Monday, October 26, 2009

24/25 October Results

Terry Ellis 1st, 1st. Everyone else DNF. Maintenance day anyone?
The tables turned when Terry was the only boat to finish a race at RQYS on Saturday. Trapeze lines were the culprit on The Wingman and Ghetto Sled, which made sailing our skinny-ass new boats in the perfect 3rd rig weather almost impossible.
Terry didn't hang around to get his prize (probably would have been a chamois)

Sunday, October 18, 2009

17/18 October

Saturday, RQYS
Got 3 boats on the water once again with some crew mix-n-matchin. Ghetto was there with me and Tim Willis. Allwood Sails with Tristan Hamilton steering and Brendan crewing. Challenge was there with the veteran team rejoined of Terry Ellis and Don Robinson.

Race 1: I decided that the only way to beat Tristan was to pull off the grandest of starts so we went for the pin-end-on-port "bandit" start. This type of starting maneouvre is rarely successful but a 10deg shift with a minute to go helped out a lot. We crossed a flying, starboard-tacked I14 and powered down to get a jump on the Allwood. But they had some pretty impressive speed and just caught us by the top mark. Tim and I threw the big 3nd kite up and powered down to be in front by a little bit at the bottom. A slow drop allowed them to get through, take our wind, and cause us to fall in backwards. We gained a little during the next lap but were 2nd by 1min 40secs. Terry and Don were around somewhere, sailing their own race.
1st: Allwood Sails
2nd: Ghetto Sled
3rd: Challenge

Race 2: The wind had eased a little and this allowed Tim and I, lighter by 20-odd kgs, to stay powered up better than Tristan. Once again though, they sailed fast upwind and just beat us to the top. We once again powered away off the breeze and managed to hold on for a narrow (20sec) win.
1st: Ghetto Sled
2nd: Allwood Sails
DNF: Challenge

Tristan took home the Northern Allboats win and prize was a chamoise... Yay!

Sunday, DPSS
A regular club race on Sunday and once again in a very nice 12-15knot 2nd rig. Only the Sled was out there for the 12s (lots of 16s and 13s to play with) with me steering and Tristan on the pointy end. We sailed around the other fleet a bit because they were racing a state title heat, and had some good rides. It was a pretty quick with only 3 short laps, but that just made us work a bit harder. The fine tuning on the Sled continues... and a new big rig should be ready by the weekend.

Next weekend will see the return of skinnyman from his man o' mystery adventures so we should be getting 3-4 boats out there. Paulo's boat is still for sale. He's taking it to Geelong shortly, so anyone who's interested should call him asap!!

Sunday, October 11, 2009

10-11 October

A strange weekend weather wise that didn't really yield results. Saturday forecast was 15-18knots and blew in over 20. So the 2nd went in on Ghetto and we headed out to the start. I realised we weren't going to get around the racecourse when the first bearaway out of the leads resulted in a massive 2-sail mine!! One of those really quick ones that doesn't give you time to react. Tim went into the sidestay and came out with half his wetsuit leg missing. He got a nice bruise from that one.


So we sailed up to the top of the bay, hoisted the kite and had one insane ride and then crashed and came in. Always good to have a sail seriously overcooked occasionally.

Sunday at DPSS was overcast but the breeze came in 10-15kts when it wasn't raining. Tristan and Tim Avery went out with their new 2nd rig and gave it a trial run. The new boys in Deagon Shipyards??? (formerly the Richter Constructions) only had their big rig so splashed around a bit. Good to see some more guys keen on having fun. Tristan finished the race (that was eventually abandoned...)

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

For Sail 3

images borrowed from www.sailingphotos.net

Giddy Up

Matthews Mk2 Design
Built December '08
Complete boat
#1, #2, #3 and #4 rigs
All sails brand new up to a few years old.
Cradle with wheels
On trailer
In Brisbane

Make me an offer.
Paul O'Malley-Jones
pkomj@optusnet.com.au


Big Boppa (formerly The Bus)

Nash 4 Hull
1/2 Carbon Mast
3 Carbon Mast
1, 2, 3 complete rigs
In Brisbane
$3000 ono trailer negotiable

call Tristan 0437 733 992

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Trailerbucketing

No skiff posts lately as i've been trailerbucketing in my Blazer23. Did the SYC Commodore's Cup (in 20-25 with 2.5m swell) and cracked the hull under the chain plates. Fixed it during the week so i could do the St Helena Cup out of WMYC. Didn't have it set up right and so didn't do so well.

Tristan took Big Boppa and The Wingman out last sat/sun and had a bit of fun in the big breeze apparently. This saturday we'll get back to 12ft skiff racing like we should.