Will I sail or won't I ? I had a skin graft under my left eye on Thursday and the surgeon told me to rest up over the weekend but Colin was short of crew, only 3 if I turned up and a Southerly of 18 knots with a chance of storms was predicted. So I decided to disobey doctors' orders and come. Just before leaving home I decided to instil some drops in the eye. "Bloody Hell" ear drops sing the eye ( you don't have to be stupid but it helps,) so after much flushing with water I donned sunglasses an drove to the pontoon.
Jenny was late and we had trouble with the outboard but we finally made it out of Tarban Creek. Seeing we were short handed we decided that we would not be competitive so Colin decided on the No3 jib and full main and if conditions became to fresh we would luff up and sail off the leech of the main.
We got a good start on port about the middle of the line and being clear of the wind shadow of Abbotsford we were surprised at our boat speed at least we weren't recalled like at least one other boat. We were in a good safety position when we reached the Cape Cabarita Marina and tacked onto starboard we realised that we were insufficiently ballasted to be with the front runners but we were quite pleased with our position after the starboard rounding of mark 4. We were slipping through the water at a slippery pace as divers had cleaned the hull only that morning. On the run to No1 it became apparent the LoEG was being sail perfectly in the conditions with AofE keeping them honest and SF struggling without a kite and the new boat Van Demon in fourth place ahead of us. BringIng up the rear was NL.
The weak flood tide had little bearing on the race as the South Easterly was quite Fresh at times. The places remained the same as the second leg throughout the race and the boats crossed the line with only the distances being different.
After we rounded mark 1 the last time and sailing up towards the club we were sailing on starboard towards NL we decide to indicate our intention by steering to port although we had right of way, low and behold they steered towards us so we steered to starboard and they came towards us again 'what the....' so we avoided them again by steering to port. These manoeuvres cost us valuable height as the wind had moved to the East.
Although we were short handed we all thoroughly enjoyed the experience so winning on handicap was an unexpected bonus.
P.S. I heard on the grapevine that a new mudbank is being gazetted in the Parramatta River, it's to be called O'Brien's Mudbank. If you don't know where it is, just ask Pat!
By Graham Bevan
We got a good start on port about the middle of the line and being clear of the wind shadow of Abbotsford we were surprised at our boat speed at least we weren't recalled like at least one other boat. We were in a good safety position when we reached the Cape Cabarita Marina and tacked onto starboard we realised that we were insufficiently ballasted to be with the front runners but we were quite pleased with our position after the starboard rounding of mark 4. We were slipping through the water at a slippery pace as divers had cleaned the hull only that morning. On the run to No1 it became apparent the LoEG was being sail perfectly in the conditions with AofE keeping them honest and SF struggling without a kite and the new boat Van Demon in fourth place ahead of us. BringIng up the rear was NL.
The weak flood tide had little bearing on the race as the South Easterly was quite Fresh at times. The places remained the same as the second leg throughout the race and the boats crossed the line with only the distances being different.
After we rounded mark 1 the last time and sailing up towards the club we were sailing on starboard towards NL we decide to indicate our intention by steering to port although we had right of way, low and behold they steered towards us so we steered to starboard and they came towards us again 'what the....' so we avoided them again by steering to port. These manoeuvres cost us valuable height as the wind had moved to the East.
Although we were short handed we all thoroughly enjoyed the experience so winning on handicap was an unexpected bonus.
P.S. I heard on the grapevine that a new mudbank is being gazetted in the Parramatta River, it's to be called O'Brien's Mudbank. If you don't know where it is, just ask Pat!
By Graham Bevan
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