Summary of the week of racing on Port Stephens.
Crew for the week comprised Kev, Daz, Geoff, Kerry, Max, Ruth, Ken, Tim and Pudz so most of the time we had 5-7 crew for any one race.
In the 3 race Commodores Cup we raced in Div 2 with 20 boats starting 5 mins behind Div 1 with 20 boats. Races were held Mon through Wed, with Thurs a lay day.
Fri through Sun we had another 3 races in the Performance Cruising Div 2 with 17 yachts competing.
Image by Saltwater Images
Rogue Wave is 36ft, was built in 1983, is heavy and the oldest boat in the fleet and we were 'blessed' with a handicap of 0.963 (higher than my IRC!!!). What this means is we had to give time to 8 of the 20 yachts in our division. We were handicapped like a house brick, even giving time to a 2010 Beneteau 46 (0.932), a 2010 Jeaneau 39 (0.818), a 2012 Bavaria 40S and even a Jeanneau 37 Two 1989 Northshore 38s...the closest design to RW, pulled 0.974 and 0.979 placing our boats around the middle of the fleet.
It may sound like sour grapes, but when 9 people give up work for a week, I would at least like to offer a competitive boat to sail on and not be hamstrung by a poorly assigned handicap from the outset. It usually takes at least 3 races to normalise a fleet......but hey, there was only 3 races in the series so we were screwed! That's my only bleat for the week.
The crew seemed to enjoy the challenging weather and courses which kept them busy some days and cold and wet on others. As the week pressed on the crew worked together well.....OK a couple of times not so jolly.....but for the most part they gelled and enjoyed each others company. I think our highlight was definitely the 3rd place that could have been the 'one' but for a slight rigging issue. That said, the recovery was excellent and we still held 3rd place.
Image by Saltwater Images
Social functions were the welcome cocktail night where the entertainment was the 'girl in white'. All bodies that attended the Presentation night on the Wed were more than adequately lubricated with Oatley Wines; Fri night was a blur of free Coronas and 150 Lashes at Vues; Sat the Mexican night was Coronas and Chilli and Sun more 150 lashes that flowed well into the evening. Thanks crew for supporting Rogue Wave and Sail Port Stephens, I had a blast!
Commodores Cup - placed 17 from 20
Race 1 - 13th
Race 2 - 17th
Race 3 - 7th
Performance Cruising - placed 8th from 16
Race 1 - 8th
Race 2 - 3rd
Race 3 - 13th
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