Hi All,
Latest report below:
6 Mosquitos from Somers Y.C. (Matt Stone 1705, Jeremy 1812 and James Pearse 1791, Brian & Adam Gristwood 1679, Ben Gristwood & Chris Tuck 1500 and Peter Foulsum 1048) sailed across to Cowes Y.C. for the 2008 Westernport Challenge. They were joined by Rod Saw 1750 from Cowes Y.C. to make a complement of 7 Mozzies racing in division 1.
Numbers were down on previous years probably due to the very light conditions and the battle against an outgoing tide. Most launched from Somers at around 11:00 am for a 1:00 pm race start at Cowes. It soon became abundantly clear that going out to sea resulted in a loss of ground. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" /> The best way to make ground was to stick close to shore and tack up towards Sandy Point then hope that some wind would eventuate for the passage across the shipping channel to Cowes.
Approximately an hour after launching we had barely cleared Somers township. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" /> Wind was fluctuating ENE, E, ESE at a variable 5 knots. By 1:30 pm we were in the vicinity of the sand banks and trying to negotiate a path through into deep water and fast outgoing current. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" /><img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" /> Around this time the wind shifted towards SW and started to increase slightly. Yachts could be seen at Cowes Y.C. that had either been launched from Cowes or had been towed over by supporting patrol boats. Yachts from Merricks and Westernport Yacht clubs had started their journey at around 10:00 am. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" /> Conditions were still too light to run a race so we kept persevering with the marathon.
At 3:00 pm we arrived at Cowes Y.C. The club announced that a briefing would be held shortly and racing would be scheduled to start at 3:30 pm. The wind shifted again to due S and started to increase in strength to approximately 8 knots. Due to the reduced numbers, all catamarans started together with Mozzies in division 1 and completing 4 laps of a trapezoidal course.
Racing was tight among the top 4 mozzies. Local knowledge paid dividends for Rod Saw who held out Matt Stone closely followed by James Pearse who pipped Jeremy Pearse on the line by 1 second. The rest of us had our own personal battles against Hobie 16s and each other. Official results haven’t been published yet but as soon I see them I’ll post them as well.
The sail back to Somers was a much easier event with a beam reach in 10 knots of freshening breeze from the SW. Again it was against the incoming tide but I would say that this time it was more enjoyable. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" /> Even had a visit from a friendly dolphin. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" /><img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" /> We arrived back at Somers Y.C. at approximately 6:15 pm so it was 7 hours on the water. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/ooo.gif" alt="" />
A big thankyou goes to club patrol boats that sent the entries over to Cowes in advance, escorted us across, towed the monohull entries, watched us race and escorted us back home. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />
