Rollercoaster of Love

Well it was chaos out there on the bay..!! The old Moreton Bay chop certainly sorted the men out from the boys..!!

The sun was shining and the breese was solid but not ridiculous.. A lovely top end 3rd rig day..!! The only real issue was the sea state.. She was short and sharp (I use that terminology so that Benny can relate..) and she could swallow the full 12 no worries at all…

Richard and Ben lead the charge out of the harbour.. It was a quick beat up to King Island and a stomping two string ride back down to the starting area.. Tristan and I followed and I can tell you now, it was getting lumpy..!! My experience was exaggerated as I was in the back fruity and my trap line was too short and tangled so I felt like I was standing vertical… We still sent her hard and boy oh boy did we get some big air..

Terry and Spiesy were next out and shared similar rides.. ASM had a new/old crew onboard with Angus making a cameo appearance.. The last time he’d been on a 12 was in 1987.. Nothing’s really changed for the fat boats….

The start was a bit of a mix up with flags going up and coming down, then going up, and coming down, but we finally figured out what was going on and got underway… Unfortunately for the team on Ghetto sled, they snapped their rudder pin on the last tack for the start and spent the rest of the day floating towards the sand bank.. It’s a long walk to shore in knee deep mud…

It was ASM who won the start with Old Yella and PB Towage hot on their heels.. PB had a bit of pace and caught up some ground on ASM by the first tack… Old Yella was owning the low groove but as it turns out they snapped a tiller extension so on the first tack they had to try and tie it all back together.. Up at the top mark it was PB who hit the layline first with ASM trying a sneaky leebow.. It almost worked, but unfortunately for them it ended with a splash, leaving PB to put up the kite with no pressure.. It was a fast run down.. The boat was leaping like a frog on a trampoline.. We hit the gybe (it was not pretty, but it was pretty effective..) and sent it to the bottom mark.. Unfortunately we hadn’t counted on being towed quite as far as we did and had to drop the kite early and two sail reach to the mark… As we rounded we looked around the bay.. It was a graveyard..!! We were the only boat upright..!! The 12’s and 18 were all on their side.. Even the lasers around us were mast down, centerboards up..!! We headed in towards shore to try and find flat water.. It wasn’t long before we were back up the top and Tristan was pulling the strings to make that big blue kite of ours fill and send us home. It was a fairly bumpy ride.. I had one cheek wedged in the corner of the transom and Tristan was well off the back.. We almost capsized backwards a couple of times but we managed to survive.. The last gybe was a bit better and again we got towed below the “finishline” so an early drop and a two sail reach was again in order.. The start/finish boat was off saving lives so we finished ourselves… After a quick onboard discussion we decided to head home as it seemed very unlikely they would be running a second race…

All in all it was a great day to rid ourselves of cobwebs and test our fitness.. The Christmas break was long and unlike Tristan, I did not detox..

It was good to see 4 boats out there, but it will be better to see 6..!!

Until next time, Send it don’t bend it..!!

Skinnyman