Crunch time for the Summer Series with the sixth and last race, and the pre-start tension was obvious. ENE breeze 10-15 knots. 4.00pm low tide with a 1.5m drop from the high, and a hcap start flagged so after a mild dose of apoplexy and grabbing the book of words this was sorted out and the usual four suspects were off to Lukes Bay just as the Bedlam Cup fleet from up harbour came to their leeward mark in the east of the bay.
Crunch time for the Summer Series with the sixth and last race, and the pre-start tension was obvious. ENE breeze 10-15 knots. 4.00pm low tide with a 1.5m drop from the high, and a hcap start flagged so after a mild dose of apoplexy and grabbing the book of words this was sorted out and the usual four suspects were off to Lukes Bay just as the Bedlam Cup fleet from up harbour came to their leeward mark in the east of the bay.
So the first work to Lukes and first part of the run back to Morrisons were interesting to say the least, with seemingly more arm waving and throat clearing from some protagonists than question time in Macquarie St, and a plurality of close shaves including AOE having to alter course sharply off Lukes and getting an apparently unwarranted tune up in the process.
RSGT lead the fleet off and got up to and around Lukes well, and benefitted from first use of the downwind leg – but only after threading through the under the bridge bedlam on the water which was surely far worse than that ashore in the old wards based on the evidence. Numerous by-the-lee downwindmoments were held off by our collective skin of the teeth - and we slid nicely down to Morrisons blissfully alone and running square with the breeze a bit east of NE to round further ahead of AOE than the initial hcap start. Might be red wine time boys, but stick with it……….AOE the serial pests upwind and LOEG were sailing well as always and the latter also enjoyed the long run, and SF lumbered up – being out of series contention treating themselves to another beer and skittles kite free day.
To Abbotsford it all continued to go well then Frances where RSGT seemed to hold the margin but AOE was looming and planning for the long work back to Lukes. LOEG and SF were closing ominously also. Back up to Lukes the last time the breeze went a tad N of NE across to Chiswick but up under the bridge RSGT lifted well on stbd in an E slant past the red buoy. Then the breeze went completely bizarre and sagged, also coming out of N and E unpredictably, with both sides of the jib wools lifting at stages………….got around and gybed to set the kite as planned to use the E slant coming down the Drummoyne channel but Huey went north out of Lukes and RSGT had to gybe across on stbd to get into it, in the meantime the kite was all over the place and around the forestay.
In all this AOE and LOEG had closed up more than a tad and the Valium in the cabinet or an abridged version of the riot act or both were considered on the leader………….thankfully neither were needed as RSGT just got into the N wind line out of Lukes then gybed back on port just before the bridge and sailed down to the old bridge east parapet where gybed again, then to Searles, 2 sail reached across Abbotsford Pt with a very conservative kite drop, then bore way and another kite set and then gybe to Frances. Here AOE and LOEG were noticeably closer, sailing so well up that last work and down the run. RSGT got the gun followed by AOE, LOEG and SF in a superb Sydney summer breeze race. Again like last week the fleet closed right up on scratch, with LOEG sailing well all day sorting it from SF by about 30s, about another 30s to AOE and about another 1min30s to RSGT.
For the Summer Series AOE’s exemplary consistency and two heat wins succeeded on 8 points from RSGT (3 heat wins) on 9, LOEG (heat win) on 13 and SF on 15.
Next week is Special Trophies Series Race 4 – see you at the start, don’t be late. Wind forecast this far out is ~10kts ESE.
So the first work to Lukes and first part of the run back to Morrisons were interesting to say the least, with seemingly more arm waving and throat clearing from some protagonists than question time in Macquarie St, and a plurality of close shaves including AOE having to alter course sharply off Lukes and getting an apparently unwarranted tune up in the process.
RSGT lead the fleet off and got up to and around Lukes well, and benefitted from first use of the downwind leg – but only after threading through the under the bridge bedlam on the water which was surely far worse than that ashore in the old wards based on the evidence. Numerous by-the-lee downwindmoments were held off by our collective skin of the teeth - and we slid nicely down to Morrisons blissfully alone and running square with the breeze a bit east of NE to round further ahead of AOE than the initial hcap start. Might be red wine time boys, but stick with it……….AOE the serial pests upwind and LOEG were sailing well as always and the latter also enjoyed the long run, and SF lumbered up – being out of series contention treating themselves to another beer and skittles kite free day.
To Abbotsford it all continued to go well then Frances where RSGT seemed to hold the margin but AOE was looming and planning for the long work back to Lukes. LOEG and SF were closing ominously also. Back up to Lukes the last time the breeze went a tad N of NE across to Chiswick but up under the bridge RSGT lifted well on stbd in an E slant past the red buoy. Then the breeze went completely bizarre and sagged, also coming out of N and E unpredictably, with both sides of the jib wools lifting at stages………….got around and gybed to set the kite as planned to use the E slant coming down the Drummoyne channel but Huey went north out of Lukes and RSGT had to gybe across on stbd to get into it, in the meantime the kite was all over the place and around the forestay.
In all this AOE and LOEG had closed up more than a tad and the Valium in the cabinet or an abridged version of the riot act or both were considered on the leader………….thankfully neither were needed as RSGT just got into the N wind line out of Lukes then gybed back on port just before the bridge and sailed down to the old bridge east parapet where gybed again, then to Searles, 2 sail reached across Abbotsford Pt with a very conservative kite drop, then bore way and another kite set and then gybe to Frances. Here AOE and LOEG were noticeably closer, sailing so well up that last work and down the run. RSGT got the gun followed by AOE, LOEG and SF in a superb Sydney summer breeze race. Again like last week the fleet closed right up on scratch, with LOEG sailing well all day sorting it from SF by about 30s, about another 30s to AOE and about another 1min30s to RSGT.
For the Summer Series AOE’s exemplary consistency and two heat wins succeeded on 8 points from RSGT (3 heat wins) on 9, LOEG (heat win) on 13 and SF on 15.
Next week is Special Trophies Series Race 4 – see you at the start, don’t be late. Wind forecast this far out is ~10kts ESE.
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