Twenty-eight men's and women's teams have stayed in Australia through Christmas for the Australian Nationals. About ten of the boats are actually Australian. The men and women are racing together.
We are sailing on D course which is just inside the harbor mouth. Today the wind was out of the north at about ten knots. We sailed windward/leeward courses, three times around.
Race 1
Before the start, it was looking like there was more wind on the
left, toward the cliffs. After a not-so-great start, we had to tack
out right for clear air but immediately found the next lane left. We
were not looking so good halfway up the beat, but as we got to the
left of more and more boats we started looking better.
The cliff we were sailing toward on the left was inside the port tack lay line, so we had to tack to get around a point of land before we could get more left. After we tacked, we got lifted on port about ten boat lengths under the port tack lay line. There was more wind on the lay line, but we didn't tack up for it because there was too much traffic. In hindsight, we probably should have. All the boats on the lay line got the puff and we didn't. We were about mid fleet at the weather mark.
On the run, we found some good puffs and passed some boats. We had a bad takedown at the leeward mark, and the spinnaker wasn't all the way inside the bag. We tacked and got it into the bag, but when we tacked back, our boom broke in half. So much for that race. Luckily, Peasy and JJ had a spare boom in the coach boat for us to borrow.
Race 2
Another bad start, so we had to tack out after the start when we
wanted to go left. We worked our way left and got back into the race.
Our run was okay; we stayed about even.
On the second beat, we were able to play the left and got into the front pack. We were still passing boats on the run and then passed a few more getting left on the beat again. We rounded the last weather mark in sixth and then passed Peasy and JJ as well as the Mexicans on the last run, to finish fourth.
Race 3
We had to tack out for clear air after the start again. There was a
bit of a right shift and puff after the start this time. The left still
was looking better, but we were able to survive by being a little
right of everyone. At the first mark, we were third; Peasy and JJ
were winning.
We passed the third place boat on the next beat, then closed a little on Peasy and JJ over the rest of the race, but they were too far ahead for us to catch them and we finished second.
Paul and Bob
Team 2000
Sydney, Australia
Tuesday 28 December 1999 5:09 p.m.
Not much wind this morning. We waited on the dock for a postponement, but the race committee just headed on out. We had an 11:00 a.m. start, with winds 5-9 knots out of the northeast.
A big cliff on the left side of the course looked favored. It had been favored all day yesterday. More wind seems to funnel past it.
Race 1
The first start was a general recall; the second was under the I flag.
We were battling for the pin with a couple of other boats and were
one boat up from the pin but had a great acceleration to shoot ahead.
We went left and were looking good. We tacked and crossed everyone halfway up the first beat, but we did not dig back left soon enough and a whole pack rolled us by the time we got to the weather mark. See, I told you the left had more wind!
Downwind, we got stupid again and tried to play the middle. We lost boats that went to the cliff.
The next beat we went hard left and picked up two boats. Then, on the last run to the finish, we went to the cliff hard in a good shift, then jibed for the finish. Well, what do you know--we passed five boats. That did not matter anyway. We were OCS for that race, along with some other boats.
Race 2
There was a little more wind, with a little storm building on the
left. Go left, boneheads.
Well, we started near the pin again. Another great start, and we were blasting away. The New Zealand boat below us had a little better start, but we were able to hang off of him.
We took a shift across after going pretty hard left and were leading the guys that went in further. We should have tacked back then, but got greedy. Then the left puff came through again, and we were fifth around the first mark.
We were smart on the run this time, though, and went to the cliff and rounded the bottom mark tied for first with the New Zealand boat; but we had the left end of the gate towards the cliff. We caught some good upwind waves and got farther ahead. This time we were going way left. Whoops! We went too far, and four boats that tacked before us laid the weather mark and rounded ahead of us.
We stayed pretty even on the run but passed a New Zealand boat on the next beat and almost caught the two leading Australians, but not quite, and finished third.
Whoops! It rained another OCS on us.
Race 3
A little more wind--8-12 knots.
We were battling at the pin trying very hard not to be over early. We were three boats up from the pin, and those three boats got stuck on the mark, so we ended up with another great start, hoping we were clean.
We went left and played it pretty well to round the first mark just ahead of Tom King and Mark Turnbull (Australian Olympic Trial winners), with Russia just behind.
We rounded the left gate again and went left. But our bat turn at the mark was a little too hard, and our stern quarter took a big wave which put several gallons of water into the boat. I opened the bailers and eventually we got dry. We had lost some to the Australians, and they rounded the weather mark just ahead of us.
We got a good puff on the run to pass them back and led them out left again. It was very close, but they got just ahead of us at the weather mark and we could not pass them downwind, so we finished second.
We still are not sure if we were clean on that start, though.
Well, we will keep on chugging.
Paul and Bob
Team 2000
Well, good news. We were not OCS in the last race yesterday.
Today we had a change of weather. A cold front came through last night and the wind shifted to the south at 15-30 knots. The race committee postponed because they were having trouble setting the marks. We finally got going about 11:30 a.m.
Race 1
We started at the pin on port tack and had to duck only one boat at
the pin. We went left, not wanting to tack too much since it was so
windy. We rounded the top mark in second, just behind the good
Australians.
We tried going high on the run and ended up sailing out of the puff. This let the Australians get a good lead, and a New Zealand boat caught up to us.
We rounded third at the next windward mark and stayed in that position to the finish.
Race 2
We depowered some more (raked back) for this race. We had been a
little slow upwind in the first race. We tried for a pin end start but
were a little early and had to tack on to port and duck boats while
looking for a hole. We found one and shot through it.
We were going a little faster upwind this race, but the Australians were still a little faster, and they had a better start. We rounded the top mark in second, just ahead of a Canadian team, and this time we took the low road and stayed in the puff. We gained a little on the leader and the Canadians.
The next beat we again went right and gained a little more, but we had to stop and put our spin back inside the boat, so we lost some of what we had gained. We again rounded second and stayed there to the finish.
No Race 3
The race committee abandoned the last race of the day. They were
very busy picking up all the boats that had flipped over. We
practiced some more on the way home and found it was good to let
the vang off some when the big puffs hit.
More wind expected tomorrow.
Hopefully, we'll get to race.
Paul and Bob
Team 2000
Wind was out of the southeast today at 10 knots.
Race 1
The course was a windward/leeward, twice around.
Before the first race, it looked like another go-left day, with more wind on the left side and towards the shore. We had a good start in the middle of the line, but had to struggle to hold our lane going left. We managed to hang in there and get to good speed on the left side. A few boats beat us out of the left, but we rounded the weather mark in good shape in the top ten.
On the run, we held on starboard tack initially, again staying in the puff near the shore, and gained a few boats. Heading left for breeze again on the last beat, we passed a few more boats and moved up to third. On the final run, we hugged the shore again, but so did the boats in front of us, so we finished third.
Race 2
The course was a windward/leeward, four times around, in slightly
less wind than the first race.
There was a big left shift just before the start, so we tacked just off the line and were almost on the mark. The wind shifted back right. We tacked in a good puff and were looking okay until we ran into the lefty puff again and had to tack. Boats that initially had gotten left of us fared better that leg, but we rounded in the top five.
We didn't hug the shore enough on the next run and lost a few boats. Then, on the next beat we rounded in a left shift, decided to sail right for a bit before tacking and lost a bunch of boats. We jibed quickly on the next run, taking a bit of a risk to pass boats back and lost more.
On the next beat, we took a quick jaunt right, got a nice shift and took it all the way left where we got good speed and a good gain. We stayed near the shore on the run to pass a few more boats, and then banged left on the last beat to pass more. We finished with an okay finish around eighth.
We finished fifth over all with two throw-outs (the two OCS's). We had to count a DNF for the race in which we broke our boom.
Paul and Bob
Team 2000