handicap and a nice reduction in her handicap as well.
Till Wednesday.
Summer Wednesday Sailing the 17th of February
You cant keep a good man down &
First boat around Sampson will win the race
That second title just about summed up the race. We were presented with a course one on a day where there was a lot more west in it than they and the BoM site were prepared to admit. Regularly sailing down the middle of the river instead of bouncing in and out of the bay it was clear we had a strong westerly and the point of order was that we could hold a port pole all the way to Print from Deepwater.
Oh well. Half a dozen boats headed out onto the water to be presented with a course one with a west sou wester on the compass, about 10 to 15 knots and a northerly start . Lockie (Corella) got away early and despite every attempt, we just couldn't catch him. We were a little quicker upwind, but downwind he was getting away from us. His main stroke of genius for the day was taking Barby out for a sail and as a lucky charm she worked beautifully.
Up the middle of the river with John Wright and Anna hanging on to our tail and despite our best efforts, he was still there at Deepwater though Wynella was having a handicap adjustment day and fought it out with Bill on Swiftsure Saga for fourth and fifth place. The Minto family had Aloha out for the day and dutifully followed everyone, having mucked up the start and crossed the startline in 6th spot. Away from Deepwater to Print with the aforesaid port pole (a little edgy but it worked) and then back up to Robins ready for a pleasant reach across to Dolphin East where we practiced our gybe and pole set on the way to Como. It seemed to work, but we just weren't catching up with Corella one bit.
Straight down to the outer startline with the predictable knock at Heathcote Dolphin and then lean into the mark rolling around the outer startline on our way back to Sampson and the small triangle. By this time the big boats were coming through and we managed to get a bit of the action from them and they were flying spinnakers … ummmm Wednesday is J&M as far as I knew.
Around the small triangle of King, Print, Como and Thelma with a SS27 hard on John Wrights transom, but as every H28 sailor knows, "You can't keep a good man down," and John managed to keep Anna between the SS27 and the finish line. Well sailed and aptly rewarded with a handicap win.
Over the line. Corella, Mariner and Anna.
On handicap. Anna, Corella and Mariner.
To Georgina: Rupert has the cabin on the boat.
Perhaps a little rough around the edges, but it will now take a bit of time to trim to fit and then fill the rough edges and gaps before she is glassed. He still has to fit the new chain plates, but there is a bulkhead or two to come, inside the boat which will tighten up the hull considerably.
You cant keep a good man down &
First boat around Sampson will win the race
That second title just about summed up the race. We were presented with a course one on a day where there was a lot more west in it than they and the BoM site were prepared to admit. Regularly sailing down the middle of the river instead of bouncing in and out of the bay it was clear we had a strong westerly and the point of order was that we could hold a port pole all the way to Print from Deepwater.
Oh well. Half a dozen boats headed out onto the water to be presented with a course one with a west sou wester on the compass, about 10 to 15 knots and a northerly start . Lockie (Corella) got away early and despite every attempt, we just couldn't catch him. We were a little quicker upwind, but downwind he was getting away from us. His main stroke of genius for the day was taking Barby out for a sail and as a lucky charm she worked beautifully.
Up the middle of the river with John Wright and Anna hanging on to our tail and despite our best efforts, he was still there at Deepwater though Wynella was having a handicap adjustment day and fought it out with Bill on Swiftsure Saga for fourth and fifth place. The Minto family had Aloha out for the day and dutifully followed everyone, having mucked up the start and crossed the startline in 6th spot. Away from Deepwater to Print with the aforesaid port pole (a little edgy but it worked) and then back up to Robins ready for a pleasant reach across to Dolphin East where we practiced our gybe and pole set on the way to Como. It seemed to work, but we just weren't catching up with Corella one bit.
Straight down to the outer startline with the predictable knock at Heathcote Dolphin and then lean into the mark rolling around the outer startline on our way back to Sampson and the small triangle. By this time the big boats were coming through and we managed to get a bit of the action from them and they were flying spinnakers … ummmm Wednesday is J&M as far as I knew.
Around the small triangle of King, Print, Como and Thelma with a SS27 hard on John Wrights transom, but as every H28 sailor knows, "You can't keep a good man down," and John managed to keep Anna between the SS27 and the finish line. Well sailed and aptly rewarded with a handicap win.
Over the line. Corella, Mariner and Anna.
On handicap. Anna, Corella and Mariner.
To Georgina: Rupert has the cabin on the boat.
Perhaps a little rough around the edges, but it will now take a bit of time to trim to fit and then fill the rough edges and gaps before she is glassed. He still has to fit the new chain plates, but there is a bulkhead or two to come, inside the boat which will tighten up the hull considerably.
Summer Covid Sailing Saturday the 13th of February
Aloha sailed a blinder on the 1st leg &
Sailing on borrowed time.
Make no mistake about it, Drew Minto the younger, sailed all over us today and made a very strong point of his ability. The boat is performing well and if he had chosen to throw up a kite, he could very well have taken the race with a first and fastest. But the technical side of sailing needs be addressed and that includes knowing where your marks are, it cost him the lead and the chance of a better showing to the rest of the fleet.
Four H28's on the water and perhaps 38 boats on the water overall. Very little action from the other clubs, though we did see the start boat from Perth Dinghy SC out there. The starters very kindly gave us a course 4 and it was enjoyed by all as it gave us something different from the usual course one. ( Brickies A and B )
A sou wester that built and was full of holes and swept (IMHO) into the west periodically, giving some of us unexpected gains with speeds from 15 to 19 knots at the best. Getting off the line wasn't a problem and we managed to get below Karoleeya and Wynella, taking them up a little and that gave young Drew his first chance to get away. We caught him around the channel and he was forced to tack behind us, but got onto a lift (remember that wandering sou wester) and took off. Swiftsure Saga still had enough in reserve to get in front of him on the next set of tacks, but on the next run up the wind he had the speed and pointing ability to rise above us and began to create merry hell as he was pointing at the mark and drowning us in bad air. We put up with it as best we could as Wynella was behind us and Karoleeya had followed his philosophy of going down the middle and was well away from us.
Rounding second at Deepwater, we noticed that Aloha was heading off to Bartlett... "No" said Bill "that's not right" and a hurried check of the map and where we were in relationship to it. Slowly we edged away down to where we thought it was and we noted that Wynella had adopted our line as well. Catch up time and the pair of us hurried along while Aloha decided belatedly to come down. It was a line ball run as we had to break their overlap at the mark but a quick flick of the tiller had us clear in front and running to Hallmark with Armstrong as our next turning mark. Now Aloha had Wynella to deal with and we left them to battle it out. We made Armstrong, turned the mark and set a starboard pole to get us on our way. Looking back, Aloha poled out their jib while Wynella went to put up the big red spinnaker that they have borrowed from Bill with the promise to pay him for it. Karoleeya made around shortly after and popped up their kite as well.
Not to be trifled with, Aloha decided to take Wynella up and a couple of moments of mirth from the lead boat as we watched Wynella avoiding Aloha. But our first corner was Print and making the mark, we shot off into the bay trying to get ourselves a good line up the breeze to Applecross Spit and then Deepwater. Of course we didn't do it one, but it was fascinating watching as the two boats behind us had swapped position and Wynella was trying hard to catch us. The breeze was freshening by now and as most people know, Swiftsure enjoys the pressure. However our handicap was going to be against us no matter what and Glen was doing well enough, keeping about a minutes separation between us that lengthened on the up wind and shrank on the downwind, as we hadn't bothered with a spinnaker.
The next pair of laps had us go to Dolphin East from Deepwater then to Addison and the breeze had gone far enough into the south for us to carry the pole all the way without gybing. Easy enough. The first time down, we were treated to Wynella with the speed wobbles as the kite had the boat rolling backwards and forwards. The second round had us meet up with a pair of yachts that were worth photographing on the way through and a rare snap of Karoleeya heading up wind with Farrago under kite on the way down the hill. One last look at Wynella with the borrowed red spinnaker pulling her along and then the very tight reach from Addison down to Thelma and then the tack out for the line where we watched Glen on Wynella take a glorious lift up to the mark, shortening his time over the line to just about a minute behind.
Over the line: Swiftsure Saga, Wynella and Aloha.
On handicap: Aloha, Karoleeya and Wynella.
The photo of the keel is that of Suzanna having been primed with rust converter. By Monday she will be back in the water and following suggestions from the various visitors who have called through, she may hang on the boat lifters straps overnight to let her take up enough to prevent her from going straight to the bottom.
Aloha sailed a blinder on the 1st leg &
Sailing on borrowed time.
Make no mistake about it, Drew Minto the younger, sailed all over us today and made a very strong point of his ability. The boat is performing well and if he had chosen to throw up a kite, he could very well have taken the race with a first and fastest. But the technical side of sailing needs be addressed and that includes knowing where your marks are, it cost him the lead and the chance of a better showing to the rest of the fleet.
Four H28's on the water and perhaps 38 boats on the water overall. Very little action from the other clubs, though we did see the start boat from Perth Dinghy SC out there. The starters very kindly gave us a course 4 and it was enjoyed by all as it gave us something different from the usual course one. ( Brickies A and B )
A sou wester that built and was full of holes and swept (IMHO) into the west periodically, giving some of us unexpected gains with speeds from 15 to 19 knots at the best. Getting off the line wasn't a problem and we managed to get below Karoleeya and Wynella, taking them up a little and that gave young Drew his first chance to get away. We caught him around the channel and he was forced to tack behind us, but got onto a lift (remember that wandering sou wester) and took off. Swiftsure Saga still had enough in reserve to get in front of him on the next set of tacks, but on the next run up the wind he had the speed and pointing ability to rise above us and began to create merry hell as he was pointing at the mark and drowning us in bad air. We put up with it as best we could as Wynella was behind us and Karoleeya had followed his philosophy of going down the middle and was well away from us.
Rounding second at Deepwater, we noticed that Aloha was heading off to Bartlett... "No" said Bill "that's not right" and a hurried check of the map and where we were in relationship to it. Slowly we edged away down to where we thought it was and we noted that Wynella had adopted our line as well. Catch up time and the pair of us hurried along while Aloha decided belatedly to come down. It was a line ball run as we had to break their overlap at the mark but a quick flick of the tiller had us clear in front and running to Hallmark with Armstrong as our next turning mark. Now Aloha had Wynella to deal with and we left them to battle it out. We made Armstrong, turned the mark and set a starboard pole to get us on our way. Looking back, Aloha poled out their jib while Wynella went to put up the big red spinnaker that they have borrowed from Bill with the promise to pay him for it. Karoleeya made around shortly after and popped up their kite as well.
Not to be trifled with, Aloha decided to take Wynella up and a couple of moments of mirth from the lead boat as we watched Wynella avoiding Aloha. But our first corner was Print and making the mark, we shot off into the bay trying to get ourselves a good line up the breeze to Applecross Spit and then Deepwater. Of course we didn't do it one, but it was fascinating watching as the two boats behind us had swapped position and Wynella was trying hard to catch us. The breeze was freshening by now and as most people know, Swiftsure enjoys the pressure. However our handicap was going to be against us no matter what and Glen was doing well enough, keeping about a minutes separation between us that lengthened on the up wind and shrank on the downwind, as we hadn't bothered with a spinnaker.
The next pair of laps had us go to Dolphin East from Deepwater then to Addison and the breeze had gone far enough into the south for us to carry the pole all the way without gybing. Easy enough. The first time down, we were treated to Wynella with the speed wobbles as the kite had the boat rolling backwards and forwards. The second round had us meet up with a pair of yachts that were worth photographing on the way through and a rare snap of Karoleeya heading up wind with Farrago under kite on the way down the hill. One last look at Wynella with the borrowed red spinnaker pulling her along and then the very tight reach from Addison down to Thelma and then the tack out for the line where we watched Glen on Wynella take a glorious lift up to the mark, shortening his time over the line to just about a minute behind.
Over the line: Swiftsure Saga, Wynella and Aloha.
On handicap: Aloha, Karoleeya and Wynella.
The photo of the keel is that of Suzanna having been primed with rust converter. By Monday she will be back in the water and following suggestions from the various visitors who have called through, she may hang on the boat lifters straps overnight to let her take up enough to prevent her from going straight to the bottom.
Summer Covid Sailing Wednesday the 10th of February
A thousand Ifs & A new logo for the H28's
Ernie turned 80.
Ok, lets get the easy things out of the way and then deal with the sailing. To begin with we lost the fifth championship race to the Covid lock down and Glen was particularly regretting it as it would have been the chance he needed to pull ahead in the championships and get ahead of the current champ.
Rupert covered up Georgina and left her safe and dry while the tropical low came and went, with all our gardens getting a big soak. Much needed. He's experiencing a bit of a problem with the temperature being a bit cool for the glues to go off and the cabin is taking longer than he thought.
Suzanna is up on the hard and from what I've been able to see is in excellent shape considering where she has been. Mind you there are a number of things that will need attention to, but Robin is across most of these and will spend the time now rather than have to haul the boat out of the water again. But he has a problem that's not unique. His main halyard has disappeared up the mast and its going to be a case of dropping the mast or going up on the spinnaker halyard in a bosuns chair.
And finally Te Hana; formerly owned by Roghan Anderson over at Freshy is being looked at by one the Fitzhardinge tribe (the family that owned Nova, before the Weavers bought her). But he freely admits that he will need permission from the family treasurer and a leave pass to go with it. Good luck Tim.
18 to 25 knots on a Southerly with a course three on offer, the flags were hung out for a Martin - Weaver dash and PFD's for all. Mariner has the new H28 logo on her main. Tell us what you think.
If that wretched SS22 Eutopia doesn't get out of the way while we are in the start process, he will become the next victim. Silly fellow. Half the fleet were up behind the line circling in the pond ready to dive down and the rest were aiming trying to be quick to the line. We were waved through a tight patch by Bill between Swiftsure Saga and the box mark. If he hadn't, well we may not have done so well. If David Locke had taken Bill up, well neither of us would have made the start on the first try.
Playing the breeze all the way up to Martin, it was only a lucky gust that took us up above the mark and if that hadn't come along we would have been buried well and truly. The run to Sampson was similar and if the breeze hadn't kicked in after we crossed the start line, well we might have been nailed before the next mark. If, if, if...…..
Across to King with a bit of care in choosing when to go. Had (If) we covered Lockie immediately we may have dropped as badly as he did but no, we made it across and found ourselves still in the lead at King and looking at a chance to get to Robins first, after we had dipped back into Frenchies to come out again on the lifts in the bay. Hard on the bloke on the main, but it works. Phil was working the main and with a bit of luck, lifted us all the way to the mark and the last gust took us around it nicely. If we had had to tack Lockie would have got us.
Down to Print, sailing almost by the lee at times and then across to Foam before we burrowed into the bay again, this time we went a bit further and made the mark with a bit of work, but our problem came from the fact that we were burying the rail and slowing the boat every time. Lockie had gone wide and came down on us like a tonne of bricks and only a bit of luck and a good tack got us away, but not for long as he was on our port rear quarter and looking to speed up at Print again as this time we were on our way to Como and a dash to the outer startline. If we had made one mistake he would have had us for dinner.
All this way, we had Swiftsure Saga and Wynella not far away, ready to pounce if an over wind or a bad tack was made. No room for error. And to cap that off, we had Aloha sailing well enough to give Wynella a hard time.
Around the outer startline and off to Sampson once again with a good rounding and again the decision to run a pole was down to a yes, no, maybe; nah as we slipped into the southerly again. Off to King with the beam sea rolling the boats heavily going to the mark and neither of us getting the best of the crossing. We both tacked and I thought we were ok, but Corella came back on a good starboard and our only hope was to lee bow him. If we'd made it, well and good. But we didn't and Lockie just took off. So stare at Corella's transom for the rest of the race down to Addison, back past Como and then to the finish line. The rest of the fleet weren't too far behind.
Over the line: Corella, Mariner and Swiftsure Saga.
On handicap: Mariner, Corella and Swiftsure Saga.
At the end of the day, a quick beer on the hill and then inside to have a beer with Ernie Little in the chair for his 80th birthday. A few beers and couple of platters of goodies which probably ruined our dinners, but were very much appreciated. Happy birthday Ernie.
A thousand Ifs & A new logo for the H28's
Ernie turned 80.
Ok, lets get the easy things out of the way and then deal with the sailing. To begin with we lost the fifth championship race to the Covid lock down and Glen was particularly regretting it as it would have been the chance he needed to pull ahead in the championships and get ahead of the current champ.
Rupert covered up Georgina and left her safe and dry while the tropical low came and went, with all our gardens getting a big soak. Much needed. He's experiencing a bit of a problem with the temperature being a bit cool for the glues to go off and the cabin is taking longer than he thought.
Suzanna is up on the hard and from what I've been able to see is in excellent shape considering where she has been. Mind you there are a number of things that will need attention to, but Robin is across most of these and will spend the time now rather than have to haul the boat out of the water again. But he has a problem that's not unique. His main halyard has disappeared up the mast and its going to be a case of dropping the mast or going up on the spinnaker halyard in a bosuns chair.
And finally Te Hana; formerly owned by Roghan Anderson over at Freshy is being looked at by one the Fitzhardinge tribe (the family that owned Nova, before the Weavers bought her). But he freely admits that he will need permission from the family treasurer and a leave pass to go with it. Good luck Tim.
18 to 25 knots on a Southerly with a course three on offer, the flags were hung out for a Martin - Weaver dash and PFD's for all. Mariner has the new H28 logo on her main. Tell us what you think.
If that wretched SS22 Eutopia doesn't get out of the way while we are in the start process, he will become the next victim. Silly fellow. Half the fleet were up behind the line circling in the pond ready to dive down and the rest were aiming trying to be quick to the line. We were waved through a tight patch by Bill between Swiftsure Saga and the box mark. If he hadn't, well we may not have done so well. If David Locke had taken Bill up, well neither of us would have made the start on the first try.
Playing the breeze all the way up to Martin, it was only a lucky gust that took us up above the mark and if that hadn't come along we would have been buried well and truly. The run to Sampson was similar and if the breeze hadn't kicked in after we crossed the start line, well we might have been nailed before the next mark. If, if, if...…..
Across to King with a bit of care in choosing when to go. Had (If) we covered Lockie immediately we may have dropped as badly as he did but no, we made it across and found ourselves still in the lead at King and looking at a chance to get to Robins first, after we had dipped back into Frenchies to come out again on the lifts in the bay. Hard on the bloke on the main, but it works. Phil was working the main and with a bit of luck, lifted us all the way to the mark and the last gust took us around it nicely. If we had had to tack Lockie would have got us.
Down to Print, sailing almost by the lee at times and then across to Foam before we burrowed into the bay again, this time we went a bit further and made the mark with a bit of work, but our problem came from the fact that we were burying the rail and slowing the boat every time. Lockie had gone wide and came down on us like a tonne of bricks and only a bit of luck and a good tack got us away, but not for long as he was on our port rear quarter and looking to speed up at Print again as this time we were on our way to Como and a dash to the outer startline. If we had made one mistake he would have had us for dinner.
All this way, we had Swiftsure Saga and Wynella not far away, ready to pounce if an over wind or a bad tack was made. No room for error. And to cap that off, we had Aloha sailing well enough to give Wynella a hard time.
Around the outer startline and off to Sampson once again with a good rounding and again the decision to run a pole was down to a yes, no, maybe; nah as we slipped into the southerly again. Off to King with the beam sea rolling the boats heavily going to the mark and neither of us getting the best of the crossing. We both tacked and I thought we were ok, but Corella came back on a good starboard and our only hope was to lee bow him. If we'd made it, well and good. But we didn't and Lockie just took off. So stare at Corella's transom for the rest of the race down to Addison, back past Como and then to the finish line. The rest of the fleet weren't too far behind.
Over the line: Corella, Mariner and Swiftsure Saga.
On handicap: Mariner, Corella and Swiftsure Saga.
At the end of the day, a quick beer on the hill and then inside to have a beer with Ernie Little in the chair for his 80th birthday. A few beers and couple of platters of goodies which probably ruined our dinners, but were very much appreciated. Happy birthday Ernie.
Summer Sailing Saturdays the 30th of January.
It wasn't Rita's fault,
The breeze that came and went & Suzanna is coming to SoPYC.
The start of the day had us all looking around, presuming that we were going to be in strife on the easterly but we had four on board with young Rupert from Georgina coming out for a ride.. Not a problem, but all of a sudden he wanted to throw up a spinnaker didn't he. More later. A sou easter that dropped off and came back, swung abruptly and ran in fronts down the river. Either you were in it or you weren't. The over all effect was fair sailing but you had to be prepared to change your mind almost as quickly as the breeze changed.
Aloha, Corella, Wynella, Swiftsure Saga and Karoleeya all came out and 4 of the 5 flew kites. Not a bad day for the fleet. The start was fine and as you expect Bill had SSS going well and managed to get off the line well with Lockie on our tail. He chose to tack off to the east and picked up a fine lift while we held on for a little longer much to our loss as Dave Locke did a fine job on the freshening breeze , making it to the turning buoy before us and we had Wynella on our tail as well as the other pair of Karoleeya and Aloha not far away.
Away we went to Bartlett, the well known and mysterious mark somewhat south of Perth Flying Squadron. Up we went, close on Corella's tail but under a poled headsail only, All bar Aloha and ourselves had spinnakers up and Rupert was clear that he wanted to get a kite up so in due course John and I rigged the boat for the kite finishing about the time we made it to the area around Bartlett. Around they went and we followed them asap, secure that in the next run down the breeze we were going to hang on. Off down to Dolphin East. So a long set of works on a fairly good breeze out of the east and Rupert had the helm.. all the way to Dolphin East and then away to Thelma. Rupert clearly was enjoying the run as he had the boat going well and our biggest problem was finding somewhere for Bill to be. Lockie on the other hand had gone low and we were slipping into a good spot to be. Up wind of him and sailing quickly. Further behind us Aloha was moving quietly along, but Karoleeya had decided to go walk about having forgotten about Dolphin East and they had to rewind their course. Oh dear me.
But both Corella and Wynella had gone into the north and began to come out on a cracker and we were very relieved to cross Wynella and stick close to Corellas transom. Around Thelma we went and Rupert was summarily relieved of the helm and sent forward to get the kite up. Behind us another spinnaker popped up, yes, that's Wynella but a bit further back. Good one.. that keeps us on Corella's tail for the run down to Deepwater and then across to Bartlett. Now there has always been the problem.. which mark is the one we want. 39B or 39? Well it wasn't Rita's fault as she was up on the foredeck pulling down the spinnaker and the other two on the boat clearly thought that 39B was good enough.
We made our way to 39 ( Bartlett ) and then hailed Corella reminding them of the mark they needed to go around. The lead was ours, if we could keep it, knowing that they don't give up. Getting to Addison we still had the lead and the kite run to Dolphin East was fine. But the return trip to Addison and away to Thelma.. Lockie got above us and ran down the line to Addison very well and took a lead. He wasn't challenged after that as we had to let a Cole 32 through, enough; we were behind. So we wished him well and settled into making the finish as good as we could time wise..
Over the line: Corella, Swiftsure Saga and Wynella.
On handicap: Swiftsure Saga, Wynella and Karoleeya.
Another couple of photos of Georgina with the deck on and the new repairs to The First Jindarra. Looks tidy and a lick of paint certainly makes her a lot smarter. So Andrew's waiting for a mast now and it should be on in a week or two.
Finally. I sent a message out to the general group about Suzanna. She is coming down to the club to go up on the hard stand for a while as her new owner Robin Wilkinson, a sailor out of RP, is going to assess her condition. While she's there, Robin would value any information that we can offer about her history and of course from the knowledgeable amongst us, he would appreciate any advice that may be made toward her general improvement.
She comes up on Tuesday if the current lockdown situation allows and please remember we have the Covid lockdown this week, so restrain yourselves till next week. She'll be up for a while apparently.
It wasn't Rita's fault,
The breeze that came and went & Suzanna is coming to SoPYC.
The start of the day had us all looking around, presuming that we were going to be in strife on the easterly but we had four on board with young Rupert from Georgina coming out for a ride.. Not a problem, but all of a sudden he wanted to throw up a spinnaker didn't he. More later. A sou easter that dropped off and came back, swung abruptly and ran in fronts down the river. Either you were in it or you weren't. The over all effect was fair sailing but you had to be prepared to change your mind almost as quickly as the breeze changed.
Aloha, Corella, Wynella, Swiftsure Saga and Karoleeya all came out and 4 of the 5 flew kites. Not a bad day for the fleet. The start was fine and as you expect Bill had SSS going well and managed to get off the line well with Lockie on our tail. He chose to tack off to the east and picked up a fine lift while we held on for a little longer much to our loss as Dave Locke did a fine job on the freshening breeze , making it to the turning buoy before us and we had Wynella on our tail as well as the other pair of Karoleeya and Aloha not far away.
Away we went to Bartlett, the well known and mysterious mark somewhat south of Perth Flying Squadron. Up we went, close on Corella's tail but under a poled headsail only, All bar Aloha and ourselves had spinnakers up and Rupert was clear that he wanted to get a kite up so in due course John and I rigged the boat for the kite finishing about the time we made it to the area around Bartlett. Around they went and we followed them asap, secure that in the next run down the breeze we were going to hang on. Off down to Dolphin East. So a long set of works on a fairly good breeze out of the east and Rupert had the helm.. all the way to Dolphin East and then away to Thelma. Rupert clearly was enjoying the run as he had the boat going well and our biggest problem was finding somewhere for Bill to be. Lockie on the other hand had gone low and we were slipping into a good spot to be. Up wind of him and sailing quickly. Further behind us Aloha was moving quietly along, but Karoleeya had decided to go walk about having forgotten about Dolphin East and they had to rewind their course. Oh dear me.
But both Corella and Wynella had gone into the north and began to come out on a cracker and we were very relieved to cross Wynella and stick close to Corellas transom. Around Thelma we went and Rupert was summarily relieved of the helm and sent forward to get the kite up. Behind us another spinnaker popped up, yes, that's Wynella but a bit further back. Good one.. that keeps us on Corella's tail for the run down to Deepwater and then across to Bartlett. Now there has always been the problem.. which mark is the one we want. 39B or 39? Well it wasn't Rita's fault as she was up on the foredeck pulling down the spinnaker and the other two on the boat clearly thought that 39B was good enough.
We made our way to 39 ( Bartlett ) and then hailed Corella reminding them of the mark they needed to go around. The lead was ours, if we could keep it, knowing that they don't give up. Getting to Addison we still had the lead and the kite run to Dolphin East was fine. But the return trip to Addison and away to Thelma.. Lockie got above us and ran down the line to Addison very well and took a lead. He wasn't challenged after that as we had to let a Cole 32 through, enough; we were behind. So we wished him well and settled into making the finish as good as we could time wise..
Over the line: Corella, Swiftsure Saga and Wynella.
On handicap: Swiftsure Saga, Wynella and Karoleeya.
Another couple of photos of Georgina with the deck on and the new repairs to The First Jindarra. Looks tidy and a lick of paint certainly makes her a lot smarter. So Andrew's waiting for a mast now and it should be on in a week or two.
Finally. I sent a message out to the general group about Suzanna. She is coming down to the club to go up on the hard stand for a while as her new owner Robin Wilkinson, a sailor out of RP, is going to assess her condition. While she's there, Robin would value any information that we can offer about her history and of course from the knowledgeable amongst us, he would appreciate any advice that may be made toward her general improvement.
She comes up on Tuesday if the current lockdown situation allows and please remember we have the Covid lockdown this week, so restrain yourselves till next week. She'll be up for a while apparently.
Summer Sailing Wednesday The 27th of January.
A challenging day &
Forgetting where King is can cost you heaps.
Challenging. Not bloody likely; Terrifying - yes.
A sou'wester that had all the hallmarks and the number two strapped onto the boat. Course one on offer and the skipper gave one of the crew away to another boat 'cause he thought the three of us could cope. I surely would have liked to be sailing four up today as when you are bouncing around on the boat you can get hurt. Ask Steve who had a couple of near falls on the day. Just because he was trying to be Eddie everywhere.
So away to Martin-Weaver and make it, but behind Swiftsure Saga and Corella with Anna and Wynella close on our tails. Hard work on the main with the boat and the need to put a pole up on a windy day was really a case of do we want it? Around Sampson and off to Deepwater with the added prospect of crossing the second division of the Royal Perth fleet. (Who incidentally have sent a letter mentioning the H28's at Foam. What about and why remains unknown)
Then battle the heavy chop all the way up into the middle of the river. It was heaving and the boat was punching through the waves with spray everywhere. When to go was the question and we eventually tossed to take the fleet across to the bay, leaving the RP fleet behind us. Our skipper decided to toss early out of Waylen Bay and rued the day as Anna went all the way in and came down the bay at a rate of knots, rolling us as we watched and wept.
Around Deepwater and point at Print with a pole up and noted that the order of the day had changed. We were sitting behind Anna with the rest of the field strung out behind us. And so it would be for a while. Then behind Swiftsure Saga the shape of a hull with out a stick.. an H28.. was Aloha out, or had one of us lost a rig? No it was Andy Bell coming back from Fremantle with The First Jindarra repaired. Straight down the river with no problems and the diesel now repaired, thumping away. So we left him to his business and the mast will be back in a couple of weeks.
Around Print and across to Waylen Bay where the skipper lined up on Anna and we chased them all the way up to Robins rounding the mark for a rollicking ride to Dolphin East with speeds of 9 knots were noted across the swell and the gybe at the end was going to be a horror. We made it … and probably blew a slug on the main in the process. However the run to Como was just as compelling with big waves and a bit of pumping on the waves to get the boat sliding down the face and faster for it. By the way pumping the main on an H28 is easier than you think. Just go with the flow.
Around Como and down to the outer startline with the pucker factor right up there as we were racing through a beam sea and almost hard on, just enough pressure to make it hard to hang on to the main and letting it off occasionally as we needed to. Around the mark (another horror gybe) and away to Sampson again with the chance catching the two in front ( yes Bill had got through ) and we were being chased by Corella who just wouldn't give up. Sampson and we just went up the breeze whilst we watched as the others began to cross. But hang on, what's happening? King is down there and the others were way over in the distance going elsewhere. Bite your tongue and go for broke. Around King and look back as Anna rounded behind Lockie with Swiftsure Saga slipping into the lead.
Then away to Print again and ducking the Div one boats we prepared for the pole down to Como and a screamer of a reach to Thelma that was almost a work as the breeze was swirling. Then the game began. Follow Swiftsure Saga or tack off with Lockie. Arrrgh! So we elected to go with Swiftsure along the freeway and tossed a few metres on from her (We learnt that Bill tossed because he could see the bottom) but we were looking at the finish line and much to our discomfort we were rolled by an oncoming S97 who had all the rights, so we dipped her and found ourselves over the line in third spot.
But we survived the day.
Over the line: Swiftsure Saga, Corella and Mariner.
On handicap: Anna, Swiftsure Saga and Mariner.
On Georgina; It must have been a long three days, but Rupert got the last of the deck on. Well done to him and clearly he needed the day off. But one hurdle has been jumped. The next will be the cabin and at least he can build that at home. Bill Richards has contributed both a new hatch and the mooring lines piece. So long as they are both well bolted down.....
Not many photos as we were busy today.
A challenging day &
Forgetting where King is can cost you heaps.
Challenging. Not bloody likely; Terrifying - yes.
A sou'wester that had all the hallmarks and the number two strapped onto the boat. Course one on offer and the skipper gave one of the crew away to another boat 'cause he thought the three of us could cope. I surely would have liked to be sailing four up today as when you are bouncing around on the boat you can get hurt. Ask Steve who had a couple of near falls on the day. Just because he was trying to be Eddie everywhere.
So away to Martin-Weaver and make it, but behind Swiftsure Saga and Corella with Anna and Wynella close on our tails. Hard work on the main with the boat and the need to put a pole up on a windy day was really a case of do we want it? Around Sampson and off to Deepwater with the added prospect of crossing the second division of the Royal Perth fleet. (Who incidentally have sent a letter mentioning the H28's at Foam. What about and why remains unknown)
Then battle the heavy chop all the way up into the middle of the river. It was heaving and the boat was punching through the waves with spray everywhere. When to go was the question and we eventually tossed to take the fleet across to the bay, leaving the RP fleet behind us. Our skipper decided to toss early out of Waylen Bay and rued the day as Anna went all the way in and came down the bay at a rate of knots, rolling us as we watched and wept.
Around Deepwater and point at Print with a pole up and noted that the order of the day had changed. We were sitting behind Anna with the rest of the field strung out behind us. And so it would be for a while. Then behind Swiftsure Saga the shape of a hull with out a stick.. an H28.. was Aloha out, or had one of us lost a rig? No it was Andy Bell coming back from Fremantle with The First Jindarra repaired. Straight down the river with no problems and the diesel now repaired, thumping away. So we left him to his business and the mast will be back in a couple of weeks.
Around Print and across to Waylen Bay where the skipper lined up on Anna and we chased them all the way up to Robins rounding the mark for a rollicking ride to Dolphin East with speeds of 9 knots were noted across the swell and the gybe at the end was going to be a horror. We made it … and probably blew a slug on the main in the process. However the run to Como was just as compelling with big waves and a bit of pumping on the waves to get the boat sliding down the face and faster for it. By the way pumping the main on an H28 is easier than you think. Just go with the flow.
Around Como and down to the outer startline with the pucker factor right up there as we were racing through a beam sea and almost hard on, just enough pressure to make it hard to hang on to the main and letting it off occasionally as we needed to. Around the mark (another horror gybe) and away to Sampson again with the chance catching the two in front ( yes Bill had got through ) and we were being chased by Corella who just wouldn't give up. Sampson and we just went up the breeze whilst we watched as the others began to cross. But hang on, what's happening? King is down there and the others were way over in the distance going elsewhere. Bite your tongue and go for broke. Around King and look back as Anna rounded behind Lockie with Swiftsure Saga slipping into the lead.
Then away to Print again and ducking the Div one boats we prepared for the pole down to Como and a screamer of a reach to Thelma that was almost a work as the breeze was swirling. Then the game began. Follow Swiftsure Saga or tack off with Lockie. Arrrgh! So we elected to go with Swiftsure along the freeway and tossed a few metres on from her (We learnt that Bill tossed because he could see the bottom) but we were looking at the finish line and much to our discomfort we were rolled by an oncoming S97 who had all the rights, so we dipped her and found ourselves over the line in third spot.
But we survived the day.
Over the line: Swiftsure Saga, Corella and Mariner.
On handicap: Anna, Swiftsure Saga and Mariner.
On Georgina; It must have been a long three days, but Rupert got the last of the deck on. Well done to him and clearly he needed the day off. But one hurdle has been jumped. The next will be the cabin and at least he can build that at home. Bill Richards has contributed both a new hatch and the mooring lines piece. So long as they are both well bolted down.....
Not many photos as we were busy today.
Summer Sailing Saturday The 23rd of January. The fourth Championship Race.
Could have guessed that it would happen &
Second to Wynella.
An almost perfect day for sailing with the brisk sou wester dropping back into a tidy 15 to 19 knots and not varying much from that. Sure there was the odd drop in pressure, but a good day nonetheless.
Five boats took to the water initially and Geoff had Carina out with Andy Bells main on the boat. Yes, Andy had convinced Geoff to take the boat out and he had his usuals on board, Bruce and Mark. However there was the unknown to be coped with. She hadn't been sailed for a year and the betting was that she would suffer the same fate as Karoleeya last week. Could have guessed that it would happen and they retired shortly after heading out onto the water. Next week perhaps.
Otherwise, Swiftsure Saga, Wynella, Aloha and Karoleeya headed off on a good day and despite our preference to be at the bottom of the line, we found ourselves leading the fleet as we were all late. Bugger! So go as far as we could into Heathcote, tighten up the sheets and the main and head off to Brickies A and B. Watching the yachts behind us, we watched as Wynella was holding her line very nicely with goof height and speed. Similarly Aloha with a full crew was doing very well and was to prove to be a challenger right through the day. Karoleeya started well but once she swapped tacks onto port she immediately began to fall away, leading me to ask whether the main was as far up as could be deemed safe as the boat had plenty of speed, but no height. The other thought could be the mast and whether the shrouds need adjusting.
No matter, the work up the river was deemed easy enough with the odd scatter of Dragons being fired off from the Freshwater Bay start boat over near Nedlands. Easy to dodge and our main problem were the SS27's on their lurching progress under beam set spinnakers on the way across to Hallmark from Deepwater. Fun to watch though. Well into the bay after Deepwater and then look out for the run up to Brickies with the gusts playing merry hell on our line. At one stage we were miles in front and then we were looking at the pair of Wynella and Aloha on our tails again. Around Brickies A and B then set for the run to Dolphin West keeping an eye out for the boats coming up from Hallmark. A pole and a gybed main was all we needed to keep the boat flowing with the others making their own arrangements. One of the delights of the downwind run was a young mama who was riding with her husband and son in their little power boat. She was wearing a pink bikini that left nothing to the imagination. She was gorgeous! Steve on Karoleeya was attempting spinnaker hoists and eventually packed it away with another couple of holes to be patched. Fair enough, training a crew will give him the odds on a good day when he's a little closer.
Down to Foam and get rid of the pole bending away to head into Waylen Bay and out again with Wynella and Aloha swapping places behind us. My word it was a bang on race for the pair of them. Still we had our own needs and finding Sanders was our next task. We overstood it a little and found that we had given up a little bit of the lead. But the next task was to get to Como for the third leg and thence to Deepwater again with the need to pass Robins to starboard. We forgot. And only a last minute lurch had us heading into Robins, just retaining the lead. But it wasn't to be our day as on the last downwind from Deepwater we had a couple of incidents including a snafu with the pole and having to swing wide to avoid a Red witch. That gave Wynella the lead and despite our best attempts they managed to keep their lead. However it didn't stop me from getting some nice shots of her on the way.
Over the line: Wynella, Swiftsure Saga and Aloha.
On handicap: Aloha, Karoleeya and Wynella.
The work on Georgina continues apace with Rupert getting the work done on the port side of the hull. By Monday he should be looking at beginning to look at put the rest of decking on and then the big job. The cabin. There is about 20 kg of glue holding the boat together so far and by the time he finishes there will be another 30 kg re-enforcing the timber that was left in. It works, and he is planning to put in a ring bulkhead in ply around the front of the cabin as you step down into the cabin and then as he plans to bring the shrouds in, there will be an interior bulkhead similar to the ones in Mariner and Swiftsure to support the loads. Its not over engineering, just playing safe.
Could have guessed that it would happen &
Second to Wynella.
An almost perfect day for sailing with the brisk sou wester dropping back into a tidy 15 to 19 knots and not varying much from that. Sure there was the odd drop in pressure, but a good day nonetheless.
Five boats took to the water initially and Geoff had Carina out with Andy Bells main on the boat. Yes, Andy had convinced Geoff to take the boat out and he had his usuals on board, Bruce and Mark. However there was the unknown to be coped with. She hadn't been sailed for a year and the betting was that she would suffer the same fate as Karoleeya last week. Could have guessed that it would happen and they retired shortly after heading out onto the water. Next week perhaps.
Otherwise, Swiftsure Saga, Wynella, Aloha and Karoleeya headed off on a good day and despite our preference to be at the bottom of the line, we found ourselves leading the fleet as we were all late. Bugger! So go as far as we could into Heathcote, tighten up the sheets and the main and head off to Brickies A and B. Watching the yachts behind us, we watched as Wynella was holding her line very nicely with goof height and speed. Similarly Aloha with a full crew was doing very well and was to prove to be a challenger right through the day. Karoleeya started well but once she swapped tacks onto port she immediately began to fall away, leading me to ask whether the main was as far up as could be deemed safe as the boat had plenty of speed, but no height. The other thought could be the mast and whether the shrouds need adjusting.
No matter, the work up the river was deemed easy enough with the odd scatter of Dragons being fired off from the Freshwater Bay start boat over near Nedlands. Easy to dodge and our main problem were the SS27's on their lurching progress under beam set spinnakers on the way across to Hallmark from Deepwater. Fun to watch though. Well into the bay after Deepwater and then look out for the run up to Brickies with the gusts playing merry hell on our line. At one stage we were miles in front and then we were looking at the pair of Wynella and Aloha on our tails again. Around Brickies A and B then set for the run to Dolphin West keeping an eye out for the boats coming up from Hallmark. A pole and a gybed main was all we needed to keep the boat flowing with the others making their own arrangements. One of the delights of the downwind run was a young mama who was riding with her husband and son in their little power boat. She was wearing a pink bikini that left nothing to the imagination. She was gorgeous! Steve on Karoleeya was attempting spinnaker hoists and eventually packed it away with another couple of holes to be patched. Fair enough, training a crew will give him the odds on a good day when he's a little closer.
Down to Foam and get rid of the pole bending away to head into Waylen Bay and out again with Wynella and Aloha swapping places behind us. My word it was a bang on race for the pair of them. Still we had our own needs and finding Sanders was our next task. We overstood it a little and found that we had given up a little bit of the lead. But the next task was to get to Como for the third leg and thence to Deepwater again with the need to pass Robins to starboard. We forgot. And only a last minute lurch had us heading into Robins, just retaining the lead. But it wasn't to be our day as on the last downwind from Deepwater we had a couple of incidents including a snafu with the pole and having to swing wide to avoid a Red witch. That gave Wynella the lead and despite our best attempts they managed to keep their lead. However it didn't stop me from getting some nice shots of her on the way.
Over the line: Wynella, Swiftsure Saga and Aloha.
On handicap: Aloha, Karoleeya and Wynella.
The work on Georgina continues apace with Rupert getting the work done on the port side of the hull. By Monday he should be looking at beginning to look at put the rest of decking on and then the big job. The cabin. There is about 20 kg of glue holding the boat together so far and by the time he finishes there will be another 30 kg re-enforcing the timber that was left in. It works, and he is planning to put in a ring bulkhead in ply around the front of the cabin as you step down into the cabin and then as he plans to bring the shrouds in, there will be an interior bulkhead similar to the ones in Mariner and Swiftsure to support the loads. Its not over engineering, just playing safe.
Summer Sailing Wednesday the 20th of January
Welcome Aloha &
Rita gets to drive.
OMG who let the boys out. Rupert has been slaving away on Georgina and Dave Locke gave the keys to Rita so she could take Rupert and his offsider out for the day. Aloha had the two Drews aboard (father and son) and it was noticeable that she had a clean bottom. Otherwise Glen is still repairing the outside track and suffered noticeably on a boat that could have been really quick on the day. John Wright joined us and Swiftsure Saga gave up John P to let him sail with a plastic boat who was short a man.
A really pleasant west sou wester that was swinging back into the south west as the afternoon progressed and a course two was offered to the fleet. No problems said the skipper and despite our being early on the line, we hung on our eased sails and then dropped down to get a better start than the rest of the fleet. Ergo we were in the lead with Swiftsure Saga and Aloha panting on our heels. Great, now how do we stay there?
Rita and the boys had found themselves buried under a cloud of sail and could have dropped down a little more, sailing her own race rather than taking it up to the fleet. Just not fast. Similarly Anna was suffering the torture of the damned having been spat out the back. Out to Sampson and then our first set of tests occurred with the Royal Perth fleet crossing us. Of course we were on port and vulnerable, but we threaded our way through and immediately tossed to get further out into the middle where the pressure was. Swiftsure had found their way through up the middle and wasn't that far behind while the rest of the fleet went into the north to find the gap between the fleets. All of a sudden they were at least a hundred metres back.
Finding Hallmark wasn't as hard as finding Bartlett and the boat was pointing at it from a fair distance, surprisingly we made it in one work. Got to be happy with that. Past the mark and then tack early to stay out where the pressure is. It worked and we kept our lead nicely with Swiftsure doing well on the down wind to keep on our tail. It's a long haul to Como and we had the time to reflect on the day and even a discussion on some shares in a speculative mining company broke out as the owner of a number of them was counting his gains.
Back to the racing and a clean rounding at Como had the boat fired up heading for the Outer startline with a fair lead. Around we went with a chance to check out the boats behind us and they had settled down into a follow the leader race, with little chance of passing anyone unless they did something really silly. The rest of the race was uneventful and the dash out to Dolphin East and return via Como and Thelma was without incident, but provided a bit of fun on a nice reach down to the marks. Then along the beach and for once a run along the freeway, not dipping into the beach. Up to the line and across for a fastest. Which was enough to begin with.
Over the line: Mariner, Swiftsure Saga and Wynella.
On handicap: Mariner, Swiftsure Saga and Wynella.
We felt sure that Aloha by their very presence should have taken at least a place, but the handicapper apparently knows his stuff and as we crossed the line, so the handicaps had us placed in the same order.
A small comment about last Saturday. I've since learnt that David Gilham's Arajilla was hit not once but twice. Once by a Cole 32 aptly nicknamed " Collison" and then by a power boat who then decided to flee the scene without stopping. They have the boats name and rego number.. he won't go far.
Once again the first few slides are of Georgina and the work is progressing with a number of people offering help. The very fact that he's on the jetty is proving to be of enormous benefit to him and a huge distraction as well as he is always ready to stop and have a chat as people admire the on-going work.
Welcome Aloha &
Rita gets to drive.
OMG who let the boys out. Rupert has been slaving away on Georgina and Dave Locke gave the keys to Rita so she could take Rupert and his offsider out for the day. Aloha had the two Drews aboard (father and son) and it was noticeable that she had a clean bottom. Otherwise Glen is still repairing the outside track and suffered noticeably on a boat that could have been really quick on the day. John Wright joined us and Swiftsure Saga gave up John P to let him sail with a plastic boat who was short a man.
A really pleasant west sou wester that was swinging back into the south west as the afternoon progressed and a course two was offered to the fleet. No problems said the skipper and despite our being early on the line, we hung on our eased sails and then dropped down to get a better start than the rest of the fleet. Ergo we were in the lead with Swiftsure Saga and Aloha panting on our heels. Great, now how do we stay there?
Rita and the boys had found themselves buried under a cloud of sail and could have dropped down a little more, sailing her own race rather than taking it up to the fleet. Just not fast. Similarly Anna was suffering the torture of the damned having been spat out the back. Out to Sampson and then our first set of tests occurred with the Royal Perth fleet crossing us. Of course we were on port and vulnerable, but we threaded our way through and immediately tossed to get further out into the middle where the pressure was. Swiftsure had found their way through up the middle and wasn't that far behind while the rest of the fleet went into the north to find the gap between the fleets. All of a sudden they were at least a hundred metres back.
Finding Hallmark wasn't as hard as finding Bartlett and the boat was pointing at it from a fair distance, surprisingly we made it in one work. Got to be happy with that. Past the mark and then tack early to stay out where the pressure is. It worked and we kept our lead nicely with Swiftsure doing well on the down wind to keep on our tail. It's a long haul to Como and we had the time to reflect on the day and even a discussion on some shares in a speculative mining company broke out as the owner of a number of them was counting his gains.
Back to the racing and a clean rounding at Como had the boat fired up heading for the Outer startline with a fair lead. Around we went with a chance to check out the boats behind us and they had settled down into a follow the leader race, with little chance of passing anyone unless they did something really silly. The rest of the race was uneventful and the dash out to Dolphin East and return via Como and Thelma was without incident, but provided a bit of fun on a nice reach down to the marks. Then along the beach and for once a run along the freeway, not dipping into the beach. Up to the line and across for a fastest. Which was enough to begin with.
Over the line: Mariner, Swiftsure Saga and Wynella.
On handicap: Mariner, Swiftsure Saga and Wynella.
We felt sure that Aloha by their very presence should have taken at least a place, but the handicapper apparently knows his stuff and as we crossed the line, so the handicaps had us placed in the same order.
A small comment about last Saturday. I've since learnt that David Gilham's Arajilla was hit not once but twice. Once by a Cole 32 aptly nicknamed " Collison" and then by a power boat who then decided to flee the scene without stopping. They have the boats name and rego number.. he won't go far.
Once again the first few slides are of Georgina and the work is progressing with a number of people offering help. The very fact that he's on the jetty is proving to be of enormous benefit to him and a huge distraction as well as he is always ready to stop and have a chat as people admire the on-going work.
Saturday the 16th of January 2021 The start of the summer sailing sessions.
Sinking? & should have bolted it down &
Cover that boat!
A plethora of incidents to accompany the days racing with a retirement shortly after starting. However the first few slides are a continuation of the work on Georgina. With a rare dedication Rupert is continuing to work on Georgina and is probably learning a hell of a lot about his boat in the process. He has the help and guidance from the other skippers and Bill Richards is offering help in the rebuilding of the deck beams though there are always the little surprises as Rupert found out to his cost when the post on the foredeck just fell away. Ooops. But you can see that he has been at work and the skip at the top of Jetty 3 is loaded up each day with the remnants of a fine teak deck that existed in her earlier years. More to come I'm sure. The build of the cabin is afoot and there will probably be a week or so when we don't see him .. the lid will be under way.
Back to the sailing and the Easterlies just haven't stopped blowing. 17 to 25 knots today, with life jackets for all and a smaller sail up front. But after watching Barry Arnolds Cole 32 doing sideways wobbles, none of us bothered to put a kite up. A windward start made it interesting and the four H28's crossed the line with Swiftsure Saga and Corella battling up the middle and Karoleeya electing to go high while Wynella took the low. Well, we were following Corella around the mark and managed to squeeze out one of the others. Not sure who, as there was a lot of shouting going on but I suspect it was Wynella and Karoleeya roared around the up wind mark just behind us. Before we had gone much further Karoleeya abruptly turned around and returned under full sail. As yet it can only be put down to one thing, she was filling up. A long hot period and no sailing makes a boat open up quickly. A pity.
A course three and a long hike down the breeze to find the mystery mark known as Bartlett. A mystery? Well we very rarely get given a course 3 and no one remembers where it is. Following Lockie is no use either and we made a lot of ground by spotting it first. Around Bartlett and up to Dolphin East with a bend to Thelma. All upwind works and some of the gusts had us standing on our ears as the boat was constantly being buffeted by the changes in the breeze out of the East. Corella went one way and we went another and managed to get the lead by Thelma. A broad smile broke on Bills face only to have him then remark that "he won't let me get away with that." A remark was thrown at him from the crew... "well make it hard for him then" and the smile came back again.
And down the breeze we ran again with Deepwater as our bottom mark and a run out to the mystery mark once more. Addison then beckoned and it was our turn to lose the lead as we didn't cover Corella on the way down. More fool us. Away they went and by Addison we had dealt with various S80's and Cole 32's who were going in the same direction as us and were holding us back from chasing across to cover David. Too late and they were already aimed at Thelma and despite trying a deeper track than they, the breeze favoured them and we were just lucky to shoot Thelma rather than have to do it again.
Where Wynella was the question? At last glance they were having a small problem with what looked like an overwind on the starboard side. It wasn't to be and the starboard track had blown up. Rueing the damage, Glen admitted that bolting it down would have been the way to go and I hope that he checks the port side as well. However they persevered and put the jib onto the inside tracks. Didn't make them go any faster though.. not on a big day when you are trying to vent the air off the sail.
Off to Dolphin East and all we could do was stare at Corella's transom and hope that he didn't get too far away. This time it was our turn to have to double tack at Thelma on the return trip from Addison as we just weren't lucky with the breezes. Eventually we bent around the mark and eased the sheets on the way down to the finish line. But a good second over the day and a welcome return to the water for the new year.
Over the line: Corella, Swiftsure Saga and Wynella.
On handicap: Swiftsure Saga, Corella and Wynella.
Hopefully things will have cooled down shortly as it was another 36 degree day and with the drying easterlies, its not as comfortable as you would like to be.
Sinking? & should have bolted it down &
Cover that boat!
A plethora of incidents to accompany the days racing with a retirement shortly after starting. However the first few slides are a continuation of the work on Georgina. With a rare dedication Rupert is continuing to work on Georgina and is probably learning a hell of a lot about his boat in the process. He has the help and guidance from the other skippers and Bill Richards is offering help in the rebuilding of the deck beams though there are always the little surprises as Rupert found out to his cost when the post on the foredeck just fell away. Ooops. But you can see that he has been at work and the skip at the top of Jetty 3 is loaded up each day with the remnants of a fine teak deck that existed in her earlier years. More to come I'm sure. The build of the cabin is afoot and there will probably be a week or so when we don't see him .. the lid will be under way.
Back to the sailing and the Easterlies just haven't stopped blowing. 17 to 25 knots today, with life jackets for all and a smaller sail up front. But after watching Barry Arnolds Cole 32 doing sideways wobbles, none of us bothered to put a kite up. A windward start made it interesting and the four H28's crossed the line with Swiftsure Saga and Corella battling up the middle and Karoleeya electing to go high while Wynella took the low. Well, we were following Corella around the mark and managed to squeeze out one of the others. Not sure who, as there was a lot of shouting going on but I suspect it was Wynella and Karoleeya roared around the up wind mark just behind us. Before we had gone much further Karoleeya abruptly turned around and returned under full sail. As yet it can only be put down to one thing, she was filling up. A long hot period and no sailing makes a boat open up quickly. A pity.
A course three and a long hike down the breeze to find the mystery mark known as Bartlett. A mystery? Well we very rarely get given a course 3 and no one remembers where it is. Following Lockie is no use either and we made a lot of ground by spotting it first. Around Bartlett and up to Dolphin East with a bend to Thelma. All upwind works and some of the gusts had us standing on our ears as the boat was constantly being buffeted by the changes in the breeze out of the East. Corella went one way and we went another and managed to get the lead by Thelma. A broad smile broke on Bills face only to have him then remark that "he won't let me get away with that." A remark was thrown at him from the crew... "well make it hard for him then" and the smile came back again.
And down the breeze we ran again with Deepwater as our bottom mark and a run out to the mystery mark once more. Addison then beckoned and it was our turn to lose the lead as we didn't cover Corella on the way down. More fool us. Away they went and by Addison we had dealt with various S80's and Cole 32's who were going in the same direction as us and were holding us back from chasing across to cover David. Too late and they were already aimed at Thelma and despite trying a deeper track than they, the breeze favoured them and we were just lucky to shoot Thelma rather than have to do it again.
Where Wynella was the question? At last glance they were having a small problem with what looked like an overwind on the starboard side. It wasn't to be and the starboard track had blown up. Rueing the damage, Glen admitted that bolting it down would have been the way to go and I hope that he checks the port side as well. However they persevered and put the jib onto the inside tracks. Didn't make them go any faster though.. not on a big day when you are trying to vent the air off the sail.
Off to Dolphin East and all we could do was stare at Corella's transom and hope that he didn't get too far away. This time it was our turn to have to double tack at Thelma on the return trip from Addison as we just weren't lucky with the breezes. Eventually we bent around the mark and eased the sheets on the way down to the finish line. But a good second over the day and a welcome return to the water for the new year.
Over the line: Corella, Swiftsure Saga and Wynella.
On handicap: Swiftsure Saga, Corella and Wynella.
Hopefully things will have cooled down shortly as it was another 36 degree day and with the drying easterlies, its not as comfortable as you would like to be.
Wednesday the 6th of January A special event.
With the indulgence of the Goolugatup Sailing Carnival organisers. &
We get to sail against the Royal Perth Fleet.
There is still a lot to be sorted out, but the chances are that we will have a fine lot of photos from the day. The H28 fleet may be starting with C fleet this time around and there is still some discussion as to how many boats are coming over from Royal Perth as a good number of them are on their hard earned Christmas breaks. Hopefully we will get enough to make it worth while.
With the indulgence of the Goolugatup Sailing Carnival organisers. &
We get to sail against the Royal Perth Fleet.
There is still a lot to be sorted out, but the chances are that we will have a fine lot of photos from the day. The H28 fleet may be starting with C fleet this time around and there is still some discussion as to how many boats are coming over from Royal Perth as a good number of them are on their hard earned Christmas breaks. Hopefully we will get enough to make it worth while.
We made it!
A breeze that was a right sod to deal with and at least we H28s were able to put half of the C fleet together. Missing a few in action, we welcomed Bruce Uren sailing on Wynella and Russel Shannon from Queensland sailing with Mariner. Even Lockie had a ringer with Les Swinton joining him. Nice to see him there.
Before I start, Rupert received a bit of a help from the gang as he prepared to put the deck on the stern, having replaced the deck beams aft of the cockpit. Cut and fit was all that was required and he had the help of a charming lass who happened to be there. Andy Bells boat is to get its engine back very shortly and will make its way down to Freo after this as the shipwrights have been on holiday. The mast is somewhere in between here and Queensland.
The boys on one of the SoPYC Foundation boats managed to run aground on the freeway prior to the start and was pulled off by the RP boat. Embarrassing.. yes. Cliff wasn't to be seen in the bar as the trophy for the stuff up of the day was presented.
We were a number of miles behind the start as the clock began to count down and we were slowly making our way to the line. Fortunately it freshened and began the cycle that was to drive us mad over the next hour and a half. Big puffs out of the north and as it diminished it flicked into the east. Time and again it repeated and we were watching the fleet as we eventually crossed the line. Getting to the new laid mark we got around mid fleet and then began the plod down to Dolphin West. Slowly and at the back. The decision was made -- go into the north and see what happens. Luck was on our side and Graham the main sheet was calling the gusts. A good idea as we managed to get over the rest of the fleet and were in a good position to head down to the next mark.. Como. Mind you we had our own bit of fun with a spacy 22 who didn't understand the rules properly and was the meat in the sandwich between Swiftsure Saga and Mariner.
In a strong breeze we took off to the right and then barrelled down to the mark with the games on with the rest of the other fleets coming to the same mark. We had the overlaps and made our way down to Como riding the knocks and lifts and made it to the mark on one beat. Watching Eun Na Mara make the same run as we had. Thank goodness we had them in front. Then around we went and made it to the outer startline in one good reach. Around and off to Sampson getting closer to Wynella every tick of the clock.
Then a case of repeating the pain all the way to Dolphin west again on a light breeze watching the puffs as they came our way. Lucky I guess, we were still in the lead and putting the rest of the fleet behind us inclusive of the mixed fleet we were in. The turn at Dolphin West was enough and we led the rest of the H28 fleet all the way despite Bill Richards best effort to get onto us. We would like to give thanks to the RP boat who wedged themselves between us and Bill and stayed there. Not even trying to roll us. Lockie had gone out the back on the last dig and despite a good start John Wright fell foul of light winds. Its a lingering day if you don't stay in phase and we were lucky a few times.
Catching up with Glen, we were looking fine till Como and with a bit of dodging involved, all of a sudden the back of his transom was all that was presented to us. Oh well. Next time.
While I don't have the RP fleet results I do know that Glen was pretty slick, with Mariner a minute behind; concentration was the game.. the SoPYC fleet did well over all, but again I'm waiting for the combined results. I don't think that they would give them to us.
See you in two weeks time.
A breeze that was a right sod to deal with and at least we H28s were able to put half of the C fleet together. Missing a few in action, we welcomed Bruce Uren sailing on Wynella and Russel Shannon from Queensland sailing with Mariner. Even Lockie had a ringer with Les Swinton joining him. Nice to see him there.
Before I start, Rupert received a bit of a help from the gang as he prepared to put the deck on the stern, having replaced the deck beams aft of the cockpit. Cut and fit was all that was required and he had the help of a charming lass who happened to be there. Andy Bells boat is to get its engine back very shortly and will make its way down to Freo after this as the shipwrights have been on holiday. The mast is somewhere in between here and Queensland.
The boys on one of the SoPYC Foundation boats managed to run aground on the freeway prior to the start and was pulled off by the RP boat. Embarrassing.. yes. Cliff wasn't to be seen in the bar as the trophy for the stuff up of the day was presented.
We were a number of miles behind the start as the clock began to count down and we were slowly making our way to the line. Fortunately it freshened and began the cycle that was to drive us mad over the next hour and a half. Big puffs out of the north and as it diminished it flicked into the east. Time and again it repeated and we were watching the fleet as we eventually crossed the line. Getting to the new laid mark we got around mid fleet and then began the plod down to Dolphin West. Slowly and at the back. The decision was made -- go into the north and see what happens. Luck was on our side and Graham the main sheet was calling the gusts. A good idea as we managed to get over the rest of the fleet and were in a good position to head down to the next mark.. Como. Mind you we had our own bit of fun with a spacy 22 who didn't understand the rules properly and was the meat in the sandwich between Swiftsure Saga and Mariner.
In a strong breeze we took off to the right and then barrelled down to the mark with the games on with the rest of the other fleets coming to the same mark. We had the overlaps and made our way down to Como riding the knocks and lifts and made it to the mark on one beat. Watching Eun Na Mara make the same run as we had. Thank goodness we had them in front. Then around we went and made it to the outer startline in one good reach. Around and off to Sampson getting closer to Wynella every tick of the clock.
Then a case of repeating the pain all the way to Dolphin west again on a light breeze watching the puffs as they came our way. Lucky I guess, we were still in the lead and putting the rest of the fleet behind us inclusive of the mixed fleet we were in. The turn at Dolphin West was enough and we led the rest of the H28 fleet all the way despite Bill Richards best effort to get onto us. We would like to give thanks to the RP boat who wedged themselves between us and Bill and stayed there. Not even trying to roll us. Lockie had gone out the back on the last dig and despite a good start John Wright fell foul of light winds. Its a lingering day if you don't stay in phase and we were lucky a few times.
Catching up with Glen, we were looking fine till Como and with a bit of dodging involved, all of a sudden the back of his transom was all that was presented to us. Oh well. Next time.
While I don't have the RP fleet results I do know that Glen was pretty slick, with Mariner a minute behind; concentration was the game.. the SoPYC fleet did well over all, but again I'm waiting for the combined results. I don't think that they would give them to us.
See you in two weeks time.