Race 5

Another race for the JJ and another winner, at least the leading bunch of 6 skiffs are sharing the glory around... well done to Woody Jnr and his crew on appliances on line for a nice win on a day when the sun and warm weather finally returned to the Harbour... a shifty 10knt N/E breeze and a quiet harbour greated our skiff, but we somehow managed to miss our prefered port end start position...seems as though a few more of the fleet have discovered the uncrouded port end... also forgetting the start watch doesnt help, neither does getting to the start line 2 mins before the gun... so we crossed plenty of transoms up the first leg to Beashal bouy and managed to gain a few down around Shark Is, by the second upwind we where back in mid fleet fighting with the CST guys and the usuall mid fleeters and feeling quick... then a small disaster at the second time to Clarke Is... we got a huge gust out of the east and overshot the bottom mark then somehow managed to wrap the tack line around the end of the pole on the kite drop... my young guys didnt panic and got it all sorted without a swim or hitting the rocks on the island... so by the last kite set at Beashal again, we had to park and untie and also managed to wine glass the kite for a few hundred metres... so there goes 8 or 10 skiffs cruising by... basically in this tite fleet, one stuff up and your gone... so a tough 28th for the team and a hard lesson for my young team, but nice to see we can get out of bad starts and gain some ground thru the fleet... ye we are not threatening the top ten or the top 15 for that matter, but that was never going to be a reallity in this super fast fleet... me and my guys are just happy to be in there racing and doing ok against some of the fast guys
With 2 races to go its anyones JJ to take, all the top guys are fast enough to win, its just down to who can keep there cool and not stuff up.... and with more mid range big rig days forecast... its turning into an all big rig regatta... shame, I was looking forward to some No2 rig days of jumping and crashing
My young team has sailed very well over the last 5 races and exceeded my expectations by far, with 2 more to go, and if we can get off the line cleanly and fight hard, we mite get that nice mid fleet result we have been so close to all week, maybe even stay in front of Woody for more than a lap or 2
Hopefully some interesting video to be shown soon, we have had the camera in a few different spots so should be able to get a short highlites package together
See what the weekend brings us... no doubt a congested Harbour but hopefully enough breeze for some nice rides