The Season has begun!

It is with great anticipation that we face the new sailing season.  With much agitating on my behalf I convinced the significant other in my life to pull out the Pathfinder for a bottom scrub. Before we progress too far on the explanation, remember that the last pull out was in March 2008.  

We had the sailing club open day on Sunday 12 October and we decided to take out Pathfinder as the Wyvern was on the slip for a clean and the boys still wanted to get on the water. The boat sailed like a lump of concrete was being pulled along! What an embarrassment.  I knew she would be a bit slimy but that could not have made such a difference. After the opening short course race, which was just a fun event, the club holds a social get together over a lovely meal. We had a pleasant afternoon but then as the Bosun was about to leave he suggested he could pull her out then and there! Well how embarrassing - the mussels, weed, baby barnacles etc. All the remaining members were amazed.  See the pictures here:- http://groups.yahoo.com/group/columbiasailigyachts/photos/album/746710938/pic/list

The saga of the antifouling purchase is just too much to put on this blog.  Suffice to say that we had lots of different and conflicting advice from experts and  non-experts alike. Two trips to the chandlery and three days of hard work and she looks like a new boat.  Now all we have to do is the brightwork and deck and she will be a beauty. 

I am hoping to race this season on Sundays and have a couple of people who have expressed an interest in crewing for me.  I need to ring a few before the weekend as the first serious race is next Sunday. 

'Til then ....good sailing

Twilight Race 2

A beautiful sunny, mild evening with a strong southerly sea breeze awaited us for the second of our adventures into Twilight racing as an all girls team. There were 15 yachts in the event. We had a good start with Anne managing to get us over the line well in contention.  It all went down hill from there. We had spent quite a bit of time out on the water just before the race and had furled the jib because of the gusty wind condition, however we raced on a full jib and managed the yacht quite well. The first leg, tacking into the wind was not a good leg and we were slipping behind.  The main issue seems that when the yacht is on the Port tack she cannot point into the wind well at all. We were not too far behind the Couta boat Pelican at the first mark and were surprised to see that she hit the buoy and just kept on racing. She should have taken a penalty 360 degree sail around the buoy but didn't. After a chat about the issue we decided there was little point in protesting. We decided to save it for later! The reach across to the second mark was less eventful than in the first race.  The wind however was much stronger and more consistent.  The run back to the starting buoy was great with the yacht reaching 6 knots at times and we were gaining on the guys, but were still second last!  Unfortunately we had to tack up again to the last turn before the run home and we again lost ground.  Port tack is very difficult in Pathfinder and most disappointing.  We had a good run home and were gaining on the Pelican. After crossing the finish line we went to deeply into the bay in which the boats were moored and became stuck on the mud! Seeking help from other finished yachts proved unproductive as no one really was watching. What could we do? I knew that it was possible to refloat a yacht by making it heel over and with Anne's encouragement,  we did just that!  The three of us shifted our weight to one side of the yacht and she came free! The decision was made to say nothing unless we were asked!  Only one person thought we might have been stuck and that was Janet's partner and we admitted to nothing.  

Racing is an adventure and we must all admit to learning a lot. Some of our tacks were poor, some were great!  As a team we work well and we will improve. We need to get coach Harry to have another think about the Port tack when he gets back to Tasmania from his trip to Sydney.

I just hope I am pulling my weight.  Bruises galore again this week.  How to prevent them is an issue. We had a good laugh and fortunately no one is too precious about the whole thing.  The girls are great to sail with and even now the nerves are diminishing.  We did feel that the wind was as fresh as we were prepared to sail in - about 20 knots - and we were really stretching our competence to the limit. Tacking and what each crew member does what is an area we still need t work on. By the way we were 14th out of 15.  But for fun and pleasure - 10 out of 10. 'Til next time...

Our First Official Race

We have been training on Tuesday evenings with Harry a veteran of many years racing in the Cygnet club. He decided that we would race on Sunday 9th December. Anne, our helmswoman and racing wizz could not make so Harry became a surrogate "girl" for the day. It was very windy and with a very deep swell making all the yachts corkscrew on their moorings when we arrived at the club so I was a bit hesitant. Harry said “no hassles – lets go” when I asked if he wanted to still go out. What a BUZZ!! I really wish you could have shared it with us. We started well up with the Etchells. Over the line spot on the horn. The wind kept dying and the whole fleet was almost becalmed as we reached the farthest easterly mark. We were lucky and got a bit of a lift and went round the mark with only one yacht between us and the Etchells and one Derwent class! (There were 10 yachts in the race – 3 Etchells and the red Derwent class Merlin and six cruisers). We nearly ran out of wind on the reach across to the second mark and on the run down to the start finish line for the first time it started to pour with rain and with little or no wind! BUT we were in front of all but one of the cruisers. The vintage boat "Aotea" (100 year old wooden yacht) was in front of us but we slowly gained on her and pulled away from the rest. The race was shortened so we only had a "sausage" to go. As we turned to head down river the wind got up – and the rain increased – but we flew down to the mark – which we had great difficulty seeing because the rain was in our eyes. Aotea had retired – too wet – wimpy men on board! I was absolutely soaked but when Harry asked if we wanted to pull out because of the weather he just got derisive laughter! No way! So we tore down to the last turn withfour of the other cruising boats chasing us. A snappy turn around the buoy saw us on a run to the finishing line in a fading breeze. So we finished 5th with only the Etchells and the Derwent class finishing ahead. Wow that makes me grin just to think of the achievement!

We caused some consternation because we had no handicap allocated so they penalised us a bit with the handicap and we ended up 7th out of 9 finishers but got a great cheer and applause from the club's men at the announcement. Fortunately we had a change of clothes on board so I was able to change and get a little dryer although wet undies are not fun! :) Must get some wet weather clothing. We had a great time and spent a lot of the time laughing despite the weather. Even when we tacked and a bucket load of water came out of the sail and dumped on me - all we could do was laugh. Harry also really enjoyed himself and was very complementary about the boat and crew so we all had a warm fuzzy time in the club house with lots of complements and support. We again learnt a great deal with much sail handling – running up and down from the foredeck shifting the jib which kept getting jammed on the knots because of the lack of wind, using the pole, using the boat hook to hold the jib out etc. Yes it was quite an day. Just to get round the course and finish would have been great but to be competitive too was such a surprise and when the finish horn went we were just so exited – even Harry.