Audi Regatta - Mar 2010

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Audi Regatta - Mar 2010

12-Mar-2010

Audi Regatta - Mar 2010

Saturday the 6th dawned warm and humid, and eerily still in Rushcutters Bay. Around 9:00am a growing band of crew were stripping Kayle down to racing weight, taking off unneeded sails, covers, fenders etc...whilst re-rigging the racing mainsail and raiding the cubby for extra secret weapons to do battle with in the 2010 Audi Sydney Harbour Regatta

Adam, Bec, Michael, Matt, Bill (Silvester), Fish (Bill Salmon), Truck(Bill Watkins), Gary, Kate, Cathy, David, Markie-Mark, Arancini(David D'Annunzio), Tom, Lloyd & Liesl left the pen and headed off to take a look at the harbour, sort out the rig, check out the breeze and practice a bit of kite work before the race started from the start line controlled by CYCA Offshore at the Vaucluse end of Watsons Bay

The best laid plans are sometimes altered by the simplest of things and in this case it was the Sailing Instructions, or more particularly the interpretation of the start details. Anyway, you'll all be thrilled to know that Kayle employed a new and exciting race start practice manoeuvre by joining the IRC Div 1 fleet and showing them how it was done ! And it was a very good start too, just in the wrong division....

Markie soon had it all straightened out though and fifteen minutes later we were off in PHS Div O in a 10-12 knot NNE/NE. By the rounding of the leeward mark we already had a good gap on the field, but with handicaps in the fleet that ranged from 0.162 to 0.286 better than Kayle's, the heat was on. Each leg saw the gap increase, and the breeze lifted slightly up to a maximum of 16 knots whilst the seas stayed calm on a half metre ENE swell. In the last leg from the windward mark, the run home saw some nice kite jibes and skilful steering through a extremely busy harbour to take the gun in Rushcutters Bay.

It was always going to be close in the quiet seas and light conditions, but sometimes it is difficult to look back and think that if only we could have saved a little time here and made better time there, we could have found the 22 seconds that separated Kayle from 'The Real Thing' in 1st place and the 8 seconds that seperated us from 'Cloud Nine' in 2nd. Bombolo came 4th, Minerva 5th, Bear Neccesity 6th, Elusive 7th, Copernicus 8th and Losel 9th with SWD 3rd on handicap.

Race 2 started in clear skies with increasing cloud cover as the day progressed and it was cooler than Saturday at 24C. Tony, Bridget, Mel, Adam, Bec, Matt, Bill (Silvester), Fish (Bill Salmon), Truck(Bill Watkins), Gary, Kate, Cathy, David, Markie- Mark, Arancini(David D'Annunzio), Tom and Lloyd left the pen in 10-15 knot NE/ENE. After yesterdays prolonged exposure to the high pressure of race starts, Kayle started just once this time - another beautifully executed piece of work by David, and we soon took the lead heading up to South Head and out to the leeward mark.

It was during this leg that one of the RAN's Anzac class frigates looked to be passing above us as it was exiting the harbour. I don't think anyone in SWD knew that David spoke Navy signal like a native, but after a number of gestures that clearly said "Excuse me gentlemen, if its not too much trouble, would you mind awfully just passing below us, as we are racing. ...." or words to that effect, the frigate did just that - amazing !

At the leeward mark, Saturday's half metre swell was lifting to 1.5m and the wind was building up over the 20 knot mark as the nor'easterly continued to build - these conditions favoured Kayle over the other boats, but the handicap differences still hovered over Kayle's head. The crew were starting to get a little damp on the work up to the windward mark, so in an effort to stop mould setting in, Matt took the boat into a particularly big wave and wiped out everyone, including himself at the wheel, and even Mel at the back of the cockpit on traveller. When Matt subsequently complained about his wet cigarettes, you can probably imagine the amount of sympathy he received. The nor'easterly continued to build, gusting up to 24 knots and the first kite leg was pretty exciting with the boat surfing in the ENE swell. Markie took the helm for the last leg and with the breeze now pushing 27 knots and Kayle took off, humming and surfing at 19.9 knots at times. At these speeds, we were back in the harbour in no time at all and Markie took through the almost impossibly congested harbour to again take the gun in Rushcutters Bay.

Cloud Nine was 4 minutes 13 seconds behind us in second place and Elusive 8 minutes 51 seconds in 3rd, with The Real Thing 4th, Copernicus 5th, Bombolo 6th, Minerva 7th, Bear Necessity DNF and Losel DNS.

So Kayle had a 1st and 3rd place and Cloud Nine had two 2nd places, so Kayle won on countback because of the 1st place. David and Markie-Mark headed off to Eastern Creek the following day and joined all the other winning crews in the battle for the major prize, subjecting Audi TTs to significant pain judging by the two burnt out clutches on the day.

The prize giving was conducted at Middle Harbour Yacht Club on Monday evening and Dave, Deb, Markie, Cathy & Bill attended on behalf of the crew. The Audi was won by Indulge, a Dragon and Kayle gained yet another trophy to adorn the SWD cabinet and the beautiful award that will live at the CYCA until next year.