remmie’s sailing blog

And the mistress is already into me for an update….

Final offshore weekend…

Well everyone (OceanOutlook, Seabreeze, BuoyWeather) was saying 4k of wind, only variation was shift times; BOM said 10-15 with a similar shift, BOM are never right, right?  Stocked up on the normal pain killers didn’t bother with a 5th crew member and mentally prepared ourselves for an annoying depressing day (we are not a light air boat).

Rocked up and bugger us, BOM were on the money, miracles never cease.  Hmm, better take the beer as insurance, should have got a 5th, bah, got my mate (J) that sails the 60′ with me we’ll be right.  Did our normal; rock up to the start line, coffee in hand, sails down, couple people nursing hang over tricks (it makes us hungrier).  Got a very nice start, rolled a 48ft’er out of the game when they tried to take our reserved spot (the one at the boat end).  Find it interesting how many of the bigger boats try and bully the smaller boats and how quickly they stop it when they realise it’s people who aren’t going to be intimidated (me and J are usually the big boat bullying everyone else).

Anyways, got out there, tacking a bit slower so we didn’t have to skirt the jib but doing well. Had our main competitor clear our, not 100% sure how that happened, I think we were having arguements with the tail end of Div 1.  Got 4th to the offshore mark and they stayed offshore, on an onshore breeze *blink*.  Not ones to look a gift horse in the mouth we went right, half way back in to the coast and tacked to run the coast. Pulled in about 5m on the 32′ and 3m30s on the 30′, all back into a pack, the 32′ took a bit longer to see the writing on the wall.  The lead boat (38′) was going WAY left and we knew he was out of it.  Bit of a shuffle, lots of shit fights to get on the right side of the circle and lots of down drafts causing 30 degree lift/knock depending where you were, got shot down on a few of them and then nailed the big one, got the right side of the circle, a boat above and half a boat behind.

Sailing back to the beach mark we came from in 8-12 and watch the guys in front hit a 60 degree knock; there’s this sheer line in the water, kind of trippy, we were a boat length above and didn’t hit the shear line for another 10 boat length.  It was the end of the wind and beginning of that annoying fingers shit.  The 32′ managed tacked early and came back over to us, to pick up this finger running just off the beach (100m), ran it out and both parked.  Chatted to them, the swimmers off the beach, had a snooze in the jib, tried to convince one of the swimmers that she should take up sailing…. immediately, apparently her boyfriend wouldn’t think it was a great idea (*sounds of a plane dive followed by an earth shattering kaboom*).  Basically got bored and tipsy 100m off the beach and 500m from the mark for an hour.

Wind eventually turned and came in at about 4k the other way, ha!, BOM were full of BS and the others were right! (sort of).  The 32′ is a helium filled sports boat (minus bow sprit) so he disappeared on the sparrow’s fart that came in as soon as it turned.  The rest of us went around 3 abreast, course was shorteded so then it was just a painfully slow beat to the finish against a 30′ lighter than us and a boat with WL over us so finished the expected way; 4th over the line, not sure on handicap.

Kind of amusing, the big boys in Div 1 had managed to stay in the 10-15k NE all the way around and so they had got in at about 1; Div 2 and the second half of Div 1 got dumped by the breeze.  They then had waited for results, which didn’t get announced until 6, some very drunk boys in the bar.

All we got now is fortnightly inshore races for a couple months so these may be a bit slower… oooo and the skipper is away for the final two inshores, I get unleashed on a helm.  Should be interesting; the back of the boat is for big girl’s blouses, rich boat owners, primadonnas, geatrics, rockstars and the occassional bloody good brains trust, I don’t fit any of those groups and haven’t helmed a race since I was 14 and sailing dinghys *blinks*.

Rgds,

remmie