Well done to the other mossie guys who were all at the front of the fleet, leaving the Lemon Peel to hang around down the back.

The Round the Island race
As the only mossie without a spinnaker it was good to have the first third of the race beating to windward. While the others got away I was able to keep near to Mitch and felt that I was making a race of it. As soon as Mitch got the kite up he was away and that was the last I saw of him. I was happy with my result of 10th out of 14 cats.

30 miler
Wow, what a race. After a light wind start the breeze filled in and we were flying. During the beat from the compass marks to the tambo river I spent at least 15 minutes on Starboard tack, on trapeze, with the hull flying most of the time. Unfortunately, when I tacked the Port side trapeze line broke and I went for a swim. I was thankful to the Stingray crew who checked on me while the boat was on its side although it only took a few mins to get Lemon Peel upright. As I still have a second set of trapeze lines rigged (for sloop sailing) I was able to continue. Matt Stone had been for a swim earlier in the race and caught me just as I got Lemon Peel going again. We had a great battle from the Tambo through to Metung where his skill and superior boat were slightly surpassed by my extra 20kg on the wire. After the Metung mark Matt got the kite up and was gone. I spent most of the run along the rear of Raymond Island trying to slow the boat down. Even sitting at the rear of the tramp the noses would disappear under the waves from time to time with the boat doing at least 10 knots (very different conditions to Sugarloaf). After rounding the mark at Pt Turner it was a beat to the finish. On a few occasions I was on the wire with the windward hull in the air and the leeward hull was out of the water back past the front beam (what goes up must come down). Thankfully it all held together and I managed a result of 4th out of 10 cats (thanks to Matt and Mitch with DNFs).

Round the Bouys Race.
The less said the better. I was just slow and I think still recovering from the day before.

Overall
I enjoyed the regatta and my patches of good performance show how good an old wooden boat can perform. The social side was excellent and I enjoyed spending time with the mossie guys and the redundant catamaran crews. Thanks again to the race control crews for all the hard work to make the regatta work.