It was a real pleasure to see Gary and his dad over in South Australia for the long weekend. You have to really respect anyone who is willing to put as many miles as Gary does travelling on such a regular basis to "go sailing".
Although it wasn't "ideal" weather for racing by any means, it was good to see how consistent Gary sails "altered" around a racecourse, (and he is such a nice guy as well – I hope I don’t embarrass him by saying that), I do believe that Gary and a few others made up a little for the "lack" of racing by becoming familiar with South Australian "ale" on the Saturday night though.
Not much wind on the Saturday and the temperature in the very high 30's (38c I believe), with a “follow the leader” course, then 40knot gusts on the Sunday morning from the north with a temp' of 35c at 8.30am - not really the best for sailing? I don’t think anyone was too disappointed when the racing for Sunday was cancelled.
Oh, and about your weight for an Alpha F14 Gary, one of the F14’s sailing on Saturday carried a 90kg sailor on it, and the other one is usually sailed by a guy that tops the scales at 105kgs, and, who has finished in font of the 90kg one on 50% of their encounters (the sailor on it on Saturday weighs in at a miserly 75kg’s), so I don’t think that your “slim boyish” 90kg figure would be too much of a strain on an Alpha, particularly when there is over 20% greater buoyancy volume in it’s hulls than in an average pair of A class hulls. I just hope that we can sail with you again in the foreseeable future Gary, and return the compliment by doing it in “your backyard”.