Michael and I lined up for the race at Cleveland Yacht Club along with a large fleet including A Class, Nacra 5.8, 4.5, 16 square, maricat 5.0, hobie 16, getaways and an F18.

The other divisions had dinghies, skiffs and yachts.

We had 10 - 15 knots at start and a clear, warm autumn day, I was sailing 2 up sloop with Hamish and Michael was cat rig with both of us running our kites.

All the cats started together although we were split into a number of divisions.

Us mossies were up against the F18 - huh? - it came down to being the spinnaker division as we were the only three with kites.

The course for us 'big boats' was 2 laps around Peel Island in Moreton Bay which is approximately 20 nm.

This included a number of long reaches and / or downwind which let us make good use of the kites.

The F18 simply dissappeared off into the distance from the start and we mixed it with the rest of the fleet.

I am still getting the hang of the kite and had some heavy steering as my rudders lift slightly at speed which needs fixing as my arms cannot hold the load in the gusts which causes me to dump let along say get on trapeze under kite.

Even with that we simply sailed past most of the fleet under kite to the next upwind leg and rounded with the first cats of the mixed fleet.

Michael had a drama with his kite getting pulled out of the chute into the water on an upwind section and wrapping around his rudders and basically stopping him dead for awhile which sort of ruined his race.

The wind eased a little as we came around the North side on the second lap but then a rain squall came through with perhaps 20 knots which made for heavy going back upwind but it passed and we had lighter winds for the reach back across the South side.

Finished under kite after another long downwind, Michael was a bit further back after his kite misadventure.

We ended up 2nd and 3rd after the F18.

It was a great days sailing and we had a ball plus came away with a few prizes for our efforts.

Full marks to CYC for putting on a top regatta which was well organised.

Cheers,

Drew and Michael,

Well done and congratulations on the trophies. Us southerners can now only dream of warm water and warm weather. Please keep the reports coming.

If you set up your rudders with the leading edge raked a little further forward even if they get pushed rearward (and they will at speed) you won't have the weather helm problem. You may even beat the F18 in light winds.

Regards,

Peter

Peter,

Thanks, pretty chuffed we both sailed and completed. Michael had to slog it out to come home on the last long downwind as the wind kicked back in and he was exhausted by that stage.

Lets see air temp approx low to mid 20's and water was probably 17 or 18 C, mmmmm.... probably quite a bit warmer than what you guys have.

Will try the extra rake on the rudders, was also going to upscale the shockcord tension and loading to make firmer.

Results are in on CYC page,

http://www.cyc.asn.au/racingresults.asp

on the fleet that sailed 2 laps would have placed 8th out of 20 starters, very happy with that.

Cheers,

Yeah it was a great day. The first lap around the island was a blast, especially when drew and i sailed past most of the fleet under our spinnakers, i had a bad start but ended up going from the back of the fleet to catch up and by the bottom mark we had closed in on and gotten to the front of the pack with the a-class and nacra 5.8s. I dropped off somewhat on the long beats to follow, dropping back to mid fleet. On the 2nd lap around, we hit that squall during which, on the beat, crashing through waves at speed, the the force of the waves hitting the spinnaker in the sock, combined with a small amount of the kite which hung out the back of the bag opened up and caught water, like a parachute, pulling the whole kite out through the back of the bag where it then proceeded to open right up under neath my boat wrapping around the daggerboards and rudders and opening up like a big parachute. As such it took me about 20 minutes of sitting in irons to haul the thing back in and after failed attempts to get it back into the back of the bag, i managed to hault it onto the tramp over the front beam where i stuffed it under one of the foot straps. By this stage i was by my self as far as the fleet was concerned with a few rescue boats sticking behind to look after me as at this stage, everyone else was nearly back to club on the main land, the weather was really setting in, the wind picked up to a good 20 knots and it was getting very very choppy as the wind was going against the tide, so i had a very wild reach, with the rescue boats barely able to keep up with me, and a long spinnaker-less downwind run riding 1.5m+ swells (not that by this stage i would have been game to use itl), it was real survival sailing. but i managed to back in without breaking anything, which i felt was in those conditions was a real possibility.

But it was very satisfying to finish and get back in in one piece. Will definately plan to race in it again next year.

Heres some photos of the rigging area. I took about 2 hours of on the water video footage, so ill try and find time to edit that and post a small video.