Race week

Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Year One
Date: 03/9/2008 14:00
Weather: Perfect
Location: Nara Inlet
Author: Peter (a little under the weather)

As many of you may know we have spent the last week racing. We had a crew of dinghy sailors fly in to help crew Jura for us. We arrived two days early to prepare the yacht and to spend some time enjoying Hamilton Island. Pity the weather decided to go bad so any plans for a swim went out the window.

Pete and Paula off Valhalla, organised for us to go and play trivia on the second night, and much to our surprise we won the night and quite a few prizes which we enjoyed later, including a delicious meal and cocktails at the Steak House.

Hamilton Island for those who haven't been there

Hamilton Island Resort- unfortunatly the weather wasn't nice enough for us to really enjoy it

The fleet ranged from the maxi yachts such as Wild Oats 10 and Wild Joe down to Sonata 7 trailer sailors. We were divided into about 10 divisions. There were 3 cruising divisions, and after a little indecision we were placed into the 1st of these. Our division included friends on Van Diemen a 66ft clipper, a 55ft ex-racing boat, many 50-60ft boats and a few smaller then us. We were surprised to see many of these boats looked more like race boats with aramid fibre sails and a huge crew in matching outfits!

cramped

Race 1 was around Lindeman Island and was a little rough which saw our fairly inexperienced Vicky get a little sick. This was her only race but we hope it does not turn her off. This race also saw some confusion within the fleet of 225 yachts. With a few general recalls in fleets starting ahead of us some yachts got confused and started early. We believe around 6-7 of our division started 15 minutes early. Much to our disgust nothing was done to these boats and their results stood which ultimately affected our final result (my only disappointment with the whole regatta).

Race 2 saw us head for the Molle group with gusts up to 30 knots. Our little boat performed admirably as we finished around and ahead of much larger yachts placing 2nd on handicap.

The 3rd race headed south around Spitfire Rock, with a choice of return either side of Hamilton Island. Our initial plan was to head to the west of the island (the leaders went this way) however the breeze was much better east so after some discussion we went east. This decision proved to be correct and by the end of the race we were leading the series in cruising division one.

Our competitors...do these looking like cruising boats to you?????

A few sailing pics,look how crowded the start lines were. Downwind starts arrrgggg what a nightmare. As you can see our little yellow kite got swamped by the big boats and they didn't know their rules either.

Most of our races started and finished in the narrow Dent Passage, good for spectators, nerve racking for boat owners.

Tuesday was a lay day so while everyone relaxed I got to drive an Audi R8 around the airport test track. Like everyone else who got a drive the experience was awesome, and probably my only chance to ever drive a car like this.

Race 4 was a painful course of follow the leader, with next to no work or run, favouring the much larger yachts in our division. Place over the line corresponded with position on handicap.

The big boats start

BEWARE of planes landing

Thursday again saw a lay day and the fleet head round to White Haven beach for a massive beach party. Our crew had a quiet BBQ ashore before some of us headed over to the festivities that Kylie and Sue described as one GIANT schoolies party. The yachties appeared well behaved while the ring in back packers were a bit wild (just ask Kylie what she saw). Still it was a good day and White Haven looked packed with hundreds of yachts anchored just offshore and the RAAF performing overhead.

Race 5 took us back towards the Molle group and after some good sailing we again managed a great result, keeping us second overall. The final day racing took us north around all the Molle Islands. This race was once again bias towards the larger boats who managed to miss most of the increasing tide and decreasing breeze. Although trying our best and looking good at the end of the run, we could not beat the tide and ended up with our worst result, placing us equal third overall but losing on a count back. Still we all had a great time, and it made me feel great that our yacht was keeping up with yachts much larger and with sail wardrobes of racing yachts. The amount of attention Jura got on the wharf also made us feel great. People were coming from other fingers just for a look or to ask us questions, as well as giving Jura plenty of praise.

Olympic Sailors are welcomed

During the regatta the Olympic sailing team flew in and Kylie and I got to catch up with some old friends who we think did superbly over in Beijing.

We would really like to thank Neil Tasker; Our sail maker (Barracouta Sails) jack of all trades and super crew,
Darren Eggins; Fore deck,
Peter Davis, Peter Smith, Jess Wyers and Ian Lisle; Cockpit Crew
Ian and Sue Ritchie; bits of this and that.
Vicki; Shore crew

Darren enjoying a 10minute jet ski courtesy of the Trivia Night

Darren couldn't leave work behind...you know you are meant to be on holidays don't you?

The only down side was the flu that was passed around during the regatta, many of our crew suffered from and I now have.

On a side note we would like to congratulate our friends Pete and Paula who not only won their division but also won the car. Well done.

Packing up was a massive job. This is just a small part of the gear we removed from the boat!!!