Apollo Bay Sailing Club

Tell Tales

3rd December 2018

My goodness but sailing can be a funny old thing and at times even a tiny bit frustrating. I'm sure golfers say the same about the greens and cricketers can be heard at times bemoaning the condition of the pitch. But to battle it out in a sport where the surface your playing on it pitching at all angles and one of the main components of your chosen sport is changing like the wind, because actually "it is the wind!" makes it a real challenge. The first thing you face in sailing are the elements and then, if you get through that, you try to deal with the other competitors.

The 10+1 crew were at the wheel of duty boat Helena G. The predicted easterly had freshened to about 1215 knts and was quickly chopping the sea condition up. A standard three triangles, with a windward return after the first, was set with the upwind just shy of east as the prediction was for it to swing a little to the north. And swing it did. Not only did it swing all over the compass but also up and down.

Keel boats were build for these conditions with the wind jumping from 10 to 20 knts in a second and, as soon as you had the helm under control, back to 10 again. Boheme and Quickmatch showed how keen they were and nailed the start. Interlude mistimed the start but I think they knew there was plenty of good sailing to come and were just saving the best till last.

The dinghies were being pushed hard in the fresh wind and several of the boats had a fairly clean start. Being a little closer to the water the Flying Fifteens were finding the short choppy swell was delivering a fair bit of water over the bows. Unfortunately on the upwind it can be quite hard to keep the water out and impossible to get the self bailers working. With a fair bit of water on board Shiralee decided that they would call it a day and headed in. As did Euffamism.

With the big boats out front loving the freshening conditions there were some beautiful moments as they managed the gusts with flair. With the wind swinging towards the north the reaches became interesting and with a swing even further around the compass to the west everything became a reach for most of the remainder of the race.

Affrodite, never one to take the safe option self immolated with their spinnaker and were out half way through. Meanwhile Ziff was fighting off a very tough challenge from the ever improving April Dancer. Ken's comment at the end was "there were only two seconds between them but it could have only been one!" State of the Ark had a good sail and fended of Ffantome.

Back on the big boats the littlest of them was managing the changing conditions well and the handicap result below shows how good a day Interlude had.

Club Championship Heat 5

Opening Series Heat 4

Life is good. Come Sailing!

To find out more see our website www.apollobaysailingclub.org.au or our Facebook group - Apollo Bay Sailing Club