930 Truncated Nats

[Guest]

Saturday racing canned due to advice from CD and CG. Bugger but I suppose better safe than sorry, besides bugger all breeze for a lot of the day.

 

Sunday off to a slow start waiting for wind to fill in, a few of the entered boats missing in action and one boat deciding cold beer was perfectly acceptable for morning smoko. A little wind arrived so R1 (W/L) started in wicked tide and fluky as winds. All sorts of screaming and shouting at the startline, quite fun to watch knot being part of the chaos... this time.

 

Very pleased to see one boat who was well pinged yet claimed innocence, as we all do, play the game right and do penalty turns, big ups to that boat but knot so to a couple of others who screamed shouted and did feck all about 1 or 2 obvious naughties.

 

R1 ended in a little controversy when the course was shortened and all but 2 boats used the correct finishing procedure. Those 2 boats got points, the rest got DNF's.

 

R2 and R3, both W/L's had better breeze and were very tight battles, especially in the Pedigree Div. Probably about a coat of paint between them all day so positions were swapping each crossing and a slow hoist or slow tack did make the difference between 1st or knot.

 

In the turbos Grunt Machine (looking very good by the way, foredeck person excluded ) had the edge nicely there but was being pushed very very hard by Fast Company. A good battle to watch with those 2. Scarlett Fever showing signs of good speed and stuck her nose in at times but is still coming to grips with her new large dangler we suspect.

 

R4, a harbour course, was again very tight with tiny gaps between the fleet and lots of position swapping. Grunt Machine showed her legs and sailed away nicely. Local Hero did the business very nicely in the pedigree Div.

 

Grunt machine had the edge most of the day in the Turbo Div. In the Pedigree Div I think each boat got a line, a 2nd, a 3rd sort of a thing, no one had any speed edge.

 

Come the prize giving - In the Pedigree Div, Rockweld once again pipped bridesmaid S Reptile by only one frecking point to take home the Timberware. S Reptile pipping Lightfoot to take the H/C win.

 

Grunt Machine a clear winner in the Turbos.

 

Lessons learnt -

- Know the rules, we are thinking the R1 finish cock-up may have cost one boat the Series, which is a shame as they were sailing very well and consistently tidy all day.

- Don't think you know better than history has proven. One paint challenged boat did and even having more than enough on stand by went only 4 up due to the very soft looking forecast. In R4 the wind did fill in a fair bit and the 2 missing rail meat was noticeable.

- Stack a few honeys in short shorts on the rail, it does distract the other crews

- When sailed well there is probably only 0.000001% between the pedigree boats so boat handling was the make or breaker.

- Having a practice sail is a good idea but maybe knot if it was 3 years prior to the event

 

And very nice to see a very large contingent of ladies amongst the fleet in many positions including driving and foredeck.

 

All in all a very fun day with very close racing, Team Gold Card had a ball. Big Ups to the PCC race management team for doing well in often very trying conditions.

[Guest]

Which boats entered

[wal 27]

Absolutely shattered this morning - even in the light I'm getting too old for bouncing round on the front

 

Entries - Lightfoot, Grunt Machine, Fast Company, Scarlet Fever, Rockweld, Local Hero and some horrible ugly bloody thing sailing on Suburban Reptile

[Guest]

Absolutely shattered this morning - even in the light I'm getting too old for bouncing round on the front

With you on that, knackered. Mind you knot as knackered as a few rum bottles would the this morning

 

There were a few more entered but didn't arrive on Sunday, no idea why.

some horrible ugly bloody thingS sailing on Suburban Reptile

There were 4 aboard and all fit that description. Just had a call from one of them, he's knot in good shape

[Guest]

Just been at boat sussing for carnage from the after match festivities. The neighbour, a live aboard, had great pleasure informing us of our attempt to out run the marina police in their RIB. Note the word attempt, bugger. Feck, I don't remember that bit but do have hazy recollections of a RIB and it being well dark

 

Been informed one boat that was entered discovered a big bit of very dodge deck around the chain plates so thought it best knot to fall apart on a race track, hence the none arrival. Don't know about the others.