Sailing Club

Tell Tales

There are some great photos on the ABSC Facebook site of Saturday’s shenanigans. They show all the drama of the sea state, weather and what a good old fashioned easterly can throw up.

Easterlies in Apollo Bay always pose challenges, but if the wind stays below 20knts overnight (which it did) and it starts to back off by mid morning (which it did) and the swell height and sand at the entrance don’t conspire to stop you going out (which “luckily” it did; but the swell was a close run thing) and there is enough wind left to push you through a very disturbed surface, then all’s good and you’re in for a fun day.

Croc and John (with help from Mick) set the course and, after a little consideration, moved the start mark nth east to get it in a more appropriate place out of the swell. With that shift the upwind became a little biased to port, and with the line also a tad biased (and shift effected) it became difficult to cross on stbd. So with the start a rather bumpy and hectic affair it was imperative to get into a groove as the sailor on the steering stick (on the ff’s) had their hands full just keeping the boat moving smoothly, without taking waves over the front in the swelly conditions.

Pace off a start (amongst boats that are close together) is critical as each boat looks to get their nose in front to take advantage of the clearer/ undisturbed air. The two strategies are high and slow or low and fast. A.B waters often have plenty of swell and, to add a degree of difficulty, are choppy as well. Making the low and fast option more appropriate as a high/slow boat will often be impacted quite dramatically by the sea state.

April Dancer got the best of the first upwind and deployed a spinnaker on the first reach giving themselves an unsalable buffer. Ziff (with only one on board) kept Affrodite and Euffamism at bay for the first triangle. The whole fleet was not very spread out as the triangle was short, and with 10+1 moving up into the fleet the small boats needed to be wary of tangling with her bulk near the mark rounding.

The crosses and roundings were hair-raisingly close until Euffa snuck by on the second upwind and managed to put a few mtrs in the bank. That left Ziff and Affro in a close quarter spinnaker dual to the death on the last reach.

Skifflebeat, able to capitalise on an outcome of the knife fight above, and 10+1 was able to jump in just seconds in front of Ziff. State of the Arc and Windswept close on their heals. Well done duty boat crew on such a tiring and trying day.                 

Results

Life is good. Come Sailing!

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