Report on RG65 class regatta Sat 31st Oct at the dam

Finally some actual sailing to report rather than flying or some other mundane activity that we often get up to down south in Tassie.

Today at Risdon Brook, Round 1 of the DF/RG65 Summer Series (3 rounds in total) was sailed in reasonable conditions. Weather was a balmy 20c and winds, whilst predominantly norwesterly blew from all points of the compass at sometime during the day.

As is often the case at Risdon the race conditions were ideal until the start bell when, as if on cue, the wind would die leaving all boats becalmed at the start line. Definitely made for interesting sailing.

There were no major failures and all boats that started the day, finished it as well, a couple (including yours truly) only just.

I got off to a bad start and had a jib boom failure on the start line in race 1, managed a temp repair that held for the day but had a battery fail on the run to the finish of the last race and just couldnt get enough control to pass on the correct side of the finishing buoy.

Ron B tore a sail in one of the early gusts, a couple of yachts needed the recovery dinghy due to electrical problems that were luckily quickly resolved when back on shore.

In all we managed 12 races today and the interim results (thanks to MrPenguin & his trusty laptop) are shown below.
 
 
Now I know what a “Wind Bomb” is as well. So many times, wind appeared on the water from nowhere (dropped down) and then spread out in all directions. An extremely hard day to sail with so many shifts right throughout the day. Even setting the course was hard with sailing into the wind a minute before the start, and then running downwind when the race starts.
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Tomorrow, we will be sailing at Port Cygnet yacht Club for round 2
 
Kyle
 

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