Sunday morning I got up, and met the crew at the club house. The usual was going on, repairs, coffee, talking ect.
As we were discussing finishing our AGM from the day before, the pro advised us, there was sufficient breeze to get some early races in. So we canned the meeting and headed out. Only to be greeted by a postponement flag. The wind shifted left, shifted left again, and then left again and then left some more. Eventually settling near enough to 180 deg from the where the original course was set.
So while we waited for the course to be set, some of the boats were out practicing, others just sat and waited. I took the time to have a few runs up and down. I had a test run against Brett and Kingsley for a while. They were noticeably faster, but they couldn’t get over the top of me. They ducked underneath me; we exchanged pleasantries and headed in different directions. I thought that was good enough, so I turned around headed back to start boat and waited with everyone else.
I guess it was more than an hour before we got the go ahead.
Race 6
Wind up around 12 to 15 knots.
I don’t remember the start at all. But what I do remember is pulling on my down haul and nothing happening. It was stuck fast and I couldn’t budge it. I thought tacking would free up whatever was jammed. This made no difference at all, so I was resigned to sail the complete race with a full baggy, wrinkly sail. When I got to the top mark I wasn’t last, but I’m not sure where I was.
I sailed down, got near the bottom mark, dropped the spinnaker and decided to lean over the front beam and see what was wrong.
The down haul on this boat runs under the front beam. I could see two of the blocks that cross each other were getting intimate, but there was nothing nothing I could do could budge them. Once again I had no choice but to sail without a down haul. I sailed the race in dead last position, it was painfully slow. I remember getting to the top mark and getting a hurry up from the rescue boat.
I finished 10th out of 10 and headed straight to shore to fix the problem.
Unfortunately race 7 was the last race for the morning and I didn’t get out there.
Race 8
The wind was building again to 15 knot gusts.
Everyone started except Tony who was still in hospital. The news filtering back was that he had blurry vision and he could read the top line on an eye chart. We were heartened by this and we all wished his wife well.
Marcus had gone out cat rigged. I guess there was a little controversy over changing his sailing configuration, but promised not to get too involved with the boats vying for the championship. No one really had any problems with it. It might of been the national titles, but it was held and being raced in good spirit.
The Vipers lead the way with Marcus right there on their tails. I could only imagine what he would of been like if he decided to get involved. Gary wasn’t letting anyone get away but the breeze was getting out of his preferred range. Simon was a little further back, then myself and the the three mosquitoes’ of Peter, Matt and Neil.
Matt had to do some running repairs on his broken spinnaker pole earlier on. Matt is one of the most eager sailors I have ever met. I’m not sure what happened to Shane on the Taipan, I know he was having rudder troubles early on.
It was an enjoyable race for me; I enjoyed the extra pressure, weighing in at 81kgs. I still sailed downwind with precautions, trapping out sometime and sitting in on other legs. My gybes weren’t that scary any more, although they were a long way from being efficient enough to make ground on the more practised sailors.
The mosquito guys are proof that quicker boats are not quicker if sailed poorly. Even though I was on an optimised F16 and I had my eyes on the slower optimised boats, the reality was I was racing the Mosquitoes. It only takes one slip up and those guys are all over you.
(note to myself) “practice more” “maintain boat”
I ended up coming 7th, 2.37 behind Simon and 27 seconds behind Peter on his Mozzy.
The last race. Race 9
Started in approximately 15 knots.
Only 7 boats on the start line.
From memory, there were only a couple of points separating James & Leigh , Brett and Kingsley and Gary. They all needed to beat each other to win the regatta.
From the start the Vipers looked like they had the jump on Gary. Gary didn’t like the wind in that range and had everything maxed out and still was over powered.
I was having my usual race with the Mosquitoes of Matt and Peter. I could beat them upwind, but downwind they sat inside and went low and fast. I was trapping downwind and heating it up as fast as I could. I wasn’t scared anymore; I was looking for every puff I could find. I just wanted to give it my all just once.
Heading down wind for the last time, I beat Matt around the top mark and Peter was a fair way back. I gybed straight away and Matt kept on going. I found gybing while trying to do it flat out was a bit of a problem. If I couldn’t get my foot in the strap, I would slide forward and my front foot would stop on the centre board. Valuable time was lost trying to get the foot in the strap.
We crossed once, I was in front, we crossed again and I had to take his stern. That was a bit scary, because I was riding a gust and heading up wasn’t an option, so I had to throw the sheet. It seemed like we were in a gybing dual, we crossed once more and again I was behind but by a little more. I decided to sail onto the lay line. Without much thought I jumped in, threw the tiller, hooked up and jumped out and proceed to pull the boat over on top of myself at 100 mph. Still scratching my head how I did that.
I didn’t finish that race either, but I wasn’t fazed, I went out going as hard as I could.
Later that night after a few drinks, Gippsland Lakes Yacht Club put on another great meal. The presentation was had, and a good time was had by all.
In the excitement of getting through as many races as we could, we never got around to finishing the AGM.

1 AUS108 Viper J McDonald 10.00 1.00 1.00 [5.00] [4.00] 1.00 2.00 1.00 2.00 2.00
2 AUS123 AHPC Viper B Goodall 13.00 2.00 2.00 2.00 2.00 2.00 1.00 2.00 [3.00] [3.00]
3 400 Formula Cats Aust G Maskiell 14.00 4.00 3.00 1.00 1.00 3.00 [4.00] [4.00] 1.00 1.00
4 AUS405 Zen S Porteous 25.00 3.00 [5.00] 4.00 [5.00] 4.00 3.00 3.00 4.00 4.00
5 1790 Bee Alert P Nikitin 43.00 6.00 6.00 7.00 7.00 6.00 5.00 [7.00] [7.00] 6.00
6 AUS403 Vertigo M Towell 44.00 12.00S 4.00 3.00 3.00 12.00S [12.00S] 5.00 5.00 [12.00F]
7 1775 Karma Cat N Maskiell 48.00 [12.00S] 9.00 6.00 6.00 5.00 8.00 6.00 8.00 [9.00]
8 1705 The Tiger M Stone 50.00 5.00 8.00 [9.00] 8.00 [9.00] 7.00 8.00 6.00 8.00
9 AUS404 FCA T Jenkins 61.00 12.00F 7.00 12.00S 10.00 7.00 6.00 [12.00S] [13.00F] 7.00
10 AUS029 Lil Bro S Kershaw 67.00 12.00S 12.00F 8.00 9.00 8.00 [12.00S] 9.00 9.00 [12.00F]
11 AUS406 Lone Wolf 2 T Barrett 77.00 12.00S 12.00S 12.00C 12.00C 12.00S 12.00S [12.00S] [13.00F] 5.00

Congratulations to everyone involved. As I write this my car, boat and gear has only been back since 19/5/09. And despite my results, I still had a great time. I got to meet the people I have spoken to over the years and a few others.
I’m convinced formula racing is a winner, in particular F16 which has a great future ahead of it.
I look forward to next year.
Regards Tony Jenkins.