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Taipan / Capricorn national’s trip.
For Anthony and myself it started on Christmas day, just after lunch with the family we jumped in the car and headed for the spirit of Tasmania. On the way up north we stopped three times for fuel and supplies, each time we were passed by a P plater doing the 80kph speed limit. So three times we had to pass that little excel!
Got to the boat a little after 5pm, for a 7.30 sailing, we were right at the front of the queue. About 80% of the cars pulling up behind us were towing sailing dinghies, everything from sabots to b14’s and even a lonely heron! Barely more than 50 cars were waiting to get on. With everyone loaded on by 6.30 we were off!
The trip over was great, we had lots of time to talk to the other sailors about where they were headed. Most were going 1000+ kilometres to Adelaide or NSW.
So 5am we drove off the boat into Victoria, aside from the gps sending us in circles because the highway was closed... our trip went very smoothly.
The rest of the gang flew out Boxing Day, Mark Annie, Jason and Scotty drive down in the Nissan micra. It was quite a cool little car as it held the speed limit with no problems at all. Scotty worked out it had enough power to spin the wheels at service station and Mark tested the brakes near a speed camera..
We spent measuring day fixing boats, Mark was the worst offender! And Scotty bagged him out about it. All the 4.9’s were weighed. Anthony’s was nearly 2 kilos under, Quentin 200g over and Marks was 1 kilo over. After spending some time helping out with the measuring most of the older boats were under weight and the new ones were over. Jason and myself had to jump on the scales. 215kilos! Fair enough we broke them!
Henk’s old 5.7 was there and I went over to say hi. The first thing they said was “don’t take this the wrong way but we don’t want to sail with the Capricorns” the guys felt they had no chance on vyc against us. And after sailing the regatta with them they were right, the only time they got away was the very light breezes.
The invitation race was sailed in 5-8 knots of breeze, it was bright and sunny and it felt like a light sea breeze at home. We watched all our 4.9 sloop sailors get buried at the start. So we lined up to start with the 4 taipan 5.7’s the other Capricorn and Brett Goodall on the viper. Determined not to let that happen to us we attacked the line and won the start, but it didn’t do u s very much good as the light weight viper and under weight crew of the other Capricorn pulled away.
At the end of the race we had passed the majority of the sloop rigged boats and cat rigged which started 5 and 10 minutes ahead of us. When we got back to the beach, I went to sign off and there had been four boats that had not signed on. They were all DSQ. This left us in 2nd position on corrected time over the entire fleet behind Brett’s viper.
The first two races of the championship were very light, Leigh on the other Capricorn was so fast we only managed to get in front of him a few times but were soundly beaten by them. We came off the water that day feeling we had a lot to learn and their weight was a distinct advantage.
That night we got some personal tuition from Greg and Brett Goodall. They really are fantastic guys and really keen to help. Next day the breeze had kicked in and we had a good 15 knots. Armed with some new techniques we powered to the windward mark in the lead. Hoisted the kite and took off. Jason was calling to heat the boat up, so I turned up and just as I did we cart wheeled. I landed on the boom (later I would feel the cracked rib). We righted the boat and tried to get the rest of the kit into the bag, but it would not go. It had a huge hole in it.
Went to the shore. Changed the kite, headed back out and this time we made sure we won the race. Brett cart wheeled his viper twice which gave us our first line honours in div3.
Race 5 was a drifter we felt we would be out the back door but it didn’t stop us having a go, we won the start by a good 6-7 boat lengths. We had some really close racing with the 5.7’s in that race, at one point Jason completely fell off the boat and was hanging by the downhaul! On the last downwind wind we had a good lead over the other Capricorn and the Viper. So we headed for the finishing line, we sat there with Mark and Kingsly who were in 2nd and third while we watch the breeze fill from the other side of the course. Mark and Kinglsy lost about 6 places within a couple of hundred meters of the finishing line, while we fell behind the viper and the other Capricorn.
Race 6 the breeze had settled in and we easily beat the other Capricorn.
Race 7 Allegedly we were started in 16 knots of breeze. It was really honking, we set the kite downwind up ran really deep, there were boats cart wheeling everywhere. We picked our way through a mine field of capsized 4.9’s 5.7’s and the viper. It was a very full on race and well over the 22 knots they were supposed to limit the sailing too.
Race 8 Some one’s wind speed indicator is broken!! Its blowing close to 30 knots... everyone runs square downwind now and no one sets a kite.. not even Brett Goodall. This the race James Mcdonald does not give way to Mark. Piecing Marks hull, and sending his bow through marks new mainsail. Mark was about to lead the fleet for the first time. It was only the first leg but even still.
For us the race was on the second lap, we had just come around the windward buoy with a taipan 5.7 and the other Capricorn just behind us. The water turned back and we were all pushed flat. The race was on to see who could right the boat the fastest. And that was us. Only by about 30 seconds but when your sailing downwind in 30+ knots that is a bloody long way!!!
Race 9-10 the breeze had dropped off plenty for the last day and it was dying more the day went on. While we still had some breeze we managed to finish in front of the other Capricorn but as it died it got harder and they got us in the last race. Our scores were now even but we had one DNF so they counted back to the 2nd drop which put us into 2nd position. So close.
Mark and Annie won the handicap side of the sloops and it should be mentioned Anthony and Midda capsized 9 times in 10 races.
Quentin got onto the news for a spectacular cartwheel , we should have a copy of the footage soon.
We learnt a lot about how to sail our boats and run a good championship series. As far as a fact finding mission goes it was a complete success.
Dazz.
Hoefully Quentin, Mark and Anthony will fill in more about thier races.
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