Posted on Wednesday 4 April 2007
Of us from Geographe Regatta Week…
GRW pics and vid…
Posted on Sunday 18 February 2007
Took Friday off work and took the T980 down to Busselton (about 300k’s south of Perth), meant a 6am start which sucked. Had to stop on the way and get a spreader end welded up, got down there. Few problems putting it back together, the crane wasn’t able to stand over the mast so we had to dance the mast around the head of the crane trying to drop it back in. Then saga of all saga’s; the keel slides up the casing as it sits on the trailer, putting it back together you lift the boat up and the keel slides through, you bolt the keel back on and lift it back into the water. It’s a bit of a jiggle to get it back on but it’s dealable…. except when it’s a 2.7m draft and the max lift on the tammy is 3m, add 30cm for the trailer and you’ve a bee’s dick to jiggle with; two hours later. Got all the running rigging back in, just need to get the standing rigging sorted and we should be good for the state regatta next weekend.
Got dropped at Farr92 states on the way back to Perth; 6 races over two days. Got out Saturday morning; rain with 25-30, this was NOT in the brochure. Made the wrong sail choice (*grumbles*) and picked up 3rds for the frist two races, with Elusive picking up a couple 1sts and Farr Fetched and Farr Lap picking up a 2nd and 4th each; the other half of the fleet wasn’t going to be in the running. Things cleared after lunch, we made the right sail choice and cleaned up a 1st, Elusive 2nd, Farr Fetched 3rd and Farr Lap out the back door; three horse race. Today (Sunday) was great weather with 5-10kt; Elusive on 4, us on 7, Farr Fetched on 9. Started things off, first race we grabbed a bullet, Elusive got a 4th. Second race of the day, we were confident about taking Elusive down in light to medium breezes and wanted to make that 4th stick, we screwed them (and ourselves) out to a 6th (and 5th). Final race of the day we just went for it, pulled off an equal first (yes, equal, we were at the pin end with Farr Fetched and they couldn’t pick us apart, Elusive was dead last (throwing out wing and prayer stuff to try and get us).
First, us (Igawa); second Farr Fetched, third Elusive.
State regatta in a weeks time so have something while I’m down there…
Posted on Friday 9 February 2007
OK, kind of lost energy for this (had my reasons, read on) but decided it’s time to bring things up to date… this is going to be long…
Since Semptember, crap, I can’t think that far back… OK stuff…
Been sailing in 4 formats; serious offshore on the little girl (60′ sled), drunken under-crewed comedy routines (Farr 30), rapid learning curve of suicide (Thompson 980), cruisy slack racing on a custom 42′ cat.
First off, cruisy slack racing on the cat. Me and a mate (from the Farr30) took a couple weeks off and headed up for the 20th Kings Cup Regata in Phuket, anyone that has done this regatta will tell you about it. Basically 7 days of racing boats and 5 nights of all your can eat/drink (for $120) on a tropical island, seriously what it’s all about. My olds are retired and gone sailing, been hanging about in SE Asia for the past 3 years so I make them come back for KC each year, makes for cheap accomodation and is a good chance to catch up with them. Rocked up on the Friday, racing starts Sunday, we don’t have a boat. Not really stressed out, got our ears to the ground and have put the word out.
Saturday night I’m out showing my mate showing him the, errr, “sights” of Thailand and we get a call from the old man telling us to stop drinking and get out asses to bed, he’s just got off the phone from Nick Burns and we have a ride. Nick is co-owner in Mandrake, a modified (optimised 8-12kts) Mills 51 which runs a semi-pro crew and competes throughout the SE Asia regatta circuit, it’s a serious race progrma with serious boat. At this point celebratory drinks are required and the night degrades further. I eventually call a halt to the evening and on the walk home meet our old friend, projectile vomit. HAHA, drank too much you say, this degraded to diahorea and vomitting for 4 days and went though my mate and my olds, gastro virus says I.
So anyways, that puts me off Mandrake for the Sunday which is the practice race and the day they’re bedding in crew, so basically off the boat. Cruising cat is hunting for crew so end up there. Continue week of racing and partying, managed to get a quick ride on Mandrake later in the week and we’re welcome back so get another run sometime. Also on Mandrake were an awesome Pommie/Irish couple that we spent the week running a muck with. Final night party was interesting, we stole something like 8 bottles of spirits from the bar (for 6 people), went skinny dipping, grabbed any decent looking chicks wandering down the beach and convinced them to go skinny dipping…. the usual sort of behavior :). Pics of all the boats and stuff (not of the skinny dipping, drunken behaviour, family/friends, etc) are at,
http://picasaweb.google.com/jockmain/KingsCup/
After all the racing was finished we went island hopping with the olds and the Pommy/Irish couple, had an awesome couple days just cruising around. Already making arrangements for next year :) The only downer for the trip was I dislocated my shoulder in my sleep again, thankfully it’s the last day there but yeah.
Farr 30 racing has been awesome, it’s a 5 or 6 person boat, we go out just the 3 of us. Generally put away a carton during a race (it’s only river racing), end up pissed drunk (when ever the skipper starts making any sort of decision we give him a fresh can to shut him up), our record is opening the 5th can at the first mark, and we’re currently leading the series. All three of us can sail, we’ve all done significant time on the boat, we’re all great mates. The only talking about anything to do with the race is the crew making a tactical decision whilst the skipper has another can. Only problem with the whole routine is the skipper has to give up the helm during the longer races cause he get’s too pissed to steer straight. Yes, I know, I know; blah blah blah, it’s not safe. We aren’t that bad, it’s just we approach the racing as a great oppurtunity to catch up with the boys and have a couple beers, racing is a second priority. We seem to be pissing a few people off though, we’re running on a 2nd, 1st, 2nd for racing in this format, we’ve done one race with a full crew and we got a 4th; go figure. Always racing with those guys when ever I can.
Inglis 57 had it’s twin rudders built, first race out was for the Perth to Geraldton race, I was a bit nervous about testing out the new twins on the hardest race of the year but always makes things interesting. (Un)fortunately I had to pull out due to another shoulder dislocation (this time had a “tourist” fall on top of me when a gybe caught her off balance out on the T980). The Gero course is basically around Rottnest (12nm offshore from Perth, turn right and head off on 300nm kite run. The boys didn’t make it to the Windmills (halfway to Rotto) before they had technical difficulties which made the local rag…
http://www.sailinganarchy.com/forums/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=33007
http://www.sailinganarchy.com/forums/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=33008
So that put her our of action for another couple weeks. Once she was back in the water had a couple races on her and since then I’ve stopped racing on her because of my shoulder dislocations and the new kid in town.
We’ve had a rapid learning curve of suicide on a Thompson 980 which has just moved to WA. It was bought by a lady who used to race on the Farr30 occassionally and it’s just too pornographic not to sail on. Pictures at,
http://picasaweb.google.com/jockmain/DarkEnergy/
The boat is a weapon, best we’ve had is 16kts, that was in 20kt with 25kt gusts and it was completely controlled, stable, and it was just humming. We’ve just got outselves a handicap for club racing and in the process of prep’ing the boat for the state regatta week. Been doing lots of racing, generally a couple races a weekend and the owner has a serious race schedule in mind, we’re already committed to Skandia next year. It’s been over for a couple months so far, been having a ball on it, actually allowed off the front of the boat, calling tactics and secondary helm which is nice upgrade and been allowed to steal it while she was over for Skandia so yeah, kind of cool. She’s just keeping me sweet cause she knows I’m the sucker that’ll stay up till 3am rebuilding winches for her (I was late for work this morning, why I’m not in the mood for work, and why I’m writing this).
Other than that, not a heap to tell. Shoulder has definately been pissing me off (and that’s basically why I haven’t been keeping this up to date) and had me a bit down; busted shoudler = can’t sail = pissed off remmie. It’s put me off the big girl (60′ boat doing 20kt+ offshore ain’t the place to be taking my shoulder) but I’ve found the little girl (T980) and in a much safer role (tacticians are the laziest bastards ever). Trying to tee up the reconstruction over winter so I reduce my down time and see what happens next year. T980 is talking about serious offshore, I reckon a 30′ sports boat doing 20kt+ offshore will be pretty good fun but we’ll see what pans out.
Posted on Sunday 24 September 2006
Summer series offshore has begun! First race kick off, official opening day is a couple weeks away. My regular ride is still out of the water getting converted to twin rudders so went out for a ride on another boat (I know, I’m a boat slut), a new Northshore 36.9. Was good fun, was allowed off the bow and I tend to be a tinkerer, being a new boat had all the bells and whistles so I was tinkering heaven.
Had a nice start, I thought we were out of it but ended up in clear air off the pin and on the right side of things, made the right moves to the top mark and got two trailer park girls for equal second with a Farr40 in first. Then had a 10nm drift, only 3 boats made it around and when the Farr52 withdraw the RC canned the race, so a bit of a non-event.
Got some snap shots though…
Saggy Ass (Sagacious)…
Max…
Steel De Breeze…
MX and someone else…
Posted on Monday 18 September 2006
Supposed to take the Farr30 out for the last winter race for the boat’s regular river club. Anyways found we lifted one of the jib tracks at some stage so decided that descretion was the better part of valour. By this stage I was a bit ansy and needed a sail so went out on a Cole 32 that I used to sail on.
They’d spent a heap of a dosh on her which I’d kind of told them was a bit of waste but I have to admit she looked speccy and the boat had picked up a lot of feel. Technically all they’d done is put a 3 blade folder on instead of the old fixed and new sail wardrobe, she’s a bit slipperier but the increased feel was amazing.
Anyways, had one of the helmsman off my baby on boarr, he took over the tactician/training role on the boat after I drifted off. I was training up their new deckie; he was actually pretty good, been out twice before, was completely comfortable with the basics, picked up a couple tricks straight away, just needs to learn how to fix the stuff ups and that’s just experience. Kicked some butt and wrapped up the winter series for the boat with a bullet so all good!
Got a few pics…
Mate’s boat that I went for shit and giggles the other week…
Some of the competition (the blue hull has to give us time (lots))…
Ohh, and work might be shipping me off to Auckland for three months fairly soon so have to weazel my way into the scene there… anyone know anyone let me know…
remmie
Posted on Tuesday 5 September 2006
The Intraweb is so full of porn; turn up the speakers, lock the doors and get a towel…
Posted on Monday 31 July 2006
My sometimes mid-foredeck from my baby bought himself a new toy…
Define stupidity…. 3 foredecks on a 7.8m over powered sports boat out for an afternoon wander with a carton, 15k of wind and a light air kite yet to be tested.
Now, I should have cottoned on when I spoke to the old man…. “I remember that bloody thing the first time it raced; over took it 4 times between Dolphin and Brickies (2nm) on Airborne (S&S 36)!” *blinks* “We talking about the same boat or your althimers kicking in again?” “Piss off. It would go flying past with these idiots, grins all over their faces. Two minutes later we’d sail past with them all swimming. Next second it would stand up again and go flying past again.”
So we get out there, mate wants to put up this kite, hasn’t seen it before and apparently it’s fun. It’s rated for 0-12, we’re in 8-12k with 15k gusts and it’s supposed to be sailed with 5… but we’re foredecks… we can do anything (once). Up it goes, get back to the pit (read fall back in the pit as the boat accelerates out from under me), grab the sheet; shit, I can’t see the luff and I need the winch. Ohh wait, theres about 10ft of the shoulder showing out the back of the main; this thing was massive.
So all three of us are standing there with semi’s contemplating how much fun this thing would be in a decent blow. 15k gust hits us, weeeeeeeee, round we go, splat, the boom his the water, cans are held between teeth so we had a hand for self presevation. First lesson; the pole trim eased, my can was full, and the shoulder of the kite wrapped around the back of the main and impaled it self on a batten. Quick head up to flick it off the batten, stick it back down and take off followed by soundof tearing as the hole opened up across the panel. Hrmmpf better take it down, start to get ready, weeee another gust of 15, start to round up as I fired the tack.
Collected it all up, very small tear. Opened another can (we’d all lost, dropped or spilt our beers by now), flicked the bird to the people having lunch at Meads and laughing at us and considered how scary this thing was going to be.
Posted on Thursday 27 July 2006
Got the camera back…. few pics that were on the cam to keep OG happy, maybe more to come off the memory card…
The little lady, Inglis 57…
This was just a quiet river race with tourists and I was allowed up the back of the boat cause I dislocated my shoulder the weekend before.
And the main competiton from the offshore series that I was doing on the Farr 30…
Thats all 
Rgds,
remmie
Posted on Tuesday 25 July 2006
Is awaiting pick up (in exchange for $180). Doing the happy dance!!! Lots of pics of eye candy (for the boys OG) and maybe a few boat pics/vidz as well coming to this space soon.