remmie’s sailing blog

Didn’t race this weekend; got a call from the skip at 1330, “Where are you?”, (supposed to be on the boat at 1230) “F**k, F**K!!, ummm, errr, in bed!?”, “I’m on my way to your place.”.  Call the other crew, “Where are you?”, “At home, didn’t hear from you this morning.”, “Good, sorry, next weekend.”.  Proceeded to barricade my front door, arm myself and wait him out.

Walks in my door, “Where’s my coffee”, *run-to-kitchen*, “How much did you drink?”, “A six pack”….. *pause*….. “What was her name and when did she leave?”.  They (skipper and eye candy) were more concerned cause I wasn’t on the boat, rigged, engine running, when they got down there.  Didn’t cop any flak; it was a millpond so they weren’t really interested and it was decided my guilt and self-flagellation was going to be enough (true).

So yeah, no sailing this weekend, offshore is finished, so nothing for a fortnight.  Depressing; have to organise a sail to Rotto for lunch if next weekend looks good.

Rgds,

remmie

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

So yeah, inshore race, Farr 30.

Had the usual suspects (me, the boss, and the eye candy (his missus)) plus a skipper from the offshore series as crew.  Now this guy is, by all reports and what I’ve seen, a bloody good skipper and sailor.  Unfortunately this doesn’t extend to crew work; reinforced my general ban on skippers on foredeck unless the boat is moored.

No massive stuff ups, just wasn’t snappy and crisp; the boss is steering, the eye candy is on strings, I’m on the foredeck and main, he’s trim; it just flowed and made everything sloppy cause he was working the middle of the boat.  I think he’s reevaluated us though, kind of viewed us as the ‘kids’ and started telling us what we could/n’t do…. “Everything is possible, just need some time to think about it”.

Got 4th and 4th so wasn’t horrible just not as smooth as previous efforts.  Was spewing cause the wind strength was in our sweet spot, another person or a regular crew and we would have been laughing but these things happen.  Inshore is just for sheep stations anyways, offshore is where the blood rules apply so looking forward to the weekend.

Ohh, Orange spanked it; 4 days, 8 hours, 23 minutes, 54 seconds.  Wiped 9 hours off the record and one of the rudders looked like this;

Apparently the cavitations over 30 knots were interesting and unmanagable at 35 *blinks* 

Rgds,

remmie

Orange…

Has severly crushed their own 24 hour record having a crack at the eastwards Trans-Atlantic record.

Stood at 706 or something (who cares :)).  They have been running for 42.5 hours at an AVERAGE of 31.3 knots, they’re averaging over 750 miles a day.  Best 24 hour sked has been something like 760 miles but probably won’t be ratified until they’re finished and they may not be done yet.

Keep an eye at http://www.netandsea.com/maxicatamaran-orange2/, gets updated every 15 minutes or so.

AWESOME

Started out in 8-12, had an absolute romper of a start except for words with some morons.  Bit late in arrival, a quick run along the line, spin around and we’re lining up the start.  Running the line with every coming up close hauled, all shouting up, no one really serious cause we were clear.  Then one decides we’re being a bit too cheeky and starts to hunt us, misses, spits his dummy that we didn’t go up; he never got  closer than 2m and the only course adjustment he made was coming down to try and get us.  Got a screamer of a start just lee and ahead of him and he starts screaming that we were OCS, nothing on the start boat.  Break away and come back with him just behind at the first mark at which point he decides he’s protesting us.  Pointed out that it was null and void; ignoring the fact it was a non-incident and there were more than enough witnesses, he didn’t notify us as his earliest oppurtunity (it was the 3rd) and we’d be rule 2 protesting him for the OCS calls.  Shut him up and flag disappeared by the time he hit the finishing line; dick.

Wind was up and we were rolling, did a fairly good horizon job on most of divi 2 and were in the middle of divi 1 fighting with Northshore36’s, Farr40s (albiet they had a 360), etc.  Big grins all round.  Slid back a bit on the big run offshore, divi 1 took off and the WL divi 2 boats caught up with us.  Got halfway around the course, wind died and we parked.  Watched WL divi 2 sail away with momentum and the rest of divi 2 just sail up behind us from a  mile away and past us in one case.  It was 3-5k just forward of the beam, we just didn’t have the sail wardrobe, we’ve got an awesome running kite but it’s got very rounded shoulders, we’ve got a symetrical kite but it’s heavy and has too much leech curl.  Both of them were catching the wind in a leech curl and acting like a brake, so we were having to two sail.  Quite a few of the other lead boats had a kite they could shape up right and just sailed around us.

Got 4th over the line and handicap wasn’t pretty.  Handicap results weren’t too popular, 2nd position was virtually got boo’ed they were so far behind and they were looking very sheepish about getting it.  Joys of PH.

Very unwell boy today, didn’t hit the piss too hard but kind of forgot to eat.  Got home and ended up with a couple friends from my apartment block dropping by on thier way home from partying and they didn’t leave until 5am (wasn’t complaining… they were the hot female type).  So rocked down with about 2hrs sleep and feeling fairly seedy from piss minus food.  Pausing mid gybe to hurk is never a good look.  Can be effective in discouraging people from luffing you though

Ohh, and actually put some faces with some of the SA crew as well which was cool.  Hopefully put some faces with the LSD crew if I get over for Airlie Beach.

Rgds,

remmie

Weekend race, started fairly solidly, bit of confusion with the start; downwind?!?  Got away decently, 3rd around the first mark to our main competitor in a Farr92 and a Beneslow 38-42ish.  Pulled back 3BL and got an overlap on the 2nd mark.  He broke right, we went a bit more left where we felt there was better air and we put ourselves in a solid 2nd place (he kept going right for the rest of the day and kept getting served for it, bit of slow learning).  Got round the top mark and unleashed the kite, Beneslow was very slow hoisting and didn’t have the DW speed we do in that sort of wind (10k).

Beneslow fought kind of pointlessly; significantly bigger boat we weren’t going to cause him a lot of pain, we were clearly faster with a comparitively bigger kite capable of going a lot shy’er and he was trying to luff us into the break water (i.e. we were going to get obstruction rights).  Didn’t really hurt us that much, we drove over the top of him, he tried to follow, wrapped his kite up and got fed to the pack; lost 3 positions (plus an extra couple divi 1 boats in front of him) trying to win an impossible arguement.

Big run back offshore, fresh breeze came in, the guys behind caught it first but it just had a bit more ompf off the beach a couple mile; normal rich get richer thing.  Had a naviguessing error on the final mark, wasn’t the naviguesser’s fault (i.e. me), the skipper just forgot the heading coming around the mark so decided to “head a bit higher to be safe” until I had time to check the heading again.  Apparently 60 degrees above is “safe”.

Ended up with a 12 minute lead for a 2 hour race, first and fastest; happy lil vegimites.  Bit stressed now though, we’ve got something to live up to now and we’re gonna end up with mud on our faces when we go tits up.

Turfed one of the crew; kept panicking and stuffing up on the first inshore (tried to turf me overboard by releasing the topping lift halfway through a gybe), first offshore he was a bit better but on the weekend he was just a complete no show.  Been a bit flakey overall, didn’t put any time into boat preparation with the rest of the regular crew, etc; so he’s out.  Need a replacement now, anyone in Perth want a ride?

Oh, and after the committee antics from the first inshore (over time, DSQs, etc; see below) they decided to scrap the entire race; looked like someone protested, letter from the chairman basically saying it was non-negotiable and no futher protests can be entered.  Not sure how that’s going to affect us for the inshore series over all but we shall see.

Found out the camera is going to cost $100-150 to fix *cringe*.  Try and get it sorted this week and hopefully have it back up and running for next weekend.  Although there are some pics up from last weeks offshore race at http://www.sailinganarchy.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=36786; sorry OG, I know devil’s spawn website

Rgds,

remmie

PS Worked out what I’m going to use this for now as well, personal sailing diary so if you don’t like it, www.google.com (suggest searching for “meatspin”)

Bit behind the times but update on the weekend…

First of the offshore winter series and we served it.  Started with a light easterly, eventually got beaten down by the incoming seabreeze.  We managed to sail in front of the 3 mile transition hole and pick the seabreeze coming back off the coast, pretty much avoided the transition which was great, sailed around everyone parked in the hole skimming the edge of it by a boat length.  Had a great battle with another boat running into the beach mark; one light planing hull, one heavy displacement hull made for fun and games in light puffy stuff.  Eventually got the overlap on the mark, hauled up beside them cause they blinked on the kite drop first, slammed it round and shut the door on the inside shot much to their distress considering they were already sticking it in there.  From there is was a bit of soldier’s course (easterly course on a SW breeze) and we had the displacement boy between us and the competition with a divi 1 boat storming down on them.  Got 3rd over the line beaten by a 42′ and a 36′ in a 30′, 4th on handicap only beaten by the displacement and LWL boys;  so happy little vegimites.

Was really grouse, had a thrown together crew and we just stuck it, grabbed the sailing master from my baby and it was awesome.  We’re used to working together but him having to direct people to do what I needed; having him work directly with me was pure porn; it’s amazing the change in dynamic one person can cause.  Scared our skipper a few times, he was of the opionion that we should be dropping the kite 2BL before the mark, not having the pole still up as the bow went past the mark.  We had float hoists, float drops, and peels happening; this was the boat that I introduced to float drops last week so an interesting learning curve.

All in all very good weekend, smiles all round.  Decided that we should probably lighten the boat and take things seriously now!

Rgds,

remmie

Hrmpf, why’d my theme just reset itself?

Good news first

6 196 Mini-minx GOVONI-Raeffer THOMSON-Alex Arrivé

Noice, 6th Proto in for Mini Fastnet.  Kudos!!!

Found out my baby (Inglis 57) was doing winter series last night, already committed to another boat (it’s a good mate so all good) but I always cry when my lil lady is out and I’m not with her.  Someone else walking around my foredeck is like perving on a mate’s missus, it just feels dirty.

Shit wind today, I think light winds are a national epidemic; glass with random little fingers of breeze.  Some absolute moron (including us) finds himself on a finger and just ride up it for a mile lead.  Just stupid, no consistency, just too much luck invovled.  Other than that had fun, was good for teaching purposes… “Right, float mexican drop”, “Huh?”, “Follow my call”; crash course in mexican drops ensues, nice and easy in light winds.

No pictures, absolutely gutted, my 2 month old waterproof camera has a big ass crack through the LCD (no view finder). Cracked on the way down to the boat, narked big time, going to try and get it through as a warrantry job cause theres no marks on the case or screen, it was in it’s case, in my bag with my mobile phone (which is full size LCD screen and no where near as robust).

Then there was the commitee boat DSQ’ing boats who sailed through the finish line after they moved and hadn’t put an on station flag.  Then they screwed the finishing sheet, first boat in our divi was 6 minutes outside time limit and boat crew marked it as such.  Ther recorded the rest of us and presumed it was obvious, cause the first boat was over time, that the rest of us were.  When the comittee wrote up the results they marked us as fastest, then when they we corrected them (i.e. we were all over the time limit) they decreed that as they had announced and presented the flags the race would stand and the results be adjusted to account for the first boat.

Fun and games for the day but good for shits and giggles.

Mini Fastnet…. go the Minx!

277 Miles to go and has picked up 5 odd spots in the last two scheds, be awesome if Raeffer could pull it off.

http://www.winchesclub.com/fastnet650/….

Place No P/S Date/Heure TU Pos Dist Arrivée

1 424 P PCO Technologies-Set-EnvDiroEn-nLeAmMeOnTt TE-Tanguy DESHAYES-Ronan 07/06/06 05:50 51°11.124 N 009°27.450 W 273,808 M

2 196 P Mini-minx GOVONI-Raeffer THOMSON-Alex 07/06/06 05:50 51°13.932 N 009°30.864 W 277,289 M

3 265 P Vecteur-plus LE-VOURC’H-Didier LE-CLAQUIN-Aloys 07/06/06 05:50 51°14.610 N 009°30.690 W 277,666 M

4 291 P Déphémérides STEPHANT-Sébastien DUBOIS-Thierry 07/06/06 05:49 51°15.702 N 009°31.362 W 278,717 M

5 510 P Adria-mobil-too MIHELIN-Andraz SHARP-Philip 07/06/06 05:50 51°16.242 N 009°31.518 W 279,155 M

I love how much it says about Mini’s when someone like Alex Thomson (skipper of Hugo Boss) will go CREW on one.

Rgds,

remmie