12s – State Titles Race 1 & 2 – 14th Feb 2015

The fight for QLD supremacy began on Saturday, with some glamour 3rd (2nd) racing on Waterloo Bay. 6 skiffs hit the water, with Ghetto Sled and Tank Girl equal on points after 2. Valentine’s Day took one skiff and out and TAFE another. Commitment…

The fleet were all a bit shell shocked after 2 weekends of top range 2nd rig, so there were 3rd rigs on all but the Ghetto Sled. Forecast was only 15kts.! Pennyliss were OCS at the first gun and Giddy Up shot away to a handy lead. Ghetto Sled followed them around the top mark, followed by The Wingman and Tank Girl. Death by Chocolate and Pennyliss bringing up the rear.

Ghetto’s 2nd rig came in handy as they close the gap to Giddy Up by the bottom mark. We all gybed early and the softish breeze sucked us high. Another couple of gybes and a slow kite drop on Giddy Up, saw Ghetto go low and fast under them at the bottom mark. But then Giddy Up went up and up and up, and reclaimed the lead by 100m at the first cross. Tank Girl and The Wingman also had some serious 3rd rig pace and height and got past the Sled by the top mark. The wing mark was meant to be a tight 3rd sail, but everyone made it with no trouble, dispelling the myth that skinny boats can’t reach. Apparently, POM let BMad’s trap adjuster go without warning, to get his leverage working.

Everyone got a little towed down to the bottom mark, as the wind built. Giddy Up cleared out on Tank Girl, but The Wingman found a few shifts up the last work and slotted into 2nd. The last short run to the finish was a crackin ride. Bmad dropped the Giddy Up in the piss shortly after the finish, not realising that going forward to drop the kite needs to be timed between waves.

Race 2 was won from start to finish by the Ghetto Sled. Quick out of the blocks, they chipped up the first work and had a handy 50m lead over Tank Girl, then Giddy Up. Death by Chocolate and Pennyliss were having their own battle, with fill in skipper Ben Davis handling the beast well. The Wingman did some pre-start swimming to try to find the source of some wobbly steering. Turns out the rudder pod had given up, so a swim home resulted in Skinny having sore arms.

The bottom mark was where all things came undone for the chasing pack. Years of sub zero winter obviously had an effect on the trap lines on the Giddy Up, because Paulo snapped one as BMad went in to drop the kite. Tank Girl was hard on their ass, and had to choose a path either into the boat, into Paulo, or between. They chose between, but didn’t quite make it. They flopped over whilst Elliott was trying to haul the kite in. A bit of a tangle resulted in some flak damage to the Tank, and Paulo had ripped off a tiller extension, so his day was over. Tank Girl eventually extricated themselves from the mess with smurf blood up the side. Death by Chocolate had snuck through to briefly claim 2nd place.

The rest of the race was a bit of a procession, with Ghetto extending downhill and Tank Girl fighting back up hill, but always too far back to pull them in. Death by Choc and Pennyliss sailed consistently to take the handicap