Hello from Australia.
I got here Thursday night and spent Friday trying to get our boat out of quarantine. Australian Customs wanted to fumigate the boat because the trailer it was on had plywood on it and they wanted to make sure nothing alive was in the wood.
Things weren't looking too good on getting our boat out, but when I sat down to have lunch in the Olympic Cafeteria, the customs liaison was at the same table with me. He pulled out his stamps and forms and off we went to get the boat. We were the last ones to go through measurement. Fortunately, everything was okay; the first race was scheduled for the next day at noon.
The forecast was for a north wind of 10-15 knots. We sail on course D, which is just inside the mouth of Sydney Harbor.
Saturday Racing
Our start was scheduled for noon. There are twenty-two boats in our fleet, all good boats that we raced at the Worlds in Spain. I am sailing with Jonathan Farrar, a sub for Bob who had to attend school at home.
Race 1
Race direction is up into a cove with land all around but with sea
straight downwind from the start. Closest land consists of cliffs to
the right. We were sailing inner loops. The first race was two
loops.
We had a bad start near the boat and tacked out right. We came right back, though, to stay on the lifted starboard tack. Our speed was not too good, and we rounded the weather mark in 13th. We saw a good puff, however, and jibe set. We carried the puff all the way down and rounded the gate in second. We played the right but didn't go too fast and rounded the top mark in 11th. Winds are very shifty and puffy here.
We stayed even on the run and the next beat, then took off on the reach. Halfway down, we had a problem: our spin guy ball pulled through the stopper in the spin sheet (sheets were new and had not been tested). The spin went sideways, and we almost went over and swamped our boat. We got the spin back under control but had a boat full of water. I kicked out the transom flaps, but it took forever to get the water out ( I was splashing it out also with my feet and hands). We had to be careful not to break the mast. By the time we got the water out, we were halfway down the run in last place.
On the final reach to the finish, we passed three boats that went too high.
Lack of preparation.
Race 2
This was going to be a three loop race.
We had gone too slow the first race. I decided just to concentrate on speed upwind and let Jonathan call tactics. Also, our coach told us the fast people had tight main leaches, so we cranked on the vang.
We started in the middle and had a great start. We hit the first shift and got some other shifts, then rounded the first mark in 3rd. We jibe set again, got the cliff puff and moved into 2nd. The next beat, we played the shifty well again, were going okay and stayed in 2nd.
On the run, we had a little left shift at the top mark and did not jibe set. We gained initially but did not have enough wind and got passed by some boats that jibe set. We rounded 5th.
On the next beat, we caught one boat and rounded 4th. We stayed in 4th around the next loop and then went on our reach. We caught a little puff on the next run and were trying to pass a boat on the jibe to the finish, but something happened and the chute filled. We tipped all the way over. Well, that was a bummer. We finished 14th.
Proper Preparation Prevents Pathetic Performance.
Race 3.
Last race of the day--a three loop race.
We had a good start near the pin and tacked on the first shift. We rounded the first mark in 6th and held that position around the three loops, battling back and forth.
Then we came to our bad luck reach. We had rolled the boat ahead to move into 5th, but then the spin sheet pulled through the clew of the spinnaker, and we lost six boats while we retied it.
We rolled one Japanese boat on the way to the finish, to finish 10th.
In all, a totally depressing day, throwing away those good races. Just a lack of preparation. We need to get to these regattas early to test things out, especially when sailing with a different crew.
Sunday
This was an off day for us.
I got up at 6:30 this morning and worked on the boat until dark. Hopefully, we can sail tomorrow as well as we did the first day and not break down or flip over.
Well, as you can tell, I'm a little frustrated.
Hopefully, better news tomorrow.
I am learning a lot about the sailing conditions here.
Paul
Hello again from Down Under.
Today is our second day of racing. We are on course B. which is only a five minute sail from the launch ramp. It is way inside the harbor, within sight of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and a mile from the Sydney Opera House.
The forecast was for an east wind of 5-15 knots with cloudy, overcast skies and a low tide at 2:40 p.m. The race was to start at noon.
Jonathan and I decided to go out early and get a feel for the race course. We left the dock at 9:20 a.m. We got a feel for the wind shifts by racing up the course, and tested the current at a channel marker in the middle of the course. The current was zero. It should have been going out (upwind) by now, but it was not. We also pulled out the harbor map and current chart to see where things were. Then we did some racing downwind.
We did another upwind and checked the current at the channel marker again. This time, it was going out at about 0.1 knot. We check this by soaking our sponge with water and then throwing it next to the buoy and watching the motion of the sponge relative to the anchored buoy. The time was about 10:30 a.m.
We went back downwind and found some other 470s to tune up with. We raced them and went pretty well, then checked the current again. It was a little stronger.
Race 1
Very shifty and puffy, with wind 5-10 knots out of 70 degrees.
We raced a 2I, which is a double inner loop with a trapezoid at the
end.
We started near the pin but got pinched off by the guy at the pin. We were in a good lift and puff, so we footed below him to keep on starboard. We were doing okay and tacked on the first lefty with the others with us. We had gained on the boats that had tacked out at the start. We played up the middle with most of the fleet to the right of us and kept leading them back left and were playing the shifts well.
A Japanese boat rounded first by playing the right along with a couple of other boats, and we rounded fourth. We jibe set along with most other boats to stay along the right shore where the puffs were coming from. Those boats that did not jibe set lost big.
We passed a boat but got passed by another, so we still were in fourth around the leeward mark.
On the next beat, we played the shifts and puffs up the middle right, passed one boat and barely were passed by another boat at the weather mark. We again jibe set and rolled the Argentine boat that rounded just ahead of us to move into third.
We stayed in third on the run and played the shifts again up the middle right. The Argentines passed us halfway up the beat, but we got them back at the end of the beat on a lift and puff from the right.
We went on the reach trying to work low because the current would be pushing us high. We did not have enough wind to do this, and the Argentines had a good puff behind. They worked low of us, passing us at the reach mark.
We lost a little on the run and finished fourth, with the Japanese winning, Brazil second and the Argentines third. Losing the Argentines hurt but, overall, it was a good race.
Race 2
The race committee moved the course for Race 2 because the wind
had gone a little right. There was a small island on the right and a
high point on the far left.
After a general recall, we had an okay start near the pin but were able to hold our lane. We tacked on the first shift. The shift did not last very long, but we decided to eat the header to the right. That was a bad decision because a lefty came in, so we rounded the first mark in 13th. We wanted to jibe set but had a boat that rounded just inside of us. I really wanted to jibe over, so I luffed up and jibed behind him. This sent us right at the island.
We had good breeze going there. When we got to the island, we got out of the current and gained on the boats in the middle. We jibed and took a puff low of the mark to stay in the shallow water and less current. This worked great. We rounded fourth. The Australian behind us was 18th at the top mark and rounded just behind us.
We tacked too soon at the leeward mark, got bad air from the spinnakers and lost the Australians. We ducked them and went right, playing the shifts. We rounded fifth at the top mark just behind the Australians and did a straight set but worked low. Then we jibed, but the island did not quite have the puff, so we stayed in fifth, gaining on the leaders and rounding the left gate mark at the same time that the Australians were rounding the right gate mark.
We again played the middle right and noticed a rain shower coming. The breeze picked up to 13 knots and got very shifty, but generally went right. We shot past the guys that had rounded the left gate and were now in second. We rounded the top mark in second, just behind the Brazilians and just in front of the Argentineans.
We took off on a planing reach and got to the reach mark still in good wind, so we went straight. The leader jibed, and the guy behind jibed, but we had a good angle and a good puff, so we went straight. We gained but could not get past the Brazilian. We went off on the reach to the finish and gained, but not enough, so we ended up second.
A very good race--and a good day of sailing for us. No major problems.
Tomorrow's forecast is for a dry and sunny day, with wind out of the northeast, which is the normal sea breeze direction. We will be on course D, the same course we had the first day, out near the mouth of the harbor, but still inside the harbor.
More then.
See you later.
Paul
Third day of racing. Forecast for today was 10-20 knots out of the normal sea breeze direction, which is northeast. We were on course D in the mouth of the harbor.
We got out early again--9:30 a.m.--just to check things out. The course was set up so the weather mark was just to the left of a half mile long, 200 foot high cliff. We thought the wind would be better left, away from the cliff.
Race 1
This was a triple outer loop. There was a good swell coming in from
the ocean, which let us ride waves on starboard tack, and there was
confused chop on top of that. There were lots of streaky puffs.
We had an okay start near the boat and hung off peoplešs hips below us. We kept going to the left corner, looking for a header to go back on. We did not find one, and the boats that had had bad starts and had gone right were leading. We never got our left shift and rounded the first mark 15th.
On the first reach, we went low, which was a mistake because there was a puff line high; so we lost five boats.
We jibed out at the reach mark, caught a good puff and rode it down to the starboard jibe lay line. We jibed and rode the waves to round the bottom mark in 14th.
On the next beat, we played the middle, passing the 1997 world champions from Finland who had flipped, and got caught up to 12th.
We went left on the next beat and rode a header both ways. This was not very smart: we dropped to 16th.
We passed a boat on the next run, went right on the next beat and got a good righty to move forward into 12th.
We lost a boat on the run, the French guys (1998 world champions). They jibed in a good puff that we missed.
Then we went on a blasting reach to the finish.
We actually ended up ninth this race because of all the over-early boats, including the French.
Well, the left plan did not work.
Race 2
The wind built a little more, so we dropped pins so we could rake
more
and keep our rig tension high.
The boat was crowded, so we started at the pin. We were looking great off the line but were pinned and could not tack, so we went to the dreaded left. We still did not quite know what was going on, and we rounded 20th.
We rolled one boat on the first reach, then jibed again at the first mark and rode the puff down. We gained a lot and rounded the bottom mark in 12th!
We gained one boat on the next beat and made a Portuguese boat do spins at the weather mark for tacking inside the two boat length circle. We rounded the next leeward mark in ninth.
On the run, we lost a boat--the French--but passed them back the next beat, then had a bad run and lost a couple of boats. The French moved up to seventh on the run, and we finished 11th.
There were a lot of gains and losses to be made upwind and down.
We talked to the other U.S. team, and they had gone from eighth to second on one beat by banging the right. They also had lost ten boats on one downwind.
I think our speed was good, but our original game plan caused problems, and we were not very good at recognizing the flaw. Well, good racing anyway.
We have a day off tomorrow, and then we have four races left.
We are in 10th now. The first day problems really hurt, but I am learning a lot about Sydney Harbour.
More later.
Thanks for everyonešs support.
And good luck to the Texas JY-15 fleet up at the NA's in CT.
See ya.
Paul
This is the last day of racing. We come into today in 10th place. Our first day of three races really hurt, but that's sailboat racing.
We got down to the boat and did our usual routine of getting lunches rigging the boat, checking the weather bulletins, getting dressed and stretching out. The forecast was for a light, southeast wind going east then northeast, and not going over 15 knots.
The race committee postponed on shore, but Jonathan and I went out anyway at about 10:30 a.m. This was after doing an emergency last minute gasket repair.
We got out and cruised around, then checked out a old sailing ship that was going out. It was called the Bounty and looked just like the one in the movie Mutiny on the Bounty. [Note from Beanard: This is the boat that was used in the movie, and it's a fun to sail on in Sydney Harbour.] No mutiny was going on, but they were having breakfast and threw us a couple of croissants (yummy). We kept sailing to our racecourse, course D, which was at the mouth of the harbor.
On the way, we passed a couple of mark boats and asked what their radios said about what was going on ashore. They said the postponement was still up and that they were discussing what to do about the restructure buoys. The day before, the committee had changed the sailing instructions to prohibit race boats from crossing the yellow limit buoy lines. This was to keep the race boats and the ferries apart. (The second day of racing, a ferry boat had run aground while trying to avoid hitting one of the sailboats; needless to say they were not too happy.)
Well, some of our 49er team got passed by a couple of boats that went inside the day before and were raising a stink; that was part of the postponement.
We also sailed by the beach, Clifton Gardens, that we will launch out of during our regatta in December. It's a very small beach at the base of a cliff.
We eventually reached our course, and our committee boat was already there on station. We had good breeze out of the southeast, and the committee said the postponement went down at 12:20 p.m., so everyone was heading out.
We checked the current and found it was going across the wind left to right, at about 0.2 knots. We measured this by throwing our soaking sponge in the water next to a buoy and timing how long it took to go one boat length, fifteen feet. It took forty-five seconds, which calculated out to 0.23 mph. Someone check me on this.
The fleet finally started getting out, and we did a couple of timed splits with another U.S. boat. This exercise consisted of both boats starting at the starting line, one on starboard and one on port, and sailing for a given amount of time (three minutes), then tacking and continuing until one boat crossed another. The boat that went right was ahead both times by about six boat lengths.
When the wind first filled in, it slowly went about ten degrees right, but then slowly started going left, so deciding which way to go was a tough decision.
Race 1
We were the first start, so our course was a double outer loop. We
had a great start at the boat but hesitated to tack out, and some
guys ducked us going right. We tacked on their hip and went with
them, then they tacked back and we ducked them to keep going right.
We got to the point on the right and ran into the restricted zone
buoys, so we tacked back.
We were leading, but the French boat was close to us coming back in the middle. We barely crossed him, and he went farther right of us to the lay line and rounded just ahead by a couple of boat lengths. We rounded second and went off on the reach with the pack behind about four lengths back.
We rounded the reach mark to the run and continued on starboard to stay in the wind funneling along the cliff on the lefthand side of the course. We gained a little on the French guy by staying closer to the cliff and rounded right behind him at the leeward mark. We tacked out immediately to go to the good breeze on the left. We had to go through some bad air from spinnakers to get there, but started gaining on the French guy that tacked on our hip. We hung on for more, but then started getting lifted, and the French guy gained back on us. We again rounded a couple of lengths behind him.
We were going pretty good on the run, and the French guy jibed out away from the cliff again. We got a puff along the cliff and came broad reaching into the leeward mark with him going dead downwind. We rounded outside of him but far enough ahead to pinch him off and force him to tack. This was okay because we had a good lift and a good breeze and he had to go through some spinnakers and bad air. Also, most of the fleet was coming our way, so he had the most to lose.
We tacked ten lengths shy of the starboard lay line and crossed the French guy by two boat lengths. We did a loose cover on him going back right. There was a Portuguese boat hard right that had gained on both of us. I was hoping the French would tack on the Portuguese and we would tack on the French, but he let Portugal go and we decided to keep going right with the French . We lee bowed him and shot him out the back, but the Portuguese boat had gotten a shift and was pretty close. We gave him some bad air and rounded the last windward mark two lengths ahead and sailed in the puff along the cliff. Halfway down, a good right shift came through and both boats behind jibed on it and were laying the leeward mark. I thought I had messed up since we could not jibe without being in bad air.
We waited and jibed later to stay in clear air and sailed low of the mark to stay in the puff and keep in clear air. This worked well because they were sailing a little high with the third place French guys trying to get on the Portuguese wind. We had good speed and were able to sail through their bad air to leeward and round well ahead to reach to the finish for a WIN!!!!!
Good sailing.
Race 2
We checked the current and found it had not changed. We also asked
the fleet behind us which side was favored since they had sailed
three beats on the inner loop. Since we do outer loops, we only sail
one inner beat, our first one. They said the right was generally
favored.
We got a bad start and tacked out right but kept getting the Ping-Pong effect. We just kept having to tack back and forth, either from bad air or starboard tackers. Well, we never found a clear lane and ran out of room on the right when we ran into the yellow buoy restricted zone. A Singapore boat went through the restricted zone and passed us. We rounded the first mark in 19th; yuck. We were determined not to panic, however, and just to sail as best we could, do the right things and wait for an opportunity. We passed one boat on the reach by following the other boats and rolling him.
On the run, we tried to stay in the cliff puff but lost a New Zealand boat that jibed to the center of the course.
The next beat we went left to try to find the cliff puff, and this worked. We passed a few boats and were now in 15th.
We stayed pretty even on the run, went left again on the next beat and got up to 11th. We stayed that way downwind to the finish, holding off the Portuguese boat that had finished second in the first race of the day. It turned out that the Singapore boat got DSQed for closing the restricted zone, so that moved us up to 10th for the race.
We did move up to 7th overall for the regatta. Pretty good, considering the many points we gave away on the first day of racing.
Portugal won, followed by the French and the Argentines who ripped their spin in half the last race.
Sydney is a great place to sail but very tough. Parts of it are like sailing at Lake Travis but with the dam open, making current a factor. Also, sailing outside can be just like sailing in the open ocean. The guys that win here have to be good in all conditions and be able to sail with their heads out of the boat both upwind and down. We got a lot more comfortable with the place, and this will pay off if we happen to qualify for the Olympics.
Jonathan Farrar is a great person to sail with, and we did pretty well considering it was our first time to sail together. He was a good substitute while Bob was in school. I need to keep improving and learning.
Our next race is the U.S. Nationals in St. Petersburg, Florida, October 10-11.
Now its time to go back to work (hopefully, I've still got a job).
Thanks to everyone that helped get us to this regatta: Kitty Hawk and CompuCom and all the people back at Rush Creek, in Dallas, Texas, and the whole U.S.A.
The U.S. team here did okay, but we all need a lot of work. The 49er guys bought home second and third, the Laser guy fifth and the Soling guys fourth.
Well, thanks again and I'll see you back at home.
Paul