Winter Series 2005

Sunday 24th July Race 13 Davison 2 Ladies Day Race Start 12:00 SineWave Start 12:22 FINAL RACE

What a pleasant day, almost like summer for the last race of the winter season, not only did we have the hardest handicap of the series we go to the dock 2 hours early due to the late race start, I thought Barb had an excellent day on the helm and made up a lot of ground to finish 7th and beat 4 other boats on actual time around the course including beating the scratch boats which we gave a 14 minute start to and beat them by 20 minutes. Category

Sunday 18th July Race 13 Davison D Race Start 11:00 SineWave Start 11:10

Winners are grinners, except if you promised to give up smoking if we won, congratulations to everyone, having Greg and some of his crew on board allowed us to race and race well. I think the crowning moment was rounding BH1and watching the knot meter hit the end stop at over 12 knots and we were still in control. The Stats show, we finished 5 minutes ahead of the next boat on handicap, 4th in actual time, overtook the scratch boat which had a 10 minute start on us and went around the course 11 minutes faster than any other time during the season.

Sunday 10th July Race 12 Davison D Race Start 11:00 SineWave Start 11:10

Race abandoned due to gale warnings

Sunday 3th July Race 11 Davison D Race Start 11:00 SineWave Start 11:10

That was a first, don't know about anyone else but that's never happened before I from now on will be studying the sailing instructions intently before any races. it was a great start and first leg, the combined humor and advice from Lofty and Nigel was not only welcome but taught me a bit more and I am looking forward to the final point score race with both of them on board.

Sunday 26th June Race 10 Davison D Race Start 11:00 SineWave Start 11:10

Oops, Your skipper got the light air start completely wrong, after weeks of crossing within 15 seconds of our start time we crossed on Sunday 21 minutes late, the gamble to go into double bay didn't exactly work then the altercation at the Fort Dennison mark finally finished us.

The stoic crew persevered for the full 5 hours of the race, much of it sailed by ourselves, I did find it a little disconcerting on the run home to see the race marks being removed ahead of us, at least the starter boat waited and gave us a hoot. The result unfortunately dropped us from 18th to 21st on the point score.

I want to thank everyone for sticking with it in good humor, particularly Alley, who not only organized a car to get all the way back from Port Stevens, then found herself on the foredeck. I think for the final 2 point score races and the ladies day Sebastian and I will go forward.

Sunday 19th June Race 9 Davison D Race Start 11:00 SineWave Start 11:11

Good winds, good start and a fun race, the 9th place also helped make a good day, the most pleasing aspect was for the first time this season we sailed the course faster than the winning boat on actual time. The effort from everyone on board was very appreciated. We also showed great team work on the last downwind leg when we had a small broach followed by the spinnaker sheet coming free from the clew, the headsail came out and the spinnaker was dowsed with limited time lost.

Sunday 5th June Race 7 Davison D Race Start 11:00 SineWave Start 11:13

What a great effort by everyone, although we finished a little back in the field 16th out of 23 we sailed in fluky conditions with no sail issues and only a crew of 6 on board. I must admit I don't think we want to make a habit of this, I have a few bruises and a few sore muscles. I hope everyone pulled up okay this morning, I won't nominate any individual effort as we all worked hard as a team. The final taking duel to hold off Big Blue and Sayonara was exciting, we hope for the wind gods to be back for race 8 as we certainly will do well with more consistent breeze.

Sunday 29th May Race 6 Davison D Race Start 11:00 SineWave Start 11:13

The spinnaker is still causing us issues so a bit disappointing, everyone tried hard 19th out of 23 boats.

Sunday 22nd May Race 5 Davison D Race Start 11:00 SineWave Start 11:11

New Spinnaker, no wind pretty well sums it up, as the CYC race report said, either you got some wind or didn't the winning boat sailed by the wiley Doug Sturrock finished 10 minutes ahead of the second placed boat, the biggest margin this season. whilst most of us thought about breaking out the BBQ's off Nelson Park, Syonara our great rivals finished 4 minutes behind us. Greg even had one of his foredeck crew down below making hot foccia sandwiches. We tried hard but thumped on the line by 4 of the leading light displacement boats which made our 17th placing look a little worse than it really was. The very light conditions really do not suit us and as skipper i need to learn a bit more for getting the best out of the boat when these occur. Let's hope next week provides a bit more of a breeze.

Sunday 15th of May Race 4 Division D Race Start 11:00 SineWave Start 11:09

Sunday best described by the following quote from the CYC web site

"Race 4 of the series proved to be a “sailmakers’ delight” according to one eye witness, with a number of incidents on the race course including Sorensen’s capsize off North Head during a downwind sprint and a second Division E casualty, a broken mast for the Kookaburra Sailing School"

We got 6th place in very difficult conditions, I think everyone would have slept well on Sunday night. Other than a couple of unplanned broaches and sailing past the 3rd mark when the spinnaker halyard got caught in the furler we were very competitive. No one hurt and nothing broken made the rum and cokes go down well at the end. I want to thank everyone for the effort and am really getting excited about the new spinnaker, which hopefully will arrive for the next race. The fordeck will breathe a sigh of relief as we won't be using that pesky pole. I promise to try and fix the furler this week. Looking at the results it was interesting that we beat many of the experienced front runners in conditions that should have suited them, they had more issues than we did.

Sunday 8th of May Race 3 Division D Race Start 11:00 SineWave Start 11:13

Weather fine and the winds were consistent, we appear to be sailing well to the wind with the extra weight off and the crew worked hard all day. All of us still lack experience with the spinnaker and this is costing us. The fun part of the race was practicing our man overboard procedures when trying to retrieve Rob's shoe we got it on the third attempt.

Sunday 1st of May Race 2 Division D Race Start 11:00 SineWave Start 11:13

At least we had a bit of wind (for most of the race) We had a good start and although we lost a bit on the first leg we stayed in touch until the top mark, the small detour to Little Manly did drop us back a bit but the stoic crew persevered and we still managed to finish ahead of a number of boats on our handicap. 18th out of 24. I want to thank all the crew for the effort especially Sebastian and Christine, the foredeck is not for the faint of heart, and for first timers their effort was not unnoticed. I am still confidant we can improve and this week will be getting rid of the large anchor and chain from the bow and the second Anchor in the stern (Nigel did I mention that other Anchor and chain). This should help her response to wind, I will also improve some of the block positions and the Spinnaker pole controls. Nigel is also looking at a new bigger spinnaker that will also give us a bit more horse power. Next week I think we will see a further improvement in our handicap and with a good race can look forward to a possible podium finish.

Sunday 24th of April Race 1 Division D Race Start 11:00 SineWave Start 11:15

Great Crew terrible start, 11:15 on the line and then floated over the line at 11:35, the wind remained flukey all day,. After battling around the course all day we ended up 12th out of 17 starters, the only bright news was the 5 boats we beat either started at the same time or before us. The spinnaker proved to make life interesting in the conditions and the kiwi brigade on board could only comment that whilst the harbor was nice they generally sail in a little more breeze at home. My thanks to the regulars Barb, Nigel, Paul and Ron and a big welcome to Daphne, Ron and Charles. Daphne is moving to a smaller boat for the series to get a bit more work, we wish her well but quietly hope she may come back, the bread rolls were great. Ron and Charles worked the foredeck well and I didn't hear one note of dissention.

With a little practice I think we could do well in this division and am looking forward to next week and a little more breeze.

Sunday 17th of April Ladies Day Division A off Scratch 12pm Start Barb skipper for the race.

Interesting start, great preparations for course A, 5 minutes before start suddenly Course B, crossed the line with all maps ready round the first buoy then told by another boat we rounded the wrong mark, huge discussion on the way to Nelsen Park then decided we needed to do a 720 doughnut. Barb only words were "never done this before", we of course on reflection didn't need to, and like the rest of the fleet followed around another mark we didn't need to sail around either. Barb's helmsmanship was excellent no panics even after watching another Lady skipper tie their keel up on the top mark anchor line. We were not last and with a little faith in our course direction expect on the next ladies day to be up on the podium.