Jeez, it looks like it is going to be a lonely Sauna Sail this year for this little Mossie sailor.

No one else is registered

This is a good thing - I might get a glass

Hello, this website really good.

A few more there now !!

I hope to enter, but will leave it until I am sure I have recovered from the Hernia Op. Op wasn't as simple as anticipated, recovery could take longer than I hoped.

hope your back on the wire soon mate. hope recovery takes less time than you plan

Hi Garry, I hope you are ok and recover soon......all the best and hopefully we see you in June.

Can't wait for Sauna sail. I am back from sea on the 18th, and plan to sail at Sugarloaf a few times before hand. Just me and the wife coming down, so is there anything we should bring. I am told that all the women make a roast or something on the saturday night, and I am trying to convince my wife it is tradition for her to wear a french maid outfit but no joy.

Is there anything we should bring?

I haven't been before but I'm going with the McCrae lads this year.

They said that all I needed was a full esky, Berocca B's, and a sleeping bag.....oh.. and I could bring my boat too, if I wanted

at least youll have something to drink trev. thanks for your time having a look at the A class for me. much appreciated. bottle of jamiesons heading your way!!! thanks mate.

7 out of 25 entries so far are Mosquitoes.

So when there are 100 entries there will be 28 Mosquitoes. That sounds about right

OK Tim make that 8 Mossies now entered
see you all there!!!

A bit worried about 100 boats on a patch of water the size of a football field. Should I instal bumper pads or something? Keen to show off my new boat but.

Luke

It's a pretty big football field! But I can understand your trepidation. I probably won't be using the spinnaker again this year just because it makes it hard to see what's coming.

If you're sailing cat rigged you've got pretty good visibility, and it's just a matter of keeping a very good lookout at all times. If you're a sloop then it's the crews job (fault)!!!

The mark roundings can get a bit intense but you get used to staying out of the 'raft'. It always pays to go around the outside when there are 20+ boats all trying to get around the same mark. It's just more/different tactics

It's usually a very good weekend of sailing and socialising, at a time when not much else is happening. Also we've had a few drifters lately so there should be wind this time.....

Hi all,

so who is going to use their spinnakers . Surely you're not going to leave me to have all the fun . The look on the faces of the other fast cats is priceless, when a Mossie beats them over the line . Besides I need somebody else to shoulder some of the load as well, can't take all the abuse on my own .

I know that we shouldn't let the ignorance of a few dictate to us, but not having the benefit of a skin as thick as rhino-hide the "abuse" really has taken a lot of the fun out of this sport for me. To the point where I will do whatever I can to avoid sailing in the same races as these people.

So, sorry Gary, much as I would like to be sailing with the spinnaker (the only way a Mosquito should be rigged) I will stick with the Mosquito division at the Sauna Sail this year (I must remember to take a book to read on the downwind legs).

Hey Tim,

"Illegitimi non carborundum"

And anyway.. far too many ropes to bother about really. Rather than a book, what about a bottle of red and a nice cheese platter for the downwind legs

Cheers

Tim - What about a division of Mozzies with Kites? Surely then everybody can breath a little easier around the boatpark and furthermore the 'abusive' sailors can go back to the more standard equipment of sailing gloves rather than boxing gloves

Ok, the Mozzies may have had the biggest class at the Sauna sail in recent years but getting enough of each type for two divisions is probably just a bit more than we can manage right now (would be nice though) !!!

How about a book AND the red and the cheese platter.... oh, and I have to rememeber to look where I'm going as well.

Hey Mitch, I forgot there will be a Mozzie with kite division at the McCrae Cat Champs in Nov as it will be the state titles for the spinnakers. So it will happen after all - but it's not likely at the Sauna Sail.

We get 9 Mossies with Spin for States , you need 10 for a division at Sauna Sail , Mossies get good numbers at regattas , but 2 Divs at Sauna Sail would be a complete take over .

What is needed is a Spinnaker Cat division, like we had for a couple of years, worked much better. It's mainly the non spinnaker "Fast" cats that do all the whinging . After all Mitch, when the other Spinnaker Cats get beaten over the line by Mossies with spinnaker , they know that changing the Mossie with Spinnaker Yardstick isn't going to help .

I just can't cope with the idea of sailing with out the spinnaker again, just too boring . After the Mosquito with out Spinnaker States , I don't want to not enjoy my sailing that much ever again.

Hey Matt, surely you and maybe your brother will be up for it, was great at Easter . I have been spending some time fixing up "Thrice Bitten" while I am recovering from the Op. Hope to have a test sail next Saturday in the local winter series race, as long as wind is not strong. Intend to test out my changes and myself . Recovery is going OK, have progressed from walking to jogging this week, improvements are quite big in a week, hope it keeps going the same way and all will be OK for Sauna Sail .

hey hey gary
i have been watching this thread, u will see on the day what im doing. haha, but damn so u are telling me that you will be 98% full on with spin!!! i was hoping for an easy win haha, not that i say its hard.

I'll just let that slide Gary

Does anyone know what the long-range forecast is? Or is it too early?
I'm crossing everything I've got for wind!
Already starting to get excited - after only sailing once since the states.

Come on mozzies. We need two more for a division!

Hey Tim, the forecast has become redundant!

I'm sailing cat rigged without a kite so apparently I'm going to be bored *hitless and not enjoy myself at all.

I don't know about the rest of you non-kite sailors but I'm really looking forward to a weekend of being bored and not enjoying myself. It will be a nice break from the constant fun and exitement of work and raising a young family.

This thread has been an epiphany for me... all that time I thought I was having fun, but I wasn't. Who'd have thought?

Well said

Deleted

That's a good example of when you shouldn't post!

When Gary mentioned the "abuse" a few posts back, I'm afraid it brought up a lot of bad stuff for me and I quickly responded with some comments that led this thread down completely the wrong track. It would have been better if I'd just kept quiet.

Sorry about that everyone.

I too am very much looking forward to sailing cat rigged without spinnaker at the Sauna Sail this year!

spin or no spin, jib or no jib, i find its hard to choose which config to sail, not everyone has a kite and yes they are fun, but the wild and very tight competition in the cat rigs keeps it fun also. im just undecided and being torn apart with enjoyment in all config on a mossie

If you are wondering how the numbers are going, this will tell you:
Sauna Sail entry numbers

Entry list

http://www.topyacht.net.au/db/otb/entran...&EventID=42

guys my car isn't big enough to fit all the glasses, so I regret to inform you I will not be attending.

That was just my feelings, I didn't expect it to be anybody elses. I guess I am just old and jaded, I think it would be fair to say I have probably spent more time racing off the beach than most Mossies sailors (raced pretty much every season since I was 8yo so thats 43 years). I have changed classes many times to keep myself interested in sailing, if not for the spinnaker I would probably have gone to find another class by now. But that is just how it works for me, not a reflexion on the class, performance of boat or the people in it.

Gee the fishing is no good if the MitchB's aren't bighting. You're just no fun any more.

I won't be sailing at all with or without spinnaker. So I guess I will just watch you all have fun instead.

Can I borrow the kite for the Taipan :-)

Sorry to hear your not getting out there.

:-(........initial computer model shows light winds......

Since there is about 40 knots blowing today and yesterday it has a long way to fall. Must be nearly snowing there since there is hail here. Will have to watch out for icebergs.

Yeah, I have to agree with Beckit - I reckon it is going to be blowing!

Sorry Simon - The red and cheese might need to stay on the beach, but make sure Gary cant get at it!

Tim - You had better start uncrossing stuff or there might be too much wind, but can you do something about the temperature and rain

See you all there

Trevor

"Sorry Simon - The red and cheese might need to stay on the beach, but make sure Gary cant get at it!"

If I leave it where I'm camping I reckon it'll be pretty safe

Hope you're right with the wind though the model looks a bit grim. Still, you never know, maybe the BOM will get it wrong for once!

Cheers

That's the problem with a 24" monitor - there's so much more to clean up after reading something like this with a mouthful of breakfast

I was thinking the same thing

It's OK, Im packing the oars - I will resign myself to no wind again.

I will just follow Simon around the course and pull along side in need

1st start on Sunday was very interesting. Breeze came up, visibility went down and a lot of last minute manoeuvring.

With 130 boats on the water, 9 divisions starting and everyone trying to get close enough to the start boat so you see which division flag was flying it was a credit to all on the water that there were no major collision’s. With visibility down to less than 2 boat lengths, it was necessary to keep moving a little so you could steer out of peoples way. At one stage I became totaly disorientated, not knowing which direction was up the course and which was down. Also lost track of where the start boat was on many occasions only to hear a start sequence hooter which gave you a rough direction to sail in.

Sailing into the fog for the start.... Photo courtesy of Sportscar from SA.

Thanks for posting this...What a fantastic photo

It was worth the trip just to experience that start.

Photo courtesy of smc from SA....... If you look close enough, you can see the head of a sail off his starboard bow.

One of my best sailing experiences during that start on Sunday.......thanks for the pic.

Maeve Southall took these photos still have to sort through the other 2000 she took

You weren't the only one! The most amazing sight for me was the whole Tasar fleet that lost it's direction immediately after their start and headed back through the boats waiting for their starts. They were a bit miffed that there were so many boats on their course, until they realised they were heading in completely the wrong direction.

I would say visibility was down to around 8 metres or less during that start sequence. Amazing.

Great photos, and congrats Steve for winning the fast cat division. Well done.

Cheers and well done to you Tim for winning the Mozzie division.

There's an article on sail-world.com:

Sauna Sail on sail-world.com

I like the last photo which shows a certain Mosquito sailor doing a pretty effective photo-bomb Nice one Luke.

Thats me I reckon......I am better looking than Luke

Have put a pile of pics up at
http://beachcatsaustralia.ning.com/photo/albums/sauna-sail-2011

Great photos Jeff, thanks to Maeve for the photography skills

Trevor

I reckon thats you with the beanie in that last photo

Ha, the only time the beanie was worn was after dark to keep the ever thinning head warm

Trevor

There's not many stories coming out of the weekend. I guess nothing happened!

Perhaps someone can try and explain why ALL the Mosquitoes sailed an extra lap in race 4....

Perhaps they saw the C1 board on the back of the Opties start boat on the way to the bottom mark on lap 3. Our start boat had the C2 board on the back of it at the start.

They may have also enjoyed the breeze. I was trapping along the back reach. Wanted to turn around and go back the other way.

Some of our cats did the same with extra laps which confuesed me but I think they just reverted to full course because the wind came up. We were doing 12 knots on the reach which was full on compared to the rest of the weekend.
Heres a link to a vid of race 5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEw9uu632Mc