RACE REPORTS

Here's where we get to rave on about what took place on the water on any given day.

Anyone is welcome to contribute an item here subject to a few provisos: the contributor must have actually participated in the race in question and the item may not be rude, seditious or otherwise offensive to children!

Autumn Sprint Series: 19 May 2012

As Alan pointed out this was our first Saturday outing on the Sprint so thanks everyone for the welcome and I suspect an overly generous handicap but happy to take it while on offer.

Firstly, as requested the name refers to a long held infatuation with late 60's music from Detroit. One of the highlights of the era, the Motor City 5 (MC5), lead to a previous boat of Tracy and mine being named the Pleasantville 2 (PV2) and now the Salt Pan Cove 4 to signify her home "port" and the now full family. Now that slightly embarrassing explanation is out of the way back to the racing.

Race 1 had Peter and I heading up the middle on the first leg watching those on both the eastern and western shores sail around us to leave us as very much a tail ender at the top mark. We gained a couple of boats downwind and got the kite down without incident. We left screwing that up until after the finish thankfully. I'm just a simple Hobie 16 sailor with a lot to learn in that regard.

Second upwind leg we took a punt and went to the eastern shore where we could see a pressure line which paid off and we gained what seemed like half the fleet only to head downwind to the same side blindly while a slight breeze came in from the west and we let a few boats through as we sat becalmed downwind. A good race for us though till we pulled the kite down behind the shroud and got a little "tangled" after the finish.

Race 2 we thought the eastern shore was the way to go and thought we would port start and duck the fleet to head that way. As the start got closer it started to look like we may have been able to cross the fleet but despite Peter's correct insistence there was plenty of room, discretion and a wish not to tarnish my reputation in week 1 held us back. We ducked the first 3 and thought we were looking famous all the way to the top mark, glancing over our shoulder only to ponder why everyone else was overlaying the mark by so much.

As it turns out it was because they were heading to the correct mark. In the end we close reached to it probably without losing too much and rounded around fourth. From there it was a slow sail back to the lee mark after which the wind completely died. Half the fleet left for home and the next two legs took the best part of an hour and a half. In the end we were again outsmarted by the westerly and Zorro inched up and up on us to cross a second in front, though we must have been about 20 minutes after Big Bird.

All in all a pleasant introduction, thanks.

David Fisher "The SPC4"

Autumn Race 9: 12 May 2012

One of the first things I do when waking up on a race day is to open the curtains and check the conditions outside, hoping for the Moreton Bay Figs across the road in Centennial Park to be swaying in a fresh breeze. Alas, they were still and I thought it was to be another light “screecher day” where Voodoo struggles to sail to her handicap. We got up to Bayview early to do a bit of maintenance on a misbehaving winch and rowed out in near calm, but half way through stripping the winch the wind came in bringing smiles all round on the faces of the Voodoo crew.

A gusty 15 knot sou'wester greeted the 10 boats milling around the start line, but alas no Indian Chief to compete against in Voodoo’s preferred conditions. We decided on the #3 kite which handles shy windy conditions better than the big #1, but also lacks horsepower when the wind dies and comes aft. I’d been expecting the wind to pipe in hard once past Scotland Island but this didn’t happen and we weren’t able to pass Lukim and Scud, both under screechers. At Soldiers Lukim was two boat lengths ahead, but then we managed to sail under their lee in a gust and creep ahead, but still with Startijenn (Multi 23), Big Bird and Twiggy close behind. Again off West Head the wind dropped and Lukim inched ahead in a ding dong battle to Lion. Out in Broken Bay the wind came back in and shy (#3 was the better choice) and Lukim and Voodoo converged on Lion with Lukim just winning the honours, but Voodoo surged ahead holding the kite till the last minute to head Lukim around the back side of the Island.

Once we got around, Voodoo lifted her skirts and stormed across Broken Bay, tight reaching at 16-18 knots, the crew closely watching the bow as it pressed into the water. Around West Head and upwind to Mackerel we were lucky to keep the wind all the way in shifty winds. Sailing Voodoo in these stronger conditions approaches Nirvana as she flies a main hull, jumps 2-4 knots and lifts 5 degrees - beats sitting crosslegged chanting mantras for 10 hours! Around Mackerel, we flew the big kite to keep speed up and had a great run over to Lion hitting 18.9 knots. By the time we rounded we were some 8 minutes ahead of Lukim who had kept with their screecher.

The beat back was fluky, especially as we approached Scotland Island. We kept left, chasing the dark patches to keep up speed, even if it meant a knock. Off Saltpan the RPAYC fleet was readying for a start and we had to navigate through to the left of their start line in confused wind caused by 30 boats running up and down the line. Lukim Yu was starting to look bigger as we tacked up to the finish line but they also had to avoid the same boats with their spinnakers blanketing the wind and we ended up with a 12 minute advantage to take both line and handicap honours.

A great day out for the Voodoo crew of Doug, Tim, Jan and Michelle (who is off sailing to Thailand, NZ & Fiji).

Doug Cuming "Voodoo Spirit"

Autumn Race 8: 5 May 2012

Finally a Saturday with wind on a day when we were able to go racing. With the predicted 15-20 knot South Wester the crew of Flanno, Jon and Simon were all smiles as we headed out to the boat.

We hooked up the hounds-high downwind gear which is so much simpler than the light weather masthead gear, no runners needed and smaller sails to handle. We dropped the mooring and headed to the start line.

Before the start we were milling around under main only playing the waiting game. We decided to set the kite up for a starboard start and planned to launch the kite about 30 seconds before the gun. We launched the kite and took off. We popped out in front from under Lukim Yu and Scud. Over at the top end of the line we could hear some solid “coaching” going on on Dash. Dave seemed a little frustrated about something which I think had to do with the kite going over the front of the boat!!!

As we speed off down Pittwater often seeing high teens on the speedo we opened up a healthy lead. Behind we could see some good tussles going on with the mid fleet boats. As we entered Broken Bay the fun ceased and we were back to typical Pittwater no wind sailing. The tide was really running hard against us and we decided to make our way across to Patonga shore to get out of the strong ebbing tide. The wind finally began to fill in albeit very light. We tacked our way to the Walker Point mark and decided to use the screecher as we went around for the return trip to Pittwater. As we made our way back towards West Head the wind once again became very fluky and at times we were only drifting with the tide. We passed the rest of the fleet who were still heading to Walker Point and noticed how bunched up they were.

After some frustrating periods we got back into the southerly blowing down Pittwater and took off with one hull clear of the water. The Chief lit up in these conditions. We were fully powered up doing 12–13 knots hard on the breeze taking many good monohulls to windward and doing 4 or 5 knots more boat speed.

As we tacked our way up Pittwater the wind remained consistent with the odd big gust that may have been up to 25 knots. The boat was feeling the best it has for a long time with this pressure in the sails. I just love feeling at one with my boat when its all powered up and flying a hull, nothing comes close to it.

As we went across the finish line we looked back but couldn't see any other multis. The crew were terrific and I had a grin from ear to ear. Bring on the wind!!

I'm sorry that I'm not able to mention much about the other boats in the race but we just didn’t see them to be able to comment. Well sailed to the 2 Dashes who came in behind us on handicap.

Good sailing.

Darren Drew "Indian Chief"

Autumn Race 7: 28 April 2012

Predictions of light northerly winds had me comfortable in the knowledge that the fan wasn’t going to be turned up high so any poo that got flung at it wouldn’t be flung very far.

The previous week, for example, a slight communication problem between my brain and my mouth had us ‘prawning’ the spinnaker but, fortunately, the light winds meant there was no damage done.

So, with this prediction of light winds, I was able to calmly welcome onto Big Bird, for the second week running, my temporary crew from Lake Macquarie; my friends fresh from their recent successful attempt at the Brisbane to Gladstone passage race on board Foxy, their Peter Cherry designed open bridge deck Lynx cat.

That achievement, by the way, is no mean feat with the task of demounting and packing up the 30 foot catamaran, driving it to Brisbane, reconstructing it, doing the race, while family and friends act as ground crew including driving the trailer and tow vehicle to Gladstone and then repeating the process in reverse, albeit from 400 km futher north, providing quite a challenge.

Having to go through that ‘exercise’ to sucessfully complete that race in around 35 hours while Sydney Harbour’s Sean Langman smashed the record by nearly 3 hours in fairly light winds on his ORMA 60 tri in around 16.5 hours, the drive for 2 hours from The Lake down to Pittwater, to go for a sail on Big Bird, is a relative doddle.

Anyway, a good looking fleet, slightly more balanced than previous weeks with 3 boats out of eleven being of the 2 hulled variety, lined up for the start that was postponed for a half hour to allow the northerly to settle in a little.

Jockeying for supremacy up the first work was intense. The 2 standout performers were Indian Chief, using a large furling headsail (or was it a screecher) to good effect (better than a jib? hmmm, jury is out on that one) which basically had superior speed and also seemed to get the best of the 5 knots of breeze, clearing out and Scud, as usual, performing better than any F-28R has the right to and was giving the “big boys” on Voodoo Spirit, Lukim Yu and Quickstep a “touch up”.

On Big Bird, we were having “lively debate” as the 2 skippers on board were alternately changing their minds as whether to go west or east as the wind shifted here and there.

The bill payer (me) got his way and so we went to the west side which probably wasn’t the best of calls since boats such as Ménage à Trois, Rapid Ride and the Multi 23, who all went east, caught up to us on the approach to Mackerel.

But that’s the great thing about being back in the fleet a bit, isn’t it? It gives you so many boats to try and overtake. And so it was as we headed back to the RMYC under spinnaker to complete the first lap. Vudu took a bit of a hit as the small kite was raised, mainsail dropped and a crew member hoisted to the mast top to retrieve the masthead spinnaker halyard.

Up the second beat to Stokes Point the fleet compressed as the wind stopped before the rearrival of the 5 knot northerly which then stretched the fleet out. The second and final run to the finish of the shortened course was a game of gybing and down wind sailing angles as Scud got a brilliant 2nd on scratch from Indian Chief who would have finished by miles had he had not had to contend with “surfing’ the front of the new breeze.

Big Bird, with a constant supply of delicious freshly made sandwiches being produced in the galley and being handed out through the companionway by Michelle, while Shane and future sailing champion daughter, Kimberley, gybed and gybed Big Bird to help keep Scud, Voodoo Spirit, and Lukim Yu within sight while Twiggy was the best of the second half of the fleet which had got split up on the new breeze’s arrival.

It’s obviously quite a hot fleet at the moment when a well sailed Dash, Summit (F-28R) and Rapid Ride were the so-called tailenders today.

Nice day out on Pittwater. Looking forward to doing it all again next week. Light winds suit me fine.

Stephen Barton "Big Bird"

Autumn Race 6: 21 April 2012

It was really good to see 11 starters on the line today with a nice 5 knot southerly to start the race, giving us a great spinnaker start.

I thought that there was no chance of finishing the race as the wind was so light, but this proved to be completely wrong.

After the start most of the boats were headed to the east side of the course until they had to gybe towards Scotland Island from Saltpan.

Rapid Ride had a great start leading the boats for fleeting moments before the majority of the boats gybed towards Scotland Island.

Jason on Quickstep set a spinnaker which we hadn’t seen up for what seemed like years, he then left the fleet in his wake for the rest of the race. As the wind died we drifted down towards the back of the fleet, just behind Big Bird who, at the Mackerel Beach mark conveniently for us, dropped his spinnaker into the water, much shouting was then heard across the water. At this stage we managed to pass him in the work back to the club mark.

At the club mark Voodoo, Lukim Yu and Scud had moved to the front of the fleet, followed by Twiggy, Big Bird, Dash and Rapid Ride.

The sprint in reasonable wind, followed to Stokes Point, where once rounded with about 8 knots of wind on the nose, Rapid Ride took off passing Twiggy, Big Bird and Dash and finished after Voodoo, Lukim Yu, and Scud.

The remaining fleet followed behind, Summit, Menage a Trois and Nina.

David Bishop "Rapid Ride"

Autumn Race 5: 14 April 2012

Our port start in very little wind was not planned but ended up putting us on the side with more pressure. We initially had our large jib up but after several tacks we noticed that Lukim was pointing higher in the light shifty breeze so we changed down to the smaller jib, losing a knot but picking up some height.

The nor'easter was slowly filling in but there were holes everywhere and we were fortunate to stay moving. Once we rounded the Stokes mark we were able to put up the big screecher and really stretch out for Mackerel. A nice gybe around the Mackerel mark and we were set for the reach back down to the starting mark for the second lap.

The wind had filled in nicely by now so we stuck with the small jib for the working tacks back up to Stokes. About half way up a loud snap signalled the dramatic demise of the cunningham; the main was flapping and we were suddenly powered down and scrambling for a temporary solution. This proved to be only a minor setback and we were soon back on our way and readying the screecher for launch.

Now that the wind had filled in, this sail was really powered up and we were touching 15kts on both sides of the Mackerel mark.

The day had started off with not much promise but the wind surprised us with its good steady and building pressure and the Chief was a joy to be on.

A superb bonus to take both line and handicap honours.

Joe Coffey - crew "Indian Chief"

Autumn Race 4: 31 March 2012

Light wind at the start, but not light enough to stop us from fluffing the start big time and having to do it again.

After that, of course, we made up the rear guard but in little or no breeze that is sometimes an advantage; you can see where the front runners are heading. We sailed, without too much drama and avoided the black holes to Sand Point where we caught a breeze that allowed us to overtake Zorro and Twiggy.

Dead ahead was a welcoming committee of the four leading boats (plus old Coco) strung across from Palm Beach to West Head in a neat line. We soon joined them and parked in the appropriate place to wait for Zorro and Twiggy and, I think, Rapid Ride.

By that time we had 8 or 9 multis stretched across. Quite a sight. For a while there was no breeze at all, then a tiny nor-easter allowed the west side boats to escape and wallow towards Lion Island.

After rounding the island the quick boats got away and were not seen again.

We re-entered Pittwater in 5th place but the reach back to Mackerel was fairly shy and we were overtaken by David Dash and Twiggy and later by Zorro. We managed to keep in touch with this group all the way back until the wind swung back to the southeast and we dropped the kite for the jib - just in time. We got ahead of Zorro and Twiggy whilst Dash sailed over the line on the wrong side of the mark and had to comeback and go again (after explaining it patiently to his crew). This allowed us to sneak through 21 secs ahead of Twiggy, who was just ahead of Rapid Ride and Zorro, in a nice and close finish.

Happy Easter.

Barry Allertz "Summit"

Autumn Race 2: 17 March 2012

Were were all the rest of you? The best sailing day we have had all year.

The start from the club was only met by Big Bird, Twiggy, Rapid Ride, Dash and a guest appearance from Quickstep. Quickstep and Dash got away pretty well. I had a mate driving a trimaran for the first time but I had not told him about bearing away in the gusts and we promptly showed the undersides of the wing nets to the guys behind!

We had a fun run to Mackerel, Quickstep got there first but left it to port and had to go back. They steamed past on the way back to the club. Rapid Ride and Big Bird made gains on the work back before another good kite run to Stokes.

Kevin tried to shorten at the club the next time back but we were all having too much fun and continued back to Mackerel. By now the breeze had filled in and my mate had got the hang of apparent wind kite work and we had a fantastic blast down Pittwater sitting on high teens the whole way. Big Bird and Rapid Ride had good fight with Big Bird prevailing in the end.

I won't be out next week as we are displaying a Sprint at the Pittwater Sail Expo. Seawind is putting on an interesting talk on Sunday from a couple who sailed around Australia with their two kids. They spoke at the Melbourne show and it was very informative for anyone thinking of cruising. It is on at 3 pm Sunday 25th March but need to register as limited space.

David Renouf "Dash"

Autumn Race 1: 10 March 2012

Not too much to brag about; I did not think we could have won as we were only 7th over the line.

We started a bit behind, missing the start by about 20 secs and struggled amongst the tail enders whilst Lukim streaked away and was not seen again (by us at any rate) until he was on his way back to the mooring.

The advantage of starting late is that the boats in front will show you where not to go and what sails not to set. Therefore we stuck to the eastern shore with just our jib and slowly worked ourselves into a better position by the time we got to Stokes.

We decided to stick with the reacher across to Mackerel and that was the right move as we made some gains on the front runners (not including Lukim and Voodoo who were out of sight). On the way back we tried the reacher but, like most, we dropped it and worked back under jib and by the time we got back to the starting line we had almost caught up with Scud, Big Bird, and Twiggy. Kurt gave us some extracurricular German language lessons after an altercation with Twiggy at the mark which cost him a lot of time and put us close on his heels for part of the way back to Stokes.

Unfortunately (for us) we did not sail well on that leg and by the time we got to Stokes the second time we had lost contact with Scud and the other 2 boats. We decided to stick with the screecher across to Mackerel and that started badly but turned out alright in the end and the leg home in the freshening breeze was a great sail.

A very good day altogether.

Barry Allertz "Summit"

Summer 'Sternchaser' : 25 February 2012

The start is often a bit of an anti-climax with the sternchasing - not quite as exciting. Having said that we were off with Zorro at the same time so we had to be on our toes. 30 seconds to go and our Cunningham blew up so we were a bit out of sorts getting away but all good. Zorro won the race up to Longnose and we were both inching up on Summit.

We had a good tussle with Zorro and Summit up Pittwater. After Longnose we tacked over onto starboard and lined up for the drag race to Lion. As we moved up Pittwater the wind picked up and we were pressed pretty hard going across to Lion in the chop. The large floats on the F22 love the extra wind and a bit of chop. It was when the wind kicked in a bit and the chop kicked up that we got away from Summit and Zorro.

Around Lion we saw the the rest of the fleet coming down - we took the Lion to port and got through the lee fairly quickly. The reach across to Barrenjoey was very wet for us - we couldn't have been wetter if we were to dive straight in! At least it was warm. Once we were in the flat water we hoisted the kite and enjoyed the reach down to the finish. I was nervously looking over my shoulder for the big boats running us down and hoping they would run out of room. Fortunately there wasn't quite enough room and we stayed in front.

I can't report much on the chasing crowd except to say they were all getting bigger and bigger as we looked back.

After each race we do a little debrief and sum up what we learnt. I thought you may be interested in our learning to date with the F22.

We have to keep trimming - like any boat, but a bit different to monos - don't worry about height and no need to drop the traveller so much - important lessons for a newbie and old habits die hard. The mast rotation is critical to boat speed upwind - can't afford to set and forget - about a knot difference when right and when wrong - we had it wrong for a while.

It is much easier to gybe, set, drop the kite with the jib still up so we will probably leave the jib up down wind - not sure if is faster or slower but makes it easier to handle the kite. We always sail better if we get out and put the kite up and down and do some gybes before the start - the head game.

Cunningham is king - we broke ours today so it will need to be up sized. These square top mains remind me of my old sailboard sails, all Cunningham to trim.

The rocker in the boat means we can tack quickly but as I have found out you can tack too quickly and end up off the back to boat - fortunately that wasn't this week!!

It was great to have some breeze and warm water, and to keep learning - heaps of fun today.

Peter Wesley "Midnight Rain"

Sprint Summer Series: 18 February 2012

We arrived on the boat with some excitement since it looked as though we would have some wind for a change. We were saying on the way to the start that it will be so nice to do something different to the normal around the cans racing. I’ve always been a keen supporter of windward-leeward course racing as it demands to sail your boat well and more so in the short course format of yesterday. The sprint series concept was well accepted by all on Indian Chief, more so when you get all 3 bullets.

For the first time in many months on a day that we have raced we actually had steady breeze. Its no secret that a sail boat actually needs wind and so do I to really get connected and feel the spiritual side of sailing. With months of frustrating light winds that don’t allow the Chief to lift her skirt and get going, yesterday was only 5 or so knots of wind strength from being almost perfect conditions.

We talked about our tactics for the day. We were in two minds as to use the masthead kite or big masthead screecher. The kite is about 35 metres bigger than the screecher but in these short runs the screecher's handling ability may make up for smaller sail area. We hooked up the big screecher, however we decided for the first race to go with the new big kite.

The first race was course 2 which was to a laid mark just south of Taylors Point. The start line was heavily biased to a port start which was what we decided to do. With all crew being watchful we jumped off to a terrific start and were never headed from that point showing superior boat speed in both directions. The Chief was lit up and once again I was enjoying the loaded up feel of the boat. With nice hull flies all the way up hill we raced along in the near ideal conditions.

Having never used the new big kite in any real wind we decided that it is too long in the foot and we couldn’t get it to set so decided to put it away and use the big screecher. Race 2 saw a change in start line position and change of course. The new course was to Taylors Point Mark which took a fair bit out of the course length, however it was more of an upwind course which is what the day was all about. The same course was used for race 3. In both race 2 and 3 we were first to start and lead all the way building our lead over the rest of the fleet. The big screecher compared to the big kite was a dream to handle for the crew. We were able to jump away at all windward roundings whilst Voodoo mucked around getting its kite set up.

My crew were fantastic. Ably lead by Chris ( Flanno) Flanagan, he was supported so well by Jon Hughes and Joe Coffey (all previous mono boat sailors). Flanno was calling the crew work which meant I only had to chip in occasionally and steer the boat. With this fantastic crew we were able to sail a near faultless 3 races. We were busy but it didn’t stop us from seeing some spectacular looking multihulls sailing around the course. I saw Zorro at one stage really hammering along under kite throwing so much spray from its lee bow which made me think that if you are a genuine sailor how could you not get excited about that!!

As we worked our way up and down the course it was nice to see all the other boats ripping along. I feel that its so much more spectacular when the fleet is all racing in close proximity and I feel it has to be good for Multihull sailing in general. Bring on sprint racing, next time I’d love to do it in Broken Bay!

As the only Catamaran out yesterday I got to say it was nice to show all the Tris the way around the course. Where are all the cats?

Thanks for the committee and Kevin for putting on a great days sailing on beautiful Pittwater. Beautiful one day..... a windless hole the next!

Good sailing.

Darren Drew "Indian Chief"

Summer Race 8, Course 21: 11 February 2012

It all started to unravel for the rest of the fleet as soon as Alan called to discuss the course. Lukim loves the light winds and the predicted angles suited her newly acquired screecher, thanks Conny.

Spinnaker start to Stokes, Scud was early, didn't return and received the OCS penalty. Lukim led the way with Voodoo in pursuit, and closing. A developing hole at Taylors, so we stayed deep, planning to hit Long Nose deploying the screecher to Stokes, which we did. Voodoo had overtaken us, with the same tactics, although I thought he had no screecher. But to my surprise he pulled up something resembling one, don’t know what happened, but that was the end of Voodoo.

From Stokes we went to Woody, twice, ever opening up the lead, feathering the screecher into some 15 kts puffs. The RPA fleet hanging around made the second rounding interesting. Do they actually own Pittwater, or are they working off another rule book?

With a thunderstorm looming, rounding Avalon mark, we saw most of our fleet trying to avoid the RPA guys, effectively being driven low of the Av mark. That suited us, we had a southerly 12 kt work to the line. Scud was rounding the mark when we were at Saltpan, Voodoo was jostling with Big Bird, well done Steve, I knew Doug wouldn’t be coming back to the Club. It’s about socialising not just the prizes, and you know me I wouldn’t attempt to skite.

Nice way to finish the Summer series, I am sure Doug will have his day, again, the Red boat will be back and the Seacart will be around to deflate all our egos.

Its funny, it can be cold, wet and bad wind, but as long as you are first, it’s a great day.

Robin Ottowa "Lukim Yu"

Aha, Rob but if you hadn't taken your prize and left so early, you would have been around when Doug did arrive!!!(AB)

Summer Race 7: 4 February 2012

After some initial debate with my 2 crew as to whether we would go out in the light winds or not, it certainly turned out to be a cracker of a day.

As the only Cat out in conditions that really suited Trimarans I was keen to do well and be first home. Over the past few weeks I have been trying various sail combinations in the light winds that seem to be blowing every time I go out on the Chief lately. The Tris do give me a hard time in the light ‘no wind’ conditions as Cats certainly are a bit stickier in the light stuff.

As we set up for the day I said to the boys let's try using the big masthead screecher and leave the masthead kite down below today. I hadn't used that sail since the Crowther regatta. We didn’t bother hanking on the jib either and just went with my new roll up jib that tacks onto the bow sprit and is about double the size of my normal jib. That sail along with the masthead screecher were the right sails and really worked a treat in the very light conditions. With no kite or jib on the front the boat was free of jumble and made working up the front really easy. The big triangle sails upfront allowed us to generate apparent wind all day in the little 5 knot breeze.

Lukim Yu did get to the first mark just ahead of us as we mucked around sorting ourselves out but once sorted and around the mark we were gone and continued to build our lead.

Sailing along on Pittwater yesterday was one of those memorable days. It was picture perfect and as we sailed up and down Pittwater. Often we got close to the other boats chat to the other skippers and crew. Everyone seemed to agree that it was a gorgeous day.

On the last leg we were at Taylors point when the next boat, Lukim went around Mackerel. We were sitting back enjoying a great day when suddenly once again in that area the wind stopped at Taylors and there we sat for 10 or so minutes spinning around with the tide. Eventually a little breeze came through the moorings from the SE and we got going again to finish a healthy 16 mins ahead of Lukim, then Scud closely followed by Voodoo Spirit. The lesson for us was sail selection. The biggest sails are not always the right ones. If we can generate apparent wind without collapsing the sails the boat keeps moving and the big screecher was the perfect sail for us yesterday.

Darren Drew "Indian Chief"

Summer Race 6: 28 January 2012

Course 24 - Wind SE- NE 10 knots

Course 24 was a good choice for all the smaller boats in the fleet , not so good if you did not remember all the marks..... Sorry Alan and Andy but on Menage a Trois it is the crew's job to remember the course, the skipper's brain is not big enough!

Menage a Trois, with its girl crew ( Amanda and Lynn) had a good start near the committee boat in relatively clean air. Rapid Ride with extra long brand spanking new dagger boards charged ahead flying a hull only to retire about mid way to Stokes having broken both of them. David it was very impressive for a while!

Out of a fleet of 9 starters and 7 finishers 6 boats kept swapping places the whole race. We generally did better upwind while others enjoyed a beer ( Twiggy we saw you) only to fall behind on the downwind legs. It was close racing, good fun and a bit of work for the crew . Screecher was the sail for this course and I wished I had one today.

Line honors went to Lukim Yu, well done Robin, and then Freelance, Zorro ( RAF for missing Taylors), Twiggy, Summit, Menage A Trois, Midnight Rain crossed the finishing line in quick sequence and within minutes or seconds of each other while Off the Rails was a bit further behind.

Thanks to a generous handicap system, and the best girl crew, Menage a Trois finished first on corrected time.... Second time on course 24!

Chris De Veyrac "Ménage à Trois"

Summer Race 5: 21 January 2012

You have got to love the puddle, rain and a shifty Southwesteasterly!!!!

Tried to trick the locals with a new Sprint MK11 that I needed to sort out for Geelong race week and a set of sails on the way to Darwin.

Bit of a bummer of a start to the day, Chris Flannery had come to help me put the new Sprint together and sail the Dash but ended up crewless and floating around watching.

We were able start on the line with a kite up which gave us a pretty good break. We snuck away with Lukim and managed to hold a reasonable lead on the majority of the fleet. Big Bird got past us on the second lap but we managed to sneak back around on the last work to the finish.

Well done to race committee , was a very good selection of course for the conditions which gave a chance for the smaller boats to catch up and be involved not strung out around the bay.

David Renouf "Sprint MKII"

Summer Race 4: 14 January 2012

It was great to get the boat back in the water after a few days on the hardstand antifouling and attending to 2 years of benign neglect and fitting new synthetic stays.

Unfortunately all the last minute chores that needed doing and checking left us away from the start area at the start of the 5min countdown. Only 100m, but it seemed a long way in force zero winds, as BOM forecasts of SE winds to 25kts proved somebody was smoking something rather than looking at their computer models. We crossed the line 5 mins later and rejoined the fleet , which was strung out over nearly 100m by that time. Frustrating procession up towards Stokes, with fitful moves of 50m or so changing the lead many times but leaving a bunched fleet trying all sorts of sail and course changes to find elusive and mainly absent winds.

An Easterly of sorts came in near Stokes and allowed Rapid Ride to take off, followed by the big guns of Lukim and Indian Chief with Zorro and Big Bird close at heel. Better pressure but still pretty light wind for the second half of the race saw Indian Chief touch 10knots once, but still Lukim did better with its big masthead kite and took the line just ahead Indian Chief and Rapid Ride. We had a nice sail reaching along on Off the Rails under masthead screecher and watching the boats ahead slowly move further away but more or less keeping up with Zorro, Freelance and Summit as they struggled under kites every time the wind moved a bit to SE. Luckily the race was shortened and we didn’t have to do it all again.

The race took ¾ of the elapsed time for all boats to go half the course and finished in the best wind of the day, so it was simple maths that made OTR’s low handicap give us the PHS win over higher rated boats. Ouch at the hike in hcp that resulted though.

Grahame Rivett "Off the Rails"

Summer Race 3: 7 January 2012

A forecast for a stout seabreeze was good news for Voodoo as she loves a bit a wind especially if we head out to Broken Bay. Earlier in the week I had taken my octogenarian parents out in similar conditions for their second sail on Voodoo; the first time was in a drifter where I was unable to show Voodoo’s potential but this time we were honking: lifting a hull, hitting 17 knots and they both got wet from the chop in Broken Bay. I think they enjoyed it.

At the start the NE seabreeze was just starting to fill in and we got a reasonable start with Lukim up to windward, and a couple of Farrier/Corsairs to leeward. We tacked at Scotland but had to duck Lukim who managed to clear the island and make it all the way out without a tack. We were even down Pittwater: gaining in the gusts but losing out in lulls as Lukim’s bigger headsail powered them through, especially off Careel Bay where the wind dropped out putting them 100m ahead.

After a brief nose dive around West Head we were first to hoist a kite, but Lukim had some problems with hers and didn’t put it up in the end. (We had previously commented on Peter’s “perfect’ crew). We had a great ride down to Patonga under the big kite, surfing down the short waves over the bank and then gybed back towards Walkers, dropping the kite early as we didn’t have our regular crew. That gave us a 4 minute lead at Walkers as Lukim struggled downwind under working sails. Further back towards West Head, Midnight Rain was leading the charge of the remainder of the fleet with Zorro close behind.

Back upwind Voodoo was in her element in 20 knots upwind, the main hull skipping through the crests at 13-15 knots with full main and the traveller slightly eased. We pulled away from Lukim and in no time were back at West Head heading home. We headed to the left thinking that we would have a better angle for the kite but fell into a windless hole off Careel for at least 2 minutes. We soon cleared this and reached up Pittwater under big kite to within 100m of the finishing line where the wind swung south so we finished the race with the kite flogging to clear the distance marker.

Lukim finished nine minutes behind – always nice to beat her although missed teasing Robin. Midnight Rain finished 13 minutes behind her followed by Zorro.

A great day racing on Broken Bay.

Doug Cuming "Voodoo Spirit"

Summer Race 2: 17 December 2011

It was a very pleasant day on Pittwater and I started the day by ringing Michael to discuss the weather because I noticed that BoM had changed its format and deleted the computer model wind maps. Anyway, after much deliberation and with the benefit of Michael's advice to set the spinnaker up just in case, Nina and I proceeded to the start. We missed the start with only Twiggy behind us. Twiggy charged past shortly after the start and, as we tailed the fleet, I headed for the eastern shore on the way to Stokes. I thought that we had the advantage over Off the Rails, Zorro and even Summit. This turned out to be wishful thinking on my part. Nevertheless, even though we followed the fleet around the course, it was a good day on Pittwater and we got to use our screecher on every leg. To win on handicap was a surprise bonus. Merry Christmas and happy New Year to everyone.

Jim and Nina Rannard "Nina"

Graciously modest report from Jim who sailed particularly well and deserved the win. "Nina" looked fantastic crossing the line at speed with jib and screecher working together and a smile on the face of "Mrs" Nina as well! (AB)

Spring 'Sternchaser': 26 November 2011

Bringing in crew from afar can be a tough decision when the weather at 7:30am is blowing 25 knots and raining cats and dogs. But when looking at the rain radar after a couple of hours the rain was moving off shore and the wind had started to abate. The decision was made the race was a goer and the “far away” crew was summoned.

By the time we got on the boat the wind was perfect and the sky was clearing. Off to the start and the wind died, a well thought out postponement for 30 minutes was called, the wind came in and off we went.

Great to see Quickstep out on the water with Voodoo Spirit, Menage a Trois, Summit, Twiggy, Dash our competitors. Rapid Ride started 3rd last and the beat up Pittwater began. We were quite pleased that even with our poor windward ability in the light wind, the small trimarans were not streaking off into the distance.

Moving up Pittwater Voodoo starting 2nd last, got a great wind shift, allowing him to catch us up just past Barrenjoey, proceeding to Lion Island, which he decided to Starboard round, while the rest of us took it to port. Even though the tide was going out I believed that port was the best selection on the day.

By the time we got to the bottom of Lion Island we had passed the trimarans and the monohull fleet which was sailing around the island as well. Sailing wide we kept the wind and shot off towards West Head. The boat speed at this stage was mind numbing with all hands on the sheets as we skipped the windward hull over the waves. From West Head we close reached down Pittwater with the apparent too far forward to even consider a spinnaker, which, as the wind died for us and went north we put up at Taylors Point. Voodoo was fast approaching and passed.

500 meters from the finish Voodoo tacked away from the eastern shore, as he was tacking towards Scotland Island we caught him up and when he decided to jibe his crew man went overboard(!), which allowed us to comfortably win.

David Bishop "Rapid Ride"

And yes, Doug did stop and pick up his crew! (AB)

Spring Race 7: 12 November 2011

Beautiful day on Pittwater for Race 7 of the Spring series with NE breeze 8 to 10 knots.

Course 24 proved a bit of a challenge for the skipper of Ménage à Trois who cannot memorize more than three marks at once. Fortunately the girls on board (Lynn and Amanda) have apparently got bigger brains!

We had a fairly reasonable start on the barging buoy end and for the first few tacks were sailing in the company of the big boys. Things started to change at the top mark where we got stuck on the outside of the wheel, but I think we managed 3rd or 4th around the mark. Downwind Zorro and Twiggy started to catch up.

At Woody's point, having the spinnaker bag on the wrong side and then forgetting to raise the jib before dropping the kite was not a good idea and gave Zorro and Twiggy the opportunity to pass us. By then the girls on Ménage à Trois were ready to get rid of the skipper.

Our situation did not really improve until the last beat to Stokes where we stuck to the east side and gained some ground. We had a good downwind leg to the finish and could not believe our luck when Zorro seemed to drop their kite a bit early. Alas we had to drop ours as well and finished behind. Summit was not very far behind while Twiggy had pulled well ahead of us lot using some secret downwind weapon.

Sorry guys but I cannot report on what happened at the front of the race having been very preoccupied in keeping my job as a skipper but well done to Rob on Lukim Yu for line honours and Kurt on Scud for OMR.

To finish I just would like to say thanks to my beautiful and competent girls crew!

Chris De Veyrac "Ménage à Trois"

Spring Race 5: 29 October 2011

Goodness, another hcp win to Big Bird. That low hcp is working a treat!

But I’ll take the win and the points as I wasn’t able to take the wine for 1st prize since the all important Seawind/Corsair Regatta which was also held last weekend from RMYC, with about 40 Seawinds and a few Corsairs (how very incestuous!) meant that Kevin, our PRO (Principal Race Officer), and Alan, from Corsair Sprint 750 ‘Zorro 2’ (our ‘go-to’ man for computer ops) had both been seconded to the Seawind Regatta and so no results for our race were posted until a later day.

Boo Hoo for Big Bird. Our moment of glory passed without recognition. Mind you, with only 5 finishers from a depleted fleet of 9 starters for our Seawind Regatta influenced delayed start of 2 pm, we obviously already had a 20% chance of 1st place no matter how lucky or well or otherwise we sailed.

THE RACE

So, what, on the surface of it, appeared to be a fairly standard course choice to Lion Island and back became a test of wits and tactics as the very light northerly breeze, no moon influenced massive tidal flow and resultant choppy water and the choice of rounding Lion Island in either direction, became a race of attrition as people gave up for various psychological reasons.

Actually, I was most impressed that as many boats hung in there as did.

On Big Bird we did the best we could of using to our advantage or trying to stay out of the dominating tidal flow or use back eddies as much as possible. While Dean, Big Bird’s crew, was busy scanning the internet for a tidal flow chart for the region our original choice to round from the west side became impossible due to the strong out going tide. Even so, earlier choices we had made allowed us to make up a 100m deficit and put on another 100m on Scud and keep Lukim Yu within eyesight.

A cautiously wide approach to the rounding of the island allowed Scud to slip through in, what I thought was, a high risk manoeuver close in to the western end of the island. I’m still not sure how Kurt pulled it off but he did and we were once again in catch-up mode. We were neck and neck across Broken Bay as Lukim Yu kind of took off out of sight only for the 4 of us to regroup near the Palm Beach Pole.

“4 of us?”, you say. Yes 4, because I didn’t mention that not long after the start of the race the Corsair 37 trimaran broke away from the 40 or so Seawind cats that were rafted up en masse at Towlers Bay and joined our race.

That thing is fast! And even without a spinnaker more than held its own until they gave up the fight in the glassy windless hole that had formed right across Pittwater on the return trip, as did Scud. Back at the island, a couple of Dashs also threw in the towel as did Zorro, who will claim getting home to sort out the Seawind results and getting into his pirate outfit for the big Seawind party at the Basin was more important than struggling against the 3 knots of current in practically no breeze. Priorities, Alan. Priorities!

Anyway, as the little seabreeze eventually formed, a new battle of wits for line honours began between the desperate tragics on Lukim Yu and Big Bird.

Lukim Yu won that battle by a minute or two and the remaining tragics on Summit, Twiggy and, very impressively, Nina came home in that order not long after with kites pulling them along nicely.

Another beautiful, fun day out on Pittwater. Glorious.

Stephen Barton "Big Bird"

Spring Race 4: 15 October 2011

Saturday , down to the boat early, as the bottom gets a sand with 80 grit every week and I'm finally getting through all those years of antifoul. It's so good that the water has warmed up. Gower and Barry made up the crew this week on the roster of crew I have which includes anyone I can get. Both have sailed on Twiggy many times so it was going to be an easy day with light winds forecast to strenghten in the afternoon.

The start saw a small fleet of seven boats milling around in light varying breeze which kicked in from the east with the one minute gun so we were off under reacher. Sticking to the eastern shore we were able to keep pace with the breeze as it made its way down Pittwater which included a blast out of Careel Bay which saw the reacher doing strange things to the masthead! Lets Stick Together was also fairly powered up at this stage and may have broken something as he retired after this.

By Palm Beach the wind had gone nor'east and everybody rounded in a bunch. From here the lead boats skipped ahead with Pinky, Scud and Lukim battling it out for the podium while I was content with staying ahead of Summit. Finishing in a dying breeze we were able to close the gap enough to take the handicap win.

Back at the club Gower and Barry tossed a coin for the bottle of red which Barry walked away with . All in all a very pleasant day. Nice to be sailing again in a bit of warmer weather even with a slight chop.

Mike Finch "Twiggy"

Spring Race 3: 8 October 2011

Another lottery day on Pittwater that favoured the fastest boats and Voodoo sailed away taking advantage of the dying breeze. We had a great start, great first run /reach, rounded Lion cleanly, caught the shifts back and made the laylines, rounded Mackerel in pressure and were having a great day. We even flew a hull coming up to Lion the second time as we had to head up under spinnaker to clear a very slow mono. Ryan steered the beat back and I tweaked the sails which kept the boat going in the lightening winds. We were lucky to get a nice line of wind right up to the finish.

Lukim, Scud and the others didn’t get favourable winds past Barrenjoey so got out of touch with Voodoo early on, and as the wind lightened then it became an impossible task to catch up. Lukim finished 16 mins after Voodoo with Scud third at 31. On handicap, it was Voodoo, Big Bird and Lukim Yu. Finishing order on OMR was Voodoo, Scud and Big Bird.

Sometimes it all comes together, many other times not.

Sailing on Kas

I was fortunate to score a ride for myself and Ryan on Kas on Sunday back from Pittwater to the Harbour. Caught a lift up from Sydney with Sean and his crew to cast off the mooring at around 10:15. Winds were stronger than forecast and it looked like we had 10-15 kt NW if not more, for the trip back. Kas was a maze of ropes going everywhere and not all looking obvious. Fittings and ropes were unfamiliar, the pedestal winches and the halyard locks all run by strings labelled in French. The wing mast looked like it hit the clouds and the mainsail took 4 working hard for 5 minutes to it get up.

Up Pittwater Kas was in a different universe as it pushed along in the stronger gusts hitting 25 knots passing becalmed monos running in slow motion. Past Barrenjoey the wind freshened now hitting 20 knots pushing Kas downwind, hitting 29.5 knots at one stage, yet it felt comfortable and natural. Heading up to North Head the jib was furled with a reef put in the main, Kas still sitting on 17, and when the inner jib came out boat speed jumped up to 22-24 on the wind. One hour after passing Barrenjoey, Kas entered the Sydney Harbour Heads heading for its home at Berry Bay. Tacking angles were 95-100, similar to most multis, but she flashed past the few boats in the unusually quiet Harbour. She tacked slowly, getting in irons easily lacking power from the smaller jib.

I didn’t get a steer in the fresh wind but imagined that it was similar to Voodoo – Sean had a neutral helm and could easily respond to the gusts via the tiller even though it’s twice as big as Voodoo. The main hull skipped out a few times, but with a bit more sail it could have out most of the time. Staying on your feet was a challenge as the boat accelerated in gusts and anything below 20 knots was a disappointment. We stayed dry, but that was easy with the offshore wind – a southerly would have been different. A skilled crew of 8 is need to sail her hard, yet the French has managed to sail ORMA 60’s singlehanded across the Atlantic.

Don’t expect any creature comforts as Voodoo has more room inside as there’s 10’ of main cabin with 2 bunks and a sort of nav station – I didn’t see a cooker. Granted there is a 18’ long “owners suite” under the cockpit, but with 5 foot headroom and one pipe berth, it won’t be attractive to many. Ahead of the mast is empty and sealed.

Sean is very bullish about the potential of big multis and is pushing hard for sponsorship so he can campaign her in major races. If he can convince the CYC to let him and rumoured other big multis coming to Australia race in east coast races then there could be a shift in multihull sailing in the next few years. His idea is to use Kas’ masts and equipment for a super mono – let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. Back in Sydney he showed us around his Woolwich yard which had Wild Oats and Lahana as guests (each of Wild Oats dagger boards cost $220k to build). We also saw his speed record breaking creature, Wot Rocket, which he hopes to bring out again soon.

Doug Cuming "Voodoo Spirit"

Spring Race 2: 24 September 2011

It was a good day for Voodoo as we managed to pull away from an engaging battle with Lukim. Rob seems to have her going well now and the new screecher definitely is an asset in Pittwater. With only 2 crew it was a moderate start for Voodoo but to the lee of that pesky Scud who always seems bang on the line. Under big spinnaker we just cleared Longnose but then had to drop it to come up to the Stokes mark, just behind Lukim and in a gaggle of RMYC monos sailing a similar course. Tacking downwind we kept up with Rob and rounded just behind for the beat back to the club with Scud a few minutes behind and the rest of the fleet falling back in the 5-10 shifting S-SE breeze.

Upwind both boats were remarkably even, but Voodoo held to the right towards Scotland Island to take favoured breeze and round ahead of Lukim. Voodoo’s tangled wet spinnaker hoist allowed Lukim to draw even and looked to head us to back to Stokes, until Rob made a navigational error by overstanding the mark and having to drop the spinnaker to make the rounding. This allowed Voodoo to streak ahead towards Mackerel as poor Lukim got stuck in a lighter patch with Scud not far behind.

Voodoo rounded some 5 minutes ahead and maintained this all the way home in consistent but shifting wind. Lukim finished 6 minutes behind followed by Scud 8 minutes later with a large gap back to the rest of the fleet as the wind died.

Doug Cuming "Voodoo Spirit"

Spring Race 1: 17 September 2011

Beautiful day on Pittwater for Spring race 1. The good weather brought the fleet out with 11 starters in a light east'sou'easter which would eventually swing nor'east.

After a good start,we decided to stick with the reacher as the kites around us were having problems. Lukim with his new sail was off and gone and looked like he was going to be hard to catch. The run to Mackerel became a bit of a procession and in the light conditions we can throw up plenty of rag so held our position right back to the start buoy where we found a nice glassy patch to sit in while Scud, Voodoo, Rapid Ride and Summit sailed away and Zorro began to pressure us from behind.

On the work to Stokes we picked up enough on Summit to run him down and get by 30secs on the finish line - and our handicap did the rest.

We had a new crew member on board, Russell, who steered while Barry and I pulled the strings. Russell, a mono sailor from the club, came over to the dark side for his first sail on a multi.

That was Saturday on Twiggy. Cheers.

Mike Finch "Twiggy"

Winter Race 9: 13 August 2011

Glad to be back although the sailing around the islands between Naples and Sicily is quite spectacular and a bit of a reminder that, although the best, Pittwater is not the only place in the world.

As for the race: lucky light conditions for jet lagged crew and an easy start behind Lukim and Scud after an interesting "situation" between Lukim and the Pink Warrior who then took his frustrations out on the starter boat. Fortunately no damage done.

We trailed behind the 2 leaders and slowly opened a gap on Zorro which was maintained throughout the race. As happens so often, the lead boats seem to get the best of the breeze.

Very enjoyable day all round.

Barry Allertz "Summit"

Winter Race 8: 6 August 2011

RMYC Multihulls delivers more entertainment than MasterChef.

Like all good drama, it is important to build the suspense right up to the end: MasterChef, Sydney vs Essendon AFL, and now RMYC Multihulls Winter Race 8! Voodoo wins the double by being the only one to get to the finish on time surviving a threatening challenge from Lukim, Scud and Big Bird. Commiserations to my fellow sailors who spent a lovely winter’s day out sailing on one of the best patches of coast in Australia (but not for fair racing).

A light northwesterly greeted us prior to the start, however we knew that today would be unpredictable so we’d need to be keeping a sharp lookout for wind patches. A good fleet turnout with Voodoo, Scud, Lukim Yu, Big Bird, Zorro, Dash, Twiggy, Nusa Dua, Deja-Vu and the green cat "Let’s Stick Together" milling around the start.

Most of the fleet started on port tack except for Kurt who optimistically yelled “Starboard” and “Protest” as he passed the sterns of the port tackers. An excellent start for Voodoo and a fair wind took us up to Taylors where we freed sheets a little to stay on the east side of Pittwater to avoid a nasty hole off Soldier’s Point. Voodoo slowly drew away from Lukim, with Scud up higher followed by the rest of the fleet. Voodoo rounded Mackerel a few minutes ahead of Lukim with the fleet drawing out in the fickle breeze.

The return back to RMYC was under kite and we took every gust to head left as much as we could to get back into the wind channel on the east side. Once past Longnose we found pressure that allowed us to round RMYC mark 10 minutes ahead and were looking like we were in our own race. Scud was still keeping in touch with Lukim and Big Bird not far behind.

Ominous signs of change were apparent as darker clouds started forming. We kept tight into Salt Pan chasing a wind band around Taylors and then all the way along the moorings up to Stokes Point, our next rounding mark. Lukim, Scud and the rest of the fleet slowed alongside Scotland Is and we rounded 15 minutes ahead and it looked in the bag (dream on!).

Would we make the time cut-off for the shorten course at 1:45? Approaching Taylors at 1:20 were concerned that we would make it and have to do another leg! The crew suggested that we should slow up so as not to make it, but the skipper didn’t understand that concept so we rounded at 1:30 forcing the fleet to complete another lap. A consistent leg to Mackerel gave us a 17 minute lead but it’s on the return leg to the finish where the race took a dramatic turn. Voodoo took a nice band of wind down from Soldiers Point but then got stuck off Longnose whilst Lukim went east, helped by a shift to the east. We gybed east to catch the new wind ahead of Lukim, with Scud and Big Bird (where did he come from?) now just behind them.

As the three of them formed a threatening line 300m behind Voodoo, we kept close to Taylors, then followed a wind band repeatedly gybing close to the eastern moorings all the way to the finish at 3:55, 5 minutes inside the time limit for all boats. Big Bird was next picking up the same breeze but alas, didn’t make it in time, finishing 8 minutes later. Lukim got caught in a hole near Scotland Island and finished 4th – disappointing finish given their earlier challenges. My sympathies are with you Robin.

We were unaware of the 4 pm time limit so arrived at the Club bar in a philosophical mood (if only? Oh well, it was a nice day out) to see Kevin who asked: “So you must be smiling?” and it dawned on me that we were the only finisher, hence double winner! A race like this outshines any dramas in the making of a liquid nitrogen dipped carrot meringue! TV producers – just contact the Club for an appointment.

Doug Cuming "Voodoo Spirit"

Winter Race 7: 30 July 2011

Tragically, in all this time since Alan, against my sage advice because I figured it would never work, instigated the, as it turns out, brilliant idea of weekly race winners writing reports this is the first time I’ve ever been called upon to write a report.

I’ve really enjoyed reading the reports from other race winners and as Big Bird’s performances have been a little, ahem, underwhelming of late our handicap has dropped to such a low number that eventually winning a race had virtually become a feat that’s practically impossible not to achieve. And as Big Bird was able to out-sail its handicap today by enough to win that means I get to finally write a report. Hooray!

Our prospects weren’t looking that good 15 minutes before start time since Big Bird was still tied to the mooring, I was at the mast head reconnecting the runner that had worn through and fallen to the deck the previous week, the floats were a bit weedy and we were still unrigged. Nor were things looking that good as the rest of the fleet sailed away from the start while we were going round and round in ever decreasing circles as we exonerated ourselves for the motoring we did within the 5 minute warning signal trying to make the start.

Still it was a gorgeous day so we were bound to have a good time. We fluked a couple of lucky wind shifts. Deano crewed perfectly, we overtook some boats. We won on handicap, OMR and second over the line. Good fun.

However, the main reason to hurry around the course was Dean and I were both very keen to get out into the ocean ASAP after the race to try and see the two 60 foot ORMA trimarans that were unofficially competing (Yeah good one CYC! Morons! They’ll cotton on eventually, won't they?) in the Sydney to Southport race. Unfortunately these two really fast canting rig trimarans and the canting keel 100 foot monos Wild Oats and Investec Loyal, appeared to have surprisingly taken the wide route to go north and so we were left viewing the coast hugging second tier boats such as Brindabella, Living Doll, a couple of 60’s, a TP52 or two etc. Drats! it would have been nice to see a couple of the most amazing boats in the world powered up in flat seas and 12 knots of breeze.

Hopefully we’ll see some more multis on the water in our race next week.

Stephen Barton "Big Bird"

Winter Race 6: 23 July 2011

I awoke on race day to more torrential rain. Having been raining for the past week I wasn't all that motivated to go racing. My crew were keen so I thought why not, it's only water.

I arrived at the marina and couldn't believe how dirty the water was. We jumped on board and right away the rain stopped and the clouds began to break up. With the sun beginning to come out we dropped the mooring and headed to the start line. We were well positioned at the start and caught both Scud and Voodoo on port with no where to go at the pin end of the line. We pushed Voodoo up, they pushed Scud up and Kurt had to go above the mark and do a 360 behind us to make the start. I'm pretty sure there were a few 'words' from Scud!!!

Our kite filled and we were off and running towards Stokes Point. David in Dash was doing really well hanging on to us in the shifty conditions. He was holding off Voodoo with Scud, Big Bird and Twiggy following. We had a great run and by Stokes we were well clear of the fleet. Around the mark and hard on the breeze to Woody saw Voodoo pick the right shifts and he passed Dash and made some good ground on us. We got to Woody and popped our kite and ran away in the 10-15 knot SW wind. At times it was very fluky and dropping to below 5 knots of wind.

We headed over to Mackerel hitting 19 knots with regular bursts of 17-18 knot runs. As we approached the mark we dropped the kite and two-sailed the rest of the way. The fleet was well behind by this stage. The rest of the race was a wonderful sail and we continued to build our lead. As we were heading to the finish Scud and Big Bird were having a close battle at Taylors Point. They rounded Taylors and were heading to Woody when Scud all of a sudden pulled out and called it a day. We finished around 10 mins in front of Voodoo and 23 in front of a well sailed Dash. Big Bird and Twiggy were next. This gave us the triple taking line honors, OMR and PHS.

Thanks to a great crew that worked hard to squeeze everything they could out of the Chief! The motto of the day was to never write a day off just because it starts off raining.

Darren Drew "Indian Chief"

Winter Race 4: 9 July 2011

Saturday came around and for a change there was a light to moderate westerly breeze blowing. Arrived down at the boat with the intention of cleaning the bottom but that westerly was cutting right through me, and the bottom could stay dirty.

Course 21. Only 7 starters, a bit disappointing but good to see the red boat back out there; with that spray coming off the bows looks like he's on fire. Our start was a bit of a non-event but finally got going to find ourselves in company with Rapid Ride and Zorro. With Barry on the helm and me pulling the strings, we settled down to a game of cat and mouse with Zorro, itching to unfurl the masthead reacher. Thought I'd just wait till we cleared Scotland Island and as the gusts hit I was glad it was still furled.

By Stokes Point we'd settled into a procession that would continue for most of the race. Rapid Ride removed his reef and that was the last we saw of him. Before we knew it the two laps had been done and we were rounding Avalon and heading home.

Deciding to carry the reacher, we diced with the moorings for a couple of gusts then lifted enough to clear Taylors. By now Zorro was looking over his shoulder and Baz says I reckon we can get him and sure enough after following Zorro for 1 hr 44 we got him by 9 seconds on the line!

Fun day on the water.

Mike Finch "Twiggy"

Winter Race 2: 25 June 2011

Course 32, very light conditions, wind from every direction.

We had a very poor start going over the line second last, which sometimes isn’t a bad thing especially in the conditions we had. Seeing our competitors falling in holes one by one is not only amusing but gives you an edge.

The boats that started down the line towards Scotland Island had the pressure, initially, but as Peter, my supremo tactician says, "it’s not hard, look up the bay and see where the wind is". They all fell into a hole.

First mark Towlers Bay. Still very light with the Dash, Scud, Voodoo, and Zorro in front across to Taylors. We stayed high in pressure and wiped half of them out. Then bizarrely they kept on going into the Clareville moorings and stopped. Lukim again stayed in tight, heading up to Long Nose. We saw a patch near Long Nose stretching all the way to Stokes. A few followed our lead and weren’t disappointed. The Dash still in front, even though David’s lovely wife wasn’t on board calling tactics.

Rounding Stokes and following the Dash to Mackerel, we were half way to the mark before the next group rounded Stokes very slowly. Following the Dash around the mark he hoisted his kite which sucked him down to Soldiers Point then parked it soon after - long enough for Lukim to pass to the east. David obviously thought that sucked, did a Kurt, and started shouting at his collapsed kite.

Lukim followed the east side mooring line all the way to our glorious finish, 10 minutes in front of the next boat. Most of the fleet stayed mid Pittwater with no wind. Scud abandoned the race.

Finally, congratulations to all the prize winners last night including the recipient of the prestigious Homer Simpson award. Stephen gave a very entertaining account of each of the stuff-ups qualifying for the award. In the end Doug won through for the second year in a row to claim the major prize much to his delight and satisfaction (not!)

Robin Ottowa "Lukim Yu"

Winter Race 1: 18 June 2011

SW to W to NW, 0 to 20 kts, normal Pittwater conditions. Course #30.

A good start was had by Lukim Yu, Scud and Voodoo Spirit. We stayed down on the eastern shore while Scud and Voodoo stayed in the middle. Scud popped his kite and came down and overtook us. I could have forced him up, but he was in a hole and I didn’t want to go there. Voodoo hoisted his small black kite and zoomed past. Due to my wife putting our household on a budget, Lukim has gone without a screecher for a long time, but that will soon be remedied.

Scud and Voodoo were just off Taylors and found a hole, we caught up but Scud was first around Mackerel then Voodoo with Lukim right up his clacker. We got some great pressure staying up high and wiped both of them out. The run back to the Club mark was fast and shifty, with the better looking Lukim and more talented crew rounding the mark 500 metres in front of the other 2nd class boats ! (ho ho guys...couldn't resist that!)

Voodoo rounded the bottom mark and popped his masthead kite. Scud tried his screecher, Lukim didn’t want to show off so we stayed with the jib, which paid off in the shifty wind.

Both Scud and Voodoo were a little way back at Mackerel the second time around. We worked down towards the eastern shore but Voodoo stayed in the middle - pure desperation, which paid off, more luck than skill, just overtaking us just past Taylors to win only by 51 seconds. A good effort by all on Lukim Yu given we were only just beaten by a faster and newer design boat.

As a footnote both Lukim and Scud had exactly the same corrected times of 1.21.10 so equal 1st on handicap, with Scud finishing 3 and a half minutes behind.

Unfortunately the rest of the fleet was well back, so we can't report on their activities.

Robin Ottowa "Lukim Yu"

Autumn Sprint Series: 21 May 2011

Three races, light conditions, course west of Avalon Sailing Club to Stokes Pt., two laps per race, 1 nm per leg.

Morning winds seemed promising, a light southerly, which wasn’t predicted, the crew rolled up about 10, then the wind died. Seabreeze predicted a 8 kt NW swinging around to the NE and that’s what we had, great Lukim weather. With the Chief and Voodoo out of the picture we had a chance.

We had a new crewmember on board - Tony a mono sailor. Peter B pretty quickly straightened out any bad habits Tony had learned on those lead dragging things! I warned Tony they call Peter Mr Grumpy and the rest of the day Tony kept saying “I am doing it”. He did say he had a great time though!

Not be to be showy, it's actually hard to write a race report when you're out front as all you have indelibly imprinted in your mind are the tell tales and where the next mark is.

The starts were pretty much all the same, Scud apparently got barged by Summit and Lukim, but I think there is something about a luffing headsail that changes the rule to favour the windward boat. It was real Pittwater, 60% skill 40% luck. First race sticking to the west was best; we were out in front the whole race, with 16 minutes between Lukim and the second boat, not bad in just over a one hour race.

The second race we went west again, big mistake, Scud, Summit, Twiggy and I think Zorro nailed us. Rapid Ride followed us and suffered accordingly. We slowly reeled them in and luckily crossed first. Kurt was swearing about something, looked around and Twiggy nailed him and crossed after me, I wish I could say well done, but family considerations rule this out!

The third race was a bit of a blur, Peter steered, and so I was trimming, and didn’t see the rest of the fleet. We stayed on the eastern shore with a run straight to the pin. Scud went west behind us as there was a bit of a wind line. Fortunately it didn’t work and we crossed in front.

I wasn’t really in favour of The Sprint Series to begin with but I really enjoyed it. It hones crew work and you have to minimise tactical mistakes. Thanks to all those who organised it and to Kevin and boat boy for their time.

Robin Ottowa "Lukim Yu"

Autumn Race 7: 7 May 2011

Racing Saturday was like an early Mother’s Day gift! The sun was warm and my teenage daughters wanted to sail. A stronger wind forecast from Seabreeze would have been nice but you can’t always get what you want.

The start was exciting with a 5 knot westerly which was better than predicted. The excitement however stemmed from David’s pre-start swearing because we were late, and a new boat with bright green hulls starting on starboard when the rest of us favoured port. Much to our surprise, it was Stephen Barton skippering. As we were wondering if this was going to be “Big Green Bird”, Indian Chief, Scud and myself somehow avoided a collision with him. (Thank you Stephen for being so gracious and not smashing into us).

The port start did pay off heading us down the middle of the bay as the wind became patchy, light and unpredictable. Indian Chief decided to play the right as Lukim went left. Since we didn’t know what marks to round, we decided to play it safe with Scud staying in the middle. We were concerned when the rest of the fleet followed Indian Chief into a hole near the Stokes Point mark but David assured me Scud and Lukim knew where they were going.

It was pretty uneventful to Lion Island. The only excitement was trying to figure out if Lukim was going to round the island to port or starboard, or were they just doing their best to squeeze us out and give me dirty air. As we began rounding to port, we were pleased to see the swell that could push us around. Unfortunately the current was stronger so we stayed in one place forever kind of like Groundhogs’ Day. Lukim, Scud and I all tried different tactics trying to get around the island and I can honestly say it was luck.

The other side of the island was just as bad as we were stuck between the nor’easter and the sou’easter in a current. We looked at the same fishing boat and piece of land for about 30 minutes – the girls were lulled to sleep for a nap in the jib. This was also about the time the rest of the fleet began the island rounding.

Scud somehow got ahead of Lukim and headed back down the middle to finish with full sails. When I asked David how did Scud do that, his reply was “don’t know, he always does that”. Just as we thought we were out of the running, the wind filled in nicely from the north east. We hugged Scotland Island and stayed determined to make up the ground we lost. I suddenly panicked when Indian Chief, Lets Stick Together, and Nina were all making ground on us in the light breeze. Lucky for us, they were under motor and heading home as was the rest of the fleet.

A great day for us in the Sydney sunshine, listening to Jack Johnson with my beautiful daughters and husband! Many hands make light work as they say which was advantageous when four of them were attached to 50 kilo bodies. David’s tactics were a big help too. Thanks everyone – see you next time.

Linda Renouf "Dash"

Autumn Race 6: 30 April 2011

On my way to the boat the rain was so heavy that I could drive no faster than 40k's on sections of the freeway , less at times, and I expected the worst for Pittwater. It turned out a lot better and we got under way in a light southeasterly that twirled around a bit and left quite a few holes.

Boats who stuck to the eastern shore seemed to do better but none better than Twiggy who got the big masthead kite flying straight down the middle of Pittwater seemingly (for as far as we could see) in the lead at one stage.

The breeze strenghtened during the first leg and a large squall was approaching with plenty of wind and rain. By the time we rounded Mackerel, the quick boats were out of sight and we were in company of Big Bird and Twiggy and in the path of the RPAYC fleet. On the 3rd leg the wind all but disappeared with just 5 knots from the North and Nor'west and some very large holes everywhere.

We stuck to the eastern half of Pittwater and that paid off ; by the time we reached Stokes we caught up with Big Bird just ahead of Dash and well ahead of Twiggy. We were joined by Twiggy as we rounded Mackerel again and the rest of the fleet was miles ahead. Another rain squall, much less than the first and after that sunshine and very light variable winds!

We had a great race to the line with Bird and Dash that was won by Big Bird whilst we just pipped Dash across the line. Line honors went to Lukim Yu in a great effort to beat Voodoo, with Scud in 3rd place.

A very enjoyable race.

Barry Allertz "Summit"

Autumn Race 5: 9 April 2011

It was a lovely looking day and a warm breeze was blowing at the start at around 4 knots and so as the starting horn went we were last away and so far back I could not see who won the start. From our vantage point it looked like Scud or Indian Chief was close to first over. By the time we crossed the line we were a good 400 metres behind. From this point on I can only comment on what happened on board De Ja Vu as we proceeded at around 2 to 3 knots from one side of Pittwater to the other the fleet was basically out of sight. Coffees were served at around a quarter to twelve as the crew kicked back and started to relax after a heavy morning of cleaning. As we proceeded up towards Stokes Point the breeze started to east a little more which allowed us to point to the east of West Head.

As we approached Mackerel Beach our forward progress had increased to 4 to 5 knots and so it was time for lunch. The time was around 1.30 and so it had taken us 2 hours to reach Mackerel Beach. At around 2pm we were exiting Pittwater for Broken Bay and it was at this point that Scud came into view with a slight lead over Indian Chief and Summit was also close at hand. Lukim Yu must have been around there somewhere but we did not see her. As we started across Broken Bay we saw Quickstep tack out about 400 metres west of West Head around 10 minutes behind Scud.

We had pulled out the screecher by then but also decided to change the headsail to a larger one as the wind was still quite light. This procedure on our boat takes 3 people around 20 minutes to achieve so Rhonda was at the helm while Matt, Wally and I battled with replacing the headsail. As a result I did not see any other of the boats in the fleet.

By the time we had replaced the headsail we were east of Patonga and the time was 2.20pm. I took the helm again and gybed for the Walker Point mark. We were still only moving at around 4 to 5 knots. As we rounded the Walker Point Mark the breeze turned into a wind. We furled the screecher without a hitch and deployed the new headsail precisely as the wind strengthened and we were soon racing back to the same point east of Patonga that we had just left at better than seven knots. We tacked across Broken Bay twice as the wind speed increased to 18kts.

Also by this time the line honors had been decided - 1st Indian Chief 2nd Scud and 3rd Lukim Yu. We re-entered Pittwater at 3pm just in time to run into the RPA fleet who were now pushing us towards Mackerel Beach as this was their mark. We managed to get underneath a couple of them to more open water down the middle of the channel. We now could deploy the screecher once more for the run to the finish line. However a momentary lapse in concentration and the line on the continuous furler was now wrapped around the bow with about 2 metres of the screecher out and pulling hard. I had to bear away to release the pressure and we were now proceeding apace towards the Basin. After being flipped about for a couple of minutes Matt managed to untangle the furling sheet and we deployed the remainder of the screecher and resumed our progress towards the finish line.

There were no further trials or tribulations to contend with other than a couple of kids crossing inches from our bow in a skiff which I only just saw and swerved in the nick of time to avoid. We crossed the line at 3.35pm in a dropping breeze. We packed up the boat and refurled the sails to make sure they were secure and waited for the tender to take us back to the club. After two phone calls and a twenty minute wait we were finally back on the seawall.

Imagine my surprise when I walked into the club bar to the rousing cheers of my fellow competitors to be told that De Ja Vu had triumphed on handicap by 29 seconds from Twiggy and Summit. Unbelievable!

I am sorry that I cannot describe the battle up front for line honors or the tussle between boats mid fleet as they weaved in and out of each other in the ebb and flow of wind shifts. All I can say was my crew worked extremely hard on the day both before and during the race. At times we were able to kick back and enjoy the sun eat a good lunch with Sheree putting on a spread worthy of any evening dinner party and anytime I needed a drink or a piece of banana cake it was there. A great day to be on the water.

Ron Bickerstaff "De Ja Vu"

Autumn Race 4: 2 April 2011

Tight racing on Pittwater in gusty conditions.

A gusty southerly greeted the multihull fleet this morning and despite being light on crew we looked forward to Voodoo excelling in her ideal conditions. “We’ll take it easy today” I told Tim as we headed out of the moorings for the 12.30 start. The usual gang was there: Scud, Twiggy, Summit, Zorro2, Big Bird and Indian Chief.

We put a reef in prior to the start as 20+ knot gusts swept through the fleet. We settled on the #2 kite as it’s easier to handle using the sock. A conservative start for Voodoo, but Scud was off, kite flying ahead of the fleet. Indian Chief chased Scud with Voodoo, Big Bird and Twiggy not far behind. Gusts came through forcing us left and we had to drop the kite to make Stokes. Indian Chief was now well in the lead heading down to Mackerel, the wind having dropped, making progress through the lulls difficult with the reefed main.

Back upwind Voodoo started showing her form overhauling Scud by Careel Bay and catching up and passing Indian Chief at a tight port starboard meeting. Voodoo was faster when the gusts came through, but Darren doesn’t give up and worked the shifts to get past Voodoo at the RMYC mark.

Again the Chief flew downwind away from Voodoo although we sailed well catching the gusts down to Stokes with only a short gybe. As we got to Stokes we noticed that Darren had missed the mark and was sailing back under main alone. We gybed around Stokes and passed Indian Chief but they were soon around the mark making good progress, now under full main.

We covered Darren all the way back as we didn’t want him passing us through better wind or angle. As the lulls became more common he caught up, so we shook the reef out as we approached Taylors Point, allowing Darren to get within 100m. We had to hold him off through the trickiest part of Pittwater between Scotland Island and Salt Pan. Both boats were swapping the lead up to the finish - Voodoo would get ahead in the gusts, but would fall back in the lulls.

Approaching the line we looked good on the right side so tacked for the finish confident that we had the edge on starboard tack. Indian Chief was below us and tacked back to port for the line. As both boats approached each other at 15 knots a collision looked likely but Indian Chief crossed ahead on port to win the race by 20 seconds. As a consolation Voodoo was first on handicap as Scud was over 12 minutes behind, followed by Big Bird and Summit. Scud took OMR.

Doug Cuming "Voodoo Spirit"

Autumn Race 3/Pittwater Regatta: 26 March 2011

It was one of those days, grey, windy and wet; all of us were in two minds whether we wanted to go, and if one of us had come up with a reasonable excuse not to, we all would have agreed.

The wind calmed down a little at the start, with a kite start, the Chief out first followed by Lukim, Scud and Voodoo. Pressure was better on the Western Shore, Scud and Voodoo were there, the Chief and Lukim stayed east but didn’t suffer too badly. The southerly picked up and we were doing about 18 kts, behind IC leaving Taylors up to Mackerel. Leaving Mackerel it was steady over to Lion Island, a bit swelly with a few over the deck. IC went out wide and we closed onto him behind the island. Scud and Voodoo were about half a km back when we were making our way up to Walkers. IC pulled a bit more lead on us going around the mark on one hull; it was blowing over 20 kts.

The run up to West Head was fast and wet for the boys in the cockpit. IC parked behind West Head so we went wide and levelled with him. Voodoo was about ½ a km away and followed our line, but Scud hugged the shore and found Darren’s hole, that was the last of him.

Around West Head into Pittwater it must have been 30 kts and a bit gusty. Voodoo reefed and was sailing for speed; we kept it all up and luffed it all the way through Mackerel and Taylors marks. We were all about 2 mins apart and that’s how it finished.

We didn’t see much of the rest of the fleet, Big Bird and Rapid Ride had triple reefs, De Ja Vu got pipped at the line by a mono and a few others had some big air incidents but other than that there was no bad news. We got first on handicap and second over the line and first on OMR, but I have to withdraw from the last due to my new kite hasn’t been measured, so I’ll give that one to Darren.

Robin Ottowa "Lukim Yu" (the fastest trimaran on Pittwater - haha Doug :-)

Autumn Race 2: 19 March 2011

Squally conditions, threatening rain and 3 boats! (where was Twiggy....and the rest)?

At the start it looked like a sou'easterly and Kurt put up his kite whilst Rapid Ride and Summit stuck with conventional jibs. It turned out to be the better choice; the wind tended more to the nor'east and fluctuated between 5 and 10 kts with the occasional squall to about 15 or 16 kts.

R-R had the best of it and was way ahead at the Mackerel Beach mark whilst Scud had recovered from the kite experience, had overtaken us, and rounded in second place. The way back was a steadier run and David was so far ahead that we could no longer see him (bad visibility of course!) with Kurt halfway in between. Then the rain came in bucket loads; we were so wet that we sailed standing up for most of the way back.

We stuck with our jib and the centre lane where we got a fairly steady breeze. This paid off and we found the other 2 boats more or less becalmed near Taylor's Point. We caught right up, overtook Scud and were close behind R-R all the way down to the mark. After rounding, R-R streaked away again but we managed to stay ahead of Scud around Stokes and back.

At that time Kurt ran the spinnaker again whilst we used the reacher in a dying breeze. Just past Scotland Island we lost all the wind so set our jib again and hoped for the best.

Kurt was catching up fast under spinnaker but had to change back to jib as well. He was close behind when we got over the line but we made it a minute and a half or so ahead. A rare and memorable occasion!

Barry Allertz "Summit"

Barry has confessed if he had read the same weather report as everyone else, he may have saved himself the long drive from the Central Coast! (AB)

Autumn Race 1: 12 March 2011

Firstly thanks to everyone for such a warm welcome. I really appreciate how helpful and friendly everyone has been and quick to introduce themselves and say hello on and around the water.

What a beautiful day on Pittwater – we would have all liked a bit more wind though, particularly at the start. As the weak nor easter tried to make its way south we got off in patchy light wind. Scud and Voodoo Spirit got the jump and led out on starboard. We found ourselves in irons at the gun but fortunately on the right side of the course where what little wind there was, was coming from.

It was a straight forward work up to Longnose Point with Voodoo and Scud setting the pace we managed to hang in with Lukim Yu and had Zorro hot on our tail. We couldn’t shake Zorro and Alan was closing on us fast coming into and around Longnose. Once we got up around Portuguese and Sand Point there was another 5 knots of wind and we were just cracked from close haul - everyone was able stretch their legs. That was the last we saw of Voodoo, Scud and Lukim Yu and it wasn’t long before David had Rapid Ride lit up and she went through us to leeward like a rocket.

It was pretty much a soldiers course from there on in with the major challenge getting through the wind shadow at Lion Island. The reach back down to the finish saw the wind dropping out the further south we got. Again the finish area was a little tricky with a few puffs coming from the Newport Arms – sounded like a there was a good session in progress down there again. It would have been great to see the close fight up front with Lukim Yu and Scud finishing 13 seconds apart to claim 3rd and 4th respectively. Voodoo Spirit had got in only 12 secs from Rapid Ride for another close finish for 1st and 2nd. It was another 20 minutes before we got over the line followed by Summit, Twiggy, Zorro and Nina.

A very pleasant day out but I hope we haven’t seen the last of the solid Nor Easters for the season just yet.

Peter Wesley "Midnight Rain"

And here is a view of the same race from the deck of "Rapid Ride" sailed magnificently today by David Bishop.

It was a stunning day on Saturday in Pittwater for the race. We had an intermittent breeze, E to NE about 5 knots in Pittwater up to Careel Bay and 8 to 10 knots at Lion Island. The course Lion, Mackerel, Lion Island then to the finish was perfect for the day. It was nearly an all trimaran day, with Rapid Ride being the only catamaran present amongst the nine strong fleet.

It was a slow start with Voodoo leaving all in its wake, followed by Lukim and Scud close by, heading towards Lion Island. With the light winds Rapid Ride made slow progress till Careel Bay where it had managed to weave its way through the smaller trimaran fleet. The new F-22R Midnight Rain was the last boat in the pack to be passed, when we headed off at Palm Beach, to catch the three leaders.

Rounding Lion Island we were within 5 boat lengths of Scud and Lukim but it took another sprint across the entrance of Broken Bay to catch them, and Lion Island was passed with only one boat to pass.

It was not till Taylors that Voodoo was pegged back and passed, but as luck would have it, the wind direction changed back round to the north. It then took three attempts to get the kite up, by that time Voodoo had regained the lead finishing 12 seconds in front of Rapid Ride.

David Bishop "Rapid Ride"

Summer Sprint Series: 19 February 2011

Zorro is a little embarrassed at writing this since today we pulled off a clean sweep of 3 wins on handicap from 3 starts. Not due to any particular brilliance on my part but largely due to the great crewwork of Alex Rapson and Ben Warner both of whom performed faultlessly all day. I just sat there and steered. Pretty easy really. Thanks guys!

Which brings me to the point of the Sprint series. Yes it's hard work. Yes the legs are shortish. Yes small boats seem to have an easier time of the many quick sail changes needed. But boy it sharpens up your reflexes and makes you appreciate how easily a race can be lost by one small foul up. One winch over-ride, one wineglass, one kite sheet coming out of the turning block. Things you can correct and fix but cost you dearly in short races.

Wind today was absolutely ideal which added to the enjoyment - building in Race 1 from about 10 kts NNE through to Race 3 with a steady breeze around 15 kts and occasional gusts around 20 kts. All easily manageable.

The only small disappointment was the smallish fleet size of only 5 boats but that did include new Sprint series convert Captain Robin Ottowa sailing Lukim Yu who happened to clear out in the freshening conditions and take line honours in all 3 races. So well done to Lukim and crew. 3rd place on handicap on the day was Mike Finch on Twiggy; 2nd Rob Ottowa, Lukim Yu; 1st Alan Brand, Zorro

Alan Brand "Zorro"

Summer Race 6: 29 January 2011

What a beautiful afternoon it was out on Pittwater for this Saturday’s race. We had steady breeze, E to NE ranging from 10 knots to maybe 18 at times. On the Chief I had Chris ‘Flanno’ Flanagan and his partner Michelle. It was the first time Michelle had sailed since she was a kid. Michelle was looking forward to a good hit out. That she got.

We got the race underway with a great start being first after the gun past the committee boat. From there we opened up a solid lead over Lukim Yu with Scud a little further back followed by Twiggy, Summit and Nina. With the constant breeze we managed to do some long and exhilarating hull flying up Pittwater which is always a bit of a treat. We rounded Stokes for the first lap a few minutes ahead of Lukim and then raced away on the reach to Mackerel. Once rounding the mark we headed up to Avalon and then popped the kite for the run back to the start mark off the club, along the way more hull flying this time under kite which is a bit more edgy!

By this time we had opened up a big lead. We started the beat back to Stokes with more of the same as the first lap. It was an upwind treat with the boat literally flying. With only 3 on board and one being a newby we had plenty to do, however Flanno being the skilled expert made sail handling look easy. When we went through the finish line the rest of the fleet was out of sight.

As always after a great sail I had a grin ear to ear and it was nice to have Flanno and Michelle on board to share the afternoon with. So that’s it, it doesn’t get any better.

I hope we see a few more boats out in the coming weeks as fleet numbers are dropping. C’mon guys, clean your boat's bum and join in for the fun!

Darren Drew "Indian Chief"

Summer Race 5: 22 January 2011

Course 26, Wind NE. Forecast for 5-15 knots winds meant that we expected lots of frustrating Pittwater holes & shifts. Wrong! This day was going to be Pittwater near its best.

The boat start a bit further out from the club meant there was good wind across the line with the start favouring the boat end but the usual gentleman’s multihull start technique meant everyone got through without incident. We timed the start well a bit low on the line. Start master Kurt on Scud got the best start a bit higher than us.

The light NE wind meant that it was a bit of a pointing race until past Scotland Island. We were trying to hold onto Scud with Quickstep and Lukim Yu just starting to build speed and take the lead.

As the wind started to build halfway up Pittwater the sails were eased and we saw the last of Quickstep and Lukim Yu. They just piled on the speed with us chasing the stern of Scud.

The run over to Lion Island was pretty lumpy with the big tide working against plenty of breeze. This meant plenty of spray & lots of fun. These runs were the highlight of the day.

Coming out from the back of the island we had the usual breeze, no breeze, tide trifecta to contend with. Scud went high with the jib and put up a screecher. We went a bit lower for longer with the jib and then put up a kite for the run to the Mackerel mark. The second run over to the island was a repeat of the first - great fun with the good breeze and running across the chop.

Out from the back of the "Lion" for the second time Scud went high and put up a screecher. We held the jib until the Palm Beach pole and the put the kite up. Then a great run down Pittwater with the kite & jib pretty shy, and even managed to find a beautiful looking F22R out for a cruise to pass in close proximity powered up. Pretty good chance the F22R owner will make enquiries about joining the racing.

We never saw Scud again until the line - no doubt finishing under kite. We were kept busy with trimming and missing boats. The wind started to drop further towards the line but we did manage to finish in breeze with the boats behind struggling somewhat as the wind eased off.

Quickstep celebrated her line honours victory with an extra lap round Lion Island. We headed back into Broken Bay & surfed the swell back to Brooklyn.

Alex & Phil Rapson "Freelance"

Summer Race 3: 8 January 2011

After spending a couple of hours on Friday cleaning Twiggy's bum it was looking like I wouldn't have any crew for Saturday. Last resort was to blackmail No.1 son, just remind him of his account balance of money owed and I had my crew!

After a slow start (head to wind on the hooter) we were off. After giving Nusa the slip with the screecher we set off after Zorro. Al and I have many close tussles on Saturdays and Mondays and this proved no different.

While the rest of the fleet disappeared Al and I had our private race - managed to get our nose in front by Longnose on the way upstream and held him off till West Head on the return where we crossed tacks and he slipped past. Down Pittwater saw us swap places a couple of times until near Scotland Island we picked up a puff and were able to scoot away. I think Al's new whiskers may have been sending him conflicting information or possibly causing extra drag!

Anyway that was how I saw it - a pleasant sail without any dramas. What more could you ask for?

Mike Finch "Twiggy"

Yes, I hoped I would get a better wind reading from the facial fuzz! So now I can legitimately be accused of beard mumblings as well as more vocal Captain Bligh antics. Notice from the race result just 2 seconds(!) separating 1st and 2nd line honours places. Amazing scenes viewers! AB.

Summer Race 2: 18 December 2010

Decisions, decisions. Some forecasts were showing increasing NW breezes during the afternoon, others decreasing. Walker Point course or stay inside? As delegated course chooser for the day I decided on an "inside" course with a couple of cut-offs in case the predicted breeze didn't hold up. So course 28 it was, controlled by Kevin from the Charles Linnegar.

Both Scud and Zorro were pushing the line to such an extent on the gun, after anxious glances across at each other, both decided to re-start after the individual recall hooter . Probably a wise decision - and anyway, at least we started at the heavily favoured starboard end!

By the first rounding of Mackerel, Indian Chief had drawn away as usual, hotly pursued by a late starting Voodoo Spirit and Scud who had found sufficient breeze under Soldier's Point to put some distance on Zorro who hitherto had been within hailing distance of the Pittwater Maestro.

By Stokes Point, the order remained much the same with gaps either widening or closing depending on individual abilities to spot the usual Pittwater holes or dodge around the RPA/Etchells fleet which seemed to be out in force. In 4th and 5th position there was an interesting tussle taking place between Zorro and Rapid Ride with Zorro acquitting itself well enough upwind but the pink boat having the edge off the breeze.

As it happened, the breeze did strengthen on the final leg causing Scud to shred her kite and create a few anxious moments on Zorro sailing the final few hundred metres with the kite hard strapped on and the lee bow submerged to a greater extent than is usually comfortable or advisable on this boat may I remind you Sir! Anyway, we had some catching up of RR to do - but didn't quite get there. Maybe next time.

But we did enough to take it out on handicap with line honours to Indian Chief and OMR to Scud.

Check out the website for the full race results.

Alan Brand "Zorro"

Spring Handicap Start: 27 November 2010

Michael assembled his crew on Twiggy in Salt Pan Cove and we proceeded to the starting area. Four boats participated in the Handicap Start race: Twiggy, Scud, Rapid Ride and Summit. Twiggy was the first away at 12:40 and apparently missed the start by 30 seconds. The next boat away was Summit at 12:41.

The wind was East North East and moderate to strong and we worked on one tack to Lion Island. Summit was gaining slightly on us until withdrawing just past Long Nose. We rounded Lion Island to port and saw Scud coming towards us to round Lion Island to starboard. Rapid Ride was behind Scud and on the eastern side of the course.

We attempted to hoist the spinnaker just past West Head but the spinnaker halyard got caught on a ladder step on the mast and we had to drop the spinnaker to change halyards and re-hoist. During this operation the spinnaker dropped into the water and filled with water and became a very large sea anchor.

Once the spinnaker was hoisted we took off. Unfortunately we broke a running backstay during this spinnaker run to the finish (loud BANG like a gunshot) doing over 20 knots and nearly lost the mast. Michael replaced a broken shackle and we re-hoisted the spinnaker and regained our speed.

Our nearest competitor (Scud) was rapidly gaining on us but we held him off to get the gun and win the race. Kevin observed later at the club that Scud’s elapsed time for the course was probably some sort of record.

Jim Rannard for Michael Finch "Twiggy"

Combined 3-Islands and Spring Race 6: 13 November 2010

This race was run with the twin aims of participating in the annual 3-Islands race with our colleagues in Sailing Division and running our regular Spring series. So we shortened our Spring series race at Walker Point in Broken Bay then continued on to Dangar Island and Scotland Island to complete the "Islands" course.

We started 30 minutes behind the mono fleet and set off up Pittwater in pursuit in a gradually freshening NE breeze. By Mackerel, Indian Chief had a convincing lead only to be becalmed for 10 minutes or more watching most of the rest of us catch up and sail by - sometimes only a mere 20 metres or so to windward! Don't we all love the puddle!

First around Walkers was Doug Cuming on Voodoo Spirit, hotly pursued by Robin Ottowa on Lukim Yu then Kurt Ottowa on Scud. Beyond Walkers, the big decision was whether to round Dangar Island to port or starboard. Half the fleet went one way and half went the other. This was a key decision as the starboard rounders somehow mostly managed to pop out from behind the island on the northern shore in reasonably consistent breeze while the rest of us tacked backwards and forwards into knocks near the railway bridge - regardless of the apparent wind direction.

Zorro was lucky enough to maintain good height and speed back down the river and into Pittwater ever watchful of the always threatening wind-shift el-supremo Stephen Barton on Big Bird. I considered it too shy for a kite on the run down to Scotland Island so we rolled out the screacher for an exhilarating ride downhill.

However, negotiating the port rounding of Scotland Island was the absolute pits! We must have tacked 20 times into a knock - all the while conscious of Big Bird and Quickstep closing fast together with a gaggle of monos we had left behind at West Head. Steve told me later Big Bird had come down Pittwater under kite sitting on 19-20 kts. No wonder they caught up! Fortunately, we were able to escape the grip of the island sufficiently to slip over the line a few minutes ahead of our pursuers into first place on handicap.

Well ahead by this time and probably already in the bar, were the skippers of the big, impressive, speed machines - Indian Chief, Darren Drew; Voodoo Spirit, Doug Cuming and Lukim Yu, Robin Ottowa - line honours finishers in that order.

Second on handicap in the 3-Islands was newcomer Johan Betrom on Emu Chic and third was Lukim Yu.

In the shortened Spring race, handicap honours went to Kurt Ottowa on Scud, followed by Alan Brand, Zorro and Robin Ottowa, Lukim Yu.

Alan Brand "Zorro"

And keeping well and truly alive, the now firmly established tradition of the race winner writing the race report, here is Kurt's contribution.

Age shall not weary us! At the going down of the sun and in the morning the old codgers will prevail!

Another great day - bring on summer.

We made our decision to initially play the eastern side of Pittwater anticipating that we would clear Long Nose and take the lift that occurs out of Careel Bay to have a continuous work to Lion Island.

That plan didn't work - not many plans do in sailing, so back to the drawing board.

After clearing Long Nose we got sucked into the western shore which meant we had to take a small tack out. In the meantime that "younger" crafty Steve on Big Bird had taken an early tack across after Taylors and appeared to be in a better position with more pressure on that side. He closed the gap on us and once again we had him hunting hot on our tail all the way to Lion Island.

Indian Chief and Lukim Yu had also taken off in the building breeze until short of West Head the Chief ran into a big hole - I don't think he paid his parking fine before the race!

We had a good run around Lion Island getting through the quiet spots without problems and great reaching legs down to Walkers, where we decided to take an early mark in third place and not continue to Dangar Island. My hand was playing up - I think they call it arthritis or is it the use by date has expired? Not a chance! (Alan)

Kurt Ottowa "Scud"

Spring Race 5: 30 October 2010

Well finally last Saturday we got the sniff of Summer coming on. A good steady nor'easter with some exciting speed bursts. Our max. speed coming back down Pittwater was 19.7 kts. I'm sure the Chief and Voodoo would have been looking upwards towards 25 kts!

We had a great start at the tower end with Ivan ahead of us, but too early - which resulted in him having to re-round the start line.

The pressure appeared to be on the eastern shore which we persevered with to be on the right side of that pressure. At Longnose, the Chief and Voodoo had the lead with us hot on their heels.

By Lion Island, these two had increased their lead in the strengthening breeze with Rapid Ride also showing some great speed. Big Bird was always a threat but we maintained our 4th place around Lion Island and away to Walker Point.

The new Multi-23 was also showing some great speed albeit a little back in sixth place. Can you believe that boat is only 400kg and I'm sure as he settles in to this season and Summer, he will be up there most times. Good to see another boat joining the division. The rest of the fleet was a little way back but I'm sure they were enjoying the good breeze.

In the run home from Walker, with the Chief and Voodoo having cleared out, a great dice was on for 3rd, 4th and 5th places! We decided to play the shifts on the southern side to West Head which initially worked well for us but we were too slow to react to the favourable shift on the northern shore which Big Bird and Rapid ride had locked into. This resulted in us coming back into Pittwater in 5th place about 200 metres behind Big Bird and Rapid Ride.

Big Bird hoisted his kite, we went with our screecher and Rapid Ride headsail only. By Longnose, we had caught and passed Big Bird with Rapid Ride still just ahead in 3rd place.

Fortunately, we were able to make use of some very useful puffs to catch Rapid Ride at Scotland Island and cross the line just 5 seconds ahead (!)...with Big Bird a few minutes further back.

Kurt Ottowa "Scud"

PS: What Kurt didn't mention was that from my vantage point on the Seawind regatta committee boat for the day off Taylor's Point, I can report that he obviously pulled out all stops to catch Rapid Ride. Scud was absolutely smoking along at his previously noted 19.7 kts with the main hull almost all out of the water!! A fantastic sight! Also, as well as 3rd over the line, Kurt's performance earned him 1st on handicap and 1st on OMR. A great result. (Alan)

Spring Race 4: 9 October 2010

Anyway: we missed the start a little but I am sure we misheard Michael when we asked him what gun we just heard (forgiven, not forgotten mind you)... Then we dawdled a bit along Scotland Island whilst most of the fleet struggled around Salt Pan and we were looking good until we had to come across off Clareville and lost all our earlier gains!

Gritting teeth, we stuck to the middle which proved the best course and ended up at Mackerel in 4th position - but still a long way behind the 3 lead boats.

On the trip back down Pittwater in fickle and sometimes non-existent breeze, we decided to try the screecher for the first time and that turned out to be the right choice. Scud had set a kite which forced them to fall off and end up in the Basin. By the time they dropped the kite and got back in Pittwater we had caught up and, with the screecher, managed to stay in front.

We had a good contest with Twiggy for most of the way back to the finish. He did very well sticking to the weather shore and right to the end I thought he would have beaten us on handicap.

Barry Allertz"Summit"

PS: Barry tells me he is loving the new boat and he will no doubt improve in leaps and bounds from here. (Big future upward adjustment to Summit's handicap definitely on the cards!)....AB

Lock Crowther 2010 Memorial Regatta 1-3 October 2010

APC Mad Max streaks ahead in LCMR Offshore Race

Reports by Doug Cuming "Voodoo Spirit".

Melbourne based Grainger catamaran APC Mad Max took out the line honours and OMR handicap double in the opening Lock Crowther Memorial Regatta offshore race. Grainger cruising catamaran, The Countess, took out the performance handicap prize followed by Te Arawa, the veteran 45 foot Crowther cat owned by Jim Geddes. Local speedster Indian Chief (Darren Drew) came second on both line and OMR.

No wind, compounded with an incoming tide, meant that no boat crossed the start line until 15 minutes after the gun. Gradually a light wind filled in from the east with Max, Indian Chief, Voodoo Spirit and Quickstep leading the fleet out of the heads. Lukim Yu and Big Bird tagged along, keeping up with the faster boats. Close to Killcare the wind shifted NE at 10-15 knots spreading the fleet out.

Max was first around the Maitland Bay mark, followed by Indian Chief, closely followed by Quickstep. Lukim Yu retired with prodder damage that skipper Robin Ottowa suspected was caused by another boat colliding with Lukim after breaking its mooring in a storm several weeks ago. Shortly before the mark Voodoo Spirit tore the headboard off the main and also had to retire, quickly getting back to the mooring to get the main repaired. Skipper Doug Cuming looked in despair as the torn sail might end his weekend and worse, require an overdue replacement.

Shane Russell in Foxy was sailing a notch better with his new carbon sails keeping ahead of Big Bird and Twiggy, with The Countess catching up in the freshening breeze. At the tail of the fleet Powerzone and Te Arawa were battling it out together.

No records set in the light conditions with Max averaging around 7kts over the 26nm course.

Indian Chief reaching down to Newport reef. Photo: Steve Barton

LCMR Inshore Races Day 1: 2 October 2010

A wet frustrating day for the Lock Crowther Memorial Regatta inshore races

Heavy rain squalls in between calm patches dictated the racing on the first of the LCMR inshore races. Alternating rainsqualls with 20+knots to complete calm created a lottery that was hard to escape. The fast boats were hit hard on handicap as smaller and slower boats caught back up during the calms.

Race 1

Again southern Pittwater brought unpredictable conditions despite the 30 minute delay and the start was in windless conditions. Initially the right looked good but then Indian Chief got away on the left as a rain squall swept the fleet. Suddenly the wind was over 20 knots and the fast boats motored through the fleet at 18 knots with APC Mad Max rounding first at Towlers Bay, ahead of Indian Chief who was having headsail problems (velcro hanks in the rain). Quickstep, Voodoo and Scud quickly followed.

Around Taylors the wind started to abate as the squall passed; Voodoo passed Indian Chief and kept in touch with Max in the lead. Approaching Stokes Point, the improving Quickstep got stuck in a hole, whereupon half a dozen other boats joined, and then passed them heading towards Mackerel Beach. Max got stuck at Mackerel allowing Voodoo to catch up and again a dozen of the fleet caught up by heading over to Palm Beach. At one stage the Sprint 750 Louie da Tri was leading the fleet.

Max, then Indian Chief won the reach back to the Mackerel finish with Quickstep just pipping Voodoo Spirit for third ahead of the following pack of Scud, Lukim Yu, e-marineworld.

Foxy retired with beam damage and spent the rest of the day repairing it to be ready for Sunday.

Race 2

Further rain squalls threatened the fleet prior to the start of the second race but the wind died out as the 5 minute signal sounded. Voodoo took best advantage of a port favoured line to lead out of the blocks with e-marineworld close behind. But APC Mad Max, then Indian Chief, gradually overhauled them on the beat up to Lion Island. Approaching the east side of the island, the wind sprung up again and most boats opted to stick to headsails as they negotiated the tricky winds around the gap with the mainland. Voodoo pulled its small spinnaker up to catch both Indian Chief and Max who had furler problems as they approached Walker Point.

The beat back up to the Barrenjoey mark tested the boats to their limits; the cats were consistently flying their windward hulls while Voodoo revelled in the conditions to lead by 30 seconds at Barrenjoey. Again the fickle nature of Pittwater struck as the wind died past Scotland Island and Max won ahead of Indian Chief who pipped Voodoo for second.

Sunday’s two further inshore races will decide the winners of the LCMR 2010 with a similar weather forecast: 10-15 knots E/NE with showers.

APC Mad Max at LCMR 2010. Photo: Tim Pepperell e-marineworld

LCMR Inshore Races Day 2: 3 October 2010

Race 3

Race 3 started near the RMYC using the same course as yesterday morning – out to Barrenjoey with a loop around Mackerel and Stokes Point, then back to Mackerel. A clean start saw the speedsters shoot off in a steady breeze. APC Mad Max led out of the start followed by Indian Chief, Quickstep then Voodoo Spirit in that order around the Towlers mark. By Taylors, Voodoo had passed Quickstep but they recovered to pass again with Lukim Yu in tow. Lukim passed Quickstep on the flukey run down to Mackerel to be third behind Max and Indian Chief.

The wind carried the leaders quickly around the Barrenjoey mark stretching their lead as the rest of the fleet struggled to move in windless conditions. Again Max finished first followed by Indian Chief and then Lukim Yu who sailed an excellent race picking vital shifts to distance herself from Quickstep and Voodoo Spirit.

Max won the triple – line, OMR and PHS followed by Lukim and the Chief, with Dogwatch recording a consistent fourth.

In the Cruising division, Powerzone was the dominant line honours winner with Vivacious taking out the handicap prize.

Sunday Race 4

The afternoon race off Mackerel was a congested affair with Big Bird coming off second best when she banged her bows into the rear beam of Louie da Tri; both boats able to continue without drama. Again the speedsters headed off in a familiar pattern around Lion Island as the wind increased to 20 knots under the influence of a rain cloud. Again the brave hoisted their spinnakers for the run down to Walker Point, most gaining an advantage over those who hesitated. Max headed the fleet around the mark followed by Indian Chief and Quickstep, both just ahead of Voodoo Spirit.

The wind held up for the leaders who made short work of the sail back upwind to Barrenjoey and following the remaining wind down Pittwater to the finish. Unfortunately for the smaller boats the wind died before they got to the mark and they struggled in the sloppy seas and incoming tide to make headway. As a consequence the handicap winners were also the top finishers.

Back at the bar the tall stories intermingled with the NRL Grand Final on the television. All agreed that this year’s Lock Crowther Memorial Regatta was one of the best attended for several years despite the weather conditions.

Next event on the NSW Multihull calendar is APC Logistics Australian National Multihull Regatta on November 21-26 run by the Wangi Amateur Sailing Club in Lake Macquarie. Many of the Sydney multihulls, as well as boats from Queensland, Victoria and South Australia, will join the local Lake fleet for a very competitive event on flat open water. Further details can be found at:  www.wangirslasc.yachting.org.au

Voodoo Spirit upwind in a blow. Photo: Conny Ottowa

LCMR 2010: And the Winners Are...

2010 LCMR Multihull Regatta: Dogwatch, Scud, APC Mad Max, Dejavu and Powerzone take out the Major Prizes

So at the conclusion of the Regatta, consistent sailing has brought Lake Macquarie sailor Ken Davies victory in his catamaran Dogwatch, taking out the performance handicap prize at the 2010 LCMR. Pittwater specialist Kurt Ottowa won on OMR and APC Mad Max (George Owen skippering for owner and principal sponsor Tony Considine) won line honours by coming first in every race. Seawind catamaran sailor Ron Bickerstaff on Dejavu won Cruising Division.

The 28 catamarans and trimarans in the LCMR series were presented with unpleasant conditions: with rain squalls up to 25 knots then dying out altogether in typical Pittwater style. In some races the faster boats would streak ahead only to be becalmed and be caught up by the rest of the fleet; in others the rest of fleet would be becalmed whist the leaders carried their own private wind to the finish. The squalls provided some interesting moments as boats flew hulls, dug in bows and experienced general chaos.

Other fine performances included the consistent Indian Chief (Darren Drew) with seconds overall in PHS, OMR & line honours; Lukim Yu (Club Captain Robin Ottowa) was third on PHS and Big Bird (race organiser Steve Barton) third on OMR. Felix (David King) and Vivacious (Roland Schmidmair) were second and third respectively in the Cruising division. Powerzone (John Power) achieved four straight line honours victories in the Cruising Division.

Overall Results

Performance handicap: Dogwatch 1.5,5,4,9 (19.5); Indian Chief 18,7,3,3,(31); Lukim Yu 16, 4,2,11,(33)

OMR: Scud 1,5,4,3,(13); Indian Chief 8,2,2,2,(14); Big Bird 2,4,6,6,(18)

Line honours: APC Max 1,1,1,1,(4); Indian Chief 2,2,2,2,(8); Quickstep 3,5,4,3,(15)

Cruising: Dejavu 6,1,2,1,(10); Felix 3,4,3,3,(13); Vivacious 4,5,1,5, (15)

Cruising line honours: Powerzone 1,1,1,1,(4); Blondie IX 3,3,3,2, (11); Felix 4,4,4,3,(15)

"Dogwatch" Ken Davies - winner performance handicap Racing Division

"Scud" Kurt Ottowa - winner OMR

"Dejavu" Ron Bickerstaff - winner performance handicap Cruising Division

"Powerzone" John Power - winner line honours Cruising Division

Handicap Start: 28 August 2010

Brilliant Handicapping Brings Handicapper Victory in Season-Ending Handicap Race!

After burning the midnight oil earlier in the week deviously devising, I mean calculating, the starting times for the season ending ‘sternchaser’, eight hopefuls turned up at the start line to validate Big Bird’s ‘gimme’, I mean contest, for the all important sternchaser line honours.

But seriously, I do enjoy the challenge of trying to have all the boats finish at exactly the same time so Big Bird’s narrow win is a bit embarrassing. As it turned out, 7 of the 8 starters finished within 10 minutes. Good close racing.

There could have been quite a big fleet but unfortunately, quite a few boats were away with their pathetic and lame excuses like taking family holidays and repairing their houses etc- boy, did you guys miss a perfect day on the water!

There were some excellent performances including:

After being caught and passed at the halfway point, Zorro regained a lead over Scud while almost overtaking Big Bird on the work back to the finish from Lion Island in a glorious 10 -14 knot southerly. Good one, Alan.

Bill Salisbury, who has reclaimed ownership of his beloved catamaran, Nusa Dua, from Barry Allertz was back onboard as Nusa performed very well. Barry will be taking over the reins of Bill’s F-28R Summit (yes, you read that right!) Nusa Dua is a wonderful boat and we hope Bill finds a reliable and motivated crew to help him get back on the water regularly. There’s a great opportunity begging for a good sailor to take on that role.

Another impressive performance, although hobbling their chances of victory by starting a few minutes late from sorting out a spinnaker tangle, was the bright pink Grainger sports cat Rapid Ride. David’s return to racing is very welcome as he has had a long recuperation period after testing the impact strength of a winch with his rib cage. You guessed it- winch 1, ribs 0.

Starter's prize for the boat starting closest to her appointed time: Scud 9 seconds, Off the Rails 19 seconds, Te-Arawa 25 seconds. Wine gratefully accepted by Jim Geddes since neither of the first two turned up to collect!

After next week’s ‘no race’ break, the Spring season will start in earnest on 11th of September and a few weeks later will be the running of the Lock Crowther Memorial Regatta. Hopefully we’ll see you there.

Here's a few shots taken on the day.

"Rapid Ride", David Bishop

Really, it was all down to them

How do I look?

No, Robin, it's not them you're racing!

Stephen Barton"Big Bird"

Sprint Series: 21 August 2010

Seven boats contested the inaugural Sprint windward-leeward race series in blustery westerlies reaching 25kts at times. This kept everyone on their toes with 3 races held back to back using Woody Pt as the top mark. There was apparently some confusion by some people interpreting the sailing instructions with some boats rounding the top mark to port (correct) and some rounding to starboard.

In race 3 one boat (un-named to avoid too much embarrassment) was noticed to round to starboard on lap 1 and to port on lap 2. This may have had something to do with the fact that on lap 1, a whole bunch of RPAYC 40 footers were rounding Woody to starboard at the same time! A bit ugly this. Obviously some fine tuning is needed here including some liaison with RPA prior to setting courses?

Anyway, since this was series 1 day 1, dispensation is hereby given in the scoring for those who "went the wrong way". But be warned this is a once only kindness!

Turning to the actual racing, unfortunately for series co-ordinator Doug Cuming, Voodoo Spirit shredded her jib on lap 1 race 1 and with no spare on board, took no further part in the racing. First across the line in race 1 was David Renouf pushing the Dash hard under kite just ahead of Alan Brand in Zorro and Kurt Ottowa in Scud. David also took line honours in race 3 with Stephen Barton in Big Bird crossing first in race 2.

On handicap for the day, 1st Alan Brand, Zorro (6 points) 2nd on countback David Renouf, Dash (7 points) 3rd Stephen Barton, Big Bird (7 points). OMR result also to Big Bird.

There were plenty of tales later in the bar recounting near spills and thrills in the trying conditions, with the majority view that the series is a worthy addition to the race program

Next Sprint series race day is 13 November.

Here's a few shots on the day taken by Stephen. Click the links to see the photos.

Dash

Twiggy

Freelance

Alan Brand "Zorro"

Winter Race 9: 14 August 2010

Course 24, light varying winds from the North to West, 4-10 knots.

As predicted last week, Lukim will be writing this week’s report. Blood bath, instantly comes to mind with both Lukim’s arch rivals Indian Chief and VD Spirit out of the picture. I knew we had it in the bag. Scud pulled out all stops with his pre-race manoeuvring, which keeps everyone on their toes, but we had him by Taylors heading up to Stokes, with a bit of help from a mono who made the fatal error of cruising in the same line as Scud. He got the traditional German greeting as Scud went past.

Then back to Woody Pt, shy kite run, with the rest of the fleet still back at Stokes we stayed mid Pittwater, Scud about 800 metres behind us. With his magic kite and a glass out at Woody, things looked a bit touch and go, so kite came down and a reach to the mark. Luckily enough we lifted all the way and easily got around, not so lucky for the rest. Scud and the Dash were pretty well neck and neck with Scud being overtaken by the Dash only 2 mtrs apart.

Up to Mackerel, wind was a steady work, with the rest of the fleet not really in sight, then down to Taylors and Woody again, with steady wind all the way. I can’t say where the rest of the fleet were. Back up to Stokes with a work and reasonable pressure, put the kite up and the wind lightened off, and just moving. We were stopped at Taylors, going to the finish for about 10 mins and most seemed stopped at Stokes or trying to get there. Pittwater, enough said!

We thought the rest of the fleet was going to bring the northerly down, but luckily enough we got our own private breeze and scooted Lukim to Kevin’s horn. Haven’t heard that for a while.

The results speak for themselves 1st HCP, 1st OMR, 1st OTL. 33 mins in front of the next boat, 51 mins in front of Scud and all this over a 3 hr race. It doesn’t get any sweeter than that. I’ll gloat on that until The Chief with VD returns.

Robin Ottowa "Lukim Yu"

Winter Race 8: 7 August 2010

The crew of Voodoo were encouraged by the strong wind forecasts earlier in the week, however come race day the prognosis was lighter south winds giving us a downwind start. We were late off the mooring because someone forgot the boat keys, but got to the start area for the 5 minute hooter, then to be challenged by the numeral flags (where’s the flag sheet?).

A good start on the line with spinnaker nearly drawing got us going, still behind Kurt who consistently manages to be on the line at full speed. Voodoo’s big masthead kite got us quickly past Scud and drew out a big lead, catching favourable puffs down to Stokes Point, and then onto the Mackerel mark.

Lukim Yu had got past Scud but wasn’t making an impression under spinnaker. Back upwind, Voodoo was struggling to get in phase with the light shifty conditions and was losing ground to Lukim with her larger genoa. By the time we got to Scotland Island, Lukim was only 100m behind and threatening to beat us to the RMYC mark.

With a sense of relief we rounded ahead and again the big kite drew us away, catching the puffs and bearing away back towards Stokes. Voodoo needs to sail with the apparent ahead of the beam and the gusts allow us to bear away 10 to 20 degrees whilst accelerating up to windspeed. Having two skiff sailors on board certainly helped with their experience at keeping a skiff on the plane.

Around Mackerel for the last time we were lucky to have a bit of wind that didn’t favour those following. Luke Ratcliff took the helm for the last beat and adapted well whilst Doug trimmed the sails. This time Lukim didn’t catch up as much and we had a comfortable win on both line and PHF, although Scud won on OMR. Twiggy and Big Bird took the minor placings on handicap.

Doug Cuming "Voodoo Spirit"

Winter Race 7: 31 July 2010

Being an early riser I am out of bed at 8.15, It's raining and no wind, bugger!. Just about to get back in when a call from one of Te Arawa's crew " we still sailing skip?"-- " Of course we are why"?-- "well I just heard the weather forecast for fishermen on ABC and they say it's a good day to go to the boat show". Wash face to wake up and turn on computer, Seabreeze is under 20 knots and BOM is over, nothing the old girl can't handle , were going .

On VHF 77 we hear Our Beloved Leader discussing course 25 with Kevin who informs O.B.L. of 30 knots in Katoomba and would he like to reconsider. Short pause, No Kev 25 she is.---- Cheers from crew,you little beaudy!!!

We observe a very civilised start, no one trying to mate with the start boat. 9 boats and a nice wide start line. Being gentlemen we elect for a casual (slow) start and observe all the fleet sail past us until Ross who has not sailed with us before asks if this should be happening. "Well no, but we haven't adjusted the sheets yet" "Why not" "Well we haven't finished our morning tea, just you wait until we do, then you will see some sailing!. Now Ross is a very competitive bloke (several times Australian surfboat champion sweep) and starts fiddling with everything, of course he doesn't know what he is doing but we seem to be going faster. And so it goes on and on, really quite good for a fellow who hasn't sailed much.

Boats like Nina and Off The Rails are in full view and sometimes we seem to be actually catching them so we celebrate with a nice bottle of merlot which someone found in the bilge.

By Stokes Point the leaders are not recognisable, they do however provide us with some clues about where NOT to sail, very nice of them.

Pittwater is always frustrating in any wind from the west but the reward of clear wind in Broken Bay is not far away, and so it is that once around West Head - Good Consistent Breeze - just what Te Arawa loves. Ross notices a reef in the main "shouldn't we take that out?" narr, we would only have to put it back in again and as we all have crook knees someone is bound to fall over on deck let's have lunch instead. At least we can now see the whole fleet spread ahead of us, a grand sight with Scud, Voodoo Spirit and Lukim Yu streaming past us at high speed. Big Bird is a little further back on a collision course but recovers his steering in time to avoid a mishap.

A lucky wind shift sees us round Phantom mark (clue, Mr Walker) and as we haven't finished our chicken lunch we elect to run wing and wing to West Head instead of following the leaders and tacking down wind. This turns out to be a good call and we make a little ground which pleases Ross immensely . Celebrations all round as a half bottle of shiraz is found in the fridge.

A very pleasant sail down Pittwater passing keel boats but alas no multhulls, nevertheless we record our top speed for the day,12.5 knots SOG Ross is really impressed as were the elderly couple in the small keel boat that we noticed just in time.

The finish came up fast but we keep our cool and stayed at the tail end of the fleet in case of an emergency.

A pleasant day was had by all with the surprise of a win on handicap for our "Old Girl" 36 years in the water coming up in October.

Many thanks from David Bishop, Gavin Williamson, Ross Jorgenson and Jim Geddes.

Jim Geddes from the Flight Deck of "Te Arawa"

Winter Race 6: 24 July 2010

Another Saturday of light breezes fortunately enough to keep moving and enable one full lap of the course. Probably peaked at around 5kts and was a lot more pleasant than the week before.

First of the starts from the Charles Linnegar committee boat which seemed to work well with no complaints that I heard and will be interesting when we have to rely only on the flags to figure out the course.

Gower my crew performed flawlessly (as usual) and was no doubt the reason we managed to beat Big Bird by 19 secs with Zorro third.

Voodoo took line honours and Doug seems to be a man on a mission after taking out the Homer Simpson award last season. Freelance sailed very well and just goes to show that you don't need a carbon mast to sail fast. Lukim had a day he'd probably rather forget and Nusa Dua must be working on his handicap for the Crowther regatta.

Best of all, the wine was enjoyed over dinner Saturday night.

Winners are grinners!

Mike Finch "Twiggy"

Winter Race 5: 17 July 2010

What can we say? It was another beautiful sunny Winter's day on Pittwater. And (unfortunately) the forecast was spot on - SW winds easing so it was good to see the fleet numbers back up to 11 again.

Eased so much in fact that we had to call Kevin Newman and the committee boat out to finish us at Woody Pt and how grateful we are that he responds to such requests with such efficiency and good humour. Thanks Kev.

There may have been a slight suspicion that a certain self-appointed officer of the day called in the committee boat to his own advantage. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth since when this was being arranged, that certain officer was at, or very near, the tail end of the fleet.

Thus it happened through pure skill and a mutinous crew seizing the tiller and calling tactics, that we were able to stay clear of the bunch and sail away on the very edge of a 1 knot breeze to finish 4th over the line - just behind the light-weather maestro Kurt Ottowa and crew - and 1st on handicap!

How can anyone claim Pittwater Winter sailing is anything but a real fun thing to do?

Line honours to Lukim-Yu skippered cleverly in the shifty conditions by Pete Barron and Jim Geddes and crew on Te Arawa did admirably well considering the conditions.

And here's an input from the eagle eye of Grahame Rivett.

Visitor Dave on the Dash was looking back worriedly as his spinnaker powered Sprint machine was mown down by the masthead screecher of Off the Rails, the old C24, about 1 mile into the race. I put him out of his misery by suggesting that lifting the outboard out of the water would improve things a lot. It did. Does this get classed as outside assistance?

Alan Brand "Zorro"

Winter Race 4: 10 July 2010

Another lovely sunny Winter's day on the puddle. Pity about the lack of wind!

Nevertheless it was good to see Jim Geddes joining us on Te Arawa and Alex and Phil Rapson venturing out on Freelance but unfortunately becoming completely becalmed after leading the fleet home as far as Taylors point.

Grahame Rivett on Off the Rails was ahead at the Mackerel top mark sporting his new masthead screecher only to find one of the many holes on the way home and finally getting pipped on the line by 2 seconds by Zorro! (sorry Grahame) but still doing enough for a well-deserved win on handicap. Grahame declared use of his un-rated sail which is why the OMR result for OTR is scored as RAF (retired after finishing) scoring the number of finishers +1. But this doesn't affect his PHS result or score.

Kurt Ottowa sailed his usual brilliant race in the flukey conditions to take out line honours and OMR.

Alan Brand"Zorro"