G,day all
Sailed at the Winter in Paradise Regatta on the week end at Portstephens. There was agood size fleet of mono hulls as well as cats including two Mozzies mine and Bens [guessing around 50]. After a two month break from sailing and 20kg lighter i had a bad start to the first day with my centre board jaming and putting my knee through the deck and that was all before the start. A hundred metres after the start of race one i managed to turtle after my mainsheet jamed. After struggling for over an hour to right her 30 secounds later i was back in the water when my trapeze wire broke breaking my tiller as a result.
After repaires saterday arvo i was back on the water sunday determind not to give up. Race one finshed last by a long way finally getting it together for the last race beat 3 H16 to the top mark and finishing the race right on there heels, [after taking some advise from Ben and running straight for the bottam mark instead of trying to keep with the H16 down wind]. Ben put in a good show for the Mozzies winning the first race.

Hey All.
We had a great weekend at port stephens.
Wind was 8-15knots both days. Sun and not to cold.
Had a bad start in the first race everyone starting on port and hobie 16s smashing into each other every where (thats the norm with the guys from my club)I was about 6th to the top mark and picked the lay for the top mark each lap passing a few each lap.It was deceving because the closer you got to the top mark the more the wind shifted people pinching to make the mark.I finished 3rd accross the line behind the A and h18.It went down hill from there or the others sailed better?
Race 2 I picked the wrong side of the corse.
And I dont want to talk about race 3&4.
Had a great weekend with karl we are looking foward to the brass monky regatta hope to see some of you there?
http://pssac.com/Results/WIP%202008%20html/Big%20Cats/mywebos.html
Cheers Ben

Hi Ben,

interesting results. What sort of Handicap where they using?

Some Mono sailors I know where going and where surprised I wasn't, but from the results not that many fast cats did. I hear rigging area is tight etc.

I see Vanessa Dudley in the results on a Hobie, does this mean she has woken up to the fact that Lasers are just not enough Fun . Guess we can look forward to a report in Aust Sailing and lots more Hobie adds .

Good to see you had one win, have to watch out for those Hobies on the start line down here to.

Hey Gary,
They used vyc yardstick I think.
saw some vic monohuls full results http://pssac.com/results.htm
Cheers Ben
ps are you going to the brass monkey sydney harbour?

Karl & Ben,

Thanks for the posting. Great to see the Mozzies kicking "ass" at regattas.

Karl,

20 kg lighter ??? Have you starved yourself ? Hope your Mozzie isn't too hurt .

Ben,

What happened to you in race 3 & 4 ?

Regards,

Peter

Those are VYC handicaps. They've pre-calculated the ratio 100/VYC so they just multiply the elapsed times by these numbers.

It's a pretty bizzare way to show the results as no-one can tell if the handicaps are right unless they have a calculator handy.

Well done Ben & Karl.
Come on - what happened in the last two Ben?

Hi Ben,

Brass Monkey is on the calendar, but would really like to know more about what is going on before I commit. Notice of Race Sailing Instructions?

As if they are running courses like a few years ago where they had 2 gates in the down wind I doubt I would bother as the skiffs and others didn't use them .

Ok I'll talk about the last two races(although I've done a good job forgetting them)
3rd race I with a few others got boxed in at the start boat then sailed a very ordinary race.
4th race another bad start pulley on the trap wire broke jaming the rope so there was no elasticity on the dog bone and it was in out in out trapping this drove me bonkas then at the top mark lost my footing the boat went around the mark but I diddent and capsised on me. Oh well thats about it still enjoyed the w/e
Gary I dont know the details yet about the brass monkey.
Cheers Ben

Good results, a win always makes the day better, sounds like great conditions. Port Stephens was a great place to sail when I was a kid, spent weeks exploring the place on my Laser and Windsurfer. Good place for a Nationals.

Interesting to hear Vanessa sailed a Hobie, I filled out the Australian Sailing survey a few months back and gave them a blast about being keel boat obsessed, maybe we are going to see some more improvements. It would be nice to see her sail a more up to date cat.

Still amazed how fast the Hobies are over there Ben.

Darryn

Hey Darren,
Would be a great location for nats.
On there day the h16 sailors in syd are up there with the best in the world Rod Waterhouse at the worlds last year in fiji went 1,1,1 one day other days not so good.
its hard to say. Still I need to become more consistant and its hard to get aggresive at the start when they dont mind a bit of rubbing.(h16 allot stronger than the mozzie)