Results were, 1st Firsty 2nd Eye Spy 3rd Nona 4th Escape 5th Blue beat Race Report from Nona Oh to be on the sea again, the mighty blue sea. Only one thing missing – the breeze. Postponement flag is up so there is plenty of time to put some woollies on the main (they really did not get much of a workout today). Head to the start with the tide roaring in, 5 knots, sort of and it’s on the snotter. The game plan will be to tack all the way up to the short orange(SO), use the tide down to the ODM and then three sausages around Beachaven, SO, ODM. The sausages may be adventuress. Our start is a struggle up to and around the pin and we head over to Beachaven and around the poles and continue with the numerous tacks with little gain. The heart pumps when we have to tack in front of the pole markers with the surging tide. Don’t want any rubs today as we are too close to the Clubrooms and witnesses. Get up to the SO which is doing the “now you see me, now you don’t” get around and let the sails go and just aim for the ODM as the tide is doing all the work. Around the ODM then to Beachaven, we glance over to see three boats playing tag around the SO. We are second behind Firsty so that is encouraging. Finally up to the SO and around and there is no wind, so we just aim for the ODM and hope that the race will be shortened. Look to the tower , no such luck. No shortened course flag. Rats. Get to the ODM, go around and the tide starts to take us back to my mooring. We haven’t finished yet! Out with the anchor and wait. Eye Spy and Escape are starting to near the ODM and they are carrying a minuscule of breeze with them. Up with the anchor and we continue to drift back until a slight puff gives us some forward momentum. We look forlornly ahead to see Eye Spy and Escape heading for the shortened finish of Beachaven. Double rats!! We slowly get there to finish fourth. Third on handicap. A little more breeze Huey, if you please. Thanks to Nigel in the Tower and Corrina on the BBQ and John and Bronwyn as crew. Nona Race report from Eye Spy……… We awoke to a crisp morning and figured it was going to be drifter. This was proven to be correct!! A very large tide meant we were battling the tide on the start line and most had trouble with the very short start line…….who put the ODM so close? Mmmmmmm…….I guess that would be me eh. Greg and Mark on board with me today and we had all good intentions at the start. Didn’t go quite to plan and had to bail at the pin end. A gybe saw us heading back towards the club in clear air and in last place. Tacking up to South Orange and we were making gains on the boats in front. Issue……….where the ****is the top mark? The South Orange mark was submerging then reappearing 5 minutes later. This made for confusion as Escape, Blue Beat and Eye spy rounded. None of us could be sure we rounded so we returned when it had reappeared and rounded again. This put us ahead of the other two then just left Nona and Firsty ahead of us. A short kite run down to the ODM and we were within reaching distance of the two leaders as long as the breeze stayed in. This was not to be the case and on reaching the top mark it fortunately emerged as we rounded. Not enough breeze to even fill the kite and then a change of direction to on the nose. We see Nona had drifted past the mark and we are able to make the most of the little breeze available to us and creep ahead to finish at BeachHaven ahead of Nona. Well done to Firsty who took out the win. There were large “holes” out there so the race was a bit of a lottery. Second place to Eye Spy after handicap. Good result all things considered. Thanks to the tower crew for their efforts and Corrina for the sausies afterwards. Pre-race Report -By Jos ford It was a frosty morning on the marina pier, The sun is shining but the ice is still here. Could be the lack of wind to blow it away. There is an abundance of sails hoist, With yachts are still tied in their berth. Could be the lack of wind to blow them away. Both CCYC and HYC are racing today, Blue Beat, Elan, Escape, Appaloosa - waiting for crew then underway. Could be a lack of wind to blow them away? The forecast is variable 5 knots, But there is a good fleet of yachts. Could be a lack of wind to blow them away. The outlook is rum, beer and snack, Wonder what time they’ll all be back? Could be the tide that helps drift them round. |
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