Fiji Race 2010

[Guest]

So when my Aunty Flo who likes Nascar racing asks who won, what's the answer.

 

 

I think what I was getting at is IRC hasn't caught on here as it doesn't like our boats and we aren't important enough to get any changes , ORC hasn't caught on here coz it's expensive and no one really seems to care about it, PHRF is a performance based system so not really adequate for serious racing , line honours goes to the guy with the deepest pockets more often than not, and As BBW has pointed out elsewhere we don't have decent one design racing (though I think it is more a reflection of our population than any personality disorder).

 

Anyway - Thread drift alert - Congratulations to the winners - well done.

[Guest]

Just reading about the boats complaining they are short of food, question - at what point does the drop in performance due to undernourished crew outweigh any perceived advantage from saving weight by not carrying enough food?

[Guest]

If one of the crew dies from malnutrition, what is the protocol for putting them in the pot?

Do you have to declare it to the race organisers so you don't get DSQ for arriving with one crew short?

Are you better to eat them, or use them as moveable ballast?

[MikeL 1]

any news on when Skiddy 2 finished

[Jon 360]

any news on when Skiddy 2 finished

 

 

He's motoring in now so that's gotta give him the win by hours

 

Bit of a shame that the have the PG before the winner finshes

[smithy09 50]

any news on when Skiddy 2 finished

 

 

He's motoring in now so that's gotta give him the win by hours

 

Bit of a shame that the have the PG before the winner finshes

 

That really is not nice. Great effort by Skiddy 2.

[Changed 10]

PHRF Overall

Name PHRF Corrected

Skiddy Too 0.765 161:03:29

Revs 0.94 167:27:35

Lion New Zealand 0.955 169:43:58

Bird on the Wing 0.895 169:50:29

OSinnerman 0.905 170:54:19

Starlight Express 0.975 172:28:54

Pretty Boy Floyd 0.92 172:58:27

Bullrush 0.925 173:07:16

General Lee 0.935 174:52:57

Bare Essentials 1.03 181:46:04

Cheetah II 0.685 182:40:00

Wired 1.125 191:43:11

Ran Tan II 1.12 194:20:58

Farrago II 0.8 246:26:37

 

 

A fantastic effort by the Skiddy, he was alone!! What sort of auto plot does he use? I hope the PG comment is wrong if not then things need to change.

[Guest]

Very well done Skiddy

 

Interesting to see if you take 24hours off the cruising division boats times due to their weather hiding stop, they were looking at spots 1 and 2 there abouts. Rough guesstimate only but interesting to see.

[Guest]

From briefings:

 

 

Bird on the Wing is the provisional IRC winner, and Bullrush the provisional ORC winner. Revs, single handed entrant Skiddy Too and Whitbread campaigner Lion New Zealand hold the provisional positions of first through third on PHRF, although Skiddy Too's result is dependent on a hearing over his failure to report at a number of scheds, and the incorrect installation and operation of his tracker device.

[Changed 10]

Bother!!!!!!!

[Jon 360]

So when my Aunty Flo who likes Nascar racing asks who won, what's the answer.

 

Anyway - Thread drift alert - Congratulations to the winners - well done.

 

 

Sorry Squid I gave you the wrong answer last time so here goes

 

Aunty Flo, all the boats that sailed to Fiji are the winners and the dumb idiots that didn't are now working in the cold pissing rain.

[Guest]

Looks like Farrago finished late last night. Good on them. Great that all the boats finished the race.

[col j 0]

Starlight Express, a view from the front of the boat and aloft.

 

Conservative start from us, eg. f*ck ups caught on camera are bad. Kite up and away we go watching all the boats with a-sails zigzag all over the harbour. Carried on doing our own thing for the rest of the night wondering which lights belonged to which boat.

 

Day 2. a touch of reaching followed by a breeze that is gradually going forward and building. Sweet time to get this train on its tracks. Gradually peel through all headsails and end up on 2 reefs and a 4. Slam, splash crash away we go until about 3 am when all of sudden snap...the kind of snap you are unsure of where it came from. Investigations show it to be the genoa halyard. Yell out for a hand and me and another go forward to pull it down. Get to the bow and see a wave coming, hey im flying 1m clear of the deck, crash down, hug the spinnaker pole and slide back underwater until I stop at the mast. Great im soaked for the 3rd time tonight. Get the job done and asume position back in cockpit making sure sick people are clipped on. 6 of 12 were sick that night. 3 were sick on me. Thankful for the occasional salt water wash off.

 

Day 3 winds drop off and the sked shows us to be doing ok. Half way through writing down numbers comes my turn to chuck...its calm and warm...but rolly waves, go figure. Had to re attach some mainsail cars up the mast before shaking out the reefs and up with the Fractional kite and away we go plowing through last nights southbound swell. Bam bam plough snap kite halyard couldnt take it. Jib top up, mouse new halyards whilst having the sh*t whipped out of me up there then up with the kite again. Then snap again later so f*ck it and up with a poled out jib top. For the night.

 

Day 4 cant realy remember but think it has something to do with light airs and a big a-sail and crossing tacks with the Generall Lee

 

Day 5 memory getting a bit fuzzy again. Think I went out to the end of the pole to sort out some crossed sheets or something and spliced a bit of an extension on a fractional halyard that was now getting a bit short. Light airs in the morning possibly

 

Day 6 I made the mistake of pointing out that the wind gear was wobling around, during a thunder storm, which we did a fantastic job of avoiding by sailing straight through the middle of it. So up I went to deal with it after we were through. Flew like a flag from the top on my way down as we crashed off some waves. Later that night was more light airs I think and Barry ate a flying fish within minuted of it landing on the boat. Blew out no1 genoa loosing back half to the sea.

 

Day 7 flat running to start with, on a cracker of a day, I even had a wash. Then the wind swung forward a bit so we change to fractional genniker right as the wind swings forward more so onto jib top. Trying desperately to hold off Bare Essentials to no avail. They pipped us at the finish.

 

At the marina and clear customs at about 11:30 I think. Off to the bar. Return to boat at 7am. Go to breakfast at 8am, I ate 2. back to boat to pack my sh*t at about 10. off to hard rock cafe for a big milkshake. Off to the showers thinking its too bloody hot and have a cold one. Wander around for a bit, have a nosey on some other boats thinking starlight is luxury compared to them. Pull Edwin up revs' mast to get a halyard cos their too pissed to do it, and hes very light. Kill more time then go to airport at about 3. fly at 5ish sleep. Get home and sleep more. Wake up for work on monday and decide its a bad idea. Back asleep at 11am. Wake up tuesday at 6:30am after 17.5 hours of sleep ready for work.

 

Food on the boat was fan-freakin-tastic. Nath did a bloody good job on it. Had our last meal on the boat saturday night, which used the last of the water. Good timing, but what a long race. Still unsure of one thing. When i said i would crew on the boat i was informed it was a downwind race. This was mainly upwind and reaching.

 

disclaimer: all events did happen, days may be muddled a bit.

[Murky 1]

Hell of a good post col j, much appreciated. Stellar effort on the aerial antics.

 

Quite an attrition rate on the halyards etc, going into it again would you have given them more of a going-over beforehand?

[col j 0]

well. i only found out i was doing the fiji race about a month and a half before the race. and have only ever sailed the boat twice now. so i checked the some things, arranged to have the main halyard and topmast backstay changed. got a mate who works at rig pro (southern spars) to check the rig. said the ropes looked fine. guess we should have known better that vectran fails after a while on corners. fractional kite halyards (used as genoa peeling halyards) go through fairleads after the sheaves up the mast. they were braking on this point under kite. apparently they have never had problems like this before.

 

also forgot to mention the tsunami advisory on the 5th or 6th day after a quake near vanuatu, would have been just like any other swell in the depth of water we were in. also that canting pipe berths are bloody good to sleep on.

[wal 27]

AAhh - life at the top of Starlight's rig..... many have been there (on whatever rig which was about to fall down but hasn't quite yet...... )

[col j 0]

Thanks wal. now that you mention it i do recall looking down and seeing a black pole dancing around a fair bit. bloody inline rigs.

[Guest Rocket]

Great to get a reminder that little boats win passage races when the moons line up. Even better that it was a solo - I remember this guy coming into Fiji after the fleet got a bit of a battering 5 years ago or so - awesome dude. And it was great that everyone in the yacht club stood up and clapped him in.

 

I think the prize giving thing is an issue - I sure hope they reached out to him and did something special - cos his is an exceptional effort over a long time!!

[Guest]

Boats rating less than 0.800 on PHRF were asked to start on Wed 19. Bretton declined this opportunity. This is done to get everyone to the destination within a smilar time frame. It is also a safety consideration to avoid having a tail of smaller /slower boats left at sea after the bulk of the fleet.

[Guest Rocket]

I get that - but I gotta say I am old school and prefer everyone to start together rather than finish together. Hopefully his example will encourage more smaller boats out there. Certainly a "premier" effort as opposed to a "corinthian" one IMHO...