Happy Ozzy Day

The team decided early in the week that due to the Australia Day long weekend, that included League races sunday and holiday monday, we would not do the satday SFS race, and how lucky was that decision. Yes lovely weather for the beach, but 20 plus knt westerly and 30 degrees heat is not my idea of fun skiff sailing conditons, then late in the arvo a nice 30knt classic Sydney southerly buster blew thru to cool things down... thank god

So sundays League race for the 3rd heat of the Aus Titles was a much more pleasant day than the stinking hot westerly of satday, and the team headed out for an early start to the race track... bad move, after getting to the start area ahead of time for a change we floated around as we waited and waited and waited some more... the starters favourite flag was in action again... postpone start, this time as the whole fleet waited for the spectator ferry to arrive, then another postpone with about one minute to start gun... by this time we had been on the water for over an hour, ye at least much better than our 2 previous weeks of getting to the start line with about one min to go.

The poor fading southerly was not looking very pretty by now and as we headed around the race track in lite and shite conditions... all we could do was watch as the massive square tops sailed away in to the distance... we managed to stay with some boats all the way around but lost a position by one second on the finish line to record a rather forgetable 20th place, at least the Club Marine guys managed to fall over a couple of times to let us thru, but as we floated our way back to the SFS me and the boys wondered if we should take the big leap and go the square top option... really is no fun wathching other boats just cruise away thru the harbour chop... at least my young crews efforts with kite sets, gybes and drops are pretty sweet cause thats the only time we seem to gain any ground... so we need some more grunt, lets see what we can do about this issue by the time the JJ comes around

Then on to Australia Day and some minor tweaks to the rig after sundays low saw us again with a nice S/E breeze with a little more pressure... and as we threaded our way out of SFS bay past many happy Oz day party boats and ferries and into the Harbour washing machine we managed to tear the jib clew board away from the sail cloth... great, on the water for all of 10 mins and our day was over. So Bendo became human jib cleat and saved us from flogging the sail to death by riding the foredeck back home to the Squaddy... ah well could have been worse, at least it was an easy downwind cruise home with a bit of Oz Day sightseeing on the way... so no result and no chance to do some much needed rig tune up against the fleet... so what do we do... go square top or push on with our "old fashioned" pin head main... Hmmmmm

But nice to see Tuesdays Daily Telegraph sport section with a great story about how all the League guys had a torid day avoiding all the Australia Day action on the water... and as they say "any publicity is good publicity"... the Rag guys had a half page pic of the skiff in all its glory... but unfortunately in the tide and centre board dancing... would have loved to post the pic but maybe the Telegragh wouldnt be too happy

So maybe we got lucky with our early gear damage and missed a lot of the carnage... but a DNS is not a good look either

Ah well theres allways next week.... and after looking at the forecast below... 6 continuous days of classic Sydney N/E seabreezes we are in for a perfect weekend of skiff racing again...if only the JJ was this week
And with some No.2 rig kite and jib recuts from Neil at Barra this week our teams small rig will be a little nicer and hopefully faster... looks like some fun days ahead, and hopefully some new pics

Racing Part 2

Here we are fighting with a well known, and fast League skiff... ye thats us in the background with black kite

Well another stunningly perfect weekend of skiff sailing conditions on Sydney Harbour greeted the team again. With forecast of a dying Southerly the team were thinking big rig, but as the day progressed the breeze clocked a little to the left and started to increase from the South East. At some point it looked like being a little too fresh for my young crew, but Bendo and Sam where very keen to test out all the new changes to our No2 rig as well as our abilities

On with the small rig and after a few tweaks of the set up to allow for all of Neils changes at Barracouta Sails... link here... http://barracoutasails.com/default.aspx we headed out to test ourselves and the rig. After starting very late and giving Flipper a good 10 mins headstart we managed to get around the track with no huge dramas... apart from nearly ending up driving the skiff up on the rocks at about 20+knts on a crazy 2 sail reach past Cremorne Point lighthouse... actually would have ended up in the lighthouse if it wasnt for Bendos quick thinking under pressure and easing heaps of headsail just at the rite moment... oh and some awesome kite runs which the guys where heard to say " thats the fastest we have ever been" with a few "F" words deleted....if only we had the GPS

Basically a great training day for the guys in probably the freshest conditions they have ever sailed an 18, something that is not as easy as it sounds, with no swims, no problems, no broken gear or stuff ups... just the perfect day to get the boys confidence going

Then on to sunday against the pros from the League, this time a lovely building North Easter... and a perfect mid range No.1 rig race.

We started quite well after the first general recall and maaged to cross most of the fleet at Bradleys Head on port tack, all thanks to the start boat moving the pin end up to windward by 50 metres and making the start line even more biased at the pin end... cheers Ace... as well as Sams excellent countdown skills... we arrived very late to the start line with less than 2 minutes to go with no countdown watch, at the 1min signal Sam called every second down till the start gun... I guess all that music training at the Con made the all difference, from there we slowly got gobbled up by the fast guys and after a luckless entry and exit from Shark Is the first time around we lost 8 boats down the kite legs, but still hanging in there with most of the mid fleet

Eventually we finished in 19th after somehow getting the tack line wrapped in a knot around the end of the pole at the last top mark, so in the drink with Bendo up to the end of the pole and undo the mess and putting us behind the pack, we did manage to pass one upturned League skiff near the finish line, he must have felt bad for us when he passed us at the top mark while we untied our mess

So 19th... while most skiff experts would say that is pretty ordinary, me and the guys are pretty damn happy with this result, specially our start and staying with the fast guys for a lap or so... again last year we could only dream of doing this. With every week young Sam and Bendo are proving to be great learners and great skiff sailors after only 5 races together, we are getting the basics sorted very well and staying out of trouble, no crashes, no swims and in general a very happy skiff team

With some more great training days like this we eventually can sail with our heads out of the boat a bit more and try and stay with the quick guys just a little longer around the race track...but as they say "you have to crawl before you walk"

The other positive sign for the team is the astounding amount of interest generated in the rigging park at SFS headquarters with many people chatting happily to the guys while we rig, and not just from other sailors but members of the general public just asking questions and genuinely interested in our skiff, from the shiny new carbon wings to the paint work or the usual question of "how fast is it???" One interesting comment from a lovely old American lady passing by "what stops the water coming in the back???" The guys simple answer - "speed"

Other people coming up to us saying they have some pics of us from the week earlier on the Harbour and would we like to have a look... really incredible the number of people interested and makes for a fun friendly atmosphere around the skiff and for the team... if only we could convey this interest to a prospective sponsor... one day we mite get lucky... but for now we push on doing the small improvements to rig and sails and getting the team sailing well together... so far so good

Finally a big congrats to the young Gotta Love It 7 team and their amazing win by nearly 2 mins... thats a huge margin at this time of the year leading up to the JJ, and one that will have the other League guys wondering how to catch up... yes they have got some good backing behind them and all the best gear, but they are really making the most of there good fortune... there are plenty of other well funded teams out there but showing very little of the skill and talent that is obvious on the 7 skiff... well done blokes

Racing

Our first hit out on the Harbour began on satday at SFS racing against Flipper and Ian in a lite easterly and big rig, with me Sam and Benny enjoying a lovely day getting back into Sydney Harbour mode... looking for ferries, breeze and the assorted day cruisers and yachties while just generally staying out of trouble... unlike Flipper who managed to clean up a poor unsuspecting kayaker(pics to come)

So a perfect day for testing the latest changes and so far so good, the team is sailing very well together and with some more changes this week from Neil at Barracouta Sails we are definitely all very happy with the results... although Flipper did just get us at the finish, but overall a nice first day of racing(pics to come soon)

Big thanx again to our team support sponsor Timmy and Kylie from All About Tanks... link here. http://allabouttanks.com.au/ for the great pics from the weekend and taking Leslie and Rors onboard the corporate yacht for a lovely harbour cruise... cheers guys

Then as pics above show the team made our debut for the season against the League guys on sunday for Heat 1 of the Aussies, and what a great day

although we didnt get a result due to some gear problems, me and the boys showed we are not slow... ye we are not fast either... but considering it was our first time racing with the small rig and I managed to get probably THE worst start possible at the pin end... we rounded the first mark in 12th and catching some boats downwind... both of which we never managed last season... Benny had to laugh when i asked to him to back off some kite horsepower so we didnt end up on some transoms of a few well respected League guys, and after some perfect gybes from Sam we rounded the bottom mark for the next upwind in similar positions and still infront of many boats we could only dream of staying with last year

Half way back upwind to the top mark we decided some rigging was not too happy and instead of destroying things completely we thought it was better to head back to SFS headquarters. So we learnt plenty from first race and know we can get more pace from the old girl yet... just more recuts, tweaks and changes from Neil at Barra

From my point of view it was not good to get a DNF... but on the flip side very happy how young Bendo and Sam performed under the pressure of racing the pros from the League in a solid 20knt N/E breeze with big run out tide... the perfect Sydney Harbour conditions

see what happens next weekend...

Oh... and well done to the Southern Cross guys for their win... although it seems the UK guys on Project One where leading all race and pitchpoled close to the finish line and broke their rig... very unlucky and lots of hard work to put it all back together for next weeks race... all that training and tuning 4 days a week for the past few months makes a huge difference... will be interesting to see what happens in the JJ Worlds... maybe a another international winner

Bendos Back

Finally the well travelled Ben is back on board the skiff and we wasted no time at all in getting the salt water back in his veins and face, what was looking like a nice cruisy 10 to 15knts to ease Ben back into skiffing after travelling around the world for the past 6 months, turned into a very nice if not a little crazy 25knt N/E(seabreeze was showing 28knts at Kurnell) dash around the beautifull Botany Bay, and to top it off it was my birthday as well.
So Ben was a little shell shocked at being throne in at the deep end after not sailing for 6 months, but really it was like getting back on a bike, no dramas at all
Considering we all had not sailed together with small rig ever!! And the last time for me was over 12 months back, it was very nice to have no broken bits, no problems and in the end a very nice training day for us all. Unfortunately we didnt have either the GPS or video cam on board, so nothing to show for, but we where all very happy boys as we left St.George SC at 7.30pm in a big hurry as I was a little late to my own birthday drinks, the 22 missed calls on my mobile from my partner Leslie meant I was by now running very late, but it didnt stop the party, thanks to all for a great nite

Then only 2 days later on new Years Eve we decided that a very late arvo sail would be a great way to finish the year, on the water at 6pm after a speedy rig up, and the breeze decided to fade away slowly, so we floated around in about 4 knts for an hour or so to see how our super lite wind sailing skills handled the conditions, again some nice training time on the water and good practice for Benny to remember how it all goes in slow motion mode

Even though we have missed a lot of the summer racing allready, its now full steam ahead to the JJ Worlds in mid Feb, and with lots of training still to be done in the next few weeks, me and the guys are pretty happy how things are moving along, and ye will be nice to see where we are against the League guys in a few weeks time for the first race of the Austaralian Titles starting 11th Jan

Maybe next training session we will remember the camera and GPS