Woodstock sinking

Any day on the water is a great day except when you get T-Boned by another yacht while racing.

That's what happened on the weekend when the wooden classic yacht Woodstock whilst club racing out of NCYC, was holed just after the race start, quickly sinking due east of Newcastle. The club rescue boat pick up the crew who were all unharmed.

Sternchaser ....no offshore yet again

Unfortunately there were only two contenders for the offshore race so we had to cancel and tag along on the Sternchaser. All crew were 'off-watch' so another opportunity to hone the solo skills.

The weather forecast  ENE10-15 building to 20 knots and backing to the NE later in the afternoon....and it was almost spot on. My start time for the 20M course (Start/WC/MI/WC/SAL/WC/Finish) was 1324h and I hit the line at speed with 10 secs up my sleeve....so pretty chuffed. The beat to WC was against a flood tide and with the stiff breeze gave me a great workout.....3 times!

We managed to hold off  Young Pretender and Exalte until leg 3 and Chilli blasted past on a reach during leg 4. We had a tacking duel with Kindred Spirit and managed to sneak ahead on leg 6 and finally we nailed Hanni Bay on the final run to the finish. We kept Nelson J at bay all the way and pulled out some distance in the end. So fourth from the backend markers was ok and a great day sailing.

I think a couple of Hoods took the win and place but they started around 1300h. Chilli had a start time of around 1354h and I think they managed a 3rd. If it wasn't blowing as hard he could have popped the chute and blasted to victory.

Spring Pointscore Races 4 and 5

As posting time draws closer Daz and family are busy preparing for their departure to the Southern colonies. Daz is a great guy and a very high achiever, driven by a desire to do the best he can at whatever he turns his hand to.....and he has a lot of hands! You will be sorely missed onboard Rogue Wave Daz, however I still have plans for you so keep up with the courses, get your bum on a SA boat and a weather eye on the Jetstar website!!

How can such a small package have so much energy.....well Rogue Waves pocket dynamo Ruth just does not stop! What she lacks in experience she certainly makes up in spades with dedication, enthusiasm and reliability. Ruths new posting mid year has certainly presented her with some big career challenges and how she manages to do all she does in 24 hours defies logic. I also commenced my new posting in Aug so I think its fair to say the Rogue Wave crew have been a little  distracted over the past few months and are certainly off the pace. Anyway enough excuses - so how much off the pace you ask...proof is in the pudding!

Race 4
1st - Somerset of Oz
2nd - Chilli
3rd - Tanami
11th - Rogue Wave
Race 5 - Kev solo. Lets just say the mind was still not in sync with the game at hand. Great start and about 10 secs off the gun. Five blew the start and Tanami did a U-Turn in front of me so a quick luff up and RW was off beating her way to Salamander Bay. Had some ordinary tacks and lost ground and then I flew the Assy on the pole for the dead run back around Middle Island. Again had some issues and a 2-3 knot ebb tide made going very slow. I think it was about that time when the first beer was cracked! From then on it was just circulate back to Salamander, across to Wedding Cake and then finish.....all the while enjoying a few beers. Played with the tailenders and still beat Anneliese home! At least our handicap is levelling back to a more realistic figure.

I think I will use the older Assy in the Turtle in future as its much lighter and quicker to launch and douse when racing. I will leave the sock for cruising.
 
1st - Yulunga
2nd - Nelson J
3rd - Kindred Spirit
16th and 4 beers later - Rogue Wave

Jack Hollman Memorial Race

The Jack Hollman race is a one-off race that does not impact the Summer Series so it was a good opportunity with the forecast 7-10 knots to try out the symmetrical spinnaker with new pole. I spent Friday rigging up blocks for the correct leads and trimming the guys to reduce the amount of line in the boat all ready for Saturday. Well, once again the forecasters sort of had it right.....except there were no showers and the wind came from the South and it was about 12-15 knots.

 

Max joined Ruth and Kev to crew again after being absent for the past month training for the Hawkesbury kayaking marathon in which he won his over 50 division....well done Max and great to have you back on board sharing the workload.

 

Our start was not looking great when we were boxed in and headed for the line with a minute to go on an ebbing tide. Fortunately a gap opened and a quick tack about-turn and reach saw us sailing back into the fleet as they bore down onto Rogue Wave going in the opposite direction! Now this was not a bad thing entirely as we were able to harden up across the stern of the fleet and pop out to windward in clear air...albeit behind by 300m. When heading for Salamander Bay mark on an ebbing tide, the trick is to stay out of the main current or you get dragged out and away from the mark. The other tip is to tack as you get knocked (i.e. windshift causing you to sail away from the direction you want to go).  By the time we made Salamander mark we were ahead of all our normal rivals except Young Pretender. The ebb tide made for some fast beating to Shoal Bay mark.

 

The new pole was set however the breeze was now about 18 knots and gusty. I chose to pole the headsail rather than fly the chute which cost us a lot of places.......but no beers were spilled in the making of this event!! I messed about on the foredeck with the pole trying different adjustments whilst Ruth helmed and Max trimmed. On the final run for the finish the breeze had again shifted more to the south so my planned Assy run to the line turned in a couple of gybes before we crossed under spinnaker. It was nice to see Goodlife 2 have a good race and cross ahead of Rogue Wave. We would have finished well down the batting order however it was a great day sailing in good company with cold beers! 

Todays craft beer was a My Wifes Bitter which ranked 10/10.

Next week is race 4 of 8 in the Spring Series. We need to put in some solid performances to keep our club championship hopes alive.

 

 

Offshore Race cancelled

Disappointed....the first Offshore Race for Spring was cancelled. Not clear as to why, however I suspect there may been a shortage of keen starters or maybe a bit of apprehension about the weather forecast. Anyway, Ruth and Kev still headed offshore!

 

We dropped the Salamander Bay mooring and had a nice broad reach of up to 8.4 knots on the ebb tide as we headed for Shoal Bay. For a bit of practice, we rounded the Shoal Bay mark that will be used for next weeks Jack Hollman Memorial Race. The water was crystal clear and the colour a mix of emeralds, sapphires and white sand....what a glorious day. We then set course 6M east of the heads on a tight reach. The breeze had backed to the south and was sitting around 15 knots outside the heads. I love heading offshore as you can crack the sheets and let the boat follow her own course through the waves. The swell was 1-2m with a sea of 1-1.5m and only a few whitecaps.  At this time of year the mother whales with calves are the slowly making their way south and pass close to Port Stephens. Unfortunately no whales were spotted this trip.

 

The skies darkened and the breeze increased to a max of 22 knots, and the whitehorses appeared. We turned back toward the Bay on a beam reach hitting 9.4 knots surfing the now flood tide (hence why we sailed out 6M on the last of the ebb)....thankfully the rain held off . Entering the heads the skipper declared the 'bar' was open and a very tasty drop of Stone and Wood Pacific Ale by the Byron Bay Brewing Company was cracked.

We sailed past Salamander and made for Soldiers Point as we could see the gaggle of PSYC yachts milling around for the start of the inshore Sternchaser. Thoughts were we would circle the fleet, take some pics and then tack onto the back markers for a bit of a chase! The breeze had dropped so we shook out the reef and clipped along at a nice pace. The offshore breeze finally made its way inshore and strengthened. Really the reef should have gone back in, however since we were not racing, the lazy man approach got the nod and we just feathered the main to keep her on her feet.

 

Snapped off a few pics as yachts sailed past and then headed for home back with on the swing mooring by 1530h.  Distance logged 32 very enjoyable nautical miles.

 

Sunday was spent doing some minor repairs, lengthening the webbing on the sail slug I replaced so the luff doesn't pull at that one slug. Also replaced the two upper full length battens that fractured during the wild gybe the other week. I mated the new Allyacht Spars spinnaker pole with the Forespar bayonet mast fitting, and not only does it look indestructable, but it moves very smoothly unlike the old system. I particularly like the Forespar Ultra outboard trigger jaw that can be cocked open by pulling either the internally led inboard or outboard trip line or manually at the end fitting. The jaw closes automatically when the guy drops onto the trigger plate that fires the pin......very slick! Just have the guy blocks and tweakers to install and then she will be ready for launch of the Symmetrical.

Todays craft beer was a Stone and Wood Pacific Ale which ranked  8/10.

Next weeks race is the Jack Hollman Memorial Race from Soldiers Point to Shoal Bay (his favourite pub) and return. Should be fun.

Spring Pointscore Race 2

I think I would be on the money by saying we did not have our normal competitive game-face on for Race 2, as all three of us had several work issues on the boil. Look out next week when we return to our normal stellar performance!!

That said, the start was probably our best start of any race thus far......shame the remainder of the race didn't go as well!! We ended with a 8th on handicap after I had a tactical error at the Middle Island mark where we sailed wide and tacked early allowing 4 yachts to slip past on the inside. Still without a pole and without flying a spinnaker on leg 2 there was no time to recover lost ground. It was our lowest place for quite some time which was disappointing.

However, the upside was the Newcastle Cruising Yacht Club (NCYC) and Lake Macquarie Yacht Club (LMYC) held a Newcastle to Port Stephens race series and were hosted by the PSYC that evening. Many of the Forgacs Regatta crews were racing so there were some familiar faces. PSYC hosted a free BBQ and copious quantities of beer and wine evaporated, certainly boosting club profits!!  As the crowd thinned, Geoff and Kerry from Kindred Spirit joined me onRogue Wave for a Quiet Little Drink (QLD), making for a great evening.

Todays craft beer was a Stone and Wood Pacific Ale that rated 8/10 and a trusted favourite Fat Yak  8/10.

Next week RW will finally have her new spinnaker pole, Genoa Cars and 12mm genoa sheets in lieu of the 14mm double braid sheets. If I get time I will splice both sheets to a quick release Wichard snap shackle which should reduce the number of hangups we have thereby speeding up tacking significantly. See you in two weeks as I'm off to my town reunion.

Race 2
1st: Tanami (Bavaria 34)
2nd: Chilli (Corsair 24)
3rd: Young Pretender (Young 88)
8th: Rogue Wave

Season Opener under Trysail

The Spring/Summer season opened on Saturday and the first race was cancelled due to the Gale Warning. In the bay we had a top of 22 knots TWS so it was a good day for training.

 

With the boom off the boat for repair we had no mainsail, so the intent was to rig up the trysail so we could practice using this heavy weather sail and see how it performs.

 

I installed a separate track on the mast to enable me (in theory) to hoist the trysail whilst the main is reefed down to #2 reef. Once the trysail is set I can then drop the main and either sheet the trysail to the boom outhaul or in wild weather to the aft quarters if the boom is dropped to deck and secured.

 

The sail set very easily and I rigged the sheets to blocks set as far aft as possible. The clew of the sail is heavy and needs to be controlled at all times as it could easily inflict a death blow if it whips about uncontrolled.

 

On the windward beat we still maintained 6.5 knots in a 15 knot TWS. The helm was balanced and she powered along nicely. The aft sheeting alignment was good and the sail set seemed fine. Sail adjustment was easily achieved by easing one sheet and winching in the opposite, keeping the clew under constant control.

 

The usefulness of this sail is now very apparent in the event of a prolonged blow offshore. The main has quite a lot of sail area even when the final #2 reef is set and takes a battering. I found this out during our sail back from Newcastle in 41-45 knots when I really could have done with less main and more jib. So in future the trysail will get a bit of 'air time' when I am single handing.

I have designed and installed an inner Solent Stay to rig either a Storm Jib or heavy weather high aspect jib (yet to be purchased). It will be interesting to see how she sails in those configurations, but that will need to wait until time and funding permit. Damn work...the necessary evil!!

 

The boom should be repaired and back on the boat by the weekend. During the week I am expecting the new adjustable ball bearing Genoa Cars, which will make tacking/winching so much easier....(note to self - service winches), two new mainsail full battens (plus a spare of each) to replace those broken during the crash gybe, and the Allyachtspars mainsail and outhaul webbing straps.

 

The new complete spinnaker pole with bayonet fitting inboard and trigger fitting outboard will be about another two weeks. The other jobs in line are removal of the mast steps and securing any mast fitting that can hang-up a sheet or sail. At least I have daylight savings time!