Sauna Sail – Latrobe Valley YC – June 12-14
Another great Sauna Sail weekend has been and gone. Although the two races on Saurday had plenty of wind for trapezing, Sunday and Monday turned light. There was the occasional short shower (mainly on those that arrived Friday night) but other than than that it was a dry and mild weekend.
Twelve Mosquitoes made up the Mosquito division and two more sailed with spinnakers in the fast cat division. As usual the racing was close in the Mosquito division with Matt Stone, Garry Johnstone, Tim Shepperd, Neil Joiner, and Mitchell Meade all making the running at various times. Overall it was usually Tim or Matt that came out on top when it mattered and they finished up on equal points.
In the fast cat division Gary Maskiell took first place on handicap in 3 of the 5 races (it could have been 4 but one race was abandoned for this division), and obviously enjoyed the flukey winds on his home waters.
Dinner at the RSL for Gary’s 50’th was enjoyed by a big crowd, and the next day Di, Sandra, Veronica and Jenny once again produced a magnificent roast on the open fire, with apple crumble for dessert (how do they do it?).
Time to pack everything up for a short winter break now – I’ve heard WD40 on the mast and beams is a good idea to stop corrosion.
Photos
Easter Regatta GLYC
Great regatta with good winds for this time of year. 6 Mossies raced against 2x Stingrays, 2x Paper Tigers, Hobie 20, Nacra F18, QB3.
Around Raymond Island race, 10-15 knots. The Stingray lead most of the way upwind with Matt, Peter N, Neil and me having a go at second. With Neil and David Joiner first up with the kite it was good bye to the Stingray, I managed to just sqeeze past on the kite drop, but a loose beat home through the straits, once again saw Neil just too fast. Pizza dinner at the club and lots of bar chat with liquid refreshments helped to make it a great day.
Easter Sunday the Easter Bunny had left eggs on the trampolines, must have been a comfortable nesting spot, as the mono’s didn’t get any. Classic 30 Nautical Mile race, was just that a classic, winds mostly 15 to 25kts. Without Neil to annoy me grin , I lead most of the way battling of Farrier Sprint Trimaran, Stingray and Nacra F18 and after a swim with the kite up blush which let the 35′ Catamaran Spudgun catch up, I held it off to win by 50m. Race ended up only taking 3hrs, including one of the toughest longest spinnaker legs I have ever sailed. Tired!
Even Monday morning we where blessed with Trapeze conditions, 10-12kts, the Stingray won upwind again, but couldn’t hold off the spinnaker Mossies, with me leading most of the way for a clear win.
Thanks to the Redundant Catamaran Club for attending again, enjoyed the stirring and they don’t seem to mind getting whipped by the Mossies. They truly do sail just for fun, looking forward to next year already.
Gary Maskiell
The Round the Island race
As the only mossie without a spinnaker it was good to have the first third of the race beating to windward. While the others got away I was able to keep near to Mitch and felt that I was making a race of it. As soon as Mitch got the kite up he was away and that was the last I saw of him. I was happy with my result of 10th out of 14 cats.
30 miler
Wow, what a race. After a light wind start the breeze filled in and we were flying. During the beat from the compass marks to the tambo river I spent at least 15 minutes on Starboard tack, on trapeze, with the hull flying most of the time. Unfortunately, when I tacked the Port side trapeze line broke and I went for a swim. I was thankful to the Stingray crew who checked on me while the boat was on its side although it only took a few mins to get Lemon Peel upright. As I still have a second set of trapeze lines rigged (for sloop sailing) I was able to continue. Matt Stone had been for a swim earlier in the race and caught me just as I got Lemon Peel going again. We had a great battle from the Tambo through to Metung where his skill and superior boat were slightly surpassed by my extra 20kg on the wire. After the Metung mark Matt got the kite up and was gone. I spent most of the run along the rear of Raymond Island trying to slow the boat down. Even sitting at the rear of the tramp the noses would disappear under the waves from time to time with the boat doing at least 10 knots (very different conditions to Sugarloaf). After rounding the mark at Pt Turner it was a beat to the finish. On a few occasions I was on the wire with the windward hull in the air and the leeward hull was out of the water back past the front beam (what goes up must come down). Thankfully it all held together and I managed a result of 4th out of 10 cats (thanks to Matt and Mitch with DNFs).
Round the Bouys Race.
The less said the better. I was just slow and I think still recovering from the day before.
Overall
I enjoyed the regatta and my patches of good performance show how good an old wooden boat can perform. The social side was excellent and I enjoyed spending time with the mossie guys and the redundant catamaran crews. Thanks again to the race control crews for all the hard work to make the regatta work.
Peter Lyons
6th Spinnaker State Titles
Well what an interesting weekend! A check of the satelite images and weather reports at McRae YC on Saturday morning showed the wind probably wasn’t quite as strong as it looked (20 knot gusts). Seven mozzied rigged up with spinnakers and Simon was also there without a spinnaker but representing his home club McRae and generally staying on top of organising everyone for the day.
McRae YC ran two races for us and the Westerly wind certainly had plenty of strength but was very shifty, making the windward legs especially challenging. However the downwinds were an absolute blast, with plenty of speed and some pretty “exciting” gusts (too exciting for some!). There was a lot of place changing with Matt, Peter, Neil, Tim and Gary all sharing time at the front. However by the end of the two races Gary had demonstrated that important ability to be the one in front at the end of the race, and was in front with two firsts.
We left our boats rigged at McRae YC and headed back to Neil’s accommodation for a delicious barbeque dinner.
Sunday morning we rigged early and sailed over to Rosebud for some light-wind practise. The first race managed to maintain 6 to 8 knots of breeze but after that it started to get more fickle. Nevertheless Rosebud YC managed to run 4 races for us, with lunch in the middle and Gary once again showed an uncanny ability to simply be in the right place at the right time and pulled out another 3 wins to clearly win the overall title.
Thanks a lot to Simon Clavin at McRae for being the oil that kept the wheels turning over the weekend, to McRae YC for running our races on Saturday, and to Rosebud YC for running our races on Sunday, and providing lunch.
Results:
| Position | Sail No | Name | Boat Name | Score | Race 6 | Race 5 | Race 4 | Race 3 | Race 2 | Race 1 |
| 1 | 1760 | Gary Maskiell | Thrice Bitten | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 |
| 2 | 1789 | Neil Joiner | Immunity | 13 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 2 |
| 3 | 1816 | Matt Stone | Unko | 15 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 4 |
| 4 | 1775 | Tim Shepperd | Karma Cat | 17 | 6 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 3 |
| 5 | 1790 | Peter Nikitin | Bee Alert | 19 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 2 | DNF |
| 6 | 1794 | Philip Warren-Smith | More than a Splash | 32 | 5 | 5 | 7 | 7 | DNC | DNC |
| 7 | 1805 | Trevor Armstrong | Just a toy | 33 | DNC | 7 | 6 | 6 | 6 | DNF |
McRae YC – Catamaran Championship
For the first time in living memory (at least this one), the McRae Cat regatta was run in steady light winds for the whole weekend this year. It never strayed far from 8-10 knots from the Northeast with flat water, and the course was a triangle followed by two windward-leeward laps and a final triangle to finish downwind at the bottom of the course. Three races were run each day. In such light wind the Mozzies with spinnakers were able to use them on six out of the ten legs of every race, which made them pretty well unbeatable. Bob Wilson was there and the closest he got was in race 5 when he finished 36 seconds behind on corrected time (with the spinnaker Mozzies sailing to the old handicap of 79.5).
In division 2 we had a fine turnout of eleven Mosquitoes – Tim Sheppard, Matt Stone, Robert Wilson, Mick Floyd, Garry Johnstone, Robert Lott, Mitch Meade, James Pearse, Andrew Neeson, Nic Baglioni, & Gordon Hyde. Most had their moments of glory. Mitch & Nic both found their way to the front of the fleet on occasion, and Bob made a super-human effort to keep up with one sail too few. Matt just kept improving over the weekend, and scored some well deserved wins on his brand-new Mosquito “Unko” – the first out of the JK Fibreglass factory. Simon Clavin’s boat was not ready in time for the weekend (bad boat!) so he busied himself in the rescue boat on Saturday and being McRae’s only shore crew on Sunday. The video Simon recorded on Saturday will be coming to youtube soon (the link will be here when it’s done). Philip Warren-Smith was unable to get the weekend off, but he did put in a celebrity appearance on the course on Sunday, and without him a few of us would have been lodging in the back of our cars for the night – thanks Philip.
In the “overall” results (calculated by various unknown means) the Mosquitoes were looking both good and bad after Saturdays racing. Tim was clearly in front with 3 wins and Matt was lying 4th behind two A-classes, but the first Mozzie without spinnaker, Bob, was down in 12th spot. This was to be expected, it being too light for the Mosquito to be able to perfom but ideal conditions to get a lot of benefit from the spinnaker. Although the conditions were identical on Sunday, the wheels fell off the Mosquito campaign machine, with best performers Matt averaging around 7th and Bob averaging around 15th. This left us with Tim at the top of the Mosquitoes in 5th place and Bob being the first non-spinnaker Mosquito in 12th.
Pre-season training weekend 5th & 6th September
The weather was very co-operative over the weekend with a good wind on both days and a warm night for the campers. Peter Nikitin, Peter Lyons, Nic Maan, Andrew Neeson, Mick Floyd and Tim Shepperd Spent Saturday afternoon rigging and sailing the Pondage – which is actually quite a large area with only 6 boats instead of 190.
Sunday morning we got some boat measuring done, and then Andrew Copland joined Peter N., Andrew and Tim for the LVYC winter race in the afternoon. This was an amazing race held in typically shifty Hazelwood conditions. Everyone took turns at the front but Peter Nikitin lead for most of the race. It was a very good workout and the muscles were already feeling the effects on the drive home.
Photos