Saturday, 9 November 2024

As I Saw It (and remembered it!)

We had a slight improvement in boat numbers this week with Waterloo Too hitting the water with a complete ring in crew. With Patto out for a while due to injury, our illustrious Commodore Warlow was joined by 2 other long term Etchellers Brad Ginnivan and Scott Miller – what could possibly go wrong!! 

Most of the forecasts were predicting 10-15kts but what we got was an 18-20 kt SE’er which prevented the racing being a close as it may have been. 

Race 1 saw The Project over at the start and pinned from getting back until the boats around them sailed clear leaving them clear astern of the fleet. Waterloo Too soon took control from Rapscallion and Athena and by the top mark they had a comfortable lead which they extended for the remainder of the race to win by a minute from Rapscallion. A distant 3rd was Athena while the OCS proved to be disastrous for The Project. While they closed in on Athena it wasn’t enough.  

Race 2 saw a much closer affair. The RC decided on a 2 ½ lap race with a finish at the top. Similar to race 1, there weren’t many passing lanes and once Waterloo Too was ahead of Rapscallion they weren’t going to give them any leverage and kept a loose cover on them. At the top Waterloo Too held a lead of about 6 lengths from Rapscallion with similar distances back to The Project and Athena. 

On the run an early gybe at the top meant it was follow the leader for the first two boats while the other two boats with less experienced crews chose not to fly their kites. At the bottom Waterloo Too had a similar margin and slapped a loose cover on the Rappers every time they tried to break off in search of that shift that would find that extra gain. Their cause wasn’t helped by Heals having to use a rope tiller extension after having broken 2 earlier in the day. 

The RC decided to finish the race at the top after just the second beat. With Rapscallion not having been able to wriggle free, Waterloo Too crossed 17 seconds ahead to take their second gun of the day. The Project took 3rd comfortably from Athena.

A special thanks must go to Kristie for her post racing snacks. The homemade Guacamole/Mexican bean dip went down a treat. Just as well it was only a small fleet there to partake.   

See you all next week.

(The author accepts no responsibilities for any inaccuracies, distortions of the truth or outright lies.)