Kev and Ruth welcomed Dave onto Rogue Wave for his first taste of keelboat racing. After several months on our crew list we finally managed to align the stars and get him on board.....such is the life of us working folk. Experience around boats of any shape or size always makes the transition to yachting a lot easier, so Dave quickly found his way into the groove. But as usual, its the terminology that is the most new players find confusing. When all else fails its........pull the red one, no.......the other red one! Funny stuff.
The race was looking to be a light air/no air race, but in fact turned out to be 3 races in one! Tactically challenging planning our race route and driving the boat around dead air is very demanding. By using crew weight, minimal rudder movements and gentle sail trim adjustments we managed to extract enough boat speed to gain some great ground over rivals 'parked' in dead spots. Unfortunately my headsail was still off having a makeover before Sail Port Stephens, so I had to dust off the old Norths Sails dacron cruising sail........hmmm, its hard to revert back to dacron after using a laminated sail trust me, performance does suffer.
The course had to be altered to keep clear of the Dragon Boat regatta being held off Wanda Beach, so the Salamander Bay mark was out of play. We ended up doing a westerly course to Garden Island, Middle Island, Wedding Cake to finish, which made for a long beat in very shifty light air between Garden Is and Wedding Cake.
Our start was ok and we sat about mid fleet. Half way to Garden Is the breeze backed and we hoisted the APC Assy for a brief time which gained us some good ground. Spinnaker repacking now happens very quickly and...touch wood......we haven't had a wineglass yet! The beat back to Wedding Cake was rewarded with some excellent gains over rivals Tanami and Anneliese....so good in fact that we passed them both. We crossed tacks several times; on some tacks the old Rogue would scrape ahead by the thickness of her gelcoat, only to cross behind on the next. By the time we hit the Wedding Cake mark for the run to the finish Tanami had 2 boat lengths on us and we had put a dozen over Aneliese.
Tanami hoisted their symmetrical spinnaker and made off directly downwind for the finish, whilst we gybed away to set the Assy. With another new crew on board....especially first timers...its less stressful and much safer using the Assy as I can always go forward and set the pole after the hoist. We held ground for a while until the breeze dropped away and Anneliese started to haul us in........fortunately we managed to hold them off until the finish.
In our competitive little group both Nelson J and Exalte both had great light air races, however it was a cunning little Hood that came away with the win on handicap.
The good news is we didn't come away empty handed. During our long beat to Wedding Cake the breeze strengthened during the approach of a squall line to the West. With the breeze gusting to around 14 knots, life was good on the old Rogue..........until what will be forever remembered as Ruth's light air roundup! In the light air Ruth was doing a great job helming for most of the race, as I extracted as much speed from the old girl....Rogue not Ruth....as I could. Unfortunately for Ruth no-one picked the willy-willy that instantly backed the sails and rounded us up.......right in front of Tanami and Anneliese! So needless to say, word somehow filtered back through the club and by the time we arrived for a drink, Ruth was famous! In lieu of a starters prize this week, Ruths light air roundup earned her the starters prize and a nice bottle of red!
We managed to keep to our game plan and finish ahead of Aneliese and Chilli which means we still maintain 2nd in the Summer Series and 5th in the Club Championship.
Next week is the final race of the Summer Series and Club Championship, so a clean bottom, repaired genoa and lighter boat (ie maintenance gear off) will be the order of the day as we prepare the old Rogue for Sail Port Stephens week. Straight after the race, weather permitting, we sail straight to Newcastle overnighting before we compete in the feeder race back to Port the following day. With 30+ offshore yachts on the start line it should be a good opportunity to check out the opposition and see what boats will be similar in performance to the old Rogue........and speaking of old, at 1983, Rogue Wave is the oldest yacht competing. While we may not be fastest she sure has the best looks and lines!
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