Tasmanian Marblehead State Regatta

A hard day at the office today, with wind gusts at the dam exceeding 35 knots at times – spray being thrown up off the water on multiple occasions.

It wasn’t like that the whole day though – at times we were becalmed as well making rig choices very hard, and those with the right rig took a massive advantage.

Just the six along today – disappointing, but all we can do is host these events with the aim of returning the fleet to its former glory. At the moment, the numbers in the class are such that we cannot reasonably increase the sail days of this wonderful class, currently reduced to just 6 scratch days a year.

Anyway, the six that came along were keen for some good sailing and we certainly got a work out. C1 Rigs on the most part to start with, although they were over pressed at times. I got an early change to C2 by pulling out of race 2 when the rig just wouldn’t comply and gained instant results from it. The rest of the fleet changed after that race and someone stupidly kept their C2 on with most opting for C3 or lower – absolutely the right choice in the conditions.

Just the three races were completed after that to lunch time, where I pulled out with a leak, and Ted’s yacht fell on to the concrete causing a small hole in the stern, so things were looking a bit bleak. After a discussion through lunch and with wind increasing further again, we called the rest of the day off with safety of rescue being an issue if it was required.

On the rescue, Ricky and I went out in the Rib after race 6 to get my boat and the new rib with electric motor handled the conditions very well. Wet, but quite safe at that point in time.

After the 6 races, Ray had a stranglehold on first position, with just 8 points collected. A very worthy winner on the day with excellent rig choices throughout.

Second place went to John, on 13 points. Well sailed.

Third place, on countback, was Stu on 17 points, handling the rough conditions very well.

Interesting to note that after Stu, we had finishers tied on 17, then 18 and 19 points respectively. Although only six races for the event, it was extremely close.

One point of note for future ranking events, we did have someone call up yesterday asking if a late entry was allowed today. The committee decided a few meetings ago that we were going to hold close of entries on the NoR as just that, so if you intend on sailing, you must get your entry in before the close date, which is often just the Friday afternoon before the event. One part of this is that we have had a few Marblehead and A Class events recently with so few entries that we have had to call the sail day off, so we do need notice of whether we need to call such events off or whether we need extra prizes for larger fleets. It’s only a few days notice and is a reasonable ask of members to commit to a sail day just a few days out.

Coming up

Wednesday is DF95 Handicap at the Dam, button press at 1030​

Next Saturday is DF65 State Championship at Montrose. Entries close per the NoR on  Thursday, so please get your entry in if you intend on competing.
 
Kyle