Hi all,

as allways everybody is welcome to attend the Gippsland Lakes YC Easter Regatta. Algae has now gone away and the water is very fresh, due to all the flood water coming down the rivers .

It will be a good chance to check out the place, ready for next seasons Nationals. Should be at least 5 Mossies out with some visitors, a mix of spinnaker and non spinnakers along with Matt Stone on a Tornie and some of the redundant catamaran club, Stingray etc. You get to sail with all sorts of boats OTB, Trailer Sailers, Keelboats and Large Multis.

Hopefully will see some new records set for round the island race, can the Mossie time be beaten? Also the Classic 30 nautical mile race is something you can't do most places, that is without going round in circles .

Everybody welcome, if you need accomodation get in touch, starts Saturday, all details at sailglyc.com.

Hi Matt,

have you invited any other Tornies, or are you going to keep all the Trophies for yourself . If Dave needs a crew, I am sure I can find him one .

Nobody is going to beat the Stingray..... in a drinking contest

i havent spoken to dave, i lost his number! and if dave was coming ill switch boats in a flash and sail with dave, then we will see whos the men and whos the boys hahaha

Hey Matt,

looks like the Tornie will have some competition for Line Honours anyway . From a Trimaran

"Bare Essentials" the Tri that won Line Honours in the Melbourne to Geelong Race Week feeder race has stayed here after doing the Marlay Point. Has curved lifting foils and latest sails, so looks like the pressure is on you

im thining of going back to the mossie cos the torni been sitting around for 12 months unused, and might have problems that i dont want, i dont know! if i do go to the mossie i will be slooping! Cant decide

Matt

Bare Essentials always gets a tune stuck in my head....

Look for the bare necessities
The simple bare necessities
Forget about your worries and your strife
I mean the bare necessities
Old Mother Nature's recipes
That brings the bare necessities of life

Hi all,

the forecast is looking good for wind this weekend. Could see Mossies flying and records tumbling .

Matt be afraid, very afraid .
Daniel will be laughing all the way until he pulls the spinnaker up .

Sounds like Trev is coming also, with Pete L and maybe some more we could get 10 Mossies .

Mitch, that Stingray is going to be attacked by the swarm .

Can't wait to see "Bare Essentials" flying on the foils. Awesome video on youtube of it passing 52 foot monoslugs like they are standing still. Search Bare Essentials Geelong Race Week, to have a look.

20-25kts on Saturday hey.... that reminds me - I need to renew my insurance!

Hi all,

current BOM site forecast as follows.
Saturday 7 April

Winds
Westerly 25 to 30 knots turning south to southwesterly 10 to 15 knots during the morning.

Sunday 8 April

Winds
Westerly below 10 knots.

Monday 9 April

Winds
Westerly 15 to 20 knots tending southwesterly during the day.

Wind Willy and Seabreeze pretty much agree, with Sat down to under 20 kts by 10am, so looking good.

Sunday doesn't look good for records though, better start praying for a seabreeze/easterly, which they often miss in forecasts, but we regularly get strong easterlies after a change like Saturday goes through. Here's hoping.

Monday looks good though all day, not to windy or light.

Hi all,

huge day yesterday, heaps of boats and heaps of wind.

Wind gusted to 54 knots over night . But thankfully moderated by the morning, was gusting over 20 knots while we where rigging , had to have help to hold the boats down when pulling the sails up. A lot of cats where very late getting of the beach only 3 on the start line when the gun went, massive day gusts where too strong for the spinnaker, I swam 3 times down wind and once up wind, waves where the major problem just so steep and backless. Wind was supposed to moderate but it didn't .

Started at 10am, most boats finished around 2pm in the afternoon . It was nearly all down wind to Metung, F31 Tri was first there, passed the Mossies with spinnaker up. Immunity sloop rig Mossie was first home, passed the F31 Tri upwind, F31 2nd and I was third back to Paynesville.

It was a huge day less than 15 nautical miles of on the edge sailing down wind, more than 15 nautical mies of hard slog upwind and so wet, most sailors where shivering when they got back. Only a small number of boats finished , less than 1/2 the starters , many hard luck stories in the bar.

Just a huge day .

Head back out to do Around the Island today, much shorter race, hopefully only take about 1 hour. Forecasts vary, 10 to 15 knots, to below 8knots . See what happens today, less than yesterday I hope, but stll enough to have fun I hope.

Sunday was a slow start to the day at Paynesville, after a big night for some, rumour has it the bar at the club closed at about 11pm, but some had still not had enough and pulled out the eskies, while the young locals lead the young visitors astray and headed for the nightclub in Bairnsdale.

Many where late to arrive at the club for the 1pm start, a warm sunny still morning finally showed promise with the wind filling in from the south as predicted by the BOM at 10 to 15 knots just before the start.

42 boats headed out to the start and it was good to see all the cats and multis get to the line on time. 5 Mossies with spin, 1 Mossie cat rig, Stingray spin, Hobie 20 spin, Tornado, Taipan cat along with 6 large Multihulls from 22 to 31 feet.

From the start the short beat to the turning mark saw Mossie "Bee Alert" first around, but sailing without spinnaker meant he was quickly passed by Mossie with spinnaker "Thrice Bitten" with all the other spinnaker cats and big multis in hot pursuit. "Bare Essentials" the 26 foot Tri with foils looked the most threatening, but the wind was still patchy and the big multis had more trouble staying in the gusts. "Thrice Bitten" lead a string of Mossie with spinnakers and the Stingray gybing down the outside of Raymond Island. "Thrice Bitten", "Catalyst", "Kryptonite" and the Stingray where all close together as they rounded the mark at the back of the island and commenced the reach to Point King, the gusts where getting stronger and all had trouble holding their spinnakers, but "Thrice Bitten" kept the spinnaker up longest and gained a break on the pack.

It was then a long one tack beat to the Lake King light, the Stingray gradually caught up to "Thrice Bitten" with "Kryptonite" and "Catalyst" still in pursuit, the fastest mover on this leg was the 26 foot Tri "Bare Essentials" using the foils to great advantage, coming from well back to within striking distance of the front cats.

The Stingray seemed to think if it just followed "Thrice Bitten" it would eventually pass the Mossie as it was travelling faster, following "Thrice Bitten's" tacks closely and it was working, but once they entered the gusty, patch winds of McMillan straits heading back to Paynesville, it became more difficult and "Thrice Bitten" stayed ahead to cross the finish line in 1hr 12min 22sec, not a record, but a good time in mild winds. The Stingray second over the line, just 25 seconds behind, 1hr 12min 47sec. "Kryptonite" third across the line, 1hr 14min 4sec. "Bare Essentials" was fourth across the line, first of the big multis, 1hr 14min 17sec, only 2 minutes behind the first Mosquito a big comeback from Point King where it was much further behind, showing the potential to set the fastest time given more wind.

Today (Monday) was blown out, so that was it for another Easter Regatta, but the sailors where grinning any way as they went home with lots of prizes (bottles of wine) and started looking forward to next year.