Winter Pointscore Race 13

A beautiful 10-12 knot breeze saw Kev, Daz and Lesley out early for some Assy practice. Lesley has just joined the RW crew and as this was only her second sail on Rogue Wave (RW), we needed to go through Assy spinnaker launch, gybe and drop. After a couple of glitches we finally had the sail gybing without socking, as this is the faster method of the two.

Today's course (B5) was the first time we have been around Dutchies Beach Isolated Danger Mark (DB), making a nice change from our regular courses. Starting was another area I wanted improve and today we hit themiddle of the start line on a course much higher than the boats around us. "You can turn your engine off Kev"....was the smart remark from Goodlife2 (Beneteau 39) as we sailed over the top of them at speed!

Once clear of the start in 3rd position behind Kiska (Tri) and Young Pretender (Young 88) light air tactics came into play. The breeze was very shifty, often varying 20-30 degrees in a shift. We tacked at the first knock and continued to do so at every knock, allowing us to lift toward Salamander mark and make huge gains over the fleet. On approach to the first mark we were in a great position and would surely be rounding in 2nd behind Kiska ..... unfortunately four little fishing boats huddled together on the wreck near the mark put paid to my line and we had to tack away to clear them. Young Pretender just nudged around in 2nd.

We reached away with the genoa sheeted wide, passing Young Pretender who sailed much lower than RW. We briefly....about 5mins.... held the lead as Kiska sailed into a hole. I was a bit uncertain as to 'what lies beneath' at DB Isolated Danger mark, so we tacked away to give it a wide berth......however Young Pretender cut in so close they pirouetted around the buoy! When using Isolated Danger Marks as race marks, I think the club needs to implement a safe rounding distance of 10m. I will put this forward at the next skippers meeting.

Clear of the mark up went the Assy and we took chase. By Manton Bank mark we had caught Young Pretender and this is where it all went pear shaped. Our gybe was disaster #1 and the ground gained was quickly lost. Both Champagne on Ice (Beneteau 46) and Exalte (X-332) were now bearing down on us very fast. By the time we were up and broad reaching again we somehow had maintained a narrow lead. RW loves to reach and she showed good pace over Young Pretender as we headed for Middle Island. The next gybe just before Middle Island was disaster #2. By the time we gybed we had slipped from 2nd to 5th.
 



Young Pretender about to be sailed over by RW

Once I was happy we could close the island at pace under genoa, the Assy was doused and we were back on the whites to round Middle Island to starboard. We slipped past Young Pretender and Champagne on Ice only to be passed by her again midway to Salamander mark. If you didn't know, Champagne on Ice is a charter boat and unfortunately (or fortunately!) they scored a last minute sunset cruise job so had to retire from the race. Exalte rounded the mark in 2nd for the spinnaker run to the finish line. It was like a match race with RW reaching under Assy and Exalte reaching/running under Sym Spinnaker. Great stuff. We would edge closer and closer and then they would just drop lower and pull away. They crossed the finish about 35 secs clear of RW. A fantastic day on the water and thanks again to the crew of RW who had plenty of tacking and kept us trucking along all day.

Rogue Wave has been a consistent performer all Winter and it appears we may snatch the PSYC double this season; the Winter Sternchaser Series and the Winter Pointscore Series. We have never actually won a race, so it would be nice to go out with a bang and pick up a win in next weeks final race.

Results for Race 13 were:
1st: Thief of Time (S80)
2nd: Vikinghood (Hood 23)
3rd: Rogue Wave (Sigma 36)