Saturday, 26 October 2024

As I Saw It (and remembered it!)

6 Etchells made the start line this week. With Waterloo Too’s regular crew unavailable, Patto Snr was joined by Patto Jnr (Ben) and Junior Patto Jnr (James) and Rowdy (Trent). It’s probably a first for the fleet and great to see 3 generations of one family racing. Knot Easy with Chris and Jim on board hit the water for the first time this season with Al handed the keys in Jason’s continued absence. With Helen and Athena unavailable Kristie jumped on board The Saint and the club’s Commodore John Warlow joined the Rear Commodore Todd Anderson onboard TAG for his first Etchells race in 6 seasons.

Race 1 saw a delay of 30 minutes while we waited for the breeze to stop swinging to the left. We finally got the line set at 80 degrees in about 10-12 kts with the fleet battling for the pin. TAG won this battle and set off to the left while Rapscallion and The Project bailed out and headed right with Waterloo Too and Knot Easy following shortly after. A right shift soon saw The Rappers and The Project in control with the right side being favoured for the rest of the beat. Rapscallion held off The Project to round the top first with The Project ½ dozen lengths further back. TAG managed to get themselves back in it by the top and rounded 3^rd with Waterloo Too just behind. Right in the mix also was Knot Easy and rounding out the fleet at the top for the first time was The Saint.

At the bottom mark Rapscallion held a comfortable lead from TAG and The Project. Rapscallion protected the right on the second beat while at the rest of the fleet battled for the minor places. The top saw TAG, The Project, The Saint all round simultaneously with Waterloo Too and Knot Easy just a few lengths further back. An early gybe saw The Saint jump ahead while TAG held off The Project by just 5 seconds to grab 3^rd.

Race 2 saw a further delay while the course was reset. The breeze was more settled for this race with the right again being favoured. There was nothing between the boats in boat speed and it was about picking the right shifts and getting leverage on the right. By mid beat Waterloo too had established themselves as the leader with Rapscallion, TAG and The Saint fighting for second. At the top Waterloo Too led by ½ a dozen lengths from Rapscallion, TAG and The Saint who went around pretty much line astern. At the bottom Waterloo Too was still comfortably ahead, TAG had grabbed the inside of Rapscallion on the run to round the preferred left mark forcing the Rappers to the right. Once around they found a shift or pressure to extend on TAG and close on Waterloo Too who then proceeded to place a tight cover on them each tack. By the top the whole fleet had compressed with Waterloo Too rounding a few lengths ahead of Rapscallion with The Saint and TAG just a few lengths further back.

The run saw Rapscallion close on Waterloo Too and The Saint gain on Rapscallion and by the time they reached the final gybe mark into the finish The Saint had rolled Rapscallion and drawn level with Waterloo Too. At this point it was a full on sprint to the line with Waterloo Too in the favoured inside position. The Saint had a less than perfect gybe which allowed Patto to sail over the top while the Rappers drove for the boat end of the line. At the line the Patto’s had managed to hold off The Saint to get the gun by 2 seconds who crossed just 2 seconds ahead of Rapscallion. Just 12 second back in 4^th was TAG. Racing doesn’t get much closer than that. Knot Easy and The Project were having a great battle for 5^th with Knot Easy prevailing by just a length.

It was a great days racing in a challenging shifty breeze followed up by excuses, lies, stories and beer back at the hard stand.  Boat of the day honours shared by The Saint and Rapscallion.

Apologies for any errors in the above but the racing was so close between the boats that it was hard to remember who did what, where and when.

See you all next week.

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