Tasmanian Marblehead State Regatta

​Some extra wind was predicted today, but I think nobody expected what we got throughout the day…..
 
The eight competitors set up nice and early, but nobody seemed too sure on what rig to put on, so with 15 minutes before the first race started, we all took out best guesses. The wind was going from about 8 knots through to 20 at times. The mostly strong northerly breeze coming up against an incoming tide made for some exciting large wave sailing, surfing aplenty and punishing those very harshly who tried to tack at the wrong point in time. One of my own races tacking when in first position, and gaining control again on the opposite tack in last. Not only timing at the point of tacking but more importantly spacial awareness of the next gust that was coming and being on your preferred tack before it hit was paramount.

Initially, we were all shod in C1 Rigs, which was effective for the first few races, but before long, we ended up with an eclectic mix of C1, C2, C3 and B3 amongst the fleet.
 
PRO, Andrew Wardrop had us going in between races nice and efficiently, and the course became a pretty consistent one given the constant changing of both wind speed and direction. It is not an embellishment on the truth to say the we legitimately had gusts up around 30 knots, water twisters on multiple occasions – concerningly close to the yachts at times, and directions all around the compass. On one particular pre race period, we initially had a good strong southerly for the first time of the day, quickly changing to an Easterly, back around to my Nationals flashbacks of Westerly direct offshore, before stabilising again from the North West – all in the space of 5 minutes……

It was great to see Mat Bugg along today, sailing Lisa’s Walicki. Unfortunately his day ended early with a main winch failure, but stayed for the majority of the day and enjoyed some great sailing in hard conditions.

Stu Dawes had a difficult day today, with some hard fought podium finishes followed up by some very cruel wind shifts before eventually retiring from the last 4 races.
 
Rod Marshall had a good day today with his Mantra 2 – seemingly underpowered when he took the chance on his B3 rig, however sailed it really well with a few podium finishes and also taking a race win earlier on when he had his C2 on.
 
Ted Stevens was ready to go home after the first race of the day – having kept clear of a large tangle up on the start line – to show the fleet a clean set of heels and taking out the first race in convincing style. A wonderful day for Ted while he comes to terms with his F-6. Taking three wins for the day as well.
 
Lisa had some struggles with the C2 rig being a bit overpowered at times, but still came away with a strong performance today, taking third position with 36 points.

Ray likewise struggled a little bit. Having chosen his C3 rig for the last half of the day, he had blistering speed – especially downwind, but in the lulls that followed the big gusts, just lacked a little horsepower. Finishing second, 5 in front of Lisa with 31 points.

Kyle was also a bit hot and cold, putting together really good races, but followed up on a few occasions with reliability issues. Turning around the downwind mark with a very large gust hitting, causing the winch to stall out, requiring rescue. Again a bit afterwards losing power completely and finding that water had got in to the pot and the receiver, shorting everything out – again requiring rescue. That said, the good races were extremely good, navigating the heavy conditions with a good level of confidence – winning the Regatta four ahead of Ray on 27 points.

Big thanks today to Andrew Wardrop, for coming along and doing the PRO work for us. Your help is really appreciated by all of us.
 
Coming up:
 
Wednesday  - IOM Handicap (perpetual trophy round) at the Dam – button press at 1030
Sunday – DF65/DF95 Scratch Round 3 at the Dam, starting at 10am with the same format as we had in rounds 1 and 2. Any volunteers for PRO on the day please contact either Ray or myself.
 
Kyle