Richmond Summer Series: Race 11 1st on Handicap

Following the Route 66 outing, with sail fixed by Rick Royden, we headed out on a beautiful evening, wondering if there was going to be enough wind.


The sky stayed clear and we sailed into the sunset to a podium finish.

The Crew

John (Captain), Tim, Ian and (guest sailor) Mark.
All boy crew tonight, a little more sailor talk and a bit of giggling about going hard and Ian's pole etc...

Course 9

The course was down to Rough Rock Buoy, back to Orakei, Resolution and home. The wind was northerly with a hint of east - a good wind direction for us, as shown by the results!

The Start

We headed out a bit later than normal and headed up under the Harbour Bridge to hoist the sails. The furler is still broken, so the headsail had to be raised, not just unfurled. As we didn't have so much time to practise our tacks we headed east as far as we dared and turned back to be in the box for the start. We were a fair amount slower heading against the tide back to the starting line, and we were definitely worried that we were going to be late. However, as it happens we were spot on, on starboard and right there for the gun. Actually there wasn't a gun - we should have been watching the flag! All good though, we had some speed and we crossed with the fleet, with a couple behind.

Progress

We made the best of the tide, and tried to keep a good heading without going too high, so we kept good speed going down the harbour, and reasonable position, keeping clear of the slack wind behind North Head. Tacking and up the channel towards the next tack that would take us to Rough Rock - we over did it, learning from last week - but overdoing it a bit. It meant we had a flier across the channel towards the mark.

Flat off to Orakei, with the pole in place and crew looking for any improvements possible to move us along. We were bang on Orakei and then resumed the beam reach, which certainly suits us.

Time for a beer ;-)

We arrived at the finish, still tweaking and eking out the last speed we could.

The Result

We were 1st on handicap - !

Oh and the skippers prize from Safety At Sea - to fix Ian's inflated lifejacket and a kit for mine. Very good.

Oh and a great burger at the clubhouse too.

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