1st start on Sunday was very interesting. Breeze came up, visibility went down and a lot of last minute manoeuvring.
With 130 boats on the water, 9 divisions starting and everyone trying to get close enough to the start boat so you see which division flag was flying it was a credit to all on the water that there were no major collision’s. With visibility down to less than 2 boat lengths, it was necessary to keep moving a little so you could steer out of peoples way. At one stage I became totaly disorientated, not knowing which direction was up the course and which was down. Also lost track of where the start boat was on many occasions only to hear a start sequence hooter which gave you a rough direction to sail in.
Sailing into the fog for the start.... Photo courtesy of Sportscar from SA.
You weren't the only one! The most amazing sight for me was the whole Tasar fleet that lost it's direction immediately after their start and headed back through the boats waiting for their starts. They were a bit miffed that there were so many boats on their course, until they realised they were heading in completely the wrong direction.
I would say visibility was down to around 8 metres or less during that start sequence. Amazing.
Great photos, and congrats Steve for winning the fast cat division. Well done.
Perhaps they saw the C1 board on the back of the Opties start boat on the way to the bottom mark on lap 3. Our start boat had the C2 board on the back of it at the start.
They may have also enjoyed the breeze. I was trapping along the back reach. Wanted to turn around and go back the other way.
Some of our cats did the same with extra laps which confuesed me but I think they just reverted to full course because the wind came up. We were doing 12 knots on the reach which was full on compared to the rest of the weekend. Heres a link to a vid of race 5 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEw9uu632Mc
Jeff Southall Current boats Nacra 5.8 1703 Animal Scanning Services Nacra 5.8 1667 Ram Raider Nacra 18 Square Arrow 1576