Raced in the Rum race today at Victor Harbour. Course consisted of a downwind start to a mark, right turn to the bluff which was a tight reach, take the mark to port and tight to broad reach back past Granite Island through a gate and across the bay, take another mark to port and beat back to the club. The wind was off shore, blowing 15 to 20 but with some lighter patches and very gusty and shifty, typical offshore.
16 cats, a good cross section of classes, two Mozzies, me on Bullet and Peter and Simon Hallsworth on The Young Mariner.
The Mozzies hung back at the start and the spinnaker boats hooned off into the distance, it was blowing, I stayed towards the front of the non spinnaker boats and rounded the mark after a short downwind just behind the slowest of the spinnaker boats. Tight reached and beat across past Granite island to the Bluff, the gusty condition was making me work hard on the mainsheet to keep the boat driving plus the Young Mariner was close behind me, good motivation. Speed was touching 14knots and it seemed to take forever to get to the mark, had a very good rounding, caught a little wave and didnt even slow down as I gybed and and got into the lower hook and footstrap for the next 15 minutes of tight to broad reaching to the next mark. Speed had come up a bit 16's now, still the Nacra 5.8s where starting to get past me, later on they told me they hit 19.2knots on that reach. Had a Ok mark rounding onto the beat, the Young Mariner right behind me and we sailed in towards the shore in full pressure, most cats had tacked immediately towards the finish line a couple of miles upwind but going inshore looked like it would pay with a lift along the shore. When we tacked the Young Mariner had managed to overtake me by a few boat lengths so it looked like a good race to the finish. As we lifted upwind towards the finish the wind lighten a little and I managed to draw away from the Young Mariner and finish 31 seconds ahead.
First across the line was an F18, Mozzys where about 5 minutes behind picking up second and third on handicap. An Yvonne won the event on handicap, results
http://www.vhyc.org.au/Results/Rum_Race_08.htmThe Victor Harbour Yacht club put on a great event, I think everyone enjoyed a fast sail. Unfortunately the rum I won is already half gone, <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> I will go back and try for a bigger bottle next year.
http://www.vhyc.org.au/Darryn
Mozzie
1782
