DIVISION ONE RAMBLINGS
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What a year! COVID lockdowns, the Goolugatup Sailing Carnival, 125, 29er, Optimist and Viper State Championships, and the 75th Anniversary of our Club! The COVID fallout has seen numerous World and National Championships cancelled, our own Autumn mid-week series a nonevent, and in the future, our Club has cancelled/delayed the Australian Youth Championships until sometime next year. Suddenly, another lockdown, and Sailing Closing Day passed with barely a whimper... All of the Commodores’ Trophy races were cancelled... over at RPYC their Governors’ Cup was cancelled as well. Never mind, we have the brilliant Canning Bridge IGA Frostbite races which started last week, and lets’ hope we have lots of varied wind conditions throughout the winter to satisfy everyone’s appetite for close racing. Just completed the other week: our summer Wednesday Consistency races were a very close series, with honours going to “Slippery When Wet”, with “The Avenue” in second and “Wicked” in third. There were just 5 points separating these three yachts. A big pat on the back to our handicapper, Richard Evans for keeping us so close together: some races had the first three yachts finishing within one minute. In fact, in one Wednesday race, less than 2 minutes on corrected time separated the first 7 yachts! PHS handicaps like that make it a great race for the flyers like “MaxStar” and “Slippery When Wet”, and give the old-timers like “Eun Na Mara” an even chance as well. I believe that Richard uses his computer program to get these results and also
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SOUNDINGS | May 2021 ~ July 2021
ultra-fine tunes with a little tweak here and there! On average our Saturday race fleet has been around 6 to 7, and our Wednesday race fleet is up to 13. Apart from the expected “starboard” and “give me water” calls, the friendship and good natured competition has been a hallmark with our Division One/A fleet this season. It was great to see “Sagacious IV” finally complete her rebuild and re-tuning to snatch a well deserved First and Fastest in the final Saturday Summer race, as it was to see the youngster Len Randall (at 96 years of young) steer “The Avenue” (with her new sails) to numerous victories throughout the season. “The Avenue” has a new owner in Joe Rapanaro, who is being trained by Len in the art of Swan River sailing. Speaking of new sails, “Eun Na Mara” has finally tossed out the black carbon sails and now dons a new set of cruising laminate sails, and what a difference! “Arajilla” suffered a significant accident in a Saturday race (16th January) when hit by a smaller yacht, and then later, a power boat completed the damage. (When you’re hot, you’re hot, when you’re not, you’re not) “Sagacious IV” has been in the wars over this past season, and has missed out on a couple of big ocean races due to an engine issue and also breaking the mast fulcrum mechanism during a mast drop/raise, which need major re-rigging and welding. “Dart 4” has a love affair with “Eun Na Mara”, and unluckily lost a rear pushpit in another close encounter with ENM’s bowsprit: ENM is not a yacht to tangle with, as she is very hard to crash tack, with 11 tonnes of
wood and a long keel. “MaxStar” is our fleet flyer (normally) and can be relied on to lead the way. Glenn Thomas has purchased a Mumm 30 called “Problem Child” and when she settles down will be another flyer to challenge “MaxStar” and “Slippery When Wet” and the other BW36s. Glenn really DOES have a ‘Problem Child’ on his hands and has spent many weeks on the hardstand having the keel removed and keel bolts renewed or straightened; we hope PC rejoins us in the water very soon. Speaking of BW36s (“Foundos”) we have another sub-set of terrific yachts, all very competitive, setting the pace in the lead of our Division. “R2D2” has had a new keel fitted after donating her old one to “Sky Walker”, and “Slippery When Wet” is always right up front. “Spritzig 2” (the mother ship): a regular performer with a bundle of crew that thoroughly enjoy the après-sail in the cockpit while safely moored. Lots of cheese and bickies, and the odd drop ? K-Factor, another addition to our fleet, promises to be quite competitive with PC Mark Nicholas at the helm. Welcome Mark and crew! We also welcome Chris Higham’s “Numbers Game” into Division One, moving up from Division 2. While on the subject of moving divisions, check out the Club webpages and read up on the new policy on ‘Division Allocation’. It may clear up queries, and may encourage other yachts to move between Divisions. Another small change is the trial of a new sign-on with Memberpoint during this winter season, to replace the Top Yacht app that we have been using. Most Sailing Clubs will run the same app, and apparently this new sign-on app will allow sailing administrators to download more useful data. Don’t forget that the Keelboat Awards afternoon will be held on Sunday 30th May, after Race 3 of the Frostbite series. Our Div 1 chairman Cliff Lawrence has called a meeting for June 24th: this is a good chance to come along and make any suggestions to help our fleet racing and maybe a social event to be planned? Finally, a huge thank-you to our sailing office, Starters and Safety Boat people for ensuring the success of another fine Summer Sailing Season.
