12s – 25th February Points

Numbers were down, but the breeze was up..!!

With team Ghetto Sled getting their groove on at Soundwave and the late scratching of Old Yella due to man flu, it was anyone’s game..!!

The forecast was looking grand, All four boats put in 3rd rig.. Well sort of.. The Flying Animals driven by super skipper Spaghetti Sal, had a second mast, a 4th main, second jib and a 3rd kite…  If you average it all out to comes to 3rd rig.

Aboard PB we were extremely excited about hitting the water with our new fixed rudder.. It’s ironic that we were the last to leave the beach.

We all got out there no problems and the water was a bit sloppy and there was plenty of breeze..!!

The start of the first race was on.. All four boats hit the line flying.. Unfortunately for PB, we had forgotten that there was a barging buoy and actually missed the entire start line. We had to tack back around.. Trust me, that’s SLOW..!!

ASM, Squid and the Animals were hitting left so we decided to try right.. It paid a bit and we rounded the top with the others.. ASM were around first, Squid tried a sneaky lee bow on PB but failed and got rolled. The Flying Animals were in 4th and gagging to get that speedy yellow kite up..

ASM enjoyed being out in front.. You could just tell. The gate course made things exciting by keeping everybody on their toes.. ASM sailed clean and were around the bottom mark still ahead of the speedy PB Towage.. Squid was still in third but hot on our heels..!!! Young B-Mad got that super yellow kite up and out and the skiff took off.. She loves it rough.

ASM covered us up the next work and we covered Squid.. The small gains we thought we were making got knocked out of the park when we hit a big clump of weed.. The only way to get it off was to go backwards.. We don’t really do that.. So anyway Squid caught up to us a bit, but we still held them off.. The next lap was pretty much the same with ASM covering, and Squid and PB fighting it out. We set the kites for the final run home and on the last gybe of the race PB came unstuck. Right in the middle of the biggest swarm of jellyfish the bay has ever seen..!! It was exactly what the boys on Squid had been hoping for all day. They screamed past us for the silver.  ASM got the gun though. They sailed exceptionally well.

The second race was a bit different..

All four boats racked up and it was game on.. Squid and ASM hit the boat buoy end, while aboard PB we were happy to start a little further down the line.. We were first to tack, and we ducked squid and crossed ASM. We headed right for some smoother water.. ASM and Squidgee went left  and got a bit more breeze. It was close up at the top mark with Squid and ASM around together, PB was hot on their heels and had to sail over the top of them before putting up the kite.. The mighty flying animals had a few issues tacking but also got up to the top for their kite ride. ASM gybed early while Squid and PB headed out a bit further.. Squid hit their line and PB dumped on them.. We proceeded to roll the Squid and crossed the gate ahead of them. ASM were in our sights.. Sure they were on Starboard so we gybed on top of them.. It was a messy gybe but we got through.. So did ASM… Down to the bottom rounding and ASM dropped first.. They must have seen some prawns, so out went their net.. PB did a quick drop and narrowly avoided a fat boat rounding up out of control (those may or may not have been the words used at the time).. Squid were not far behind but got caught up in the mess and rounded the bottom underneath ASM.. PB made up some important ground until we hit some weed and the wind eased.. Uh oh.. ASM caught up to us again by the top mark. Squid were on struggle street a fair way back. Seemed to get a bit lost when the wind died..

We flew through the gate and bang went the gun.. We were a lap short, but a gun is a gun so we headed for home thinking it was a shortened course. Alas ASM and Squid continued on and completed the rest of the race.. Before we had realised everyone was still racing, we were in the leads.. Trisso was still in a fair amount of discomfort because of his jellyfish encounter (they went right up his wetsuit…) so going in was a pretty easy call to make.

Fun times had by all, and rolling Squid twice both on and off the breeze was the highlight.

Next week is sure to be a big one, max attendance required as I believe it’s going to be heats 1,2 and 3 of the QLD championships..!!

Until then, SEND IT DON’T BEND IT..!!

Skinnyman