Catfight 2013

Victor Harbor Yacht Club is running a yardstick competition for catamarans over the weekend of 7th and 8th December.
http://vhyc.org.au/cat-fight-december-2013/
I have joined Victor this year, the 5th SA club I have been a member of after always being impressed by the club each time I raced the Rum Race. So far the normal Saturday afternoon cat fleet consist of a Stingray, half dozen Yvonne's, 4 Arrows and me on the Mozzy. Despite the obvious differences between the cats the yardsticks are similar, the racing is tight on the water and the corrected results are very close.
It would be great to see some other Mozzies turn up but also F18's, Nacra 5.8, Taipans, Paper Tigers and "A"s as this will provide some meaningful data which can be submitted to VYC.

Ronstan is a sponsor with prizes for each heat and overall, there will be food, grassy space to rig up, parking within sight of the club and assistance, if required, in dealing with the shore break.
I think this is a good thing for cat racing in SA and I urge those, who have expressed opinions to me about the validity of VYC yardsticks, to bring your boat to Victor and race in some back to back course racing over two days.

cheers,
Darryn
Bullet
1782

Notice of Race and Sailing Instructions can be found on this page. Racing starts at 1pm tomorrow.
http://www.catfight.com.au/
cheers,
Darryn
Bullet
1782

Final results
http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/ab83/darryn6/Catfightfull_zpsd1ca8981.jpg

Race 1 and 2 times
http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/ab83/darryn6/Catfight1and2_zps04bbb6a7.jpg

Race 3 and 4 times
http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/ab83/darryn6/Catfight3and4_zpsc898cd5a.jpg

Race 5 and 6 times
http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/ab83/darryn6/Catfight5and6_zpsfac242e7.jpg
Race 7 times.
http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/ab83/darryn6/catfight7_zpsf76d6348.jpg

The first 4 races on Saturday had off shore winds which varied between light and moderate with large gusts and shifts. Water was flat with ocean swell allowing surfing upwind.
3 races on Sunday sailed in similar conditions with the wind strength varying between moderate and fresh.
Courses on Saturday where triangle/loop and loop/triangle on Sunday. 0.8nm upwind legs with the first leg on the reach being shy enough to trapeze. Surfing upwind but not downwind was an unusual feature of the regatta.
Darryn
Bullet
1782

Well done Darryn. Some nice results there!

Definitely some close finishes, when racing the Yvonnes I find I can point a little higher and sail faster upwind, reaching and downwind I loose the advantage once their spinnaker goes up. If there are some surfable waves I can nullify their spinnaker quite a bit. Yvonnes with the spinnaker have more then 40m2 of sail area so holding them off with 12.5m2 downwind requires plenty of wind and a few waves too. The race boils down to building a big enough buffer upwind and not loosing to much downwind.

As far as their yardstick at 85.5 and mine at 83.5 I'm suggesting the Yvonne changes to 83.5. So far the Yvonne sailors I have spoken too agree. Effectively we end up with first over the line wins, makes the racing even more interesting. Of course there will still be days that suit one type over the other but over a season it will average out.
As there are a couple of competitive Mosquito's in the Victor harbor region not being sailed at present I'm hoping that a fleet of 7 catamarans racing off scratch might be enough to raise some interest.
The link below has the results in a better format.
http://vhyc.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Cat-Fight-Dec-2013.html

Darryn
Bullet
1782