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!!