Apollo Bay Sailing Club

Tell Tales

Tell Tales authored by Igor:

Saturday in Apollo Bay saw an 8 to 10 knots Easterly, we must be grateful for every flutter we can get this season. The ABSC saw a turnout of 3 flying fifteens (Affrodite, April Dancer and Euffemism), Aero 7 and two keel boats (Ten Plus One and Interlude), promising some great fun on the water.

Croc and Igor were on the duty boat officiating. Anton briefed them on the finer points of course setting (which were dutifully ignored in fairness to other teams). After some deliberation, the officials agreed to set the Olympics triangle, port tack, T-S-T-T with an upwind finish. The fleet would be starting together. As soon as the duty boat left the harbour, Croc set the throttle to full in the direction of the King Island arguing that there ought to be stronger breeze out in Bass Straight! Meanwhile, Igor was throwing the markers (and some of his guts) over the back of the boat, setting the course. As it turned out, the upwind leg also had a couple of of cray pots in the way to make it interesting.

By 1.30PM all the boats were out and at 1.50PM sharp the first horn was sounded. The race start flag come down at 2PM, though it took another 30 seconds for Affrodite to lead the fleet across the start line, followed by April Dancer, Aero 7, Interlude and finally Ten Plus One. The time came for the duty boat to lift the anchor, when commotion was heard from the stern. Euffemism was yet to cross the start…

At the front of the race, Affrodite and April Dancer were fairly evenly poised with Aero 7 not far behind. Some time later, Euffemism rounded the mark as well. Next came round Ten Plus One and flew its Big Red Asymmetric Spinnaker. The officials had sneakily put a longer downwind leg to be able to witness this marvel. Last was Interlude soaking in the good times.

By the Sausage though, Affrodite began to extend their lead by a few boat lengths, while Interlude was falling further back. At this point, the officials decided to shorten the course to T-S-T.

Approaching the finish line, April Dancer had made significant ground on Affrodite and was now trailing only by few seconds. At the end, Affrodite took the line honours followed by April Dancer and Aero 7 third, another 3 minutes behind. Euffemism finished in fourth and Ten Plus One in the fifth. Interlude decided to head back after rounding the top mark of the final triangle lap. The handicap followed the same order – Affrodite, April Dancer, Aero 7, Effemism and Ten Plus One, with Interlude DNF.

Later, as we enjoyed our libations and vittels at the club house, we could hear the blame being dished out by the Euffemism that Ten Plus One had taken all their wind, despite being over 20 meters ahead and not flying the Big Red Asymmetric Spinnaker.

And so ended another great day in good company on the ABSC.

Best wishes go out to Croc who celebrated his 70th Birthday this week!

Life is good. Come Sailing!

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