Day 2

Wellington, 22nd March 2008

P.S. for yesterday's report:
It leaked out that someone suggested to the Race Committee before the contest that the top mark had better not be that close to the beach in the Northerly.

P.P.S.:
Also, the first in the first race was Ben but the second was Stuart Goodes and Ollie Scott-Mackie on Absolute Marine (courtesy of Peter Precey); Craig came third.

Remarks on the weather first: Wellington conditions.
Grey today until we were back on shore in the afternoon. Strong breeze, short choppy sea. Good though compared to what we had yesterday!

This morning, quite a few boats were still under construction. The Southerly made it rather cold, so there was a bit of a disincentive to get out on the water, or maybe the frozen limbs slowed down the repairs... so Thirty Something and Nice One stayed on the beach, keeping Blunderbus company. Wildfire just delayed getting ready to the afternoon races. The sales of 2001 gear went through the roof as people geared up for the chilly weather (if you need more, call me!).

Flying Circus flew in from repairs last night and this morning, and it must have been successful fixing up their gear as they took out the first race this morning. Knowing they had to make up for lost time they gave everyone a good old-fashioned hiding. Ben Bax was rather long-faced having to content himself with second place.

Riders on the Storm with Martin Stacey and Colin Shanks finished in the top ten. I thought I was going to get them on the last upwind, but they beat us downwind. For some reason they were going to do another lap anyway; I was worried for a while that I had to go up and down once more, but we got the hooter to finish and they continued for another lap and finished 10th.

The second race this morning was a cock-up on Flying Circus. One each they called the gybe wrong, so they had to content themselves with a second place. Ben won this race with Absolute Marine coming in third. The breeze was great with some awesome fast downwind runs. Black Bart recorded doing a maximum of 13 knots over ground!

For lunch we came back to shore (after we finally all figured out what that other red and white flag meant that was flying under the AP) and got a great lunch cooked up by Karen and Peter. Half the fleet got showered and dry, while some hard bastards just hung around in their wet gear. It was decidedly cool, however all was good after a good feed of hot dogs and pizzas.

It was a bit of a mission again to get off the beach in the onshore wind. Wildfire joined the racing in for the third race and got around the course alright - good on you Rob and Peter! The wind was slacking off just a little bit, and it was a pleasure seeing a line of kites flying down the Wellington harbour. David dared winning that race again, with Create Havoc overtaking Ben on the last downwind to take out second place.

The last race saw rather diminished figures. After the all-girls crew pulled out (the crew being hurt), their closest competitors Black Bart and Plan A were gentlemen enough to ram each other and come back to the beach with them. Ben took off like a bat out of hell that last race (original comment Graham R.).

Panic set in on Flying Circus when they were lying on their side and cool calm Bax blasted through. The over-confident Flying Circus, thinking they had speed to burn, delayed their righting movement until another four boats passed them. Then they crossed the line several minutes later realising they might have overestimated themselves and could have now blown their chances on the title. David admits he might need more practice on capsizing.

Second place went to Create Havoc, and Absolute Marine came third. It should be mentioned that Colin and Marty came fourth in this race, a great achievement was considering that Colin's standard crew had a broken foot and Marty agreed to come out of retirement for this contest!

Absolute Marine are showing a very consistent performance even though they have a very light crew, sitting comfortably on third place overall at the moment.

Tomorrow is looking like light wind now, which should suit them well.

The clubhouse was again turned into a workshop tonight. In between fixing sails we held our AGM (see David for details) and got provided with a great impromptu dinner for just $1!

Sorry if this report is one-eyed; it was compiled at the after-party on board Enigma following the original input from those present.

We are all looking forward to a day of light-wind sunny sailing tomorrow!

Antje.