westernsail

By Craig Mann:

We were treated to a gentle 8 to 12 knot South westerly for the MBSC Opening. This made it a friendly intro to the season and barely washed the cobwebs off the gunwales. Once again the lawn was full with the usual suspects, regular visitors the i14s and a surprise addition of 6 Contenders gracing our shores.

The Junior fleets had a quick gallop in front of the club from 11am and many of the Muddies and Bics were still coming out of the water late in the afternoon.

The formal Opening seemed to be wrapped up quickly this year and the fleets slipped into the water ready for a mass start directly off the pen complex.

Historically we do a couple of quick laps around the bay and hit  the bar asap. The revised Foam, Deepwater, Poplar, Matilda, Poplar finish coarse worked nicely to separate the fleets and congestion around Matilda Bay. 30 or so assy kites along with the other 40 or so boats it starts can make life a little exciting at times.

Results:

Muddies

Informal races for Mudlarks in the morning, 1^st Holly Hunt  2^ndAndrew Ring 3^rd Bradley Nock. The name Nock appearing in the junior fleets will scare a few. Another 3rd gen sailor about to make his mark at the club.

BIC’s 1^st Courtney Higgins 2^nd David Lazcko 3^rd Ellen Hunt.

New to the club this year. A band of 5 have begun training and racing. This is an exciting new class and we hope will foster some good sailors into the intermediate classes of Ants, 29ers and 420’s.

Optis

Will be on the water in force next week with a full 10 week club training program. With a few already for racing we hope to see these numbers grow during the season.

Flying Ants 1^st Tactical Response (only finisher)

The ant fleet is a little thin at the moment however we should see this grow after school holidays and other sport activities wind up.

420’s 1^st Manta 2^nd Just Do It 3^rd 2Fast 2 Furious

This fleet has taken off over the last 18 months. Thanks in part to the great work of Murray Smith. With the number of boats well over 10 and many female skippers and or crews this is a great addition to the intermediate group of members.

Cherubs 1^st Serenity Now 2^nd Back in Black 3^rd Cunning Linguist

Once again this talented maligned and mislead group put on a good show both on and off the water. As per normal Cam Rule is fanning the fire.

GP14 1^st La Rousse 2^nd Shallabe 3^rd Swift

29’er 1^st Cold Fire 2^nd Luke Robinson 3^rd Dot Wall

Javelin 1^st Harken Fast 2^nd Banzai 3^rd Ease Up

49’er 1^st DPU2 2^nd Big Thunder Rumbledash 3^rd IRP.NET.AU

i14’s 1^st Del Boca Vista 2^nd The Pest 3^rd Jet

Brad Divine had his new Becker 5!!!! on the water. Now that is a good looking boat. No messing around with a boat builder, get an aeronautics company to build a serious carbon weapon. Even the mast looked like something from the NASA program. Then whack star sailor Denis Jones on the bow and look out. With 114 boats already registered for the Sydney Worlds this year looks like a monster year for the 14 class; good luck.

Contender 1^st Show Pony 2^nd 2444 3^rd Cruising

Great to see the contenders at the club. Six boats was a great addition to the day and we hope to see the back again soon. Sharpies/505 and Contenders would make a good mixed fleet.

Sharpie

1st Girt G Hill 2nd Impact Craig Mann 3rd Gordon McKercher  12 boats started and this was a closely contested race. Girt managed to snatch the win on the line by less than a nose from Impact.  McKercher and the evergreen Keysie on Black Sun were in the mix all day and each had a taste of the lead. With four more boats to join the MBSC fleet we look set for a good year.

Cruisers 1^st X-Factor 2^nd Zoloft 3^rd Kite

The invited guest were well and truly primed by the time the sailor hit the beach. With ring leader Laurie Chivers in fine fettle. Thankfully Anne was about to take him home before he started up with his routine one arm press ups and he injured any of the young pups.

Presentation went off without a hitch with new Rear Commodore of Sail Charles Knight in charge.  This kept the bar ticking over and when I left at 9 plenty of beer was still being spilt on the floor.

We are off and running for another season lets hope Hughie is good to us and we have plenty of good racing mixed with the odd cold ale.

PS Next week is Club Heat One for all fleets.

Kynan says:

The Friday Mounts Bay Twilight racing has become the best evening in the river over the past season with great food and entertainment after the race plus attendance prizes and the member’s draw each week.

This Friday is the last for the season and we hope to get more boats out there than ever with more people on each boat than ever! So far the record fleet stands at 17 boats… and as far as I know, 12 people on an S80 is the record crew! This week we’re going for 20 boats and as many sailors as possible.

Usually it is a handicap start but this week all boats will start at the same time… 6:45pm. Keelboats and dinghies from all clubs are welcome… just note that distracting tactics such as water bombs and nudity are encouraged.

If you don’t have a boat, come anyway (by 6pm at the downstairs bar) and we’ll try to squeeze you onto whatever we can find that floats.

See you there!

Last chance to have a drink with the mighty Waz:

Gents,

It’s official Warren is moving to Sydney and will not be back! So to send him off a few of us including Waz are heading to the Subi Hotel on Wednesday at 7pm to have a few drinks. So come one and all so you can hear his voice once again……..as for me his voice still rings loud and clear in my ears and probably will so for the rest of my life! But seriously he has given a bit to the WA I14 fleet for a few years soit would be great if you could make an effort to get to the Subi.

Rob Murdoch

Kayne Binks informs us the Tasars tasted sweet victory on Sunday. The shame, the shame:

David defeats Goliath – Tasars Take out Three of Kind 2009

Well it’s not often that a humble Tasar sailor in WA can lay claim to any bragging rights, but as the old adage states “every dog has its day in the sun” and it certainly was the tasar class’s “day in the sun” yesterday at MBSC in the annual “3 of a kind” regatta.

Racing got underway in about ½ a knot of breeze, and remained fickle for the entire afternoon on the river, not allowing the trapeze boats to take advantage of their superior leverage (see attached wind chart).  This resulted in a reduced performance differential between the high performance boats, and others, seeing the usual suspects being outperformed by several dark horses…

While your standard WA tasar sailor can not:

• Drink rum like your average sharpie sailor (frankly none of us are much chop at picking up sabot/ optimist or muddy mums either),
• Pilot low flying seaplanes bearing sails round marks on the swan, like redbull air race pilots (by the way – the guy in the black moth that could do with a paint job, come and see us in the boat park, we have an oil can we will gladly lend you to fix the squeak – it was bothering my girlfriend quite bit!),
• Keep run away trucks fitted with no brakes on the road, as they charge down Greenmount hill in some form of control (supposedly), like the 49er lads can!

We can answer two rhetorical question asked by renowned sailing journalists all over the globe, probably throughout the Galaxy actually………….

Ever wondered which class has THE best dinghy sailors in WA? Is it the famous 505’s, the SlackAss Sharpies, or maybe even the Floundering Fourteens?
Can anyone beat the 49ers?

Wonder no more, THE best dinghy sailors in WA are the Terrific Tasars (yep – and we can claim it for a whole year!)

Can anyone beat the 49ers?

The Tasars can beat the 49ers, that’s right, been there, done that and got the T’shirt!

As Commodore Thong (oops Jahn) stated at the presentation, “anyone can win this event”, he also encouraged animated exchanges between classes (in between musical interludes), to try and rekindle traditional rivalries that exist between classes, in what can only be described as the most entertaining presentation ever (maybe its always that entertaining at MBSC)!

To Wrap up the results…..

In Division A, making up the minor places were the floppy 505’s and the choking cherubs. Who knows where the defending champions, the backdoor 49ers ended up, but who cares? (see Note 1)

Division B was taken out by team Dumbledore – with Minnow teams finishing 2nd and 3rd.

The Multihulls were taken out by the Tornados – basically the hobie guys were too chicken to come and take these guys on…. Next year maybe???

A big thanks to MBSC and their generous sponsors for continuing this strong Perth dinghy sailing tradition.

Note 1: A certain amount of interclass sledging is permitted (read: encouraged) at this event. All sledging within this report should be read within the context of the event. No Liability shall be taken for any offence this may cause. Indeed if offence is taken the person taking offence needs to open up a can of toughen the farr cup up…. Lets face it, people have been hanging sh*t on tasars for years – at least indulge us, just for today….

Kynan Wall writes:

Ever wondered which class has THE best dinghy sailors in WA? Is it the famous 505’s, the SlackAss Sharpies, or maybe even the Floundering Fourteens?
Can anyone beat the 49ers? They’ve won this event for the last two years running and the fleet is stronger than ever this year!

This fabulous event is Mounts Bay Sailing Club’s favourite event of the year. It’s one of the only times that slower more relaxed classes have a shot at beating the faster classes!

How does it work? A team of three of the same class of dinghy race on Sunday afternoon with everyone else. The average elapsed time of all three boats is adjusted by the Victorian Yardstick System (or similar) so even a Pacer or GP14 has the shot at beating an I14 (not that this is too far fetched!)

There are three divisions: Monohull A, Monohull B, and Catamarans….. yeah we even invite boats with training wheels.

Get a team together, or get two or three teams together! There were 69 entries last year and hopefullt more this year! There are great prizes on offer and a big party afterwards as usual!

Bring it on!

This time, how Trevor Date saw things:

The Australian Sharpie State Championships were conducted over the last long weekend at MOFSC with a programme of 7 races which only 5 heats were sailed due to the wind conditions. A fleet of 20 Sharpies contested the series with Saturday and Sunday producing only 4 races sailed in under 10 knots of breeze from the east to the north west.
At this stage ‘Impact’ sailed by Craig Mann from MBSC was leading on points and only had to finish with a few good places to secure the title followed by ‘Five’ Tim Reger and ‘Blatantly Obvious’ Vern Tidy.
Monday came and so did huey with a 20knot southerly and a strong wind warning as the fleet headed out for a midday start and 3 back to back races in Comet Bay. At the sound of the warning signal it was gusting to 25knots with 5 Sharpies looking for crabs and then heading for home with broken gear. ‘Impact’ got the break and rounded the windward mark first, and at the last mark huey reached 30 knots and whilst rounding the last mark ‘Impact’ broke its boom and limped home for a 5th place, with ‘Blatantly Obvious’1st and ‘Five’ 2nd. At this stage half the fleet had been crippled including ‘Hella A’ John Suriano suffering a banana mast after a spectacular slam dunk swim. The Race Committee decided to send everyone home with ‘Five’ taking the series from ‘Impact’ on a count back, 3rd ‘Blatantly Obvious’, 4th ‘Girt’ Graham Hill, 5th and 1st on Handicap was ‘Black Sun’ Graham Keys.
The Sharpies again showed there entertainment skills on Saturday night in the Hook Café at MOFSC and appreciated the well run series conducted by the MOFSC Sailing Committee.

By Trevor Date

Thanks to Conor Keating for his angle on the Sharpie series:

Team Cow Rock, never to leave the bay again!!!
After the mid season break, team Cow Rock have been ready and raring to go, showing some form in recent club races, we head to Mandurah thinking we could give the fleet a bit of a shake up.
We had set ourselves a challenge….here is how things worked out:
Sunday the 22nd Feb, we had approached Tony the motorized bike rider Aisbett, if we could have the use of his trailer and dolly for the upcoming states in Mandurah, the team thought it was time the Cow boat moved into the 21st century. It was important that we test out the new system before departing the bay, so pre race we roll the trolley down the ramp to find the tyres are all flat. Being the laid back crew that we are we thought, we’ll go sailing and see what happens afterwards, maybe someone kind will pump it up while we are on the water. Nah! We came in the wheels fell off…and we thought looks like the old lifting technique might be back, and we hadn’t even left yet!
Friday 27th Feb, works finished the weekend is upon us, team Cow Rock was excited! Dave was at Mounts by 5.30 to get the trailer to be ready to leave first thing in the morning. Slight problem, it was mentioned that the trailer we were using is a little old, the lights didn’t work, the tow ball on the car was too big and the suspension on one side decided to fall apart. A simple task was now not so simple. After scrounging the MBSC car park for a 48mm tow ball, and a few quick phone calls, the shed was pulled apart for all the tools needed to borrow a ball for the journey. The risk was taken, the comment was made “if you see the boat on the side of the road on the way to Mandurah, the trailer is stuffed and get ready to enjoy the series on the spectator boat”
Saturday the 28th, the conditions were not ours. The only good thing that the team was able to pull from today’s conditions was first back to the bar, we made sure our priorities were right after a hot slow day on the water.
Sunday the 29th, again the conditions were not suitable to our team, and it was a day of error and hilarity. Two minutes prior to the start sequence of the first race, Creeper’s face drops “oh shit….I didn’t sign on”, he recalled that he did make an effort to sign on when he arrived at the club, however he was a little early for the race officer, and the beers from the night before had left his heady a little cloudy, so Greg had ticked that job off in his brain and never went back. A port and starboard at the bottom mark left Dave reeling and the Cow boat continued sailing up to the top mark for the second time in dirty air from everybody, we went from 10th to last in the space of 1 leg…bugger!!!
At the start of the second race it was time to concentrate, maybe it was opposite day?? We rounded the top mark looking ok, as we are heading down towards the wing mark, Creeper decides we are going to sail our own course for something different, and gybes inside everybody. We looked famous we had just caught about 6 boats; Greg thought everyone has picked the wrong line. As the only female on board, I couldn’t quite work out what we had done to get in front of so many, and then the light went on…”Greg did you go round the wing mark??”I said, “What wing mark??” he said, and at that point all the boats we had passed start yelling….”Hey Greg you’ve got to round the mark” I couldn’t stop laughing, “you idiot” I said, Dave was in a state of disbelief, Greg was asking for help from the heavens, and we are still heading the wrong way. After a little deliberation, I said, “let go get a beer “, the boys decided we had to keep sailing, and that we did. Finished stone motherless for the second time!
By race 3, the team’s spirits were down, Greg was still talking to the heavens Dave shaking his head at our performance. We continued on, another shit start, followed by a very deflated “starboard” from Greg, a first leg where we went from about 6th to last again, we must have been pegging for maximum points…there is a prize for the looser right?? It was into shore, a hundred cold beers and that would be the end of our regatta.
After lots of laughs and a few sore heads, it was time to leave the challenge behind and perhaps from now on, team Cow Rock should leave all its conquering to the bay and the bar!!

By Craig Mann:

Three races were scheduled for today however with the breeze clocking up around 30 knots at 12 noon and building that didn’t look very likely. This changed the dynamic a little and made the fifth heat the possible deciding race. Reger had four race results of OCS, 2,1 and a 2nd while outsider Impact was sitting on 2,3,2 and 1st.

Race five got under way in close to 30 knots and gusts were up to 39 knots during the race. Impact and Vicious got off to great starts with Reger well back in the pack. Impact was flying early, Vicious swam on her first tack however made it a brief one and continued in touch with the first bunch of boats. Vern Tidy was on fire as always and showing why he is always in the top 5 at Nationals time. The breeze was howling and the jib had to be popped in many of the big gusts to stop being blown over. At the top it was Impact from Vern Tidy (Blatantly Obvious), Reger, Vita Brevis, Loaded Dice and Keysie on Black Sun.

The ride to the Wing mark was Wild. Impact made it most of the way however Vita Brevis and Reger dropped their kite half way as they were not laying the bottom mark. By the Bottom mark Vern had closed the gap on Impact and Reger was smoking with the great man on the wire. The next work saw Impact open up a good lead as they finally had the boat living up to some of its potential. With the run to go Impact from Vern Tidy, Reger and Vicious back in the mix. Impact made her jibe a little early and was unable to lay the bottom mark without a couple more jibes. The first one was no problem but the second proved too much in the high 30 knot breeze and they hit the piss on the bottom mark. Vern Slid through as did Reger. Impact was back up quickly however the boom was in a horrible v shape and no longer very functional.

Vern in Blatantly Obvious continued on to take out First, Vicious went past Reger to take out second, Gordon McKercher came in third, Impact limped home to fourth, Black Sun six, Girt seven. Stacey Omay broke a halyard before the race, Hella A turn their mast into an s shape, while several others made for home after some big thrills and spills.

With the fleet a bit of a mess and the breeze being clocked at 30 to 40 on the finish boat racing was postponed. The breeze was not abating so the racing was abandoned for the day.

This left two boats Tied for the Championship on 8 points a piece, Impact and Five. In what the Author and losing skippers feels is an injustice Impact drop 5 in the last race counts in the countback and Five takes out the State Championship two years in a row. Once again the Great Man adds some more silverware to the trophy cabinet.

Thanks to Mandurah Offshore Fishing and Sailing Club for hosting the even and running everything so smoothly.

By Craig Mann:

Once again Reger dominated the racing on day two of the 08/09 Sharpie State Championship. With a win and two seconds he has cemented and ominous position with three heats remaining and lots of wind forecast for tomorrow. With a 2, 1 and 2 from four heats it is hard to see anyone getting past Five especially with the great man Hips on board.

However the star of the day should be awarded to Stacy OMay who showed that even with a 30 year old clunker you can be competitive in the Sharpie class. Day one was a hard day with a 15, but today was a different story. 14 in race one was not great but then a 3 and 3 in the last two races showed why she is World 470 Champ. a comment from the Star crew was they have raced against crews that drink after the race but to see most crews having a beer on the way to the start was a little worrying.

On the Handicap side Paul Main is leading from Three Liddle Pigs and Dark Horse/ Stacey Omay.

It is all on for Sunday heaps of wind forecast and three races scheduled. Good luck and may we all have fun.

By the way it is 10.30 and the party has just started at Ash Gayboys House.

Apologies to Craig Mann who has diligently sent these Sharpie reports in but unfortunately, I was in Rockingham at the M27s and not at my computer to put them up.

Wow what a fleet of Sharpies, 20 boats and more than 50 extras turned up at Mandurah Offshore Fishing and Sailing. A few boats were lucky to make it as someone decided to wreak havoc on the roads and create a massive traffic jam and probably death this morning. Keysie was lucky the first start was a general recall as that allowed him to make the start.

The first race got underway in a variable east south-easterly that was swinging a good 20 degrees. Reger, Hillie and The new Team Vicious decided to start a little before the gun for the second time. So up the first work we had a few premature starters that were gazing most of the fleet. Reger was 20 seconds in front at the top mark Impact second, followed by the Dogs, the evergreen Johnny Suriano, Vern Tidy and the premature Hilly. Reger maintained his illegal lead as the rest battled it out. Not much changed on the two reaches as the breeze came and went, mostly went.

The work up was challenging with boats travelling on the same angles on difering tacks at times. Impact was looking good late in the leg however the breeze did a big swing and the OCS Reger and Johnny Suriano creamed the last 100 meters. Reger then hooked into the puff of the day and went 11 minutes in front. Shame they were OCS and headed for an equal 18th. One would think with the world’s greatest forward hand on board they would not have made such an error. It is a bit like getting Jennifer Hawkins back to your hotel room and falling asleep!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Maybe Grant Alderson can reciprocate and coach Hips on some starting techniques.

The last run was hard work with the breeze softening and turning a bit south. The Bastards in a distant 9th decided to go North and did it pay off. The went from Zero to hero and into second/First place just ahead of Impact, Suriano and Vern Tidy.

In the end The Bastards took out first place, Impact second, Hella A(John Suriano). Vern, The Dogs and Hillie were close behind.

We had planned three races today but could only manage one, so three tomorrow and three on Monday looks like the plan.