Cherub Sprint Series Pays Off

Not much racing on the Australia Day weekend. Luckily Cameron Rule sent us this report on the Cherub Sprint Series:

The Annual Paddington Ale House Cherub Sprint Series was held over two days in December last year attracting 20 Cherubs from MBSC, PDSC and KBSC. The prize money was increased to $1500 ensuring there was plenty of cash to go around. Coupled with extremely short races and the use of an upwind and downwind gateway, the competition proved to be fierce and tight.
The first day saw a 18 to 25 knot southerly breeze, turning the races into a test of survival. The winning completion times for each race were around 20 minutes, so starting well was critical. Capsizes and nosedives were commonplace, so being in front was often short lived.
The second day of racing saw a fresh Easterly and the spectator boat with the sponsors aboard were right amongst the action. The shifty conditions spread the fleet out, and also made it difficult to make the downwind gate for many boats.
Proving that the Sprint Series encompasses the social aspect of sailing as well as the competitive, the Cherub sailors joined the 101 beer club at the Paddington Ale House on the Saturday night between race days. After the last race the sailors were greeted by the pulsing sounds of live DJ, and at presentation cash prizes were also awarded for quirky accomplishments, like best cartwheel as well as the final placings.
Overall Cunning Linguist, sailed by Cam Rule and Todd Montgomery from Mounts Bay Sailing Club won the event by finishing well consistently. Fine Mess skippered by Brennan Stead was in second, and Serenity Now sailed by Steve and Blake Vance picked up third.

Can’t help myself

Festival of the 49er

Thanks to Kynan Wall for the following report. Wouldn’t it be good to get one from him every week?

Three 49er teams from WA made the epic journey to Sydney for Nationals, then Sydney International Regatta, then on to Melbourne for the World Championships.

Dave Mann recruited star match racer Torvar Mirsky to do all of the hard work for him and with his new 49er managed to be the 3rd Australian boat in the Nationals in a fleet of 32 after 7 years of twiddling his thumbs and not doing any serious racing.

Nick and I managed 5th and newcomers Luke Parkinson and Paul Kelly managed a respectable 9th in testing conditions for the new lightweight crew.

SIRS produced some more testing conditions with 30 Etchells, 18s and ferries making the racing more of an obstacle course. A new batch of international competition also made the journey in preparation for the Worlds. Despite skipping this regatta to go back to Perth, Dave still managed to have his car stolen in Sydney by a crazed pie-addict who took it to the servo for a late night snack. Luckily we got it back just in time to take boats to Melbourne. Anyway, out of a fleet of 31 at SIRS, we managed 20th and Luke and Paul ended up 22nd after we all missed a few races.

At Sorrento we were greeted with a fleet of 81 49ers and 105 29ers lined up along the beachfront. It was awesome! After 3 days of qualifying, only 3 Australians were left in the top 50 and none of them
were from WA. Dave qualified 54th… 1st in Bronze fleet, Luke and Paul 62nd and we managed a telling 69th after copping a flogging in the light shifty conditions. The final three days’ racing saw the bronze fleet only race 5 races and things only got worse.

Dave and Torvar were disqualified for being on the wrong tack and blown out of the winning position and so ended up 3rd in Bronze fleet. Luke and Paul broke a tiller and missed a couple of races ending up 66th, and we just screwed it up to finish 72nd. The party was fun though.

The good news is that three new 49ers made the return journey and a few more of the older boats have been resurrected in our absence. The WA 49er fleet is back on the rise with possibly up to 12 boats back in the hands of keen players in preparation for the Mounts Bay Nationals at the end of this year.

29er World Champs Steve Thomas and Jasper Warren have jumped on board as well as a few more keen punters from around the traps.

See you all at 3-of-a-kind! We might manage 3 teams this time!

Cheers,

Kynan.

Short coursetastic

The von Feltons aboard The Pest clocked up the most consistent results, with a third and a first, as the i14s sailed two out of an intended three short courses in a waning easterly on Sunday.

About eight boats turned out for the short-course event for which the Bureau was boldly predicting a 20-25 knot sea breeze. The reality of the breeze was handsomely summed up by Smasher Everett’s comments to the start boat before the first race, which can be censored down to: “If you start us in this, you’re a flippin’ melon farmer”. And the second race had even less wind as the sea breeze failed to fill in.

Those brave boys on Elliott Industries blundered into a good start at the boat end in the first race, letting returning champions Brad Devine and Ian Furlong off the hook in a minor port-starboard incident before snaffling the breeze on the right and crossing the fleet. One dig too far left cost us a couple of places but fortunately for us, the fleet allowed us another dig out to the right-hand layline where the wind was, with only mercurial skipper Matt Harskamp on Grunt slightly ahead thanks to a lift on the way in to the mark.

Harskamp rounded wide before gybing, allowing Elliott Industries to take the inside and a clear lead while Grunt wallowed under several boats rounding inside them. It’s not often the Elliott Industries is in the lead, so I took the opportunity to tell the rest of the fleet to kiss my arse while we were still in front.

Elliott Industries tried to take the low road to the mark and made good ground on all the boats that went high but Brad Devine on Royston Vasey found an even lower path and got his nose ahead. A slight bingle at the bottom mark evened out the score between the two boats and I had to wait until after the race to explain the overlap rule to Cammy One-Wire.

Despite the massive statures of Brad and Footy, Royston Vasey had enough power in the rig to keep both boys on the wire while Elliott Industries failed to get the boat to settle. Both boats rounded the top mark well ahead of the rest of the fleet and split gybes with Royston Vasey coming back well in front at the next cross. This shattered Cammy’s confidence and in the final stages this abrupt lack of interest nearly allowed the rapidly-catching Pest to sneak into second place.

The breeze swung toward the south for the second race and the start boat was moved, yet again earning them the ire of Smasher and while the easterly was only dying in the first race, it was in this one that it started tussling with the sea breeze.

Elliott Industries had an atrocious start, miles from the line and in no pressure at all while the winners off the start line were The Pest and the mighty Grunt who headed left chasing the better breeze. Not bad work for a couple of boats without watches.

Elliott Industries spent much of the race trying to get back into it, or at least get our noses in front of Mike Navarro and Simon Wilder on Wasabi. We worked our way up to third last at one point, ahead of the boys on Grunt, who had done a sterling job of slipping back, and reigning national champion Brad Devine who found himself temporarily last. Fortunately for him, the sea breeze deliberately avoided Elliott Industries, allowing us to snatch last place.

At the better end of the fleet, The Pest led around the course to come home first with Rohan and Ben on Prolamps second and Billy Devine showing his wind-picking talents to come home third.
While the start boat was mulling a third start, the fleet took the lead and headed back to the beach in what turned out to be a fairly wise decision as the sea breeze turned out to be nothing other than patchy.

Shark Tales

I think Craig sent this to several on his email list but it’s worth repeating here:

Fellow sailors, windsurfers and swimmers,
 
Just for your interest I was out windsurfing 1.5 km’s off Leighton Sunday evening around 5.30 when I came within 30 meters of a nice size shark cruising the surface in front of me. Estimated the size from fin to tail as 3 meters lets say it was smaller which still makes it a fuc-ing good size. Needless to say I muffed my jibe and spend  the next 15 minutes sitting on my board like a frightend rabbit with the Jaws theme playing in my head. No bravery awards for me.

Golf and Sharpie sailing suddenly seems a lot safer.
 
Craig

Grunt slays fleet

First leg specialist Matt Harskamp writes:

Well it’s that time of the year, when the weather bureau tells me: “you’re gonna get a sea breeze” but it’s over 30 degrees and the easterly is pumping. When I hear that, I’m normally skeptical. So when the sea breeze did come in half way through the race on Saturday, it caught me a lil bit unawares, which is just my luck coz “More Grunt” was actually going alright at the time.

Unfortunately for us on The Mighty Pig, everyone else was well and truly aware of the sudden appearance of the sea breeze and made the most of it. When it did hit, Wazza with stand-in celebrity forward hand Ian “Footy” Furlong were in front on “Blue”, “More Grunt” was outperforming itself in second, the Von Feltens on “The Pest” were in third, with Brad Devine crewing for Ian Arber in fourth.
I’m not exactly sure of the placings after that (I must have been disoriented from the strange occurence of being towards the front of the fleet), however I do know that Luke Devine on “Carbon Comet”, Billy Devine on “Jo-anne” and Team Navarro on “Wasabi” (yes, Booger has an official name) were all there and closing fast.

The reason I know this is because I watched most of them come past me under spinnaker when the sea breeze hit while I sat in a nice big hole between the easterly and the sea breeze. Oh well, easy come, easy go as they say.

Anyway, after the obligatory King-Nedlands spit square dance, we headed into Bastard Bay and met very light conditions once again. Not much fun for everyone, but luckily just what the Pig needed to be convinced that coming last was not the order of the day. We thought we might be able to sneak along the shore and pass Billy and the boys on “Wasabi” without their knowledge, but after 57 years of sailing 14s, you gotta get up early to trick Billy D.

In the end Wazza and Ian were fastest, with The Von Feltens in second , Brad and Ian Arber in 3rd, Luke was fourth and Billy managed to just sneak across the line in front of us with Wasabi rounding up the fleet.

The big surprise was when the mighty Grunt was awarded first on handicap, so that early-season form of coming last by more than 20 minutes paid off.

As Hannibal from The A-Team used to say, “I love it when a plan comes together”.

Long Weekend Regatta – Nude keg throwing returns?

Hey Bruce,

Just letting you know that Mounts Bay will be hosting a centreboard regatta over the March long weekend, incorporating the 29er and 49er State titles.  We will be inviting other classes to join in the windward-leeward short course (we might put a wing mark in if a class needs one though)

The plan at this stage is for a twilight, welcome night and piss-up on Friday night; 3 races Saturday arvo; up to 6 races Sunday; piss-up and dinner Sunday night; and 3 races Monday morning with presentations Monday arvo around 2pm.

We are hoping for a contingent of 14s, Skates and Cherubs to turn up and make it quite a spectacle.  If Cammy One-wire is too gay to sail three days in a row I’m sure there will be some great photo opportunities for you.  Maybe Cam can help out on a rescue boat instead.

Do you reckon you could put the word out via your magnificent website?

And don’t forget the Ronstan Three-of-a-Kind Regatta on the 16th March as well…March is going to be a huge month down at the Bay!

Cheers,
Marty

I14 action

And for some balance, here’s a report by Matt Harskamp:

Well the Christmas break has come and gone and now its back to the serious business of racing in the I14 fleet (not so serious for some). Having said that, it was only a smallish fleet that turned up to race the handicap race on saturday in a good breeze of just over 20 knots.

After everyone got over the initial shock of “Cammy One Wire” and Bruce “Thumbprint” Rollerson actually turning up for their first race of the season, the business of rigging for the race began in earnest.

Mike Von Felten had returned from his recent overseas trip of testing the worlds beers to team up with brother Dave again on “The Pest”. Rohan & Ben were back from QLD where they placed second in the Cherub Nationals to fire up “Prolamps” for a fang around the river and Brad Devine was back from his recent win in the I14 Nationals to team up with Luke Devine on “Carbon Comet”. We also managed to get Grunt to the club after some desperate rebuilding of the foils during the week. I’d like to say that our foils being damaged was the product of a carefully masterminded plan by another boat’s crew, but we aren’t going fast enough on “More Grunt” to warrant that kind of action so we’ll just have to put it down to the fact that “sh1t happens”.

Being a handicap race, it was an interesting start to the day as we had the biggest handicap of the fleet (and no I’m not just talking about the skipper), so we were off by ourselves to start the windward return course.

First leg was a Crawley-Brewery return and then it was 5 times to Matilda and back to Brewery before finishing at the club. The course had to be of a decent length to allow for the handicap start so that meant it was a fair slog for the lighter crews. There was plenty of thrills and spills for everyone due to the breeze and it being the first race back after the break.

We learnt that the kite doesn’t work so well when you don’t put both braces round the front of the forestay and after trying to fix the problem while in our customary capsized position, we headed to the beach to sort it out. Billy D and Ben were doing well on “Joanne” until they also retired with what I believe was kite problems. The  Von Feltens showed some speed early on but then managed to make their jib disappear and headed home under main only. Meanwhile Ben and Rohan were cruising along on “Prolamps” and Brad & Luke were cleaning up the fleet on “Carbon Comet”. Cam & Bruce decided to call it a day after suffering a bad case of “lack of fitness” according to the skipper.

In the end the race was won by Luke & Brad on “Carbon Comet”, with Ben & Rohan in second on “Prolamps”, and that was it. As far as I know no-one else managed to finish.

Next week it’s a club race on Saturday with Sunday being the first round of the Summer Sprint Series so that should make for some great racing. See ya there!

But our handicap is us

Cammy One-wire and ace forwardhand Bruce Rollerson returned to the water in a manner that will surely send chills down the spines of I14 sailors contemplating state championship success.

Six 14s turned out for a handicap start at Perth Dinghy Sailing Club on Saturday with many of the more experienced boats too scared to show their faces once word got out that the Elliott Industries (or whatever Cammy plans to call it) machine was back on the water. Undoubtedly they were hiding in Kings Park with binoculars.

There was plenty of wind on for a relatively inexperienced fleet of reigning national champion Brad Devine teaming up with young Luke Devine, Madd Matt Harskamp on Grunt, Billy Devine on Jo Anne, Mike and Dave von Felton on The Pest and Rohan Van Dongen on Pro Lamps. The course of about six windward returns left the mathematically challenged in danger of not knowing how many laps they had done but provided a great fun race track for all those boats who checked that their kite was properly rigged before heading out on the water.

The fear in the fleet was palpable as Elliott Industries was allocated the lowest handicap and would therefore start last and spend the race gunning down the rest of the fleet. Or, as I said at the time: “at least no one will pass us”. We missed the start anyway, because we were too busy having our first swim of the day. Once around the top mark and with the kite set, it was quite clear to us that on that course you could never be very sure of how many laps anyone had done, but this just added to the allure of the event. Luke Devine on Carbon Comet managed to whiz past us before having a swim.

Cammy was true to his nickname, keeping the gybes nice and safe but the tacking was another issue and Luke Devine probably lapped us while we were in the water. Everywhere we looked there was a 14 swimming somewhere but (and this is for you John Hilton) if you’re in a boat that never swims, are you really having fun?

I was pretty knackered after just three laps but Cammy talked me into one more lap, which wasn’t hard to agree to because the downhill rides were pretty good. Sadly for Cammy, all that hard work coming in early for the gybes had taken its toll and he developed a cramp in his leg. “Get her down, get her down”: you could hear the tears.

We weren’t the first back to the beach and Billy Devine was in soon after us, followed by the boys on The Pest—without their jib. Luke and Brad got in first of those who finished and probably only had the one swim, followed by Prolamps who I didn’t see much of out there, so I can only assume they didn’t have too many swims either.

Back next week for more of the same, I hope.

Chug-a-lug celebrations continue

And look at this – there’s a new post already:

Hi Bruce,

We missed your antics at the Chug-a-lug and nude bar slide / black plastic. Not all of the Chug-a-lug patrons’ opinions aligned with the exquisite guidance of Chief Judge Paul Main on the night. Yet one thing is for sure that the crowd did enjoy the antics of WA Team chugger, Larry, as he expressed his emotion of sharing the winning form with the WA Men’s team. As he reached for the ceiling to swing high, he simply found himself holding another trophy to go with the chug-a-lug cup shared with Doof, Watty and Pete.

Congratulations to the winning ladies team from WA also.

The black plastic was considered a sacred sight for the camera and no photographic evidence exists… we hope. Lets face it, the carnage witnessed by spectators has scarred them all.

A special mention for MBSC Commodore Matt Jahn – the man has charisma and is not afraid to show it either.I hope all competitors are home safely and contemplating the great success of the regatta at East Freo and are now spreading the word for ‘the GONG’ in 08 / 09.

Cheers,

Missing you all on and off the water

B1.